₁.₀ SUPERCUT; gilbert blythe ✔

040.

"I'll be home in a couple of hours."

Marianne can see the horror that Marilla's words cause to deepen on Matthew's face. The man seems more than terrified with the prospect of being left alone with the baby for such a long time. "Hours?"

Marianne places a hand on his shoulder. "Should you like me to stay?"

"What about s-" Marilla's brows are furrowed as she turns, but then her features soften. "Well, I suppose the reason is important enough to miss a day of school. Delphine will need someone knowledgeable watching over her. Matthew, too," she sighs. "Alright then, I shall inform you of what I'll find out the moment I return."

"And I'll tell you all about the printing press," Anne chimes in. "Thank you so much for fixing it, Matthew, once again."

And then they both smile, the woman and the girl, before the door closes behind them. Marianne rubs Matthew's shoulder and he tilts his head to look at her, the faintest smile on his lips. "Thank you, uh, for staying home."

She reciprocates the smile. "It's not a problem. Being here with you and Delly is far more enjoyable than attending school, I assure you." Marianne makes her way to the cradle once again, a soft look in her eyes as she adjusts the blanket covering the baby; Delphine waves her small hands in the air, fingers interlocking with a strand of the girl's hair. "Isn't that right, sweetheart?"

🌼

As much as the circumstances pain her, Marianne tries to make the most of the time she can spend with Delphine. She didn't even mind having to calm the baby down when she'd cried, which happened a few times during the day. She just kept rocking her back and forth, not minding the slight pain beginning to form in her skull from all the noise or the burning in her back. My, Matthew would even catch her humming aloud a few times, the sounds of a lullaby unknown to the man filling the room.

Marianne is in the middle of feeding Delphine her breakfast when Gilbert comes knocking on the door. Any other day, he would have smiled seeing her like this - smiling tenderly at the baby in her amrs, hair falling around her face in unkept strands and a faint blush on her cheeks; her own breakfast still untouched on the table before her, an obvious sign that she thought about Bash and Mary's daughter first... Yes, it is true - if it wasn't for the grim thoughts occupying his mind right now, Gilbert surely would have allowed his heart to grown in his chest at that sight.

Instead, when she rises her gaze and takes in the pain written all over the boy's features, Marianne's smile fades away, too.

"What did the doctor say?" she hears Anne ask, her voice strained and full of anxiety.

Gilbert doesn't respond straight away, his steps the only sound in the quiet kitchen. It's as though the world had gone still all of a sudden, each of them holding their breaths as the boy makes his way to where Marianne's sitting. He watches her set the bottle on the table before his hand reaches for Delphine, his fingers barely grazing her short hair. And then he leans in, his own dark curls brushing along Marianne's cheek, placing a tender kiss on the top of the baby's head.

Only when he straightens back up does he meet Marianne's eye, the girl watching him closely the entire time. "Dr. Ward said it is sepsis."

There's a sharp intake of breath coming from where Anne's standing. "Sepsis?"

"A week, that's what he said." There's torment in this voice, but bitterness, too. It makes Marianne recall the way she would feel about her parents passing a few years back, because, in all honesty, one always finds themselves surprised by how unfair the world is. "Perhaps two. Mary would like to have Delphine close to her."