Anne Shirley Blythe.- It's all good, all PM's do it to make it faster to reply and say thank you or answer questions. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well as the others. I am overjoyed that Rilla's journey feels organic for you and that you love all the little moments.

June 15th 1915

Dearest Rilla-my-Rilla

I am at Camp Niagara, I was for sure that I would be sent to Valcartier, but I was sent here. I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to write since telegramming you that I made it back to Toronto. We went out for dinner before I went to the office the next morning. I kept looking to my right or left thinking you should have been there, here with me. But you weren't, Mother noticed, she also noticed your gift as well before anyone else did. I haven't taken it off Dearest, and I won't, and you aren't wrong other men wear them as well, more than I have ever seen, or maybe I just notice it more?

Life at camp is nothing I expected but at the same time, it is if that makes any sense. Life is simplistic at best, but the food is decent. I'll spare you all the details otherwise no young woman needs to hear the gritty details of camp life. We're up at dawn, drilling, training, marching, meal time, rest time, and then night drills before lights out and somehow I lost my comb already?

I have our wedding photo on me at all times, and one pinned to the pole of my tent. Yes tents, no barracks for us here. I am sure Walter is having a blast, though I am sure once Carl is of age he will love it. But I am also very much like every other man around me, and if not a sweetheart, mother, or sister. Though I also have photos of mother and Persis, and father of course. How could I not?

I will admit my bummed-out ankle last year has made me realize how weak I am, though I am sure I will get it back quickly. But still, it was a real struggle that first day, every twinge of my ankle I was worried that I miscalculated how it's mended itself. But my sturdy boots keep it in place for me.

I hope you are being brave and happy, don't let others bring you down and if Fred gives you any sort of trouble. Tell my cousin Leo, and he will ensure that Fred knows that I don't mean to be nice. Or if you need anything that you cannot go to your parents for, I don't know what that might be. Be he will always be around to help you.

Your Kenneth

June 23rd 1915

Dear Kenneth

I can't imagine what training camp is like, I heard things from my brother and Walter calls it uncivilized in his letters as you already imagined. Though he considered any place without indoor plumbing uncivilized I believe. Though don't misunderstand me, I very much enjoy instant hot water from the boiler and indoor washrooms, and I require a house with it one day. Even though Green Gables didn't have either and we made do as children when we visited until Marilla passed away, I am accustomed to Ingleside's modernities.

Uncle Davy and Aunt Millie live there now, Aunt Marilla left it to Jem surprisingly. Uncle Davy only had girls, so it all worked out in the long run of them. Uncle Davy looks after it until Jem decides what he wishes to do. Actually, they visited the past week and I guess Mother never wrote him about the news, but it was a shock when Aunt Millie commented on my rings and made a joke about who would be proposing to a baby. War makes boys do strange things, I remember looking down at them and your promises, and everything.

'I'm not engaged, I'm married,' I told them quietly.

Uncle Davy just looked at Mother and said Anne….what happened?

Mother frowned, but nodded to me to let me know if I wanted to leave the table and I did my cousins wanted to stay but Uncle Davy gave them a look and they moved to the living room, while I went upstairs. Aunt Millie came up to my room afterwards. I didn't want her pity Ken, and I don't know if it showed because she didn't.

She mainly asked about you, if you were a good man and if I missed you. It was oddly nice. I made a joke that I did miss you, but I don't miss your snoring all that much. I think I shocked her even more, but it was nice that she just went with it. She didn't ask about last year, or about anything else that transpired.

Uncle Davy gave me a bone-crushing hug and said something about Juliette and Alice who are about my age, and younger. He told me if you ever step out of line he will bury you with all the others.

I told him you were a gentleman, and he teased me about my blush and whatnot.

I asked him why he wasn't fighting, and according to him the army didn't want him, and even Aunt Dora's husband is aged out as well, but her son is out fighting. She got married when Jem was an infant and her son is Walter's age. I doubt you will come across him but his name is Felix Andrews, and he's only nineteen.

Uncle Davy is great fun though, he showed me how to break some nose, Father wasn't impressed, but Uncle says it's always good to know a move or two. Uncle Davy was known to be a prankster when he was young according to Mother, but grew up well, but every once In a while he plays into mischief and Aunt Millie just gives him a look and Mother laughs a bit and shakes her head.

It was a nice visit from them either way and to see Juliette and Alice, who are much like Uncle Davy as they are Aunt Millie. Juliette often helps drive the tractor and wears trousers when she does!

I will end this here, remember that I miss you and think about you all the time. Walter will be home for a week before leaving for the front. I hope you get the same with me because I do feel guilty that I got you for three weeks and your parents didn't. I know we are family to each other, but I feel like I took so much time from them. So make the most of the time you have with them, and know that even when I'll miss you I understand.

Your Rilla

July 10th 1915

Rilla-my-Rilla

The visit sounds like a wonderful time for everyone, and I'm glad it went as it did for you. Much like Walter, I'll get a few days before leaving to see Mom and Dad and Persis as well and never feel like you took time away from them. I told them if they wished to join in on the trip they were more than welcome to but they decided to allow us the time alone. They wanted us to have that time together before I left.

They had me all year after all.

I think I remember meeting your Uncle Davy once or twice as children and he was always fun to be around while your Father may have been a bit perturbed about knowing how to handle an annoying busybody, it is good knowledge to have.

Should we have a chance to have a daughter, I will make sure they know how to protect themselves, not just for the past but because in hindsight it's a good skill to have even as a female.

Training is much of the same, we have graduated to rifles and other things as well now. But most of it is endurance and protocol. We don't have to cut our hair until we reach England, but many men already are doing away with it. I have yet to part with it truly though I did cut it a bit shorter than I usually did knowing I wouldn't be around a barber for a while when I enlisted.

Thank you for the comb as well, I didn't mean anything by saying I missed mine but it was useful to have a second when the other was eventually found. And the grooming kit in general, I can only imagine that Jem had asked for similar things in the past year.

If I can be cheeky, I do love candy, so anything you ever with to send me my way would be always appreciated. But your letters are more than enough for me I dream of you every night, your face, how your eyes light up when you truly smile. I miss the softness of your adorable dented lips and the taste of your kiss.

I'm sorry if I don't have to write a lot, most nights I fall asleep in my boots.

Happy Birthday, dearest, I know it is coming up. Don't think I have forgotten. Mother should have mailed you something that I asked her to mail for me, I am sure that you got it already.

Your Lieutenant Ford.

July 19th 1915

Rilla

Happy Birthday, Dearest, I hope you are well, I got your letter the other week and I thank you for the lovely little sampler you made. It is truly dear and I have it on display in the living room and everyone compliments it when they see it.

Sixteenth birthdays are already a big thing in the world of girls, and I hope yours will be a day you will enjoy. Anne mentioned some shopping and a trip to Charlottetown for you and I hope you had a wonderful time. The house is as quiet as ever with Ken since the spring, he makes more noise than he thinks he does. ( Rilla could only laugh because Leslie Ford was correct about that!)

Persis is busy these days as well with sewing and other functions.

You know you are always welcome to visit anytime, just let me know and I'll arrange it. I'll come out and bring you back or have someone I trust make the journey with you. Now Ken bought this himself, and hopefully, he inherited his father's sense of jewellery if not we can sort it out later. I didn't look but tell Me all about it in your response dear.

Leslie Ford

Owen says hello and happy birthday as well, he hopes you had a lovely day.

August 4th 1915

Kenneth

The earrings are lovely, lilies of the valley are wonderful little flowers.

Thank you for them truly. Sorry this letter took a moment I caught a summer cold and was in bed for a while with a stuffy nose and headaches. I am fine now though I promise.

So apologize, I know that training is intense and rigid. I may have not gone to Queens, but I still passed the entrance exams. Jem barely wrote when he went to Val Cartier, and Walter has only managed a letter.

Just promise me that you will write when you can, to let me know you're alive and well. It doesn't even have to be letters, it can be a postcard reminding me how much you miss me. But even Jem's letter picked up when he got to England, still sporadic or came a few at a time.

The days are long here, and we're all a little skittish. Walter came home for a few days and gone again and I found myself looking at the calendar…the date.

It's been a year since Hades erupted and turned the world into his personal playground. I've had more nightmares lately, and Father has found me in the throes of what he called more of a night terror than mare. He said he expected something like this, and I wish you were here because whatever I have gained feels like it has slipped away in the wake of this day coming up.

Minnie has been up every day hoping to keep me occupied, and it does help for a little bit, but knowing tomorrow is when everything changes. We ended up dying some of my white dresses green, sage green and violet. Mother was shocked more shocked that I didn't ask and just dyed some of my lovely white dresses. I mainly responded they will get more wear being coloured than white these days.

Then those weeks of waiting and then you and your offer that changed my life again forever and those months of mourning and turmoil, until it ended itself, and then Christmas coming out of the haze, your mother wise and kind words and you just letting me be unapologetic about whatever I was going through.

I try to think of the time before the announcement, our dance, our walking and talking…the laughter around us, and it comes out in a haunting way. Did see me there? Was I just…there? Did they pick me?

These questions I will never know the answers to.

I hope the time you have with your family is everything.

Your Little Wife

August 10th 1915

Dearest Little Wife

Naturally, you felt all that you did with the day being what it ended up being what it was for you. But you made it through, and you survived it.

I will be honest I wracked my brain as well, wondering, when, why,—who. But it always came up blank. For what it's worth, I don't think it matters because before the war was announced you were radiant, beautiful and enjoying yourself so if you can just remember that, remember us on the shore, remember our dance.

Not that it makes up for anything or changes anything, but if you have to remember something, remember that.

It's strange to be home, but good at the same time. I've said my goodbyes to my friends and they have asked about you and I told them you are well.

I will write you a longer letter on the train, and another on the ship, I know this letter is short but Mother is calling me and I should go see what she is trying to get me to do this time around.

Your Lieutenant Kenneth Ford

August 18th 1915

Telegram for Rilla Ford

Stuck in Kingsport. Got two days and half days leave. Catching the next ferry out.