Florence - (G.B.)/(B.A.)

Chapter 16

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Familiar Stranger

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Florence sat in The Secret Sanctuary by herself one afternoon. She'd named the little hideout in the woods 'The Secret Sanctuary' for no reason, really. The day that Anne showed her the place, the two girls had decided collectively on the name, feeling it both suitable and mysterious. As of now, only those two knew about it, and they intended to keep it that way until they found someone worth sharing it with.

Snow still inhabited the grounds of Avonlea, but it wasn't very cold outside. So, with that in mind, Florence had set off earlier that day with a book in hand and made her way to the woods for no reason in particular.

Little Women was her favourite book, and ever since she'd first received it for her tenth birthday so long ago, Florence had re-read it a dozen times. It was her go-to novel whenever she was attempting to get away from her own reality. When her parents had passed away, she had read the novel in one sitting. When she found out that she was moving from Alberta, she'd read it once again purely from the sadness of having to leave her lovely home. Although Florence didn't exactly know why she was re-reading it this time around ⸺ she was able to put the dots together and realize that all the previous times were out of something upsetting going on in her life at the moment.

Though she wasn't sure whether it was from Mr Blythe's recent passing, or perhaps from it has been a week ever since his son had last spoken to her. The Robinson girl found it understandable because they certainly didn't end on a good note ⸺ but literally nobody had heard from the boy since the funeral. Maybe he was still trying to get the hang of things? Florence was once in his shoes and felt much the same as he did, and she remembered needing a lot of support from her family at the time ⸺ so, why wasn't Gilbert doing the same?

It had her angry and confused.

The soft crunch of the snow was heard from outside the hideout, capturing Florence out of her absent-minded thoughts. She bookmarked her page, set it aside, and crawled over to the makeshift door. It was an older lady trudging carefully across the woods. The woman looked like she was practically freezing out there as her arms were crossed and a scarf tightly pulled around her neck.

Feeling slight pity, Florence called, "Excuse me, Miss!"

The older woman turned her head, shock clouding her eyes as she breathed out a sigh of relief a moment later at the sight of the younger ⸺ harmless girl. "Good heavens, child! You just about put me through cardiac arrest."

Florence smiled apologetically and stepped out of the hideout. "I'm sorry about that. I just noticed how cold you looked and wanted to invite you inside."

The woman squinted her eyes suspiciously. She looked around herself before landing her gaze back on the younger girl. "I don't even know who you are."

"We can start with names?" Florence hesitantly offered out her hand. "I'm Florence. Florence Robinson. And you are?"

"Josephine Barry," came a sceptical response, shaking the lent out hand for a moment and letting go.

Florence motioned towards The Secret Sanctuary with a grin. "Would you like to join me? It's rather chilly out here."

"Would your little hideout be enough to fend out the cold?"

"Well, it's a lot warmer here for sure."

"Hmm . . . I'll visit for a few minutes, just to warm up my hands."

Together, Josephine and Florence made their way inside the small shelter. Florence wondered if Anne would mind that she let another person inside their hideout, let another person know about the place. Reasoning that it wasn't like she let in some sort of terrible person in ⸺ or worse, a bully ⸺ the girl felt that she was doing no harm. She would tell Anne about the visit either way because, after all, she was the one who created the area in the first place.