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"Thank you... for being useless"
- Charlotte Wells
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CHARLOTTE WATCHED ALONGSIDE MATTHEW as the carriage grew smaller in the distance, Anne sitting on the back of it. Her spark was gone as she numbly sat there.
She only looked away when the vehicle was so small it was nothing but a speck in the distance.
As soon as Anne was gone, everything was quiet. As Charlotte worked on the farm in the stables, she waited for a little voice to pipe up, using words that were so long she didn't even know what they meant. That voice didn't come, no matter how much Charlotte waited.
Instead of Anne's voice singing at her, Marilla's voice came, screaming for Charlotte from the house. Her figure came rushing towards her and Matthew in the cornfield, her breath shaky like the previous night. Not from anger this time, from worry and regret.
"I found it, the brooch," Marilla breathed out.
"Charlotte, take one of the younger horses," Matthew told her, jogging towards the stable to tack one up.
"I'll bring her back, Marilla," Charlotte promised. "And this time, value her company."
By mid-day, Charlotte's hair was whipping behind her as her horse galloped through grassy fields, through waters to reach the train station. Adrenaline rushed through her as with each stride her horse took. She had to get to the train station before Anne did, and if she didn't, she needed to find her before she took a ferry off Avonlea. Once she was on that boat, Charlotte had no chance.
She had to be the one to bring Anne back. Marilla wouldn't go anywhere on a horse without a carriage, and Matthew was older than her, she could ride faster.
Charlotte jumped off the horse as she reached the train station, rushing inside. Rain fell down on her as the conductor walked out. "Where's the train?"
"Don't worry, the orphan got on alright, Matthew and Marilla's girl?"
A feeling brewed up inside Charlotte, the easiest way of finding Anne had no chance of working now. Charlotte knew where the orphanage was based, though she had no idea of what she had to go through to get there. "When does that train stop? How long does it take to get to the next station?"
She conductor shrugged. "I don't know the definite time, but it could be a few hours, or days."
"When does the next train come?"
"Could be a few hours or days."
Charlotte shook her head, frustration clear on her face as she grabbed her horse by the rain. "Thanks for being useless."
Darkness began to stretch along the night sky as she rode her horse to the nearest stables. Relif filled her throat when she saw several people working. "Excuse me? Do you have a spare horse. I need to get to Charlottetown."
To her, if felt weird saying her name in a place name. It had always felt weird. Marilla always told her she was names after Charlotte town.
"Sorry Ma'am, we don't have a spare," the man working told her.
Charlotte groaned, her eyes fixing on a carriage exiting the stables. She passed the man the reins to her horse, running towards it. "Excuse me!"
The man at the reins looked down at her, pulling the horses to a halt. "What's got you all twisted up, Little Lady?"
"Are you going to the vessel?" Charlotte panted.
"We're riding to the port overngiht, be there by daybreak."
"Can I get a ride?" she asked. "I'm trying to get to Charlottetown."
"Very well."
Charlotte jumped in the back of the carrige before they could stop her. She rested her head back on the boxes behind her. Dark chesnut strants of hair stuck to her forehead, drenched with rainwater and sweat. Her clothes stuck to her skin. She wasn't even halfway to finding Anne, and already she was drained.
—
As sunlight stretched across the market, the small girl at the back of the carriage jumped off, wandering through the streets. In those moments, Charlotte ralised she had no idea what she was doing, what she had gotten herself into.
Her hair was unbrushed, hanging over her shoulders, her face tinted from sun-burn. She knew what time the ferry left, and that Marilla had given her just enough money for train fares and ferry tickets there and back.
As soon as she got a ticket, she sprinted towards the ferry, narrowly making it before it set sail towards the mainland. The longer it took, the slimmer the chances of finding Anne were. And she had made up her mind, if she didn't come back to Green Gables with Anne, she didn't want to come back at all.
Two nights days had passed as she eventually made it to the orphanage, walking towards the door and slamming her fist on the wood. As much as she tried to yank the doors open, forcefully banging her fists against it, yelling at the people inside, nobody came.
Charlotte was exhausted, her face smeared with dirt, blood dried on her lip from the amount of times she had anxiously bitten it. She was where Anne would be, she had found her.
The sight of her would have been strange to see. A girl wearing pants and a shirt instead of a poofy, frilly dress, her face caked with dry dirt as her skin glistened with sweat.
As she sat down on the steps, she ran a frustrated hand through her hair, squinting her eyes closed. During that time, her body couldn't take it, crashing out all at once and putting her into a deep sleep. The exhaustion hitting her all at once as she finally sat still for a moment.
The moment was gone when the door behind her was opened right on her. The girl squinted against the sunlight of the morning brightness as she stood up quickly, coming to stand in front of a woman in a maids outfit.
"Did someone leave you here?" the woman asked quickly. "We are overpacked we can't take anymore-"
"No, I'm looking for someone," Charlotte informed her. "I want to speak with the Matron."
"The Matron? She's not even awake yet."
"Well, it's the morning why isn't she?" Charlotte scoffed. "Go on, I bet she wouldn't want to waste this beautiful day away being lazy."
The woman widened her eyes in shock at the unexpected attitude. "Come inside, I'll see if I can rouse the Matron."
"Thank you?" Charlotte smiled sarcastically, stepping inside the orphanage behind the woman.
"Were you out there all night?"
"Clearly." Charlotte rolled her eyes, watching as several young girls walked through the halls in a line, looking up as a woman stepped down the stairs.
"What is the nature of your emergency?"
Charlotte scaned her over, seeing she was still in her night robe. "Is Anne Shirley here?"
"No longer in residence," the Matron snapped.
"So she didn't come back here yesterday?" Charlotte's gut flipped, her head going to the worst possible things that could have happened.
"No, she did now, now excuse me."
"The ferry master said she came across here yesterday," Charlotte insisted.
"She is not here," the Matron tutted. "Emergency."
Charlotte mocked her, mirroring the tongue click. "Sleeping in till noon on your fat lazy ass."
Before the Matron could yell at her, Charlotte stormed out of the house, walking into the milkman.
"Gave me a start," he chuckled, stopping as he saw the glare set on the girls face. "Same thing happened yesterday, only it was a girl about your age."
Charlotte's eyes widened as she spun around. "Did she have red braids."
"That's the one."
Charlotte stepped forward, getting herself comfertable in the mans carriage. "Take me to where you dropped her off."
The man looked at her confused before she cocked her head. "I mean now."
—
Charlotte jumped off the carriage, muttering a quick thank you before darting into the train station.
As she made it into the station, due to the echo, she could hear everything rather than see it. One voice stuck out to her more than the others. A familiar voice that she could recognize a mile away, with the large words and the dramatic pauses. It was Anne's voice.
As Charlotte shoved her way through the crowd, people gave her questionable looks, to which she ignored as she followed Anne's voice.
Charlotte walked up behind her, watching as she attempted to sell poems to people for money. "I'll take one."
Anne spun around to face the brunette, her face an expression Charlotte couldn't work out.
"I guess Marilla found the brooch than because I am not a thief. Now if you'll excuse me I'm trying to earn wages. I've got a trian to catch."
"Earn money all you want you're not getting on that train," Charlotte told her. "I've come here to take you back to Green Gables, under Marilla's request and because I wanted to."
"Marilla just wants to banish me whenever she feels like it," Anne said loudly. "I am all I need I am my own family now."
"I have come all this way for you-"
"So did I, and not by choice," Anne said, voice trembling. "Because the Cuthberts didn't want me."
"They do-"
"Leave me alone," Anne snapped.
Charlotte clenched her jaw. "Don't give me that when I've come here for you and I am not leaving your side until you are on the back of a horse on your way to Green Gables."
Charlotte rolled her eyes back as a man from the side stood up, towering over her. "Is there a problem here?"
"None that concern you," the brunette snapped.
"There is," Anne mumbled.
The man looked over at the redhead, guesturing towards Charlotte. "Is she bothering you?"
"She is indeed bothering me."
"That so?"
"How can I be bothering her when she is my sister," Charlotte blurted out.
The man looked between the two confused. The two girls looked entirely different. His thoughts were pushed away as Anne dropped her things, stepping towards Charlotte and holding her tight.
"Thank you for coming to get me," Anne breathed into Charlotte's neck.
Charlotte smiled. "Anytime."
---
20/11/2023
Charlotte is one of my new favorite characters to write. She's just so... Charlotte.