Anne loved her new English class, to say the very least. It was everything she ever dreamed of, and her teacher was amazing.
Mrs. Irving was a petite woman with carefully styled snow white hair and girlish brown eyes. She was in her 40s, but she radiated an aura of innocence, almost like Ruby but more otherworldly. Her imagination was almost as good as Anne's. She was a sure kindred sprit. It didn't ease her longing to be back with her dearest Miss Aimee though, so Anne kept up frequent visitations. Still, it was such a comfort to find kindred spirits at every turn!
"Class is dismissed! Your assignment today is to pick a quote from the last chapter of Jane Eyre and write a half-page literary analysis about it," she announced as students packed up.
Just as Anne was about to leave, she felt a little tap on her shoulder. She turned to see a tall and distinguished looking man, with a block of slicked dark hair, neatly groomed quite unlike Gilbert's mop, melancholy and inscrutable dark eyes, and a radiant smile that was almost bewitching.
When she was but a girl, she had imagined a man just like him as her romantic ideal, manly and mysterious, but now she had someone far better, someone who really understood her inside and out. Plus, Gilbert was far more handsome than this man. Just his chin was miles beyond what any boy she'd ever seen had to offer. Now she knew that romance wasn't about wickedness or thrills, it was about the emotional understanding and genuine chemistry between two people.
"I couldn't help but notice that you weren't in this class prior to last week. My name is Royal Gardner," he introduced, putting out his hand. Anne shook her hand gently, smiling at the kind boy. She felt self conscious when she saw a crowd of girls all glower at her. It seemed that this boy was quite the popular ladies man!
"Anne Shirley-Cuthbert-B-" she cut herself off, cringing at her misspeak, knowing she had been thinking of this subject way too often. Her hand floated down to her little carrot charm like it often did when she was fussing. "You're right, I transferred from a more basic class."
"I'm guessing you're not a writing major then?"
"No, teaching actually."
"How noble," Royal said. "I heard you during class. You're very intelligent. Too many of these girls are insipid and vain and yet, still complain about notions of equality without putting in the work. It's refreshing to see someone so beautiful yet so unique. I thought teaching certificates only require a basic level of English?" She was slightly offended that he thought girls were any less worthy of intelligence than boys just because they were a bit feminine, but she carried the conversation out of decency and politeness. After all, if men could preen over their hockey players she saw no reason women should be branded insipid for taking a fancy to some ribbon once in a while!
"They do, but I genuinely wanted to learn more advanced English. I'm an avid writer," she explained.
"Really? I'm a poet myself," he said excitedly, flashing her a grin that she was sure made three girls behind her swoon. It was understandable, but not for her. Royal was handsome, but he wasn't much better than average when she had Gilbert. Nothing could bring her to the depths of despair when she thought about him.
"How perfectly delightful! I love recitations, but I'm more inclined towards prose than poetry."
"Understandable. I've always found prose to be fascinating, but there is something romantic about poetry, wouldn't you say?" he asked, a spark in his pitch dark eyes. She was a bit uncomfortable as his rapturous gaze fell on her. She held her books close to her chest, covering up the upper half of her torso, and she could've sworn his smile dulled a bit. Gilbert was always happy to see her, no matter if she was wearing baggy rags or her finest, formfitting, most womanly dress.
"There is," she agreed. "The language of love. My beau is a sensible kind of fellow, but he still appreciates a recitation from me because of it."
"Indeed," he agreed, chuckling, the mention of a beau straying him not a step from his path. "You would make a beautiful poem."
"Pardon?" she asked, her right eyebrow lifting quizzically.
"You are practically begging for a poem to be written about you. I can see it now.
Eyes of dove,
Hair of fire,
Anne, girl of love." Anne blushed, though she rejected his subtle advance politely.
"Keep your flirtations to yourself, thank you," she guided gently. "You flatter me greatly and are very kind, but I am not interested in such offers, Mr. Gardner. I'd much prefer your friendly company."
He ignored her kind rejection and said, "Roy, Miss Anne. I insist, if we are to be on good terms." She didn't know what kind of good terms he meant, but judging by the excited hissing around her, it was about to be the talk of the class. But no matter, she was used to being talked about.
"Alright, Roy. What type of literature do you enjoy, besides poetry?" she asked, hoping he would at least be inclined intellectually like she was.
"I do enjoy a good book. However, I just don't see the appeal of such overrated works like Austen's." For Anne, that statement was practically blasphemy.
"You must be joking!"
"Not at all. Pride and Prejudice especially. I find that particular relationship revolting. Just not my cup of tea." He scrunched up his nose as her mouth fell open in shock.
"Do you mean the very same Lizzie Bennet and Mr. Darcy? I cannot fathom Austen not being everyone's cup of tea. She's a literary genius!"
"Oh, if you say so, dear Anne."
"You have upset me greatly with this statement, Mr. Gardner," she harrumphed.
"Perhaps I could make it up to you," he suggested. She was caught off guard and frowned.
"Mr. Gardner, I can assure you that I am not an untoward girl," she warned warily, stepping back and prepared to walk away if need be.
"Nothing improper, Miss Anne. Just oblige me with your lovely presence at tea this afternoon?" he requested sweetly.
"You're very kind, Roy, but I'm afraid I have a beau in Toronto," she said apologetically, thinking he would understand and be content with her friendship.
"And?" he monotoned. "What is stopping you then? He doesn't have to know."
"Oh Roy, that is simply so wrong," she exclaimed in shock. As if she would engage in the sort!
"Is it? I know of so many boys who have two or three girls and they're all blissfully unaware. Hell, I myself have a girl or two vying for my favor. If you really believe in women's equality as passionately as you come off, what is stopping you?"
"What is stopping me? My sense of good morals, of course! I would never betray him like that!" she explained, thoroughly offended that he would ever insinuate that she'd betray her Gilbert so cruelly.
"Then leave him! I'm a Gardner! My family probably earns his entire life's wage in a week, and I'm sure he's about as handsome as a rat compared to me!" he sniffed condescendingly.
"Did you not hear me, Roy? I am happily with a man of higher morals and if you must know, appearances than yourself!" she hissed rebukingly. "I love him beyond anything you have to offer materially, and I would like you to leave me!" She started to walk away, but he grabbed her arms.
"But Anne, I thought you liked me! Give me a chance! Break relations with him! I'm a nice boy!" he pleaded pathetically, trying a different tactic.
"I have no obligations to you! Just because you are 'nice,' which you are proving not to be, gives me no apt reason to court you. I am simply not attracted to you!"
"Girls like you are so fickle! You lead nice men like me on and don't even give them a chance! Why do I bother being nice to girls if they won't give me a chance?" he raged, his dark eyes furious. Anne was just as angry, her pearl eyes fiery with disbelief and vexation.
"Boys like you is why I am thankful beyond measure for respectable men like my Gilbert," she jerked her hand back. If her Matthew or Gilbert was here, he'd give the man something way worse than a rejection. "Never talk to me again, Mr. Gardner, for I certainly will resort to things much worse than a polite rejection next time."
____________________
"He actually said that?" Josie said after a stunned silence.
"Not a fib in the entire story," Anne swore solemnly. Anne, Diana, and Josie -- the three girls who had no beau to be out with -- were sitting in the parlor on Friday night while the other girls were out with their various companions. Jane had multiple suitors vying for her attention but had graced one of them with her company at dinner. Tillie and Paul A (much to Paul S's dismay) were out on the town, and Moody had taken Ruby dancing as her myths about reproduction were long since dispelled.
"I thought the Gardners were a reputable family," Diana said, her eyebrows furrowing. "My great cousin Bertha knew the Gardners' neighbors and they're a very... financially endowed, respected family around here. How could he do something like that?"
"Having been on the receiving end of not only verbal, but physical attacks, I have it on authority that money does not buy respectability. Stay away from him, Anne, he's displaying all the signs Billy did," Josie advised with a roll of her eyes. "People like that are revolting."
"She's right. He was the type of man who was nice to women only when he wanted something from them," Anne agreed.
"What are you going to tell Gilbert?" asked Diana, reaching out to pat Anne's hand reassuringly. "I know he'll understand."
"Goodness," Anne lamented with a sigh, placing her cheek in her right hand. "This is coming at the very worst time. He'll think I'm some vengeful witch that just wanted revenge when this was not my intention in the slightest."
"I'm not sure I comprehend you," said Diana quizzically. "Vengeful?"
Anne immediately realized her slip up and sighed dismally. "I have been withholding information from you girls. It's been troubling me for days now."
Both of them looked immediately curious. "What is it, Anne?" Josie asked with concern in her tone.
"Do you remember when I told you about that girl Christine?" she asked them, broaching the topic slowly so they wouldn't jump to conclusions.
"You told me you had a bad feeling about her," Diana said, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms. "What about it?"
"It just so happens that my hunch was correct," Anne revealed sadly, her pink lips twisting into a frown. "She kissed him and tried to..." She hesitated, but the girls all knew where it was going. Diana let out a small and sympathetic gasp, a hand floating to her mouth, and Josie frowned.
She tried take him away from her. A more winsome, sultry, wealthy girl had attempted to steal loving, charming, handsome Gilbert away from her, a homely orphan.
"Did it... work?" Josie asked with a hint of worry in her voice. "It's Gilbert, so I doubt it, but things change."
"No, thankfully. He asked her to leave," Anne explained.
"As I expected. Gilbert has been head over heels for you since we were children," Josie replied, very matter-of-fact in her proclamation. "So, what's the problem?"
"Think of the timing! I've always put my foot in it concerning Gilbert! Roy trying to take me to tea will look like I was purposely egging him on as revenge!" she groaned, putting her head in her hands.
Josie rolled her eyes, swept Anne's hands out from under her, smoothed down her hair, and forced her to stop moping. "Anne, I care about you very dearly, and you're one of my best friends, so I mean this in the best possible way and I'm sure Diana agrees. Stop being such a goose!"
"Excuse me?" Anne said, a crease forming in her forehead, coming out of her dramatics to be confused for a split second.
"Josie is absolutely right! You're overthinking this too much, Anne," Diana declared, shaking her head decisively.
Josie nodded sagely and continued, "Both you and Gilbert are attractive young people -- trust me, I'd know," she mumbled low enough for only Anne to hear. "-- and you both will have people vying for your favors whether you are taken or not. I wish it wasn't so, but this is the state of the world."
"As long as you prove loyal to each other and maintain good communication with each other about these things, everything will be alright," Diana said with a small smile and squeeze of Anne's shoulder.
"I suppose you're right," Anne murmured in consideration. "I'll write him first thing in the morning."
"Now, speaking of..." Josie tittered with a sly smirk. "You and Gilbert have been courting since... September, was it? It's almost mid-November now."
Diana also let out a small squealing giggle. "I know you and Gilbert are so studious that you'll probably wait until you are done with Queens at the very least, but it has been over two months! You must at least be talking about the future by now." She said future as if it was some enticingly flirtatious word exchanged between only the most passionate of lovers.
Anne's face flushed, turning bright red. She cast her eyes down and mumbled, "We've broached the subject, but quite briefly."
"Oh?" Josie said, raising an eyebrow expertly. "Just how briefly?"
"Do tell, Anne," Diana urged with a spark of rare mischief in her dark eyes.
"I have mentioned, only once or twice," she added at the end quickly when she saw their faces light up. "The... prospect of a life together one day in the future, the far future," she completed regally, satisfied with her brief explanation and nodding decisively at the end.
This was enough for the other two girls to gush childishly and bounce in their seats, squealing like schoolgirls.
"I'll bet that you'll be engaged by summer," Josie guessed confidently, smiling at Anne with a dreamy look in her eyes, grabbing at Anne's rosy hand excitedly and holding it up dramatically as if there was a ring on it.
Diana clasped her hand together near her heart and nodded in agreement and added, "And married two winters after that. A late spring wedding with the reception in a great big field of flowers of course, Anne wouldn't have it another way."
Anne's eyes widened and she broke eye contact, flushing so her skin matched her hair. It was times like these you could see the miniscule traits that she had picked up from her late surrogate father. She mumbled a quick yet inept denial.
"She's embarrassed because she knows it's true!" Josie cackled with Diana, the two of them leaning on each other as they exploded with laughter.
"And what about you, Josie? It has been a month, has it not?" Anne retorted smartly, sticking her chin in the air defensively.
"I'll have you know, we've been taking it slowly," Josie scoffed defensively. "We haven't kissed once, but I seem to recall you and Gilbert having a particularly... passionate display outside of Blackmore House the morning before school started even though it was not Saturday between the hours of two and four? The kind that most would say is appropriate for after a marital bed has been shared?"
"Josie!" Diana hissed disapprovingly, hitting the girl softly on the arm. "Do you think Mrs. Blackmore would take too kindly to hearing seventeen year old young women talking about...that?"
"Talking about what?" a voice said from behind them. They all paled to see Mrs. Blackmore herself with a disapproving eyebrow raised.
"Oh, nothing, Ma- I mean, Mrs. Blackmore!" Anne chirped . "You know how it is with gossip amongst the little town we come from."
"Yes, I do," the woman accepted warily. "I'd advise you girls to watch your mouths. Foul speaking is not permitted here. It is a sanctuary to all women of class and grace. Especially you, Miss Pye, though if I've heard correctly, it is only a matter of time before it becomes Mrs."
As soon as she left, the three girls burst into delirious laughter.
"Oh, how the tables have turned," Josie chortled. "Could you imagine me one year ago being the foul mouthed girl in the group? The mean girl, perhaps, but my mother would have a conniption if she heard me talking about this!"
"Josie in 1888 was an entirely different person, I'm sure. I think distancing yourself from caring about society's opinions has done you a world of good," Anne observed, wrapping an arm around the blonde.
"Have I really changed that much?" Josie asked, a frown impressing on the side of her lips. If she had changed, was she not herself for the first fifteen years of her life? Was her childhood all a lie?
"You have changed, but in the best way, Josie," Diana reassured in her typical sweet manner. "Your general comportment has turned completely. Now, you carry yourself with confidence and kindness, but..." She struggled for words and looked to Anne.
"But who you were on the inside, that part stayed. The sarcastic, curious, hilarious part that we loved about you is still here. Just the condescension was replaced with empathy and you developed more confidence in who you were. You stopped trying to fill all the roles people wanted you to fill."
"Well, experiences change people," Josie added, a tinge of sadness replacing her gleeful tone that disappeared as quickly as it came. "But I think... though I wouldn't wish it on myself again, that experience woke me up to how twisted the status quo really was. Not just those minutes with Billy, all of it. Being blamed for his actions, backlash from those who I thought loved me for no fault of my own, seeing how women are treated every day, it was an epiphany about how I shouldn't conform to the world's wrong thoughts. It shaped who I am and made me realize who I wanted to be."
"There's not a soul with more strength of character than you for turning yourself around like that," Anne said seriously, and she really was amazed at how much Josie, her former nemesis now turned kindred spirit, had grown.
"I mean, the alternative was Billy," Diana joked with a brilliant smile, dimples forming on her rosy cheeks. Josie laughed lightly. "Anything is better than him."
"Truly anything," Josie agreed, punctuating each word sharply. "Oh! I forgot to tell you! Speaking of cads, did you know Alex and Gilbert ran into Mr. Phillips one week ago?"
"I know, Gilbert wrote me about that!" Anne bubbled through laughter as Diana looked stunned.
"Oh my, how?" she exclaimed in surprise.
"Do you want to tell it or should I?" Josie asked Anne with a charming grin.
"You can start," she obliged politely, motioning for the blonde to go on.
"Apparently, they were out buying ingredients for dinner. They were a bit farther out than the regular convenience store, something about Alex needing a special ingredient he could only get at this elaborate expensive shop, and they saw him there! And take this in, he was with a girl, even younger than Prissy this time, not yet even seventeen! She couldn't have been older than fifteen or sixteen!" Josie sneered with a sour puckered face at the mention of the former teacher.
"I thought he'd learned his lesson," Anne said.
"You can take it from here, Anne," Josie grinned devilishly.
Anne launched into a story as always. "He spotted Gilbert with Alex and his eyebrows practically shot off his head!"
"If Gilbert of all people described it that way, his brows must've really been moving," Diana surmised, sending them into another fit of laughter.
"He asked Gilbert what he was doing in Toronto and apparently, he frowned like someone had just told him his mother passed away when Gil mentioned he was studying in medical school in the most prestigious school in the country! It really gets entertaining now. He told dear Gil that he didn't think that he had it in him to finally make something of himself and Gilbert replied that he didn't think Mr. Phillips had it in him to try and sully another poor girl's reputation!"
Diana burst out into laughter. "Oh goodness!"
Anne continued, "Apparently, the curmudgeon tried to bring Gilbert down a notch by saying that he was sure that Gilbert couldn't get a girl of any age if his life depended on it, to which he replied that..." She blushed and hesitated and Josie completed it with a teasing grin.
"That he in fact had the most beautiful girl of his dreams," Josie completed with a grin. "What was that you were saying about not being engaged by next winter, Anne?"
"Oh, how romantical, Anne! Imagine if little thirteen year old you hearing that some Prince Charming called you that! You'd write a novel about it!" Diana squealed.
"Oh, thirteen year old Anne would deny that she could ever find that kind of bliss," Anne replied dreamily, running a hand over her charm absentmindedly.
"Even though she deserved it," Josie reminded gently, hugging the girl with one arm.
"Even though I deserve it," she agreed surprisingly. She was surrounded by friends and family who loved her and made her feel... enough. Wholly and totally complete. They didn't make her feel like she was below them and it meant the world to her.
For the first time, Anne actually meant it when she said that she deserved this.