Between the words: Anne with an E

Letter 26

Anne could hardly believe her eyes as an elegantly dressed red-headed girls stared back at her. Marillia had loaned her her broach, which Anne happily pinned to her collar. She did not feel like the odd one out anymore, she felt as if she perfectly belonged. As she walked out of the room Diana and she had been dressing in she met with a group of shocks and smiles. Aunt Josephine's heartfelt full as she watched the two ladies emerge, how much they had grown from their childhood. "You look beautiful" she added as the girls smiled to themselves. 

"Cole did our hair, I have never had my hair like this before" Anne admitted feeling nervous all of a sudden. Cole shrugged in the corner, appreciating his masterpieces. 

"I suddenly feel underdressed" Gilbert joked trying to end the silence, the room burst into small laugher and the ladies entered properly. Aunt Josephine insisted that they all eat before going to the ball, and with delicious little egg tartlets, it was very easy to eat in their tight dresses. "You look very beautiful Anne" Gilbert added as they walked towards the door to ride in the carriage towards the dance. It was cold and an exciting night, it felt magical as if she were Elisabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. She had never intended to be enraptured by anyone in her life, but with her hand clasped with Gilberts as they looked around the beautifully dressed room, she could not think of anything better. She had spent her life as a child looking forward to Queens and found that on the eve of starting her post-school life she was excited.

"Congratulations on achieving excellent results in your exams Mrs Shirley Cuthbert" a voice announced beside the couple. 

"Thank you truly, Mr Griffith, I will miss your classes the most" Anne smiled at her favourite teacher. "This is my fiance, Gilbert Blythe, sir" she introduced.

"Well Mr Blythe, what have you done to capture the endless mind of my pupil then?" the old man asked in a joking manner. After meeting Mrs Shirley-Cuthbert and reading her detailed and excellently texts. He was shocked to have read her essays and realised that it had come from such a young person, let alone a woman. 

"Well I do try to keep up, but find myself failing. She was always the top of our class" Gilbert added back charismatically.

"Mr Griffiths, he is being far too modest. Gilbert is studying to be a doctor in Toronto at the moment," she added proudly.

"Golly, a find couple indeed, I do hope you chose to continue writing miss" he nodded his head and excused himself. Anne felt pride swell in her chest, after needing to suppress her imagination and expressing herself with big words. In fact, as she would enter the room the professor would give her new words to use in the day's assignments. The whole room was just so beautiful Anne did her best to absorb it all in so that she might be able to remember it all. With Gilbert arriving back, he was soon surrounded by his old school friends, as Anne took the moment to say hello to some of her other classmates, who were dressed decently. 

As the dancing began, she found her cheeks to be strained and pained from smiling so much. They hadn't taken their eyes off of each other the whole dance. In fact, as they rode towards Aunt Josiphones home that evening, Anne felt her heart fill with happiness, and her feet ache from the pain of dancing so much. They hobbled into the house and were glad when the butler offered them hot chocolate drinks. "That was a dream, pinch me" Anne signed as she lowered herself to the floor beside the fire. Diana placed herself on the seat and leaned back with a sigh. Gilbert crouched down and leaned on the seat behind him for support. "I could have danced all night if I could" she added before watching the butler bring four cups of warm drink.

"I got it, thank you" Henry added before passing the cups around the room and settling beside Diana. Silence eloped the room as soft sips were taken, the creamy chocolate drink was the perfect way to bring Anne back to the real world from her whirling mind. 

"I think my hairpins are making me realise how very real this all is" Anne added, being the first to talk. After all the dancing her elegant updo was starting to slip, as she carefully pulled a lose pin out of her wild hair. Diana laughed at that, it was true, if her feet and head were not in pain she would have imagined herself to be dreaming. At that moment the dread of finishing her studies and marriage was not as daunting as she initially imagined them to have been.

"I am exhausted, you will have to excuse me as I say good night" Diana announced finally, Henry nodded and bid the couple goodnight as he escorted Diana upstairs.

"It is nice to see her happy, I haven't seen that smile in so long" Anne announced turning her face to Gilbert again. He hummed, not noticing that fact, his mind, however, were filled with the memories of their previous late-night conversations. Their last fireside chat at their last graduation brought a soft smile to his lips. "You are looking at me strangely" she stated putting her empty cup down.

"You have chocolate on your nose" he stated, to which her face turning bright red as she wiped it off quickly. After scrubbing her nose harshly she met his eyes again as if asking if it was all gone. "You got it" he nodded, but his expression was unchanged, Anne found herself staring back towards him. It was the first time he had seen her life in Charlottetown, and she couldn't help but wonder what he thought of it all. She certainly felt more certain of herself as of late, but she wondered if he had noticed that. If she was still the Anne that Gilbert thought of when he was lives away in Toronto.

"I am glad you were here with me tonight, Mrs Stacy told me when we were leaving school" she breathed looking down at her hands. "That those of us who can soar to the highest hights, can also plunge to the deepest depts" she breathed, Gilbert found himself caught on her every breath and word. "What I mean to say is that, we have both been to some dark places" her voice quivered suddenly, but she was determined to preserver, "and I can not help but notice that every time we do, we are together. We support each other, and we bring each other to the highest of heights, were night like this" she rambled before being caught up by her emotions and meeting his eye again with a small smile, "nights like this, we are souring Gilbert, and nights like this make it all so much sweeter, and we wouldn't have known it, if we hadn't experienced that of before" she pointed, her heart feeling full, perhaps it took her next chapter of life to realise the truest meetings behind those words.