Did anyone see the moon this morning? It feels like the whole world has had a bath. We're having such a day here, and since I don't have work, I'm spending it all outside. Spring is really on its way! Love, k.

51

"So that's how you get what you want, is it, Rilla?" said Teddy, later that afternoon. "With kisses."

"It doesn't always work," she said. Ken Ford came to mind. "But I've had some minor victories."

He was riding his new bicycle, Rilla was balanced along the crossbar, one hand on the handlebars and the other very close to his seat. She had had to take her hat off because the brim kept catching Teddy's nose. A nice nose it was too, with a little bump on the bridge. Sometimes she would tilt her head against his shoulder, sometimes she would lean back as far as she dared go, and one time (right now, in fact) she nuzzled her lips against his jaw. He had got rid of the gingery beard because Rilla complained that it scratched. It might leave tell tale signs on her face and then everyone would know what they'd been up to over these last two weeks.

The handlebars began wobbling as Teddy slowed down. Without momentum to steady her, Rilla hopped off the cross bar and watched him dismount. Soon he was doing what he often did when she was being a terrible little flirt, and trying to adjust the crotch of his trousers without looking like he was.

"This stretch is a little steep, why don't we walk it," he said, motioning to the dip in the road. The covered bridge at the bottom had an unusually low-pitched roof, and broken lattice work instead of clapboard walls.

They walked in silence towards it, and Teddy found that he missed Rilla's talk even more than he missed all her canoodling. She made him feel that maybe he had something more to give a girl than just kisses.

He leaned the bike against a post, and they sat in a gap and watched the river silvering the rocks below. The curly ferns and papery flowers, the insects tacking left and right over the bubbly water. He didn't see how it was possible that beauty like this could still go on and stared hard at the sun until his eyes were blotted with white light that turned purple when he closed them.

"Do you think you'll accept the teaching post?" said Rilla. "You had the whole school board eating out of your hand. When Mr Miller saw you bowl in, I thought he was going to get down on one knee and beg you to take Miss Elliot's place. Of course, Lowbridge is even smaller than the Glen. Not much goes on around here, and you'll have a terrible time trying to keep the children in class during harvest. Sometimes Walter had to take his blackboard out to the fields. And then you'd have to find a place to live, it's too far from Four Winds to cycle during winter. I thought Miss Elliot might offer her house to you, I'm sure she could break her lease if she tried. You could board with her, I suppose, but you haven't met Mr Elliot, yet. He might be a real bore. I've noticed that a lot of Elliots are."

"You sound like you're trying to talk me out of it."

"You've got to admit that you don't seem very interested in finding work."

"There's no work to be had, unless you happen to be a farmer - which I am not, or a fisherman, come to that. What are all these soldiers supposed to do when they come home? It's no good for a man when he doesn't have a purpose."

"But you do!"

"Being at your beck and call every day?"

"You are very useful, Teddy." Rilla batted her eyes, she was going for femme fatale, but it came across as a nervous twitch. If Teddy got a job now, he'd be tied down, and then what if Mrs Lester came back for him? "Have you never thought of returning to N.B. - or, I don't know, farther afield?"

Teddy gave Rilla a sidelong look and then reached into his pocket for a cigarette. He lit it, inhaled and released a trumpet of smoke. "How far would you like me to go exactly?"

The question had barely left his mouth before she was kissing him again, and then she placed his hand on her breast. The top part that wasn't encased in her corset; burstingly full and more than a handful under her gauzy blouse. He dropped the cigarette he was holding and brought that hand to her waist, squeezing her ribs as if he could get under all those layers and touch the skin beneath.

Rilla shifted herself forward, then went rigid and squealed. "Something's stung me!"

Inspecting her wrist, she discovered a bright pink burn near the base of her thumb. The delicate cuff of her lacy blouse had also been singed.

"Shit," said Teddy, "God, I'm so sorry."

He picked up the butt and tossed it into the river. He wanted to make it up to her, kiss her better, do something, but Rilla had other concerns.

"Of all the luck." She sighed, a nice dramatic one with a good heave of the shoulders. "I pinched this blouse from Nan's closet."

They talked on Nan for a while. Jerry was now in Avonlea. He had got himself a bed at Green Gables, and Davy Keith was all too happy to give the Redmond scholar a proper farm boy education. Di, too, had discovered a passion for working outdoors. Of course, the fact that Jack Wright looked mighty fine in his sweaty shirtsleeves (and had just received a land grant from the government) might have had some influence. At least according to Nan's observations.

"Do you reckon the twins will like the design the board has chosen?" said Teddy, "I'm kinda swayed by Shirley's opinion."

Rilla stopped fussing with the cuff of her blouse and turned her frown towards him. "I knew that was bothering you. Your eyes go dark when you worry. The painter is only going to use you as a stand in, Teddy, just to get the proportions right."

"But my proportions are nothing like Walter's, I've seen his pictures and remember very well how he looked. The man they really need is K-"

"Jem, I know. But he's busy and you're not, and besides he's got that beard. All you have to do is sit on a horse for a few hours and let the lady sketch you. No one will know that it's you when it's done."

No, no one would know it was him, it was true. And wasn't that always the goal? Be whatever folks needed him to be. Get in, get out. And move on.

"There's one problem, though. If I turn down the job at Lowbridge school the board might not want me to sing at your concert."

Rilla got up on her knees, and brought her hand to his face, the flare of amber circling his pupils like a child's drawing of the star. "You really don't know how good you are, do you? It has nothing with being the boy that Walter saved. They want you to sing at the concert because your voice is glorious, Teddy. Don't you want to share it with the world?"

Teddy was blushing very hard, and his eyes… They glowed with such adoration Rilla didn't know where to look.

"By the way," her hands went to her hips, "it is not my concert."

"It was your idea."

"I just thought it was time we had a proper celebration for all the boys who came back home. If we do it when Walter's portrait is being unveiled, it would be like he was there too."

Teddy got to his feet and helped Rilla to hers. "I still don't know how you're going to convince Una to accompany me when she doesn't like crowds. And besides, anyone who can play Chopsticks is vying for the chance."

"Because you are going to hold the auditions, and you are going to choose Una."

"Kiss me first," said Teddy grinning, "and then ask me - nicely."

...

next chapter to follow...