In the Woods When First We Met

19. Patchwork

But the wind blew through- and she shuddered.

"I don't know what to do." She choked on her words.

Gilbert looked down at the needle in his hand. "Look, we still have all afternoon and a little bit of morning left to finish this" he motioned to her skirt. "So we'll sew and talk, okay? We'll figure something out."

Anne pulled her arms around herself, watching him begin work on the petticoat again. After a moment she said, "I wish I'd remembered to ask you to bring a few straight pins. It would have made the work easier."

Gilbert shrugged. "I never pin anything first when I mend,"

"Really?"

"Well, nothing I've mended has been a lot of stitches, just a small hole or rip every once in a while. I haven't done seams before, and I've never hemmed anything...I can see why you'd pin the fabric first." He stopped and checked the way the fabric was lined up before he continued sewing.

Anne sighed. "I'm sorry you're having to do this," she said. "But I do consider it lucky that you know how to do some mending. I suppose your mother-"

Gilbert interrupted, "Anne, I was thinking. Do you do the washing for the Cuthberts?"

"I help," Anne said.

"Well, when you and Miss Cuthbert do the wash, she's going to see your clothes, isn't she? I'll get this sewn up for you, but it's easy to see it's been mended. And your stockings are torn...and if you've got anything else on that's torn or dirty..."

"There's blood." Her secret worry escaped from her lips before she could stop it.

The color drained from Anne's face. She began twisting the fabric of her skirt around her fingers.

She had thought he would look disgusted by her, but instead he just looked sorrowful.

"And I don't know if it can come out," Anne said with a shudder, "Because I've never had to wash blood out of fabric. I don't know..."

"It can come out," Gilbert said quietly. "My, uh...my father. He's been sick. For a while now. Sometimes he coughs up blood. You have to soak it for a long time- in cold water, not hot- and scrub...it will come out...a lot of times it takes several washings before the stains are all out."

"I'm sorry..." Anne said, feeling awful for him about his father.

He nodded.

Seeing that he did not want to delve into the topic of his father's illness, Anne bit her lip and said, "I...I'll tell Marilla I want to do the wash on my own now. To ease her burden...they wanted an orphan to help them, so...so I'll say that I want to be of more help. I'll do all the washing by myself from now on."

"What do you think she would say if you told her what happened with Billy?"

Anne shook her head. "I don't want to find out."

"Do you think she'd be angry?"

"I don't know," Anne whispered. "Maybe."

"Well, she should be angry. Not with you. With Billy." Gilbert stated. "If she's angry with you, she's wrong to be."

Anne was quiet a moment. Then she said, "What if she..."

She shook her head, unwilling to finish that thought.

"What?" Gilbert asked.

Anne sighed, deciding to let him in on what she had done. "Billy was angry with me for what I said about his sister."