Chapter 26 - Hello Dear Snow Queen
It had been a long week for the young redhead, but the day had finally come when she had to leave for Avonlea.
That afternoon, Anne left earlier than usual to go to Charlottetown train station, she had packed her suitcase the day before and took it with her to Queens, her friend Diana had done the same, the latter also looking forward to a weekend in Avonlea.
The two friends then walked to the station, the young brunette noticed that her friend had been in dilemmas lately, and the girls at Blackmore Manor were not doing anything about it, quite the contrary. Being away from them was surely going to be good for Anne.
Although her classmates seemed to like the young redhead, jealousy could consume some of them, and without even realizing it, they hurt their friend. Diana was then her only infallible support.
The redhead had been strangely quiet all the way, so her friend decided to start a topic of conversation, "You must be looking forward to seeing Matthew and Marilla again, aren't you?"
She remained pensive and did not answer anything, so the young brunette continued, "For my part, I am looking forward to seeing my parents again, but I am a little afraid of it. In their last letter, my mother had written to me that they had something to ask me, and I must say that I always expect the worst with my parents."
Anne was definitively lost in her thoughts, nothing existed around her, not even her faithful kindred spirit.
They finally arrived at the station and boarded their train to Bright River. Sitting in their carriage, the train had just started, when suddenly Anne finally decided to come out of her silence, "I know! I'll tell them that: not having had any news, I was afraid that something bad had happened to Gilbert, so I decided to go and see him on the spot. If I say it that way, it'll be all right, isn't it?"
Diana then looked at her friend, caught off guard, she simply nodded, "Uh, yes...I guess."
The young redhead did not understand her friend's lack of enthusiasm, so she didn't insist on the moment.
A few hours later, the two friends were at Bright River station, William Barry was waiting for the girls on the platform, he was accompanied by his coachman who was going to carry their two small suitcases.
"Father!" Diana exclaimed with a smile on her face, and when he saw her, he gave her a big sign, and she leapt into the arms of her father, the one was visibly surprised, since gestures of affection are not a great custom in the distinguished Barry family.
Anne was content to say a shy, "Hello Mr. Barry.", Not wanting to interfere with the reunion of father and daughter, such a scene filled her with joy, especially since later it would be her turn to rehearse it with the Cuthberts.
Once settled in the carriage, Mr. Barry's behaviour was unusual to say the least, he seemed nervous, and this did not escape the eyes of the two teenage girls.
Of course a certain modesty prevented Diana from questioning her father, she was also afraid that he would tell her that it did not concern her, that it was an adult matter.
As the carriage arrived at the white way of delights, which was no longer in bloom, winter was slowly settling in, Anne could not help but alert the coachman to stop.
"Can you stop the carriage here please? I can't wait any longer, I have to walk a bit!" Exclaimed the young redhead.
"But Anne! There's still a long way to go to Avonlea! Do you really want to walk all the way?!", her friend worried.
The coachman did so, and Anne jumped out of the carriage with her suitcase, in front of the father and the daughter.
She turned around and said, "Oh Diana whatever! I waited too long! I'll even come running if I have to! But I want to savour this exquisite moment!"
She was like in a dream, she was finally seeing those beautiful landscapes again after those months spent in Charlottetown, it was like taking a big breath of fresh air, nothing will ever be worth the air and the perfume of Avonlea.
No matter if the trees were no longer in bloom, the first snows will probably arrive in a few weeks, each season had its beauty, she thought.
The young redhead began to run through the greenery and fields, she never ran out of breath, except for the beauty of the great expanses of plains.
So she saw the Barry's horse-drawn carriage moving away far ahead, she then decided to cross the haunted wood, even though it was getting late and night was beginning to come, Anne didn't have an ounce of fear in her, the young girl was much too excited to think of anything else but Matthew and Marilla.
She then took the lovers' lane, briefly thinking about Gilbert and the possibility of walking this way together next time she came to Avonlea. Perhaps they could exchange kisses and flirt, this scandalous thought made the young redhead smile.
At last she saw the Green Gables far away, and nothing seemed to have changed, she couldn't hold back her joy and ran more and more towards the Cuthbert's house.
Marilla and Matthew were already on the porch waiting impatiently for their Anne, they were even starting to worry about her, they knew she was due to arrive with the Barry's in a carriage, so it was surprising not to see her arrive.
The older sister was the first to express her concern, "Matthew, the sun has gone down now and Anne is still not here, should we.."
And she was instantly cut off by her brother who exclaimed, "Anne!", He walked towards the young girl and ran nearly, and Anne did the same and dropped her suitcase and jumped into Matthew's arms.
"I missed you so much!", cried the redhead as Marilla watched the scene from afar smiling and with tears in her eyes. Her brother couldn't help but shed a few tears of joy as well.
Once her embrace with Matthew was over, she went to the woman in the bun to rehearse the scene, and the emotion was the same.
Jerry, who was in the house at the time, came out and waved to the young girl, "And you don't say hello to me?", he asked mockingly. Anne smiled and went towards the young man, "Oh Jerry, you're here!", she took him in her arms in turn.
A few moments later, Anne had made herself a little toilet before supper with her family, she glanced out of her bedroom window, and saw her famous Snow Queen, no longer in bloom but still here in the same place. Everything was intact in the room, finally Jerry had moved to another part of the house, a room that had once served as a storeroom but which they had turned into a rather spacious room.
The girl was literally glowing, so she went down to the dining room and discovered a soberly set table.
Marilla tried to justify herself, "I-I'm sorry, if we had known earlier you were coming this weekend I would have prepared a special meal, but I'll make it up to you tomorrow!"
Anne smiled and answered with the greatest sincerity, "Oh no, it's perfect Marilla! I wanted to find all this again, a simple meal like we used to have in the old days suits me perfectly!"
They sat around the table and shared their dinner, consisting of soup and some bread.
After some banalities exchanged during the meal, Anne took the floor to return to a certain subject, "I owe you an apology. I shouldn't have hidden my expedition to Montreal from you, Diana told me everything, and I'm sorry I wasn't there that day, Marilla. I had no intention of hiding anything, and I..."
"You don't owe us an apology.", Matthew intervened in a firm tone.
The redhead insisted, "Of course i have to! I must have disappointed you terribly, and I cared about you."
This time she was cut off by a upset Marilla, "You were in Montreal?! I wasn't sure if you went to see Gilbert in Toronto, but what were you doing in Montreal?!"
"Well, I...", the young girl didn't know how to explain it.
"We had agreed not to discuss this subject tonight.", Matthew reprimanded firmly as he looked at his sister.
But unfortunately the bun lady couldn't hear her brother at that moment, and Jerry, who was also present at the scene, didn't really understand what was going on, so he just looked at his plate and wiped it with a piece of bread.
Not wanting to create an argument, Marilla began to say serenely, "You know how much we appreciate Gilbert, and we are very happy that you share the same feelings and that you have declared yourselves to each other, but .."
This one was cut off by Jerry, who sarcastically said, "It's about time.", and he was stared at by the entire table, " Uh... oh, sorry." he immediately apologized, and lowered his head back to his plate.
The mistress of the house resumed, "...but you must not miss classes for frivolous reasons." Then hesitantly she added, "And then... There are etiquette to be observed, I know Gilbert is a well-mannered young man but you are so young."
Anne felt terribly embarrassed by the way the discussion was going, and it was worse for Matthew, who didn't know where to stand.
She then timidly replied, "Ma-Marilla, I don't know what you're referring to, but Gilbert and I... ", and she was immediately interrupted by Marilla, "Please, Anne! I was your age too, you know very well what I am referring to. Please just behave yourself."
Panicked and thoughtlessly the young redhead was about to say something she would regret, "We-we shared a room in a Montreal hotel, but I-I can promise you that we behaved well!"
"You shared a room?!", Marilla exclaimed outraged. Matthew and Jerry looked at each other for a moment, their eyes stunned, and then fixed their plates again.
At the same time at the Barry's house, Diana was happy to be reunited with her family, but since she had arrived, the young girl had felt that something was being kept from her, and this proved to be true just when her parents called her to join them in the lounge for a discussion.
Eliza Barry was sitting on the couch and motioned for her daughter to sit next to her, while her husband William was sitting in an armchair across her. She then simply began to declare to her daughter, "You know that we love you and desire your happiness, for that reason we have allowed you to continue your studies at Queens College, we have also concluded that we will go to Paris for a whole term. Nevertheless..." Ms. Barry paused for a long time before hesitantly resuming, "It wasn't just that. There's the Wright family who now live in Paris, they have a son named Fred, and we thought you could get to know each other there if you wanted to.."
Diana cut off her mother before she had time to finish, "Mother, I... Do you ever think about anything other than my future marriage? Do you care about my education at all?"
Ms. Barry began to get angry, "Don't start answering me like that, of course it matters to us, we know that now. That's why ... if you still want, we'll let you take the Paris Conservatory exam when you graduate from Queens College."
The young brunette couldn't believe her ears, "The Paris Conservatory? But I don't know if I'd be up to it!"
Eliza then argued, "Well you see, that's where things get interesting, Mr. Wright works at the Paris Conservatory, he's actually on the board of directors, if he likes you he probably could.."
Once again the upset girl cut her mother off, "Oh no! Mother I refuse! Is that what you want? My career to begin on a hoax?!"
William Barry, who had said nothing before, intervened, "Let's not go too fast, career is still a premature term for you. Anyway, you won't have that many opportunities, we haven't even talked about marriage yet."
"Marriage?! But I don't even know this man!", exclaimed the outraged girl.
Then his father added, "But you'll get to know him, I know for a fact that he's a very charming young man."
Hearing those last words, it was too much for Diana, so she stood up, and looking at her father, she said, "I guess you'll have a lot to gain from this, won't you?", and then she left the room, leaving her parents stumped.
Minnie May, who had heard all of the conversation, entered the lounge to happily tell her parents, "Diana Barry is a rebel! Diana Barry is a rebel!"
For completely opposite reasons, both Diana and Anne were not expecting this kind of reunion, their weekend in Avonlea was not going to be a restful one after all.