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Rilla's Wedding

Rilla Blythe gazed into the full length mirror before her. Her gray eyes peered back at her, drinking in the happiness of the day and marveling at the cloud of white that engulfed her in a heavenly bliss. Rilla reached up and gingerly touched the delicate lace that fell across her face. "Oh Mother," she breathed, tearing herself away from the mirror and facing Anne and her Aunt Diana. "Mother, Aunt Di, it is so sweet! I feel like a fairy princess. However did you manage it?"

"Your mother did most of the stitching, darling," Diana laughed, "but I did have an eye for the details. It does look fine, doesn't it, Anne?"

"A beautiful dress for a beautiful woman," Anne beamed, taking her daughter's hands in her own. "It is your wedding day, dearest of Rillas. A day to fill your every heart's desire."

"All I desire is to see Kenneth."

Anne kissed her daughter's cheek. "You will be Mrs. Kenneth Ford soon enough. I'm in no hurry to lose you."

"Mother, you'll never lose me," Rilla vowed, squeezing her mother's hands affectionately. "Not for sunsets and marble halls could I ever forget my family."

Anne smiled sweetly as Rilla's bridesmaids burst into the room to play their part as ladies in waiting. Anne Shirley Blythe chose this moment to quietly slip away. Inside her own room, she sat on the bed she shared with Gilbert, letting her daughter's words echo in her head. Sunsets and marble halls. Anne laughed to herself, the words evoked a bittersweet memory for her. Only a few weeks after her beloved Gilbert had come back to her did she proclaim those very words herself to the man she finally allowed herself to love. She understood Rilla's anticipation, for she herself could not wait to see Gilbert, who was at the Ford's house getting ready with the rest of the male wedding party.

Her visit to yesteryear was interrupted by Diana poking her head into the room. "For heaven's sake, Anne! Are you not dressed yet?"

"Am I so late?"

"Gil and Fred are here already to take us to the church. Where's your dress?"

"Oh Diana!" she cried in despair. "Oh, I completely forgot! I've been so busy with Rilla's dress, I don't have a dress for myself to wear."

"Well, surely you have something in this old trunk," Diana assured her, rummaging through stacks of letters from Four Winds to Gilbert at medical school, pins from Redmond, and Jem's beads, to pull out a green dress with rosebuds that had been tucked in the bottom. "Why don't you wear this?"

"Diana, I couldn't possibly!" Anne exclaimed shaking her head. "The last time I wore that dress was soon after Rilla was born. I couldn't wear it for her wedding."

"Why not, Anne? It still looks new and you've kept your figure. Unlike me," Diana teased. Then she held the dress out in front of Anne, admiring the coloring on her dearest friend. "Please, Anne, just try it on. I must go see to Fred. Meet us downstairs as soon as you can."

Anne Blythe looked at the old dress. It had kept up nicely. And Gilbert had liked it so well. Maybe she could try it on, at the very least.

Dr. Gilbert Blythe waited at the bottom of the stairs for his wife when a small voice came from the top. "I'm ready."

When Gilbert looked up and saw her, he caught his breath. Suddenly, he felt just like a boy again. She had floated down the stairs and was by his side before he could bring himself to murmur, "Anne… you look so beautiful."

"Not too old and frivolous?"

"Frivolous, yes. But never old. You will always be the intelligent, stubborn, and lovely Carrots I fell in love with so very long ago," he said, tucking a red curl behind her ear and stroking her cheek.

Anne grinned as he drew her closer. Gilbert kissed her softly and whispered, "My Anne-girl, I love you still. I love you now until I die. For I must love because I live, and life in me is what you give."

He bowed before her and kissed her hand before offering his arm and leading her out to the car.

Rilla waited with her father at the back of the church, positively trembling with excitement. Already it felt as though they had been standing in that same spot for hours. She glanced up at Gilbert only to find him smiling down at her. "You look lovely, Rilla. I'm very proud of the woman you have become."

Unshed tears stung Rilla's eyes. Always the baby, she had waited so long and tried so hard to be considered grown-up. Now, for a fleeting moment, she wished she could be a little girl again- to climb on her father's lap and snuggle against his strong chest.

"Oh Dad," she smiled, standing on the tips of her toes to kiss his cheek. Then she whispered, "I'll always be your Lily of the Valley."

A squeal came from the front of the wedding procession, startling them both. Rilla recovered first, she would know that cry anywhere, and she was ready to catch sweet little Jims when he came running toward her.

"Darling," she soothed, picking him up and placing him on her hip, "what's the matter?"

Jims' father ran back and gasped, "Rilla! I'm so sorry, but…"

"No, it's alright," she smiled, kissing her sweet boy. "Are you afraid, Jims? There's a lot of people out there, aren't there?"

He nodded and sent the curls atop his head bouncing.

"Would you like to hold my hand and walk with me and Doctor Blythe?"

"Yes, Willa-Wil. Please?"

"Of course, my darling," she said, putting him down and taking his hand, while taking Gilbert's arm with the other as the procession started.

Gilbert could not help but think what a wonderful mother she would make one day. "Shall we?" he asked her.

She nodded, and Gilbert hoped to never forget this moment as long as he lived.

Kenneth Ford watched his bride as she glided down the aisle. He was not surprised at all to see Jims by her side as well as her father. He thought it was fitting that he should be included in their wedding day, when just a few years ago, the very moment he had realized he loved her was when she held Jims on the porch of Ingleside. They made such an angelic picture.

When she reached the front of the church, Rilla gave both of her escorts a kiss on the cheek, before turning to him. She placed her hand in Kenneth's and watched lifelong dream unfold, giving her heart, mind, and soul to him.

When at long last the wedding festivities were drawing to a close, Leslie Ford beckoned to the newlywed couple. "Rilla, Ken, we have one last gift for you."

"Truly, Mrs. Ford," Rilla sighed happily, "I can't think of anything else we could possibly need. It has been a perfectly wonderful day."

Kenneth smiled and pressed a kiss to her hand.

"It has been that," Leslie agreed, "but go and fetch your parents and meet us outside. I'll not take no for an answer."

The three couples started down the path that began to look very familiar to Anne, and soon they were in front of the old House of Dreams. "Leslie Ford, what in the wold is going on?"

Leslie grinned like the cat who caught the canary. "Well, Owen and I have decided we are simply too old to take vacations and to need a summer home anymore. My dear Kenneth, and sweet Rilla, will you take it off our hands?"

Rilla felt her jaw drop in the most unbecoming of ways, but she found her new husband to have done the same. "Oh, Mrs. Ford!" she gasped. "Words cannot express my gratitude! Oh, Mother, isn't it wonderful?"

"It's just splendid, Rilla. I'm so happy for you," Anne grinned, embracing her daughter, then stepping back once more to look at the old house. It felt like only yesterday that Gilbert brought her here as a young bride herself. Little Joyce, her angel baby, had come into the world and left it all in that room on the second floor. Then Jem, her sweet boy, had learned to take his first steps in the parlor. Quiet nights with Gilbert by the fire, and stories told by Captain Jim with Gog and Magog keeping steady watch over them both. How many stories could the dear House of Dreams tell, and how many had yet to be written! She slipped her arm through Gilbert's and lay her head on his shoulder. He kissed her head and she sighed. 'One chapter of my life has come to an end,' she thought, 'but another is just beginning.'

They said their goodbyes, and left the new Mr. and Mrs. Ford in their garden. Gilbert put his arm around his wife as they walked. "Had I known their son would one day steal my Lily of the Valley, I never would have encouraged Leslie and Owen to marry."

Anne laughed lightly as they turned to walk on the beach hand in hand. "Where did the time go, Gil? So many adventures we've had. So many plans we made in that very house. Did you ever see us here? Two old fools walking along the shore by the light of the moon?"

"Moonlight has the best scout for the imagination, or so I was told," he chuckled and gave her hand an affectionate squeeze. "I hoped. For so long, I hoped this was where life would lead me." He stopped walking then, pulling Anne towards him and laying a hand against her soft cheek. He kissed her soundly, as though they were nothing but newlyweds themselves. "You have given me life, Anne-girl."

"Thank you for never giving up on me, Gil," she said, blushing even in the moon's soft glow.

"Thank you for loving me, Anne."

The morning sun streamed in through the bedroom curtains, casting lace shadows across the floor and dancing over Rilla's face. She got up and peeked out the window, and the morning seemed to smile back at her.

"Rilla-my-Rilla," Ken called from their bed. "It wasn't a dream. You are indeed mine?"

"Yes, my love. I am yours and you are mine. Now," she continued, feeling very grown up. She was, after all, a married woman now. "What shall I make for breakfast?"

"That can wait," Ken said, getting to his feet and taking her hand in his. "All throughout the war, I've dreamed of this moment, Rilla-my-Rilla, and I'll not have it taken from me."

Rilla's heart was thundering wildly. Through those long, lonely years, he had thought of this? Of her? And to think of those times when she wondered if he could ever really love her! His dark grey eyes gazing at her pulled her back through time to the dance at Four Winds when he had first noticed her as more than just a girl to tease. As if reading her mind, as lovers often do, Ken offered his hand to her and asked properly, "Can we have a dance?"

"Ken, don't be ridiculous," she giggled, blushing, but so desperately trying to be mature like Di always was. "There's no music!"

"Don't put on airs, Mrs. Ford, they don't suit you," he teased and opened their window. The song of the birds singing their early morning song, the waves crashing, and the whisper of the wind echoed in her ears. "Use that wonderful imagination of yours, Rilla. Listen to the music of the morning! My ankle is quite better. May we have a dance?" He winked at her, his hand still extended for her to take.

Rilla laughed. Her smile was radiant as she took his hand and he swept her up into his arms. "How is your ankle?"