Author's Note:

Though it states that Anne won a Scholarship in Chapter XI (Thornburn) it doesn't list the name of Gilbert's scholarship. So I've named it after a favorite character in one of LM Montgomery's books. If you haven't read A Tangled Web, I highly recommend.

Also Italics in this chapter means I've lifted dialogue from Anne of the Island. Chapters XI - XII

Note: I've been swamped with my business and haven't written and now have to reread the whole story again before I can pick it up again. I had some great comments about ideas about Song of Songs making a show again and I am certainly going to! It's in the notes now for Chapter 20 or 21!

Chapter 12: Avonlea

Anne was back in Avonlea with the luster of the Thorburn Scholarship on her brow. People told her she hadn't changed much, in a tone which hinted they were surprised and a little disappointed she hadn't. Avonlea had not changed, either. At least, so it seemed at first. - Chapter XI, Anne of the Island

Spring was in full force when the year was finally complete when they said goodbye to Kingsport and with trunks packed began the early day for the long journey home. Anne had achieved the Thornburn Scholarship, and Gilbert the Oswald Dark scholarship. There was a crowd of students leaving Kingsport on their train, and with each stop and layover more and more departed such that only them and Charlie were left on the west bound boat train as it approached Bright River. Mr. Sloane was there to greet his son, while the Blythe's was there for Anne and Gilbert. Anne sat in back with her mother in law, chatting cheerfully about the spring term, while Gilbert spoke with his father about a summer job he'd managed to arrange working in White Sands.

They arrived to the twins running to greet them in the yard at Green Gables as Mrs. Lynde slowly followed with reprimands. She'd written plans to stay until August before leaving for a tour of seeing three of her daughters that would end with picking up the twins in the end of October after the birth of a grandchild in western Nova Scotia, ready to return to Avonlea. Every letter was filled with the pleasures of the upcoming trip, yet at the same time the preference for life in Avonlea. "I do not see what my children have found in the west. When Avonlea is good and proper. No doubt after this trip I will swear off travel ever again. Yet the grief of loosing my husband and then best friend in under a year. It would do me good to see some of my children. Between what they're all pitching in and yourselves for when I escort the twins back to civilization in Avonlea come the end of October. I'll have have done all the traveling I ever intend to do." Somehow, Anne thought they were going to find the funds to pay for Mrs. Lynde's travel along with the twins.

Stepping into the house felt empty for Anne. Without Marilla's voice, or thin strong arms coming to hug her before gruffly speaking. She gulped and found herself leaning in towards Gilbert. She would have the sanctuary of her east gable room though soon, she thought.

Changes had already occurred, erasing the footprint of Marilla in the house. Mrs. Lynde had moved from her small parlor kitchen they'd set up for her in Matthew's old room into the kitchen. And Dora who'd shared a bed and room with Marilla before she'd taken a turn for the worse had refused to sleep again in the main bedroom and had been moved into Anne's East Gable, with Anne's things packed and waiting for her to settle in Marilla's old room. What had yet to be resolved though was Gilbert's sleeping location. That he was to stay at Green Gables was a given.

They had planned to have him sleep below stairs, either in the room they'd used as Mrs. Lynde's parlor and before as Matthew's bedroom, or even in a cot in the kitchen. Mrs. Lynde though would hear none of that. "You're married" she'd stated soon as the trunks had been brought in. "We'll need a spare room, and that room that Matthew had for years used to be the spare room I remember before Matthew broke his leg twenty years ago. I remember one time Thomas and I stayed in it. It's not proper a home to not have a spare room, and it's certainly cause talk for Gilbert to sleep below stairs."

"He can share my room." Davy pipped up. "Always wanted a big brother. Or since you're our guardian and I don't remember our Dad am I to call you dad?"

"Gilbert just like always." Gilbert laughed as he ruffled Davy's head. "That'll work."

"It'll be a bit tight." Mrs. Lynde shook her head. "Davy's bed is too small for two, and even with a cot in there and both your things. I guess with your betrothed marriage it makes sense, but I think it best you keep your trunk with Anne's in the main bedroom. It still don't feel right without Marilla, but I was at my wits end what we'd do with visitors this summer with you both home. Where to put them. Anne's room functioned as a spare room before things all got moved around but it looks quite proper now. We pulled the spare room bed from the attic and John Blythe helped Davy to put it together. Or I should say Davy helped John Blythe. Now, it's late and we best all get some sleep."

A cot was fetched from the attic for Gilbert, and when set up he declared it snug as a ship cabin no doubt but would do. The fact that Gilbert was slightly taller than the cot worried Anne. His trunk would not fit, and for the night it was moved into Anne's new room. Though the West Gable was larger than the East Gable room, half the room was still used as a sewing room. Anne stood in the doorway to the room watching the boys settle in. A divider made of two wardrobes divided the room into Davy's room on the south and the sewing room to the north with the door to the attic on the sewing side. Both sides were already crammed before they'd added the cot for Gilbert. There simply was no room for Gilbert's trunk and had the attic not been waiting for a complete purging for Marilla Cuthbert had the hidden sin of the fear she might need something one day. There was no room on the sewing side for the cot, not if they wanted to actually sew. Truly Anne thought once the cot was set up, the bed and cot were almost one bed, and climbing skills were required to reach the wardrobe for the boys usage.

Truly Anne realized the boys would have had more room in the East Gable. She was even tempted to suggest that the boys take Marilla's old room and her the west gable. She though was too tired to even consider it.

The room was still decorated as Marilla had it, with Anne's personal items and wall hangings piled into boxes about the room. She mourned her east gable, yet as she went to tuck in Dora who'd already began to make the room her own, she recognized the wisdom of moving the young girl into the room. Kissing the girl as she tucked her in, she stepped out into the hall where Davy called to her. "Don't I get a bedtime story Anne?"

"Gilbert is better suited." She said, glancing at the cot in the doorway of the room.

She glanced towards Gilbert who climbed the stairs with a lantern in his hand.

"All locked up Anne. Night." He smiled before leaning with the clear intention to kiss her cheek. Yet she moved swiftly for the whole thing felt too strange such that he ended instead awkwardly nodding before turning towards the boys room.

Would Green Gables ever feel like home again, she thought? Or just full of strangeness. No Matthew, no Marilla and a betrothed husband down the hall…

She sank into the bed, full of memories of the elderly siblings who'd given her family all those years ago and rescued her from the nightmare of her childhood. She cried herself to sleep, not even the comfort of her stories could bring her joy.

—

Their first day at home in Green Gables was spent settling in. The fact that Gilbert's feet hung over the cot, had caused him to bribe Davy to switch beds for the summer with promises to take him fishing at least one morning a week before chores. They'd moved the bed over, and squeezed the cot between the wardrobes and bed, requiring Davy to climb over the bed to reach the cot each night and Mrs. Lynde insisting that the boys would be responsible for the cleaning and changing of bedlinen for the room was practically indecent. Of course she then insisted that Gilberts place was in the main bedroom beside his wife.

He'd helped Anne set up the room, hanging her pretty little wall hangings, and leaving the cherished ones of Marilla's tenure. For Anne could not bare to remove the reminders of beloved Marilla. He'd smiled at an old tintype of Marilla and Matthew in their youth with their parents in front of Green Gables when the house was first built. Anne hung her own photograph of her Queens graduation with the elderly siblings. No doubt one of the few photos with Matthew in it. With the cot, the dresser and wardrobe were nearly inaccessible in the west gable, and so after much arguing between them. It was decided to hang Gilbert's suits in the wardrobe beside Anne's dresses. That more than anything as he finished unpacking, seeing his suits beside her dresses brought home that he truly was a married man. With all the responsibilities and few of the pleasures. Though, he thought, it was a quiet pleasure to drink his coffee sitting with Anne on the front porch that morning as Mrs. Lynde had shooed them out of the kitchen insisting she was more then capable to prepare their meal.

He'd have the rest of the week to see to Green Gables, and check on his parents before he'd begin the long hours of commuting over to White Sands where he'd be working in the hotel for the summer. He walked Green Gables that day with Davy and per the Strict Settlement set Davy to writing about what he witnessed and saw. That day as they settled in Mrs. Lynde told them all the news. Jane Andrews was moving out west, due to her failure to find a beau in Avonlea Mrs. Lynde stated mater of fact, and ruby Gillis was dying of consumption. She'd given up teaching in the winter declaring she'd be back in the fall and was going after the White Sands school. Yet Mrs. Lynde just shook her head. "She'll be in her grave, poor girl, when White Sands opens, that's what."

Anne's face went white at the news, and Gilbert reached across to pull her into his arms. He still wore the black band for Marilla, and Anne was yet in black though the twins were dressed in simple black and white garments as they'd been when they'd first come to Green Gables. Another death.

They'd greeted Ruby at church that next Sunday and promised to come by the next evening. "Oh you must tell me all about your doings at Redmond and what it's like being married, oh excuse me Anne, betrothal married to Gilbert Blythe. Herb Spencer's going to take me to a party at White Sands, I heard you're working the hotel Gilbert. You rather should bring Anne by for one of the parties. But Anne, do come by and let's talk."

Diana who had joined them offered to come with them. It was decided due to Gilbert's hours that only Anne and Diana would go. And with promises to be home later, Diana wisked Anne off for the afternoon. "For you see Anne all the time, and I've hardly seen her this year!"

He had not seen Anne on Monday night, and Tuesday he'd taken Davy fishing before leaving for White Sands directly. So it was Wednesday after the twins were already in bed, and Mrs. Lynde was dozing in the parlor that he'd come whistling up the drive, leaving his father's horse he was riding for the summer in the barn and seeing to the animals were bedded down for the night he was struck by the beautiful vision of his wife sitting at the Green Gables Kitchen table, a single candle lit before her as she scribbled away.

"Hello Anne Girl." He bowed before her. "Have you any morsels for a hungry soul?"

"Oh Gil! I hadn't realized you would be working so late. It may be dry but I've let a plate on the warmer for you. Let me fetch it." She jumped up, her red braid bouncing.

"You're writing?"

"Oh nothing much." She blushed.

"Might I read."

"No." She grabbed the story and stuffed it away. "It's nothing much just some private musings."

He laughed and pushed the notebook away. "I shall never read your diary Anne. No doubt you're writing how handsome your husband is, and what a jolly fella. Why I should tell you about one of the couples I saw at the hotel today as I worked the front desk. Well, was being trained there. The wife was thin and tall and the husband short and fat. Then to make it more pronounced she wore the tallest hat you could imagine and he wore a thick beaver coat. Now, does that make you laugh. I'll quite like the work this summer Anne, it'll be harder then we would have liked had Marilla lived, but I'll keep my word and take care of our family and do her proud."

"I… I couldn't stop thinking of Matthew, then Marilla and now Ruby. At least Marilla was not in denial. It's as though Ruby is clinging to every hope of life. It makes my heart ache, for it's clear she's not long left. She looks more changed then Marilla did from when we left for Kingsport and when we… Oh Gilbert." She threw herself into his arms sobbing.

He rocked her for some time, letting his food grow cold as he held her in his arms.

—

Anne spent her days working about Green Gables taking inventory and out of curiosity at the memory of a mention of a heirloom, created an adventure of organizing and sorting through the attic with the twins. That their schooling was taken care of was a given, yet Gilbert insisted rather than spending time building their own little family that he needed to work as many hours at the White Sands hotel as possible. They'd made it a habit though the two of them that she'd wait for him in the kitchen. Though never did she make Mrs. Hammonds mistake of being at the stove when he'd enter. Gilbert never would do as Mr. Hammond would, and they'd an agreement to keep it betrothal until they'd finish school. But still. She knew of course Gilbert never would be as uncouth as Mr. Hammond, yet it seemed that year buried memories were coming forth.

She'd gone several times to visit Ruby, yet each time the home had been brimming with suitors and friends. She'd also spent several days with Diana, most often with Dora playing with Minnie May and Davy off with his friend Milty. One afternoon while Mrs. Lynde was occupied with the Aids Committee, the twins with their friends, she and Diana had gone for a ramble into a fairy hollow of the brook.

She'd told Gilbert little of the story, yet to Diana she told much. Averil Lester's hero was Perceval Dalrymple. And she even let Diana name the little hired boy that lived with the Lesters.

"You'll let me read it, won't you?" Pleaded Diana.

"When it is finished I'll read it to you and Mr. Harrison, I shall want you to criticize it severely. No one else shall see it until it is published."

"And Gilbert you're betrothed of course."

Anne gulped. No doubt Gilbert would find himself wanting in comparison to Perceval. Diana was right though. "Yes, of course. But I've a thought to surprise him with him seeing it in print for the first time. I'll dedicate the story to him."

How are you going to end it — happily or unhappily?" Diana asked. "Oh do happily."

"I'm not sure. I'd like it to end unhappily, because that would be so much more romantic. But I understand editors have a prejudice against sad endings. I heard Professor Hamilton say once that nobody but a genius should try to write an unhappy ending. And," concluded Anne modestly. "I'm anything but a genius."

Oh I like happy endings best. You'd better let him marry her." Diana clapped her hands.

"But you like to cry over stories?"

"Oh, yes, in the middle of them. But I like everything to come right at last." Diana lifted up Anne's left hand. "Like yours. Oh it was ever so bitter sweet your rushed wedding, but it was sweet was it not how Marilla got to see you two married, and know that you and the twins would be alright. I cried ever so much then and when she died only days later. Yet it's sweet how much Gilbert loves you and will be ever so sweet when we have your wedding feast. And as you two mean to wait until you graduate I'll be the expert to tell you all the secrets of the marriage bed. Yet I must insist how do you wait? It's been ever so difficult with Fred. Only the inability to have much time alone and the right fear my father put in Fred if his first grandchild is born early. I have nightmares about that. Somehow we'll manage to for our wedding night only to have a baby too early and no one believe us! At least you are already married if you get carried away no one will frown at you."

"We've been quiet about it in Kingsport. Oh my advisor knows and that was mortification enough that I had to speak to Professor Hamilton. We've kept quiet simply for we've no wish for gossip. Charlie was bribed you know and the others understand and have kept quiet."

"Never the less, I think it quite romantic how Gilbert's always taken care of you. Giving up the Avonlea school for White Sands such that you could stay home with Marilla, and marrying you before he finishes school so that you and the twins would be protected." Diana sighed.

Anne spent hours writing over the next fortnight, scribbling away mostly the story and despairing about the characters acting as they should. She'd speak it over with Diana, and some over with Mr. Harrison only when he heard she'd planned to surprise Gilbert with her story he'd flatly refused to read it. "A man shouldn't be surprised like that by his wife. Anyways, whose better then him as he's as smart as you? I'll read it in print and be mighty glad to. But a man shouldn't be surprised like that by his wife."

"Betrothed." Anne corrected and left it at that.

So Anne spent hours polishing the story and when it was nearly complete she'd taken it over to Orchard Slope for Diana to read as they sat in the garden. That Diana loved it was clear, and saw as clearly as Anne the fame that would come with the story. That the scene were Averil made the cake was not quite romantic enough, and that it was a shame that the villain was killed off rather than reformed. But then, as Anne pointed out, that would have made the story too long.

One final attempt at Mr. Harrison brought fruit, when she explained it was a birthday gift for Gilbert. "For what joy it would be to present Gilbert with not only the story in print in a magazine but also with the payment even if small such that I might get him some of the books he dreams of yet will not buy for the cost."

Mr. Harrison just laughed at that and read the story. He was very critical of the story telling her to cut out all the flowery passages, and when she defended leaving in the description of the sunset he was quite blunt. "It hasn't anything to do with the story." That her story was set among the rich and not ordinary folk like in Avonlea he took offense, and that the folks in her story didn't sound like any real folks. "They talk too much and use too high-flown language. There's one place where that Dalrymple chap talks even on for two pages, and never lets the girl get a word in edgewise. If he'd done that in real life she'd have pitched him." He laughed. "Anyways your Gilbert wouldn't be so stupid."

"I don't believe it." Anne said flatly. In her soul she thought that the beautiful, poetical things said to Averil would win any girls heart, not that Gilbert ever could do that. If she was forced into a marriage of convenience at least she might live on in her characters the romance she craved.

He'd then had the audacity to complain about the villain, Maurice Lennox not getting the girl. Called the hero Perceval mooning. Oh that was worse than pitching.

"Perceval is too good. He's aggravating. Next time you write about a hero put a little spice of human nature in him." He gathered up the pages of her story and handed it back. "Now you want good but human, look at your own husband. Write a hero like him. At least your villain is a go getter like Gilbert Blythe. Now let your husband read it and give him a good laugh. Then toss those pages in the fire and write something real."

Clearly, she thought. Mr. Harrison had no literary bone in his body and it was a mistake reading it to him in the first place. Next time, she thought, she wouldn't ask anyone to criticize it. It was too discouraging. And she certainly would not allow Gilbert to read it. She told nothing of it to Gilbert, Mrs. Lynde or the twins instead as she took it to the post office the next day in a long, bulky envelope, addressed to the very biggest of the "big" magazines. She was confident that before the end of the summer she'd be reading it to her little family from a magazine then share that it was published by herself.

There as a week of delightful dreaming followed by the bitter disappointment of a rejection slip. But then with Diana's encouragement she'd sent it back out again, removing the sunset scene for perhaps Mr. Harrison was right. Again a rejection slip and then so despondent, she locked the story away in the garret trunk where all the old Story Club tales kept their retirement, but at Diana's entreaties she gave her a copy."

Mr. Harrison she thought would have understood her resolve that she could not write. Instead, he'd suggested she write about real life, and one day she'd try to publish again. She'd insisted she'd stick to teaching after Redmond.

"It'll be time for you and Gilbert to set up your nursery then, not teach. I don't believe in putting that off too long. No doubt you'll have a half a dozen little ones of your own to teach. What with the way I see your betrothed husband look at you. Fact is I'd be shocked you finish Redmond and not drop out to start that nursery sooner. But keep writing. I think I will see your writing in print one day Anne Blythe."

Anne marched home after that. Oh, Mr. Harrison at times could truly be intolerable. She certainly would finish and then teach while Gilbert had medical school. He gave his word they could wait until after and nothing would change. She would forget writing all together and instead put her energy back into teaching the twins and making a game of it with them to search for the heirloom of Green Gables.

And it did not help matters that night when she'd come home late from a ramble with Diana to check on Ecco Lodge only to be caught in the rain to find the others already asleep. She'd gone to check on the twins each, kissing each on the forehead. Only for Gilbert to wake as she leaned over him to tuck in Davy and kiss his forehead demanding his own kiss which he stole from her lips. She'd been too flustered to do more than whisper goodnight and retreat to her room. She'd burnt through a whole candle working on her Prince Royal. He never would have stolen a kiss. Instead he would have written a poem to her.