Thank you for all your lovely responses to this new story! Although this is a shorter chapter, I assure you that the updates to come will be very meaty!
With love
MrsVonTrapp x
P.S. - Quite a few glitches on the site over the last week! It seems that this second chapter was posted and up briefly and then disappeared! I hope this rectifies things! Thanks to anyone who has tried to check back on it x
Chapter Two
Sense and Sensibility
Avonlea
July 1887
John Blythe dropped Anne back to Green Gables before supper, noting Marilla waiting for her on the verandah, her face etched in anxiousness despite them having sent a message earlier that day that Gilbert was out of danger. Anne kissed her on her cheek and continued tiredly inside, whilst John waited expectantly.
"I can't say how relieved we were, John," Marilla offered.
John sighed deeply. "Thank you, Mar. * It's been quite a day."
Marilla nodded sympathetically. "He'll recover fully?"
"Yes, God willing."
John shuffled the reins in his large hands, considering his next words carefully.
"Your girl Anne was… a marvel. No other way to put it. She was there, at the time when we – when Gilbert – needed her most. We won't ever forget it."
At Marilla's pleased smile, he felt brave enough to continue.
"Seem's there's a need for those two to work out a few things between them, when Gil's a little better. They talked some today… but there's much to consider, and we're mindful that things are not exactly… clear cut'n all. And that meanwhile there might be some other talk about them, unfair talk, round these parts."
It was as close as John Blythe would come to acknowledging the mire Anne had found herself in, and all of them by association. Marilla felt her lips stretched into a thin line of worry.
"Don't fret, Mar, we'll look out for them both," John assured.
"Thank you, John."
"Though nothing is going to save them from themselves, mind," he finished wryly, chuckling and tipping his hat, setting off back home and to the first decent night's slumber in what felt like years.
Marilla, knowing she was most likely in for another long night herself, turned with a sigh back to the house.
Rachel thankfully bypassed most of her insistent questions, and the twins were cautioned likewise, allowing Anne to sleepwalk through their meal and the remainder of the evening, having a long bathe and retiring early, and Marilla gave her a decent interval of time before heading up after her, Rachel looking over her needlework with a pinched expression of foretold doom. There had been inevitable talk already in the village about Anne barely engaged to her well-to-do Kingsport swain before in the next minute she was off to play round-the-clock nursemaid to poor Gilbert Blythe. Marilla loathed gossip and yet even she could not deny that on the surface things did not auger well, for either Anne's heart or her reputation.
Anne was at the window, looking out unseeingly at an unobstructed view of the darkened landscape without the lamented, fallen Snow Queen, and did not turn as she heard Marilla's soft footfalls or the squeak as she settled herself on the bed.
"John Blythe tells me, Anne, in his own words, that you were a marvel," Marilla began. "They're very grateful to you, love. And what a blessed relief that Gilbert was spared. He obviously had the Blythe constitution in his favour." **
"Yes…" Anne replied quietly. "He was very lucky. Dr Spencer remarked so. To see him so sick and so…" she shuddered involuntarily. "I can't put it into words, and I don't want to."
"I'm sure he was real glad that you were there."
Anne turned to her, her expression one of untold anguish.
"But I so nearly wasn't, Marilla! I would have gone up to the Irvings at the Stone House and likely missed everything, only I wanted to stay here with you all to have as much time as possible before I went… back to Kingsport," she gulped.
Marilla gazed downwards, and rather pointedly to Anne's ringless finger, void of the dazzling diamond she had first sported on her return to Avonlea. Marilla had wondered, errantly, if Roy had even known that she had traditionally disliked the stone, on youthful principle.
"You're not wearing it, Anne. I noticed it too when you came back from the Blythes. Is there… a reason for that?"
Anne's composure held for a moment, and then crumpled, and she buried her face in her hands.
"Oh, Marilla!"
"Anne!" she gestured for her girl to come over to her on the bed, promptly putting her arms around her. "There, there, love! What is it?"
"Marilla…" Anne sobbed against her shoulder. "There's a Book of Revelations in everyone's life. I've been so wrong. If Gil were to have… not knowing how I really care… What would I DO without him?" ***
Marilla Cuthbert sighed and drew her closer.
"He's out of danger, Anne. I gather you've even spoken to him. What a wonderful thing that is. You're sure to go forward as friends now, able to be there for one another as, well, as friends do…" Marilla tailed off unconvincingly.
"Friends! His friendship can't satisfy me…" **** Anne mumbled to herself bitterly, and then gave a cutting, disturbing little laugh. "Oh, how the chickens come home to roost, Marilla!"
This heralded fresh sobs, and Marilla patted down Anne's hair, warring with herself as to her next words. She had hoped against hope that Anne and Gilbert would find one another… to end their own story happily as she and John never could… and now despite all it would appear as if they could do… but her girl had opened her heart to him too late, and it was now claimed by another.
"Anne, love, you must listen to me carefully…" Marilla steeled herself. "Despite what you may feel for Gilbert now, and despite what he may still feel for you, you have made a promise, a commitment, to another. What are your feelings about Roy Gardner in all this?"
Anne was quiet for many moments, and when she extracted herself from Marilla's embrace she dried her tears with a thoughtful self-possession, her voice and manner becoming more composed the more she explained.
"Marilla, I'm ashamed to admit it, but I realize my engagement to Roy was… a mistake. I said yes to him because I like and admire him, certainly, but also out of expectation… a sense of obligation… even a sense of comfort and security. But it… it wasn't love. I don't love him. I accepted him when I still didn't properly know myself… but I know now, more than ever, that he doesn't belong in my life." *****
Marilla accepted this news gravely.
"What will you do? And what of Gilbert?"
"Oh, Marilla, I know I will look like an idiot – and I've brought shame and regret and scandal with me – but I must break my engagement with Roy! I can't marry him!" Anne leapt from the bed, her renewed agitation instantaneous.
"And… and as for Gilbert, he is the one I love, I know that now, and the one I would accept absolutely, if – if – I ever had the chance to be asked again!"
The light in her girl's wan face at the mention of Gilbert was startling, and beautiful. But it filled Marilla with a strange sort of dread.
"Anne," she cautioned, "you must not speak of your feelings for Gilbert to anyone until you have broken with Roy. You left him and his mother back over in Kingsport going full steam ahead with this end of summer wedding you say Mrs Gardner insisted upon. A broken engagement is one thing, but a cancelled wedding is quite another, and causes all sorts of complications. And… you must be mindful, Anne, of…"
"Mindful of what?" Anne asked more sharply than she intended, unnerved by Marilla's watchful expression.
"Mindful of talk, Anne."
"People have always talked about me, Marilla!" she argued defensively, and with a touch of desperation. "Spiteful old cats ****** Gil himself used to call them. I don't mind what people say about me!"
"Anne, love, this affects the Blythes as well, and what would the Gardners say if word got back to them?"
"If word got back that I helped tend my near-dying old friend?"
"If word got back that you have been in the home for several nights of your old friend, in indelicate circumstances, whilst still another man's fiancée. And then in the very next instant you go back to that fiancé asking to end your engagement."
The truth of the matter, seen in Marilla's firm yet sorrowful expression, could not be denied. Anne sat back weakly on the seat at her dressing table, instantly deflated.
"You're saying… to still the gossip… I should continue on and marry Roy?" Anne whispered, horrified, eyes enormous.
"Absolutely not, love!" Marilla rubbed at her own paining eyes. "I am just saying, Anne, that you haven't made it the easiest thing for him to… release you."
Anne considered this quietly for several moments.
"Roy is a gentleman, Marilla," Anne's voice was throaty and low. "I am sure he wouldn't make things even more difficult."
Anne's words hung in the warm summer air of her little girlhood room, quivering hopefully. Marilla wished with all her heart she could believe them.
"Anne, do you have the ticket for your trunk?" came the anxious question on the station at Bright River the next morning.
"Yes, darling Marilla. It's in my purse. And my return ticket as well, for when I come home."
"I feel one of us should have come with you," those blue eyes clouded, searching her girl's. "Help explain things to Roy and Mrs Gardner."
"Marilla, it's my mess, and I need to sort it out. I'll do so as quickly and kindly as I can, gather the rest of my things still at Patty's Place, and be back before you know it."
Anne held onto that defiant hopefulness during the long hugs goodbye, embracing the twins and Rachel in turn, before enfolding herself in Marilla's arms.
As the whistle sounded, she wrenched herself away and leapt onboard, with a determined smile and a cheery wave, and continued waving as her beloved family became smaller and smaller specks in the distance.
Anne arrived late into Kingsport and travelled straight to Patty's Place, collapsing on the sofa and hugging one of the sacrosanct cushions in solace.
The quiet of this once full and merry household was not unwelcome, tonight, and the hush soothed her frayed, anxious nerves. She had stayed on, after the other girls and Aunt Jimsie had departed, thinking to base herself here until her wedding, initially travelling back to Avonlea for a mere fortnight with family and friends, before the dreadful news of Gilbert's condition began to trickle through.
She had found herself on one path, before it was altered irrevocably. How was she to navigate this new bend in the road?
That night she dreamed of Gilbert, but in the morning she still had to face the prospect of Roy.
Chapter Notes
Sense and Sensibility of course belongs to Jane Austen, her delightful novel published anonymously in 1811. There have been many wonderful adaptations, but my favourite remains, absolutely, the 1995 film.
Oh, gosh! So many quotes in this one!
* Thank you, oz diva, for originating this wonderful contraction of Marilla's name, that I have borrowed for my versions of John Blythe forevermore!
** One of my favourite references from the Sullivan series, specifically Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel (or Anne of Avonlea for those in North America).
*** Hello again Sullivan series, as above (with a tiny alteration to the original line, which is so wrenching!)
**** Always fun to poach Gilbert's line! From Anne of the Island Ch 20 'Gilbert Speaks'.
***** Referencing Anne of the Island Ch 38 'False Dawn'.
****** Classic Gilbert! Anne of the Island Ch 2 'Garlands of Autumn'.
And some bright, shiny and new correspondence!
Gwen: It was lovely to hear from you, Gwen, and thank you so much for reading this and also supporting my other stories! I am so pleased you enjoyed the sweeter elements of this first chapter x I think we will need them to help balance some rougher times ahead! And yes… a lot can happen in eight years. Hopefully love remains eternal!
Guest #1 (Jan 23rd): Darling Guest! Thank you for your engagement with this opening chapter and with the idea of a second chance story for Anne and Gilbert. I love those fics too, and you are preaching to the converted with the mention of Shore of Dreams, which remains a seminal story in this vein (and was mentioned in my original, too-lengthy introduction, among many others!) Thank you for your inspired thoughts on a "half-life devoid of Gilbert" (so beautifully put!) and "some sort of cataclysmic event that shifts perspectives and eventually hearts and minds." Wow! I might have you write my story blurbs in the future! I can't say much more at the moment, but illumination is coming in the next few chapters. Thank you for your review and cross readership (and knowing my other current fics so well) x
Guest #2 and #3 (Jan 23rd): Dear Guest, thank you for reading this and my other stories! I am so thrilled that Let Love clasp Grief is on your comfort-blanket list! That is really lovely of you to say. I hope you continue to enjoy this story too x
DrinkThemIn: Darlingest, I am very glad to have your tick of approval! Thank you for your support of this new venture x The 'what's to come' part might take a while!
Kitty: Hello and thank you for reading this new fic! I love second chance stories too x It is really exciting for me to venture into this one.
Lilac: Hello Lilac and thank you for your lovely review! It must have indeed been a shock to Roy to have Anne's refusal in canon (and Phil is definitely shocked) so the alternative of her saying yes and regretting it later was to me quite understandable. I really hope you enjoy how things evolve here x
Guest #4 (Jan 26th): Thank you Guest for your lovely words (and reading of LoHD!) It is such a wonderful thing to have established readers try another of my stories – though I promise I am writing the next LoHD chapter too! It is really terrible to have Gilbert be heartbroken again. I love him so much. All I can say is that I do have his happiness in mind… eventually!