In the Woods When First We Met

132. Darling Diana

Anne was shunned the rest of the day by the other girls, but Diana was reserving judgement until she heard Anne's side of things.

After school let out, Gilbert waited at the edge of the woods for Anne as he always did, but today Anne did not come alone. Diana was by her side as she approached Gilbert.

Gilbert did not have a conversation with them. He nodded in acknowledgement of Diana, and then looked at Anne, his face serious. "Is she, ah...she gonna join the club?" he asked.

Anne nodded.

Gilbert reached out and grabbed Anne's hand, squeezing it, even though Diana was right there to see it. Then it occurred to Anne that it didn't matter now, if Diana saw it, because she was about to know everything.

"I'll leave the two of you to talk, then," he said quietly. "Diana, would you walk her home?"

Diana nodded, feeling too dazed to say anything. She had no idea what was happening, or why they were holding hands.

Gilbert asked, "Is that all right with you, Anne?"

Diana stared at the strange sight, brief as it was, and then Gilbert let go of Anne's hand and walked away through the trees.

Diana turned to face Anne, puzzled. "What club?"

Anne looked sad. "The one nobody wants to be in," she answered.

Then she took Diana's hand. "I have a lot to tell you," she began. "And I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I just..." Anne stopped talking, looking helplessly at Diana, as if it was too much to try to explain why she had kept something from her bosom friend. "Please don't be angry with me for hiding things from you."

Diana, seeing that Anne was truly burdened by something, leaned close, her deep eyes looking straight into Anne's heart, and told her, "We pinkie swore to be friends for as long as the sun and the moon shall endure, didn't we? I don't know why you were hiding things from me, but I'm sure you had a good reason for it."

Anne could have cried. She bit her lip and squeezed Diana's hand tighter.

"You don't know how good it is to hear that," she said. "It's been awful."

"Why don't you start from the beginning?" Diana asked.

"I will," Anne said, wiping her eyes. "I know it's cold out, but come with me...I'll tell you everything."

They made their way through the woods.

As they walked, Anne thought back to a conversation she'd had with Gilbert some afternoon many weeks ago:

"I'm worried because I thought you would get better and you're not, you're getting worse," he had said.

Anne had looked at him, offended.

"I don't mean you're a worse person. I mean worse like something is wrong, Anne, and I don't know that we can fix it."

"So you want out? I didn't expect you to have to go on dealing with this forever-"

"No, I don't want out. I told you, I'm with you. We're in this together. Ok? We always have been. But I never thought it was a good idea to keep this a secret. Remember? I said right from the beginning that other people should know."

"You want to go telling someone now?! You promised me you wouldn't tell my secret! You promised." Anne had pleaded, feeling anger rising inside her.

Gilbert had shaken his head and said, "Don't think of it as the secret getting out."

"How else am I supposed to think of it? The secret would be getting out." Anne had snapped at him