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“Home at last!” Anne shouted as she stepped into the house, both arms up in the air as to welcome the idea.
Matthew and Marilla, a couple of steps behind her, looked at each other and exchanged smiles. They’d missed Anne so much during her time at Queens. A week ago or so, they’d received a letter from her asking if she could spend her holidays at Green Gables, and the two siblings had been quite impatient the whole time following. They hadn’t seen Anne since she first started at Queen’s and it was her first holiday, of course, they agreed that she could spend them here.
“Oh, I can’t believe nothing has changed since the last time I was walking through that door!” Anne exclaimed, which caught Marilla and Matthew’s attention again. “It smells the same perfect sweet plum puffs and fresh bread; I can’t believe it! Thank you for preparing all of this for me!” She added, turning around to hug both Cuthberts.
“Welcome home,” Matthew replied, patting her back.
Then, Anne proceeded to walk around the house and as expected, nothing had changed that much. There even was one of her old clumsy tapestries hung on the wall, which made her smile. She climbed up the stairs and walked to her room, discovering a small bouquet of flowers on her desk. She bit her lip excitedly and went to touch the flowers, they looked so simple on their own, yet so beautiful together. She gasped at the thought and ran downstairs again.
“Marilla, Marilla!” She called on her way to the kitchen, and the old woman turned to look at her.
“What’s troubling you, dear?”
“Oh, first I wanted to thank you for the bouquet and-“
“The bouquet? I think you should rather thank Matthew for that,” Mrs. Cuthbert said with a small grin.
“Matthew? Was he the one who…?”
Marilla nodded and Anne clapped her hands together, “sure, I’ll do that!”
“And so, what did you want to tell me so hurriedly?”
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Gilbert’s also coming back home, aaaaall the way from Toronto, so he should come here in a few, I hope that’s alright!” the redhead girl said, waving at Marilla and sneaking out the front door.
“Sure,” Marilla said, mostly to herself because Anne was gone already. She would never outgrow this energy and impulsivity, would she?
Anne found Matthew in the barn, working with Jerry. Somehow the boy had gained some more height in the last couple of months. They greeted each other, asking each other questions about what had happened since Anne’s departure. After a while, Jerry had to go work in the fields and Anne decided to go and help him so they could continue talking. But not before thanking Matthew, whom she hugged again.
“The bouquet was marvelous, Marilla told me it was you! Thank you!”
She kissed his cheek and left the barn without further ado, leaving a quite confused, yet very happy Matthew behind.
Anne and Jerry spent the next hour talking together, but the latter insisted that Anne shouldn’t help him because he didn’t want her to dirty her beautiful dress. The stubborn girl still helped as best as she could. At some point, she saw Jerry looking behind her shoulder, but she didn’t have any time to turn around before two arms wrapped around her waist from behind. She gasped and kicked a little - not meaning to hurt anyone-, laughing out loud.
“Hello there, Kindred Spirits,” Gilbert greeted, politely nodding in Jerry’s direction and finally letting Anne turn around.
Jerry greeted him back with a smile as Anne was finally able to have a proper look at the new comer. She was mesmerized by his suit, which looked way richer than what the boys used to wear at school, back then. Well, that was fair, she was also able to wear better dresses now as well. When she looked up, she realised Gilbert had been looking at her the same way. Their eyes finally met, and it felt like time had stopped for a minute as they just stared at each other, lost at words. Finally, after what felt both like a second and eternity, their lips met passionately. None of them was able to hear the small huff and see the amused smirk on Jerry’s mouth at that moment, and the boy continued working until Anne told him she’d see him again later.
“So, how was Toronto?” Anne asked excitedly as they were walking their way out of the field.
“It’s big. The university is big. It’s so different from here, but it’s also so interesting. I keep discovering new things,” Gilbert replied with a satisfied smile, not so subtly grabbing his lover’s hand as they reached what you would call the road. “Mind if we walk a little?”
Anne shook her head, of course she didn’t mind, as long as it meant reuniting with Gilbert.
“And how was Queen’s? Are you having fun?”
“Oh, it’s perfect really. I’m so glad Diana was able to come as well in the end, so all of us are together. Oh, by the way, all the girls wanted me to say hi from them!”
“Well, you can tell them I said hi as well and I hope they’re doing good. You know, I love being in Toronto, but I also miss what we had at school…”
“Me too,” Anne said, “it feels like ages ago when… It was only a few months ago really. Everything happened so fast.”
They kept talking as they strolled at the edge of the forest, still holding each other’s hand. They finally made their way at Green Gables; Marilla surprisingly wasn’t in the kitchen when they came in. Anne sent a sneaky look at Gilbert and pulled him upstairs in her room, where they started kissing each other softly at first, Gilbert holding onto her waist and Anne with her arms hooked around his neck. They ended up making out on Anne’s bed until Gilbert broke the kiss, stroking her cheek instead. Both were a little short on air.
Anne shot him a confused look, but Gilbert shook his head.
“I can’t keep up or things will get… Awkward.”
Anne groaned in frustration, “why do we have to wait for marriage?”
Gilbert laughed softly and shook his head again, “that’s how things are. Is it a proposal?” he said, but he wasn’t too serious, they’d discussed this in letters already.
“You wish it were,” she said, gently shoving him, “I don’t think I want to marry just yet.”
“I know, and I understand. I don’t think it would work right now anyway, with you in Charlottetown and me in Toronto. But we can wait, can’t we?”
“We can,” she smiled, “although we still have the same problem. I mean, lord forgive me for what I’m gonna say, but why do we have to wait? What is so important that we can’t do it before then? It’s not like I’m gonna stop loving you or anything, we know we’ll get married at some point, so what is the matter?”
Gilbert looked at her rambling with an amused smile. She really had not changed since their last encounter. Well, she did look a bit older, or at least more mature, but she was still defying the rules.
“What?” Anne said when she saw the look he was giving her.
“Nothing. I don’t know why either.”
“Yeah, it’s not like anyone died after doing it before marriage or anything. So what is restricting us?”
“Religion…?” Gilbert tried, a bit unsure about that, “reputation?” he added, wriggling his eyebrows as he usually did when he was confused without realising he was doing it.
Anne noticed, though, it caught her attention almost instantly. She didn’t realise she had missed that simple detail so much, now that she was seeing it again.
“I guess…?” Gilbert tried again, wondering why Anne suddenly seemed far, far away in her thoughts.
“Oh, uh, yeah. Well, maybe God thinks it’s better, but then, he must know what we think, so it shouldn’t be a problem for him, would it? It’s all a matter of love, right?” she asked, and seeing Gilbert shrug she continued: “as for reputation, it’s really unfair. You boys don’t have to worry about that.”
“I do think so as well, I could never go around and brag about such an intimate thing. But you have to think about all those people that don’t marry for love.”
Anne groaned and grimaced, “now it’s really awful. It must be horrible to… Live your life with someone you don’t love and who might not even respect you.”
“You know I do respect you, don’t you?” Gilbert asked, suddenly afraid he might have written something wrong in his letters.
“Of course, I know. I’m really lucky, actually,” she replied and continued when she saw Gilbert’s wriggle his eyebrows again, “I have you, and I love you and you love me, or I do hope so. And I respect you and you respect me.”
“That’s right. We’re equals, aren’t we? As equal as ones can be.”
Anne smiled fondly at him, and one thought unexpectedly made its way into her mind. She was so lucky right know, living the life she’d never have dared to dream about when she was a child. Well, she did dream about it, she just knew it was impossible. Looking back now, she wondered how things would have been if Matthew and Marilla never took her with them at Green Gables. She was about to finally reply to Gilbert when she heard footsteps in the stairs.
“Anne? Are you up here?” Marilla called.
“I’m in my room,” Anne replied, sitting up.
Marilla knocked on the door and appeared a second later.
“Oh, Gilbert, I didn’t know you were here already.”
The young man stood up and went to greet her. They exchanged small talk, asking for news and sharing the latest ones in town. Marilla was about to leave them alone when she remembered why she was here in the first place.
“Oh dear, I almost forgot. I was looking for you to come and help me with something, Anne. But I’ll leave you two alone for a little bit more, you probably have so much to talk about.”
Anne and Gilbert couldn’t help but look at each other, exchanging playful smiles.
“By the way, Gilbert, would you mind joining us for supper tonight?”
Anne looked at Marilla with big hopeful eyes, but things didn’t really go as planned and she soon got disappointed.
“Oh, I’m sorry Mrs. Cuthbert, but I promised Bash I’d spend some time with him tonight. I haven’t seen him more than twenty minutes today, and I’d really like to be there before night time. But perhaps-”
“What about tomorrow, then?” Marilla asked.
“I think I can come tomorrow, yeah.”
“Then tomorrow is settled.”
Anne shot a big smile at Marilla and turned to Gilbert, who was also smiling by now.
“Thank you, Mrs. Cuthbert.”
“No problem, I think we’d all be happy to hear what Toronto is like. Although, I doubt this one here would mind about hearing about it again.”
“Oh, it’s fine by me, I could hear about Toronto a hundred times if needed,” Anne said.
“Fine. Please join me when Gilbert has headed back home,” Marilla asked her.
Anne nodded happily and waited for her to leave, although the old woman had something else in mind. She left the room but as soon as she did, she stepped back in there and smiled at the two lovebirds.
“One more thing, please leave that door open,” she said before leaving for good.
When she was sure she was gone, Anne groaned and hid her face in her hands.
“Ugh, that was utterly mortifying,” she whined.
Gilbert chuckled and went to sit back on the bed, stroking Anne’s back softly until she was ready to look at him again, her cheeks still red from embarrassment.
“I need something to make me forget about this unfortunate event,” Anne said, “can you think of an unusual topic to discuss? Or talk to me about how different Toronto is again?”
“I think I have a better Idea,” Gilbert said, staring down at her intensely.
Anne felt a shiver down her back, her heart in her chest probably made a looping. She smiled shyly at Gilbert.
“Which is?” she asked, even though she already knew the answer.
She didn’t need to ask twice, nor were there any words spoken. They just shared a kiss, or two, or three, or more. And a couple of “missed you” whispered.
Matthew and Jerry came home when the sun was starting to dangerously decline on the horizon line.
“Anne’s not with you?” the old man asked his sister, wondering why the girls weren’t cooking and chatting in the kitchen.
“No, she was supposed to come when Gilbert would head home, but I don’t think he left yet. It would be about time, though, if he wants to be there in time for dinner.”
Matthew muttered to himself and shrugged as he hung his coat on the rack.
“Would you go and check on them?” Marilla asked him.
Matthew turned around to make sure she was talking to him. And she was, indeed.
“Where are they?”
“In Anne’s room, where else?”
Matthew looked at her with a horrified expression.
“I’m not going to bother them, it’s too intimate,” he argued.
“Just make enough noise before you reach the room. Now come one, we don’t have all night.” She said, gently pushing her brother toward the stairs.
Matthew tried to argue again but Marilla wasn’t getting any of it. He then had to climb the stairs, making sure to make some noise as he got upstairs, checking for Marilla’s presence at the bottom of the stairs. She gestured him to keep going, and thus he had no choice.
“Anne?” he called as he reached the corridor, but he got no reply. “Anne? Isn’t it time for Gilbert to go home?” he tried again as he walked closer to the open door.
He stopped mid-way, just in case. He heard nothing in the room. He frowned and finally made his way to the doorstep, peaking his head inside the room. He was about to open his mouth when he noticed Anne and Gilbert in each other’s arms, sleeping peacefully. He stepped backward, feeling like he might have intruded something. He just couldn’t wake them up. He peaked inside again and tried to clear his throat, but no one ever acknowledged him.