Chapter 30 – The sweetest spark had just burst within me

In Charlottetown, this Saturday afternoon, the atmosphere was quite different.

Josie, Ruby, Tillie and Jane had decided to take a walk in the park near their boarding house, they were all dressed elegantly for the occasion. The four girls began the kind of discussion they were so passionate about.

Jane didn't seem particularly thrilled to be there, as the idea for the walk in the park was Josie's, and as usual she wasn't the most enthusiastic about following her.

The tall blonde expressed her opinion on a certain subject, "I refuse to let Anne be the first to get engaged."

"Why...?", Ruby asked innocently.

"Because! It was supposed to be me!", she replied firmly.

Tillie laughed, "You should already be interested in a boy."

Then Jane remarked, "Yet you probably weren't so fussy about being interested in my brother..."

"As you like to remind me...", Josie scowled at Jane.

Ruby, the most puritanical of them all, questioned the girls with a giggle, "Do you think Anne and Gilbert have ever... kissed?"

The girls looked at each other, not knowing what to say, then suddenly they heard one of them laughing, they turned to Tillie.

The latter said, "You are so naive..."

"And in what way...?", Josie replied in a dry tone of voice.

"Now I guess I can talk about it, do you remember the day Diana joined us?", began to explain the girl with generous shapes.

"Yes, so what?", the young blonde becomes impatient.

"So I was in Miss Blackmore's library, and-", the young brunette was cut off by Jane, she laughed, "You, in a library?"

"There is a very comfortable sofa...", Tillie justified herself mischievously.

"So, get to the point!", exclaimed Josie once again .

The young girl continued her anecdote while whispering, as if she was afraid of prying ears which might be lying around in the park, "Anyway... I had fallen asleep on the couch, and I was woken up by hurried footsteps, I heard someone running down the stairs, at that hour, there were only two of us in the manor, Lily and I. Then, suddenly, I saw Gilbert running down the aisle. After that the front door slammed. I got up after the noise to see what was going on, went to the window and there, I saw Anne and Gilbert kissing!"

Ruby opened her mouth wide, she was visibly shocked, and then she smiled and said, "It's so... romantic!"

Then, Tillie added with laughing eyes, "I even saw her take the first step! So... scandalous!"

"I'm not surprised.", said Josie, rolling her eyes.

All the girls made stern eyes at the young blonde, Ruby asked, "Why do you say that?"

In a dismissive tone, she developed, "Well, Anne is so... aware of the thing. Remember her first day at school in Avonlea, and she is an orphan after all. At least you know what I mean."

Jane immediately sneered, "You are so ... jealous Josie. But anyway, looking back, it was obvious all along. Gilbert was definitely attracted to Anne as soon as he saw her, sorry for you Ruby, it seems you never had a chance."

"Oh... well, I don't care anymore. I just feel a bit silly today, and then what we did, Josie, it was awful. Anne is our friend and she deserves to be happy. I am so sorry I read her letters.", She concludes sadly.

"Oh! by the way! Miss Blackmore left it aside, but I saw that Anne had received a new letter from Gilbert...", remarked Jane mischievously.

"No one is allowed to touch it!", Ruby was outraged.

"No, I wonder what it feels like to have...a suitor.", Jane was a little embarrassed to admit it.

"Oh! But Tillie must know that too!", exclaimed Ruby.

"It's not exactly the same for me. I would already have to choose one of the Pauls, but I don't want to... They complement each other so much.", said the young brunette with a small smirk.

This scandalized Jane, "Oh Tillie, you have no shame! You are going to make these two boys unhappy by force!"

The girls laughed in unison, apart from Josie, her gaze was cast far away, beyond the old oak tree that stood in the middle of the park, a young brown man stood there, chatting with another man.

This man with deep black hair, was very elegant, he seemed more mature than the other boys, he held a book of poetry under his arm. He looked serious, judging by the expression on his face.

The contrast with the first crush of the young blonde, Billy Andrews, was very present. The girl was breathless, she couldn't take her eyes off the young man, nothing seemed to exist around her anymore. The student, who once had such a hard look in her eyes, now looked so frail.

Suddenly Ruby took Josie out of her daydream, "Oh girls! You haven't seen the older brother of the Gardner sisters yet! During history class last Wednesday, Dorothy told me that her brother was coming back from London this week, he would have spent almost a year there! He's handsome, isn't he? He reminds me a bit of Gilbert but more elegant and mature."

Jane rolled her eyes and instantly retorted in a mocking tone, "Why I am not surprised that you already know so much about this boy?!"

"I just like to be interested in good-looking boys, I didn't intend to go and talk to him.", She replied haughtily.

"Is it? Surprising from you.", Noticed Jane again.

The little blonde admitted not without a touch of embarrassment, "Apparently he likes to use words that are too complicated, I would be afraid I would never understand what he is saying to me.", This made the other girls laugh.

Josie, who had remained strangely mute until then, was afraid that the other girls would notice her interest in the young man. She thought her silence would show her lack of interest, but some of them were not fooled.

Tillie looked at the silent blonde in the corner of her eye and said, "I suppose he already has a fiancé?", she looked at Ruby as she asked the question.

"Neither Dorothy nor Aline Gardner told me about any fiancée. Then I guess not.", replied the freckled young blonde nonchalantly.

Immediately, Josie tried to hide her satisfaction by hearing Ruby's answer.

At the Toronto campus, Gilbert was sitting in his desk next to Christine. Jack was sitting on his bed, staring at the two young people.

It had been two hours or maybe more since the private lesson had started, the young redhead had got tired of pretending to study, he couldn't manage to concentrate with Christine around. But worst of all, it wasn't that, Jack had been able to observe during the hours that something was going on.

The poor young man didn't expect this, but the young brunette seemed more interested in Gilbert than in geometry, or even algebra. Admittedly, he had known her since they were children, he knew she was not a disciplined person, but this was something else. The young girl had asked the dark-haired boy questions that were completely irrelevant, such as: Where was he from? What profession did he aspire to do? Did he like Toronto?

Jack didn't think these kinds of questions were appropriate during a private lesson, he wondered if Gilbert had noticed this too.

And suddenly a new question raised the young man's ears once again.

"So Gilbert, do you have a fiancée?", Christine asked in the most innocent tone.

This time, it was certain, she was not there to study, moreover, the fact that she had not once been reluctant to take these private lessons should have alerted him, thought the young redhead.

As for Gilbert, once again unprepared, did not know how to respond to this, so he simply replied, "Uh, yes... sort of."

"Oh...Well, she's a lucky girl.", said the young brunette with a slight hint of disappointment in her voice.

Jack couldn't help being annoyed, why was she only interested in his friend, and himself in all this, what was he? He felt like he was completely transparent, whether he was in the same room or not, it wouldn't make any difference. So he suddenly got up and simply walked to the door to get out of the room, no words came out of his mouth, he didn't have the strength to say anything.

His roommate watched his friend leave the room, a sorry look on his face, he had an idea of how he might feel. The dark-haired boy remembered at once he was supposed to do something that Jack had asked him to do a few hours ago.

He cleared his throat before declaring to the girl, "Hum. You know, this Chase Beauchemin, I know him a little bit... And therefore, I don't advise you to frequent him."

Christine's face lit up at these words, she then asked cautiously, "You mean... you don't like seeing me with this Chase?"

"No, it's not that, just that he has some... activities... disreputable.", said the medical student with some discomfort.

"Disreputable? Oh but you should know I' m not the most recommendable of girls, in your opinion why my father insisted on taking these courses. It's true, I can't help attending social events, and sometimes even skipping classes, no, I'm far from being a recommendable girl.", she concludes, sure that she is the girl to be wary of.

Gilbert thought that the young woman was really naive and she was a thousand miles away from imagining what he was referring to. He didn't know if he had convinced her, but if she didn't, next time he would need to expand on details and this idea made him very uncomfortable.