Between the words: Anne with an E

Letter 12

BLYTHE

Returning home always seemed strange, especially these days. There were so many changes and alterations, that he almost felt as if he were standing in someone else's house. Of course, he felt selfish to want to hold onto his old memories, but sometimes he wished just to have them a moment longer. Alas, this was his and the Lacroix's house now, and that was just something he had to get used to. Unfortunately, after the instance with Mary's son Elijah it felt difficult for Gilbert to have a normal conversation with him, without feeling uncomfortable. This fact was as clear as day for the rest of the household.

Walking into the warm house Gilbert called "I'm back" and to his surprise, a baby Delphine, waddling towards him. 

"Hello little Delly, how are you?" Gilbert asked the child, she seemed equally as excited about the wrapped box as he did as she went straight towards it. "I got you a present too you know, that ones mine" he teased

"Mine" she mumbled happily.

"We were wondering when you would be back" Sebastian mentioned as he sipped from a steaming mug. "Come Delly, let your uncle Gilbert get his coat off first" the little baby took a step back and patiently waited for Gilbert to remove his jacket before reaching her arms up to be carried.

"They insisted I stayed for breakfast" Gilbert added following Sebastian into the drawing-room. It was not a room he often used with his father, but it was comforting to see it remain the same as it has always been. Elijah sat on a chair reading the newspaper "Hello Elijah" Gilbert greeted sitting down and placing the child on the floor. To his surprise, Elijah placed his paper down and asked Gilbert about the party. Sebastian was equally surprised to hear the news of Diana's recent engagement. They joined for lunch before Sebastian decided to unwillingly venture outside to show his partner some of the fixes that they had made in his absence.

"Mother wanted to get a chicken coup and a vegetable garden, which we made space for over here" he pointed at the area of snow. "The supplies are late because of the weather, but we should get it in the spring. All the other changes were repairs and planting more apple trees from saplings that had fallen on the ground. The last harvest season seemed to be very successful which made Gilbert happy to hear.

"I talked to Elijah by the way." Sebastian mentioned "I wanted to make sure that you were comfortable in your own house." he added, noticing how Gilbert had been acting on his return.

"Thank you, but don't worry about me. I always look forward to coming back here" they were both looking up at the stone house and let of a breath. "At least the house didn't catch fire when I was away" Gilbert joked. It was nice to see Sebastian smiling and laughing again, so he was grateful for that in the least. Even with the change's, it was beginning to feel more like a lived-in home and it was unusually pleasant that there seemed to now be a buzz of business as everyone got to their tasks.

It also seemed that Mrs Lacroix had dropped the formalities and seemed to be more comfortable in the house. Her comfortability seemed to be helping Sebastian as they were not fighting as much as when he left. Before Sebastian could complain more about the cold they sat inside in the sitting room, to go over the figures on the last season "Thankfully my holidays align with harvest time, so I should be back in for picking the apples. This reminds me, I should revisit Mr Berry to confirm next season's shipments. Otherwise, we might have to look to sell in Canada" Gilbert explained flicking through the papers.

"Yes, we sold 576 apples to them" Sebastian added handing over the paper. "Which means that we can pay for your school year plus provisions here" he added.

"Well, I have funds remaining from my father that are set aside for my education, and so we can set the apple returns on maintaining the house and whatever you might need." Gilbert slipped in quickly. His father had not left him much money but it would be enough for the next few terms before he would have to start working somewhere else. 

"How about we set aside money for the house and then split the rest. We are partners, so we should keep it equal" Sebastian shook his head at the idea of taking so much money for himself after all Gilbert had given him and his family.

"I won't argue with you Bash, but if you need anything all you must do is ask. You are after all here more than I am" 

Elijah was listening to the conversation and was surprised to hear Sebastian give up so much money. It was clearly the honourable thing to do, but the young man was willing to give him everything. It was a shocking idea to swallow. Sebastian was already paying Elijiah small sums so that he might be independent one day. Even though he had never seen the money in his hand, he was now certain that Bash would most likely give it to him the moment he asked.

"Ahh, it's good to have you back Gilbert, Sebastian is useless with numbers" Mrs Lacroix laughed stepping into the room with a freshly bathed Dellie. Despite her intentions to be joking, not one person in the room could disagree with that statement. Alas, laughter still filled the room as evening fell on Avonlea.

Just wanted to give some backstory on Gilbert's home life, especially after the series didn't give us much to go by. Wishing you all an amazing week -rsc