Hello dear readers!

My last post on this story was a shocking six months ago. Apologies for such a long stretch – indeed I acknowledge my output this year generally has been very underwhelming. I am always hopeful that things will turn around! In the meantime, this narrative is still inching forward for a little longer before we start some gentle time jumps. It seems the story wants me to sit with it for a while first.

Thank you to everyone for your kindness if you have also read and commented on the ending to Down the Rabbit-Hole. It is always satisfying to be able to write 'Complete' next to a story, even though it is not yet happening here! Ironically for the same number of chapters (and many more words) this narrative is just getting going!

As always, your feedback is enormously appreciated. Thank you to all my reviewers along the way and to others, like Andrea1984, who have read and commented in the one hit! I hope this finds everyone well.

Love

MrsVonTrapp x


Chapter Twenty

'So you make perfect the present'


October 12th 2017

David's hug was like home, and his kiss the warmth of the hearth-fire within it.

Anne paused for a moment, drinking him in. His sheer handsomeness hurt her eyes, those poor beleaguered orbs having to readjust to looking upon him. The delightfully wayward curls of the past summer had been trimmed and tamed, befitting his birthday-boy status, lending him a new maturity competing with his boyish enthusiasm as he leapt down the verandah steps at Ingleside.

"You're here," he held her tightly, "you are my present, Anne!"

"Happy Birthday, David!"

"Thank you!" his grin was mega-watt strength, turning it on full beam for Tessa, who had little choice but to reflexively answer in kind.

"Many happy returns, David!" she gave him an affectionate kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you for making it back here. I appreciate it so much," he was endearingly earnest.

"Thank you for inviting us," Tessa answered magnanimously. It had not been an inconsiderable journey to get back, negotiating a day and a half off school and taking a three hour charter flight into Charlottetown, as Anne privately determined her mother did not yet trust her fragile equilibrium on a commercial airliner. Rob had been waiting at the gate with an amusing little sign such as a hired chauffeur might display, his reunion with her mother friendly, overpolite and failing utterly to mask the strong feelings it stirred on both sides.

"We have a room ready for you," David lugged Anne's bag, taking her hand. "So sorry about sharing. There are a few friends of mine from Redmond coming across and I promised we'd put them up. I hope the whole vibe is not too frat house by Sunday morning!"

"You were in a fraternity at Redmond?" Anne asked belatedly, unable to believe she did not know this. Infact, there was so much about David's college experience that was unknown to her that she was disappointed in herself for not asking more about it.

"I was in the Lambs…" he grinned, "otherwise known as Lamba Theta. Good guys, if slightly raucous. They promise to be on best behaviour!"

"Anyone else from Redmond?" Anne asked breathlessly as she and Tessa were ushered inside and all headed upstairs.

"Well, I'm not sure about this…" David seemed to pause to consider, taking the stairs quickly and opening the door to a guest room on the upper floor, "but one of my friends has a new girlfriend, and unfortunately you will have heard her name before. Gillian."

Anne could hear Rob groan from behind them, as he carted Tessa's bag for her.

"Dave, do you think that's wise? For her to come along?"

"Not my choice, Dad," David threw over his shoulder. "If she is still going out with Liam then I haven't got much say in the matter, though if she had any decency at all she'd stay away."

David turned, noting Anne's perturbed expression.

"Don't worry," he leaned into her. "Odds are she won't front, and if she does, it's no matter to us anyway. There are plenty of really great people coming, Anne, including certain cousins of mine as well."

"Maddie and Max!" Anne gave a relieved smile.

"Exactly," he met her eyes.

"We'll let you freshen up, and then we're off to a family dinner," Rob decreed with a broad grin. "That's if you're up to it after the journey here?"

"Of course!" Tessa met his enthusiasm with real warmth. "We'd love to come!"

The Blythe men left them to it and Anne looked around with a fluttering heart, working to compose herself. This was a new part of the house for her and the fine film of memory was like dust she had to rub from her eyes. Where the queen bed now stood were once two single beds, twinned in every sense, and she could almost hear their occupants' girlish laughter.

She blinked her eyes savagely.

Her mother hummed to herself as she hung up a few items in the little wardrobe, and Anne forced herself to do the same, all the while thinking over David's guest list with a heavy heart. Blasted Gillian, the beautiful, bitchy ex girlfriend. Annoying frat boys who had promised to be on best behaviour. And likely half of Glen St Mary and Lowbridge, with faces she didn't recognize and relationships to and history with David she did not share.

The summer had been an enchanted dream, of course, and this was the reality. She felt cruelly shaken awake.


October 14th 2017

She didn't know whether it would be more mortifying to change clothes or to continue resignedly as she was. She was embarrassingly overdressed and felt fraudulent when faced with the effortlessly, artfully casual cool of David's college comrades. Her mother was in a dress and strappy heels but on her it looked chic and fabulous, her knockout looks attracting admirers half her age, and Rob Blythe hard pressed to remember his hosting duties in the face of her beauty. Anne had thought the navy blue lace bodycon dress teamed with her little black ankle boots was both elegant and edgy in the boutique back in Toronto; much more formfitting than her usual freeflowing styles, and a dress that wanted to announce itself as adult… and her. She was desperate for David to consider her so, in any case. It was a dress that would travel with her to any wine bar or cocktail gathering back home – once she was legally able to access such places – but here in downtown Glen St Mary it seemed unnecessarily overdone… and unfortunately the looks she had received were bemused and slightly pitying rather than admiring, despite the gleam of appreciation in David's eyes earlier.

"Stop fiddling!" Maddie nudged her knowingly, opening a new bottle of Diet Coke and topping up Anne's plastic cup. "You look badass, Anne. I much prefer your Toronto cool to all these dubious frat boys and the loser Lowbridge lot. I can't wait to get out of here, sometimes!"

"The frat boy thing was a surprise, that's for sure," Anne sighed, taking a sip, and wishing for once it was slightly more alcoholic. She had seen Ingleside overrun the past twenty four hours, as the arrivals for the party slowly staked their claim over it, drawing David away from any private time with her. "These guys don't seem to be anything like David at all. What was he thinking, hanging around them at uni?"

Maddie shrugged her shoulders expressively, her blue eyes flashing. "He was thinking obliteration, pretty much. Obliterate himself and all memory. All these guys started to come on the scene after his ma, Auntie Mel, died, or so I heard. And so did all the partying back at Redmond. We didn't see anything of David for a while there. It was too painful for him. And meanwhile Uncle Rob was back here doing pretty badly, too. Everyone was a mess. All of us. Even my dad, though he would never have shown it."

I know the feeling… Anne thought but did not say, remembering the disorientation, the bewildering, painful slow dissolve, of the weeks and months after her father had died.

"Your mom was at the birthday dinner on Thursday, but not your dad?" Anne suddenly questioned.

"No," Maddie replied shortly. "They're actually… getting a divorce."

"Oh, Maddie, God, I'm so sorry to hear that!"

Maddie blew out an expressive breath. "Honestly, it was on the cards for ages. I think they kind of tried to prepare us for it. They haven't really done anything together for… God, probably years, if I really think about it. My dad has been…" she paused, contemplating, and then shrugged evasively, "well, he's been dealing with a few things. He's probably even going to leave the Glen for a while. Which makes me even more desperate to get out of here after school finishes."

"Where would you go, to study?"

"Anywhere off the Island, that's for sure. Meg went to Redmond and is working with her boyfriend in Kingsport, now, but I'm not sold on Redmond. Max studied music up in Charlottetown but going there doesn't grab me either. I think I might like to do design or something. Which definitely means the mainland."

"Toronto has plenty of great design colleges…" Anne mused leadingly.

"God, Anne, don't tempt me!" Maddie groaned expressively. "I'd do anything to go somewhere like Toronto! I could probably guilt my dad into paying for my course, but accommodation is so expensive!"

"You could stay with me." Anne even surprised herself with this bold assertion.

"What?"

"Mom and I are by ourselves rattling around our big house in Toronto. We virtually have separate wings. You could completely room at ours for free, if you'd like to. Don't let finding a place to stay stop you from studying there."

Maddie was completely open mouthed by this stage, the raucousness surrounding them momentarily forgotten.

"Anne, are you serious? I mean, really serious? You wouldn't want to stay on campus somewhere just for the experience of it?"

Anne looked about them with a wry grin.

"Not if these guys are anything like what I'd find on campus!"

Maddie clutched Anne's arm in excitement, almost spilling her drink.

"Then let's make a pact! To really do this. If I get accepted there, I'm coming next September to you in Toronto!"

Maddie's face was aglow with the sudden possibility of their scheme, and Anne held fast in turn, blinded by the flash of feeling this blooming friendship engendered. The Mean Girls at her school and the bored Redmond grads and the feckless frat boys and Gillian the Bitchy Ex Girlfriend who hung on one guy's arm whilst making eyes the entire time at David… could all go to hell.

"It's a pact, then!"

"I'll drink to that!" Maddie tapped her cup to Anne's.

"Even better…" Anne looked at the gyrating bodies in the lounge with sudden envy, "let's dance to it!"

Maddie squealed delightedly and abandoned their cups on the countertop, taking Anne's hand in her soft dimpled one and dragging her out to join the partying.


David smiled to see Anne and Mads join those on the impromptu dance floor, relieved beyond measure to note Anne finally enjoying herself, and sending a quick, silent note of thanks to his cousin for spending time with her when he clearly couldn't. He had underestimated just how busy he would be trying to get around to everyone, whilst avoiding Gillian's clear attempts to have a conversation with him, and hadn't prepared himself for how emotional the speeches would be. His dad had made everyone in the vicinity tear up with his heartfelt words and remembrance of his mother, and David had felt wobbly thereafter, downing the champagne toast which joined his earlier beers and then a few celebratory shots with the boys in quick succession, until the remembered warmth stole through his veins and the sharp edges of his old fears and worries blunted and the world softened and blurred.

Ahh… this was the feeling of those times back at Redmond, throwing himself down the football field with a reckless abandon and then drinking away the aches and pains… partying with an intensity befitting his status as captain and collecting kudos and female admirers along the way. And then the one time, collecting Gillian, with her blonde corkscrew curls and a clear challenge in her baby doll blue eyes, as if she demanded he impress her… as if he wasn't already enough.

"Impressive…" she now purred, finding him in the kitchen where he was hastily – and perhaps hopelessly – gulping some water in a desperate attempt to start to sober himself up. "You can still take your alcoholwithout a hair out of place, apparently."

David turned slowly, forcing a lazy smile.

"Impressive, Gill? The only thing impressive here is your complete audacity in coming at all. Though I admit getting your claws into Liam to score an invite was pretty inspired."

"David, you never used to be this cynical. It's sad."

"One of the great lessons you taught me."

"Oh, come on, I taught you plenty of other things…" she was too clever to give a suggestive smile, but her eyes glimmered with the knowledge.

He groaned internally. So it was going to be like that, was it?

"What do you want, Gillian?"

"Maybe I've been thinking… I want you back."

He could have swallowed his tongue in surprise. "You're not serious?"

She gave a coy shrug. "Depends."

Don't ask. DON'T ask, he told himself. "Oh really? Illuminate me. On what?"

"On your little teen crush out there dancing with your cousin or something. Surely you can't be serious about that?"

He felt his hands reflexively ball into fists.

"Leave Anne the hell out of this. You know nothing about us."

"David, for God's sake! You're just embarrassing yourself. I didn't figure you'd be so cut up about us you'd rebound as a cradle snatcher!"

"Gillian," he muttered darkly, "it might surprise you to know that not everything comes back to you. I was hardly cut up when we ended it. It was a relief. I've survived pretty well these six months without all of your drama."

"Did you survive everything else so well, I wonder?"

His head was beginning to pound, whether a response to all his imbibing or her uncherished presence he couldn't say. Of course she would bring it all back to the sex. In the end it had been the only thing keeping them together, shamed as he was to admit it. His mother had died and he couldn't cope with any emotional connection to anyone or anything, and had survived on sensation, on anything physical to block out actually feeling. And it had worked… for a time.

But that time was so far in the past for him now that he actually almost felt sorry for her.

"Great catching up with you, Gillian," he gave a derisive smirk, prepared to highhandedly stalk past her.

He was uncharacteristically slow on the uptake and thus a beat behind her as she stepped in front of him from her barricade behind the benchtop, and he barrelled straight into her… and in the seconds it would have taken to extract himself, she was already pressing full lips against his.

There was a shuffle of surprise behind them, inevitably, and he wrenched himself away, about to remonstrate to her but she was already turning around in anticipation to greet their audience.

"Great show, there. Do you give family discounts?" Max asked drolly, juggling an armful of empty beer bottles.

Gillian's pretty pout lasted only as long as it took for her to compute Max's identity, and then she huffed grievously as if she herself was the injured party.

"You're cute enough, I'll give you that," she gave an amused smile, which darkened as she flicked a withering glance back to David, "but you Island guys are way too dull for my taste."

"Just as well Liam's from New Brunswick, then," David's mild tone masked a growing fury.

Gillian clucked her displeasure and sashayed out, and David banged a drawer closed in frustration.

"Jesus, I could have been anyone, Dave," Max now chastised, dumping the bottles with a disappointed shake of his head. "I could have been Anne's mother. I could have been Anne!"

"She deliberately tried it on!" David fumed.

"Sure, anyone with a brain could see that coming. All night, infact. What astonishes me is that you couldn't see that coming, Mr MCAT wizard."

David groaned, rubbing his temples with his fingers. "Max, please don't tell Anne. She wouldn't… understand… how Gillian is…"

"I think you're shortchanging Anne, but sure, of course I won't blab that you walked right into the most obvious trap in the history of crazy ex girlfriends setting obvious tr – "

"Max!"

"Fine. Alright!" he held up his hands in surrender. "Better go back to your party, birthday boy, and maybe, you know, stick close to Anne. So that Blondie finally gets the message."

"Good advice. Thanks, Meredith."

Max rolled his eyes at his cousin and best friend, thinking this had perhaps also been an obvious point from the beginning, except Dave had been weirdly obsessed with his old uni bros and his attention completely diverted. Perhaps he would have the chance to make it up to Anne, now, but as they reentered the lounge neither Anne nor Maddie could be found, and Gillian, having sidled back up to her oblivious boyfriend Liam, turned to give them a brilliant and utterly unnerving Cheshire cat's grin.


Anne had followed David with her eyes as he loped into the kitchen, and a moment later Gillian made sure she was seen following him. Still dancing with Maddie, Anne's heart skittered with sudden fear, and she stumbled over her own feet.

So, this was it. The beautiful, bitchy ex-girlfriend was finally making her move, as she had been threatening to all night. She wished she had been more surprised.

The trusting side of her tried to rationalize things. David was not interested in Gillian anymore. He had broken up with her and had only spoken with regret and occasional annoyance regarding her thereafter. He was also hardly going to make out with her in the kitchen during his own 21st party with assembled guests a stone's throw away. With his current girlfriend a stone's throw away.

Anne noted Max, cradling assorted bottles, enter the kitchen himself and felt marginally better. She had been silly to let Gillian get to her. David himself had warned her against it. Had she no faith in him at all?

And then… Gillian stalked back out, deliberately turning to her and giving a suggestive smile from across the room… a smile both cutting and calculated, sending a silent signal she couldn't ignore.

Oh, God.

"Mads, I'll just go outside and take a breather!" Anne gasped, launching herself through the crowd before receiving a reply. Through the front door and out onto the verandah, she did not see Rob and her mother in amorous embrace half-hidden by the long shadows, which was undoubtedly just as well.

Instead she gulped fortifying cool breaths of air, hands on her flushed cheeks, and dived down the stairs.

"Anne!" Tessa, extracting herself from Rob in surprise, called out in a melodic voice tinged with worry. "Honey, are you all right?"

Anne wheeled around, grimacing in frustration. Could she never get a moment's peace?

"Mom, it's fine! I just needed some air!"

As she stalked down the slope towards the walled garden, Maddie came through the door, puzzled to see Anne's retreating form, and Rob and Tessa came to join her.

"I think that ex-girlfriend of David's finally got to her," Maddie surmised darkly.

Tessa was making a move to follow her daughter, but Rob stopped her with a hand on her arm.

"Why don't you let me go?"

Tessa wavered, protective instincts warring with her trust in Rob's gentle assurance. And then she remembered Anne, asking Rob the same sort of permission to go after his son, seemingly a lifetime ago.

"OK, thank you," she nodded. "I guess Maddie and I will just…"

"We'll just hang here, Mrs Ford," Maddie smiled. "I could do with some fresh air myself. And anyway, I have lots of questions for you about Toronto!"


Rob was certainly not the person Anne had expected to find her, and regretfully he was not the Blythe she had longed to see in that moment. She had paced around the little, rose-less garden distractedly, trying not to remember her midnight plundering of rosemary and goodness knows what else the last time she was here, before he appeared through the gap and settled himself on the bench, silently suggesting she do the same.

Someone had installed all those little garden lights in the ground, and strung fairy lights through the trees, so they were not in darkness but instead lit by a gentle and gentling glow. The breeze off the harbour scented the air, rapidly cooling her hotheaded frustration, and she was now only left with the tinge of embarrassment for having made a scene, inevitably reminding everyone only of how young she still was, when she had done nothing but strive to project a new maturity.

"Rob I… I didn't want anyone to worry. I wasn't going to disappear again. I just needed… some air."

"I know," he smiled.

Anne, still hovering, had no choice but to sit beside him or continue to look both rude and stupid.

"I didn't want to draw you away from the party."

"Well, I was taking a break from it anyway," he winked, completely unrepentantly, making her laugh despite herself.

"I've missed that smile of yours this time round, Anne," he added, almost companionably.

She bit her lip, mistakenly believing she had been more successful in masking her feelings during their visit than she actually had.

"You haven't exactly had the greatest time this weekend," Rob surmised. "I'm sorry, love."

"Rob, I'm sorry! I really have, it's all been lovely – it's been great to be back! Only…"

"Only this reunion wasn't quite what you imagined…"

"I didn't expect things would be completely all about me…" she attempted to joke.

His soft chuckle was so similar to his son's it made her eyes smart with sudden, sorry-for-herself tears.

"If it helps, I don't know who half those people are in there, either," he shook his head in chagrin.

"So I'm not the only one," she sighed.

Rob folded his arms, nodding thoughtfully.

"I think… Dave has needed to see his old mates, spend time with them, so that…"

"…he can say goodbye to them."

Rob nodded more firmly. "I knew you'd understand that, smart girl that you are. It still doesn't make it easy to face, though."

"There's only one face who hasn't made it easy," Anne reluctantly acknowledged, almost to herself.

"Well, Anne, I only have one thing to say to that. Tony Tennyson Drew."

Anne spluttered out a new laugh. "Tony… Tennyson… Drew? Is that, um, code or…?"

"Tony Tennyson Drew, somewhat improbably, is the name of a person. He was Mel's – David's mother's – last boyfriend before we both went up to Redmond. Boy, did I want to rip that guy's throat out!"

Anne was incredulous at this scandalous admission, let alone from the gentle, peaceable Rob Blythe.

"Was this… before you and David's mom… got together?"

Rob nodded, steepling his long fingers. "It was. She broke up with him and told me here, during my eighteenth birthday party."

"Here?"

"Whilst we were sitting over on that wall, as a matter of fact," he indicated the section of the wall facing the main house. "That's when it was actually much – "

" – higher," Anne finished for him, smiling tremulously.

"Yes, that's right. Did David tell you?"

"In a manner of speaking…" Anne assented vaguely.

"Right. Yes, well… let me remember what the moral of this story was…" he smiled sheepishly. "I think what I'm trying to say is that Dave is his mother's son, Anne. Wide circle of friends, life of the party, connected to everything and everyone. He's had a few rough years, and I think tonight and maybe this entire weekend he was making up for them… and I'm sorry if you have felt a little on the outside of things. Believe me, I know what that's like, and I was born here. He may have made connections to certain people in the past, but once they are past, I know him, he won't look back again. He is all for moving forward, like Mel was. So this Gillian… or anyone else you may have been worried about… don't be bothered by them. She is trying to regain a connection with David that he's already moved on from, in his mind. He's not looking back towards her. He's looking forwards towards you."

They were words she didn't even know she needed to hear, and the sense of them settled the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Thank you, Rob," she gulped.

"You're welcome, love," he placed a fatherly hand on her shoulder.

Anne's throat thrummed at the new thought as they made their way back up to the house. This was the sort of conversation a father might have with a daughter… life advice for lovelorn teens. Rob had stepped into a breach that had once felt like a chasm.

"I've missed David… but I hadn't realized till now that I had missed you, too," she paused with him at the foot of the verandah stairs, eyes smarting with new tears but her smile took the sting out of them, and Rob's delighted hug in return, an echo of his son's, was a homecoming of a different kind.


David found her out on the verandah, which now made that area of the house more than a little crowded.

"Anne!" he breathed, looking in surprise at those assembled around her in unspoken support. "I'm so glad I found you!"

They were the first words he had spoken directly to her in hours.

"Well, I'm pleased to be found," she answered, a little archly.

"I think I'm going to go and see what my brother is up to…" Maddie made her excuse, whilst Rob murmured about getting Tessa and he a drink and within moments it was just David and she alone, him staring at her uncertainly.

"I'm sorry!" he fumbled for the words. "This party – this weekend – has been such a bust for you."

The denial came immediately to her lips, to save him the pain of her admission, but she swallowed it back down.

"A little," she conceded with a philosophical shrug of her narrow shoulders. "But it's OK. And it wasn't my celebration, it was yours. So as long as it hasn't been a bust for you, that's what matters."

"It's not what really matters…" he made a grab for her hand, lacing his fingers through hers. "I really wanted you to have a good time back here in the Glen, and I've hardly seen you."

"It's fine, David…" she wavered.

"I wish it was…" he tugged her along the wide verandah towards the bench their parents had just vacated. "I wish I had juggled everything better. I wish we'd had more time, just us…"

"Well, it's not every day you turn 21…" she mused.

"Sure…" he sighed.

"And invite the entire town and most of Lowbridge…" she continued.

"Er, no…"

"And most of the recent graduates of Redmond College, including members of Lamba Theta, who may or may not belong in that category."

David barked a bemused laugh. "Pay that! Maybe I should have asked to see their degrees upon entry." He paused, squeezing her hand. "Maybe I should have capped the numbers."

"You only really needed to refuse one person," Anne ventured.

"Anne…"

"I know something happened when she followed you into the kitchen, David."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly that. She came out looking much too pleased with herself."

He seemed to contemplate this, blowing out a long, slow breath.

"She… kissed me, Anne. I'm sorry. She caught me unawares. I didn't seek it and I certainly didn't want it."

Anne withdrew her hand from his, processing. It was exactly the sort of thing she had feared, and she found now, surprisingly, she wasn't afraid of it.

"Did… you like it?"

"Anne…" he took her hand again, turning her towards him. "Absolutely not. All Gillian succeeded in doing was to remind me of all the reasons I broke up with her, and all the ways in which I don't want to be the person I used to be when I was with her." He gulped a frustrated breath. "I hadn't realized how much being with her had dragged me down. Or how much being with you builds me up."

"Damn," she offered softly after a moment, giving a chagrined smile.

"Sorry?"

"You can't give nice speeches like that if I'm still trying to be mad at you."

He gave a muzzled smile.

"Are… we OK?"

Anne nodded. "Of course."

"Then let me give another speech, Anne, and a very overdue one…" he fished in the pocket of his dark jeans. "Believe it or not, I haven't been fixated on this party. Instead, I've been thinking a lot about us and our separation this year…"

His lovely hazel eyes were staring into hers, gleaming and earnest.

"Tomorrow we will need to say goodbye again, and you said six weeks ago that you didn't want me to give this to you because it would feel like it meant a permanent goodbye… " his long fingers withdrew a familiar small box. "Well, that's not going to happen, let me tell you, Miss Ford… but I think we both need to get used to the fact… that there are going to be a lot of goodbyes in our relationship. That's goodbyes are just going to be… an inevitable part of our story."

They have always been an inevitable part of our story… the thought pained her heart and echoed inside her head, thinking back to three years' worth of correspondence on her phone that she had begun secretly transcribing in hidden files on her laptop.

He placed the box in her hand. This time she opened it and gazed at the pendant inside. A pink enamel heart, pretty and perfect, on a delicate gold chain shimmering under the wan porch light. Anne stared in amazement. This was the gift David had been trying to give her?

"There's a little jeweller's here in town," he was quick to explain. "The guy has a mixture of old and new and some reproduction jewellery. He told me this was based on a style that used to be popular a long time ago. I don't know about that… I just liked it."

David might not know, yet, but she did. She knew the pendant was familiar in some way.

"Please accept it now, Anne. Not as a goodbye gift, but maybe as something that just shows the world I care about you. That even when we're not together, that you still carry my heart around with you."

He took the pendant from the box and fastened it around her long white neck, as Anne began to cry relieved, embarrassing tears.

His kiss began as a graze to her wet cheeks but soon migrated to her mouth, kissing her with the passion she had so missed and spent too many recent dreams chasing.

"Thank you…" she breathed after a time, scrambling for composure. "It's so lovely."

"You are so lovely…" he murmured, embracing her tightly. "And yours was the only kiss I wanted tonight," he added fervently.

They sat quietly together in one another's arms, in the soft shadows, as the music and laughter and activity inside pulsed through the very walls and the open windows. Well after midnight now, the party was finally beginning to shift gears, the music mellowing the longer they sat there.

"You're missing your own party, David…" she finally sighed contentedly.

"I don't care."

"But I do…" she extracted herself and stood, stretching, reaching out her hand to pull him up. "Your adoring public awaits, Gerald David Blythe. You need to say your goodbyes to them, too…" Anne pressed her fingers against her new adornment, smiling benignly. "And Gillian. We both have to say our goodbyes to Gillian."

His chuckle – his father's chuckle – was low and amused, and his look patently admiring.

"Who said all goodbyes are bad?" he grinned in agreement, slinging his arm around her shoulders and walking with her back into the throng.


Chapter Notes

The chapter title is from Robert Browning from his poem Now, as was the previous chapter.

Of course canon's Bertie Shakespeare Drew had to have a just-as-preposterous sounding descendant. If you would like to be reminded of his first mention and everything else going on at Rob's eighteenth party, it features in my very first interlude during Chapter Four.


And some very overdue correspondence…

Guest #1 of May 15th (Ch 19): Dear Guest thank you so much for your lovely thoughts on this chapter! I am very heartened by them! You make a very valid observation that this Anne doesn't have many friends and is quite lonely in many ways. It was interesting to me to try to channel some of canon Anne's early loneliness and although my Anne doesn't invent a Katie Maurice she does have a similar absence of kindred spirits in her life. It's something that some of the people around her do recognize but no one has done enough about it. Hopefully this latest chapter will be a step in the right direction there! And thank you also for the shared JC love x

Guest #2 of May 15th (Ch 19): Thank you Guest your last words made me grin! I love any reviewer who has been able to read across my stories x Argh Dr Ryan was certainly not what the doctor ordered for Anne. She will really have to administer to herself for now but please trust there is a professional in her future who WILL be helpful! Meanwhile I loved your idea that 'sometimes looking back is a way to move forward'! That is lovely and profound! If I borrow that for somewhere in this story my sincere thanks in advance for such great inspiration!

Guest of May 23rd (Ch 19): Thank you Guest for your encouragement and I am so thrilled you are interested in seeing where the story is headed! You are so right though Dr Ryan is in many ways a hurdle for Anne and not a help, but she is strong and needing to be. Meanwhile as you well note David has his own difficulties which he has not fully dealt with. They are touched upon in this chapter but will be revisited. And yes I am so pleased to say that there will eventually be a moment of revelation for him regarding those photos – but not unfortunately for a long time!

Guest of Aug 1st (Ch 19): Dear Guest thank you! Sometimes a wave hello and some kind words really do work wonders and I thank you so much for your comments here! I am so relieved to get this update out to you and fellow readers. And so relieved this story has not been forgotten!