Daisy in the garden of roses {Gilbert Blyth x Oc}

Window vines

Coughing as she entered the dark room Alice swatted in front of her face, dust caked the stale air. She could barely see a few feet in front of her let alone the full room. She pressed her hands to the wall looking for some form of light. Her grandfather was making constant updates to the house, he added in light bulbs along with purchasing spares shortly after they reached Avonlea. Even after his death, the house managed to stay modern for its time.

Her fingers ran against what can only be described as a makeshift light switch. Within a few moments, the room was flooded with full light. Bookshelves lined the wall packed with books. A lone round window sat at the far right side of the room, it was large with paintings of vines across the rims. She had never noticed it from the outside and rightfully so it faced the trees that lined everywhere that could be seen.

A large black chair sat in front of the window beside it a round table with a stack of books resting in the center of a pile beside it. Stepping over fallen books, along with a few boards, she made her way closer to a bookshelf. Most of the books had grown some form of mold. Peering at the shelf beside the chair she noticed they were all intact no mold in sight. Running her fingers along the back of a few books she could feel the creases from years of reading. Just with a glance, it could be seen that each book, withering or not, had been read time and time again.

Moving closer to the chair it could be seen that vines were hanging on the window. Leaking through the roof the vines wrapped around a few books. It seemed to have been years since the room had been inhabited. Sitting in the chair the velvet danced against Alice's skin, she laughed embarrassed by the discovery.

Leaning forward she picked up a book from the table. Like the others, its spine was broken in and corners of a few pages bent inward others in the opposite direction. Turning it over she ran her hand down the cover of the book, Pride and prejudice. Flipping through the book she noticed underlined sentences and notes written in the corners and along the sides.

Flipping to the back of the book a note was inscribed on the yellowed paper. She read it aloud to herself, "For my dearest Rosemary, You may have not been born with the Daisy name and yet you contain the curious fire in your eyes. Lovingly Henry Daisy." The message was short and yet sweet. The graying ink was full of love, the kind you only dream of in fairytales.

Setting back down the book she held a small smile. She began flipping through the books beside the chair humming along to a song her father used to sing. She didn't know the words just the tune. The song was in German, it's a song that had been sung for generations in her father's family.

As the night grew so did her curiosity, she began to read books starting with the shelf closest to the window. After a few hours, she had only finished two of the books from the first shelf. With the third book in hand, she began to pace around the room. She was fighting to keep herself awake. She feared that if she fell asleep she may dream of what this room made her forget. 

She made it a few chapters in her feet tapping on the wood. She nearly tripped over a fallen book every so many step. She stuck her finger in the book to mark her place, and turning her head she looked out the window. The sun was beginning to rise and she had to leave before any of her siblings caught her. This room in a way felt like her discovery, it was her prize away from the chaos below.

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A Tad bit of info: All of the books Alice read had some form of notes and underlining on almost every page.