18
It wasn't really a barn, more a shed, which meant there were no hay strewn corners to spoon in. On the plus side it offered a sheltered space which had been swept clear in readiness for the Blythe's new car that would be delivered to the Island as soon as all these quarantine regulations let up.
They used that space as a dance floor and brought out the gramophone and some ragtime tunes. Bruce always enjoyed those, but he didn't enjoy it when an hour later Rosemary came to fetch him with the bowl that had once held her butterscotch pudding in her arms. One of Ken's cousins came for one of their boys too because they had a good walk ahead of them and it was ten o' clock and starting to get dark. So, they left, and two others appeared soon after. The sweetheart of the older cousin and her best chum.
The chum had a bottle of whisky with her. It was a badly kept secret that her dad had a still. She passed it around to everyone there, and everyone took a swig, except Teddy who took two.
He could have necked the whole bottle, it was his birthday after all, he wouldn't have minded getting a little tight and sloping off with the whisky girl. She was the big boned, busty type, which was always fun. Going by the looks she was giving him he thought he must have piqued her interest too.
The Blythe twins had suddenly come over all fussy, however, and did not like where this evening was going. A sip of whisky? Fine, they weren't prigs, they went to college, they knew how to have a good time. But now the smokes were coming out and the dice, and no one cared about cranking up the gramophone. One of the Over Harbour girls was giving the boys a rendition of Mademoiselle from Armentieres and the lyrics were becoming increasingly lurid with every inky pinky parlez vous.
This was a wrench on the boys. Sometimes you just needed a good ballyhoo, or as Jem who was set to be a doctor put it, a way to let out all the pus. Shout it out, sweat, get intoxicated, dance. Funnily enough, his mother understood this better than his father.
Jem wouldn't have been so loosey-goosey as Rilla liked to say, if his girl was there. Faith Meredith was still in Southampton, yes, the one in England, with the voluntary aid detachment.
Jem Blythe wasn't the sort to complain that life wasn't fair, he hadn't been raised like that. It was just that summer was almost over, he would be in Med school soon and Father, Son and Holy Ghost, he missed her.
He also knew he was the eldest son and the biggest brother, and he had his kith and kin to watch over. So, he did that – he had not risen to Captain for nothing – by suggesting to Jerry (wink wink) that Nan might like to walk him home.
Naturally, that meant that someone would need to walk her back, and since Di had stalked off in a huff and taken the gramophone with her because those Over Harbour girls were getting on her last nerve, Rilla was drafted in.
She went up to Ken who was sitting outside the barn with the others. The rain had stopped some time ago and Carl had started a merry little fire.
"Care for a moonlit stroll?" Rilla said. "Nan and Jerry are heading back to the Manse."
"What about Una?" Ken said.
"She didn't go back with Bruce?"
No, she hadn't. Rilla saw her now, or rather her lonely silhouette sitting on the swing strung up on a sycamore bough.
Of course, Una must go with them but that meant… Well, she would just hate tagging along with two couples. What they needed was a sixth.
Carl looked like he had no intention of leaving yet and the other boys and girls looked just as settled. What about Teddy? Yes! He would go, especially if Ken asked him to.
Why hadn't Rilla thought of this before. Teddy and Una! What could be a more perfect fit. Una had loved Walter deeply and secretly, and as Walter had saved Teddy's life there was (as Persis Ford once said herself) a poetic justice to it.
"Give me one tick," said Rilla.
She went to Teddy first and he leaped up from the stump he was sitting on as though it was electrified.
A stroll? Lovely. With whom? Una – who was that again? Oh, the mousey one sitting on the edge of the party.
Rilla went to Una next and informed her of the plan before pulling her off the swing and bringing her to Ken with a pleased as punch smile.
The three couples had barely made it down the lawn before someone had poured a little kerosene on the blaze and the carousing started in earnest. There was barely any moon to see by; obscured as it was by the rain clouds that had given up all their rain. But the air was balmy, their hearts were thumping, and the hands each held were warm and sweaty, as the six made their way to the sweet green valley echoing with the faint strains of inky pinky parlez vous.
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