Anne with an E - A Winter Journey

5 - Was she in love?

           

Anne tried desperately to make eye contact with Diana and Ruby so she could signal at them to make something up.  She wasn't sure why, but she did not want Gilbert to know that they were talking about love and romance.  Unfortunately, the girls were too busy focusing on their footsteps to notice Anne's glare and Ruby had already started to speak.  She was eager to answer Gilbert's question and felt more confident than usual since she was walking in front of him and couldn't be distracted by his handsome face.

"Oh, Anne was giving us advice about love!" gushed Ruby.  "It was wonderful!  It made me feel all warm inside." She stole a quick glance back at Gilbert and found that he was staring at her, mouth open.  She'd never seen him so interested in something she had to say so she decided to continue.  "I sure do hope to fall in love someday," added Ruby, the sentence laced with intention.  "The kind Anne was talking about where it's so good that it doesn't matter how long it lasts."

Gilbert was utterly dumbfounded.  He couldn't speak.  He stared at Ruby unable to believe the words that she was saying.  "Anne had given them advice about love? She knew about love? Had Anne been in love? Was she in love right now? Who could Anne be in love with and why hadn't he noticed?" Gilbert's mind whirred with possibilities and questions.  Suddenly he felt like he didn't know anything at all.  Except he did know one thing: he was jealous.

Anne was too afraid to turn around as Ruby wittered on about her dreams of finding true love.  She felt so many emotions inside. 

On the one hand, Anne was frustrated because Ruby wasn't giving an accurate description of their earlier conversation.  Anne had been talking about appreciating all kinds of love - not just the romantic kind - but she didn't want to embarrass her dear friend by contradicting her in front of the boy she liked so she kept quiet. 

On the other hand, Anne felt embarrassed beyond compare.  She didn't want Gilbert to think she was the kind of girl who had ideas about love, especially romance.  Of course, she did have those ideas but that was none of his business.  "Gilbert probably doesn't have a romantic bone in his body!" she though amusingly.  "He wouldn't recognise love if it hit him in the face!" She smirked at her own wit.  "He would read Pride and Prejudice and not like Mr Darcy!" She had to stifle a snigger at that one. "Gilbert Blythe wouldn't know love if I walked up and kissed him on the lips!" As soon as the thought passed through her mind, Anne felt the smile fall from her face.  For some reason joking about Gilbert and romance didn't seem so funny anymore.  "But why?" wondered Anne, "It wasn't like she wanted Gilbert to be romantic... did she?"

Before Anne could untangle her confusing thoughts about Gilbert Blythe and romance, she was interrupted by Diana pointing ahead of them.

"Umm, guys? We have definitely been here before.  Look, those are our footprints!"

A/N - thank you so much if you have read this far! Please vote and comment if you have any thoughts or ideas. As I said before, this is my first ever fan fic so I'd love your opinions!