In the Woods When First We Met

133. Slight Changes

That night Anne slept easier than she had in a while. She felt a little embarrassed of Diana knowing, but she was so relieved that Diana wasn't repulsed by her. And she was even happier that Diana would be able to walk with her and could help her with the other girls too.

In the morning, she sat in bed for a little while, waiting to see if there was any nausea before she got up. No, she was fine this morning. Happily, she got ready for school and went downstairs to breakfast.

"Anne, you look like you slept well," Marilla commented.

"I did," Anne said with a smile. She gave Marilla a hug before she left for school.

When Gilbert met her, Anne greeted him and then said, "Guess what? Diana's mother is okay with me again, so now we can walk to school together!"

She had thought he would be glad, but noticed a very brief look of disappointment cross his face, before he replaced it with a smile. "That's great, Anne."

"What's wrong?" Anne asked. "I thought you'd be relieved. No more getting up extra early to walk all the way over here and waiting in the snow."

"Yeah. It'll be great," Gilbert said.

They walked along a couple minutes without saying anything.

"What?!" Anne finally asked, knowing something wasn't right.

Gilbert shrugged. Finally he said, "I like walking with you."

Before Anne could respond to that, Gilbert said, "I'm glad things went well with Diana. I know it wasn't easy to keep something like that from your best friend. Now that she knows, things will be easier, eh?"

"Probably," Anne agreed. Then she remembered something Diana had said and brought it up with Gilbert: "Diana said she thought it might be a crime."

Gilbert nodded. "Oh, I'm sure it is."

Anne was surprised. "You are?"

"A man would be hauled away for attacking a woman to rob her or beat her, how could it not be a crime to attack a woman to impose himself on her in that way?"

"You never said anything about it."

"You didn't want your family to confront Billy. Pointing out that it could be a crime wasn't exactly going to help."

She thought about that.

"Anne...I should tell you something. There have been a couple times that I confronted Billy."

"What?!"

"Yeah. After it happened- and after that day you ran out of school- when you hit me with your slate- I was going to meet you, but Billy came up to me and he started to insult you and I finally just let him have it."

"You hit him?"

Gilbert nodded.

Anne was okay with the hitting part.

"I told him I knew what he did to you, and that if he bothered you again, I'd rat him out."

"That's why you were able to get him to stop bothering me at first," Anne realized. "But, Gilbert, he didn't stop."

"I know," Gilbert said. "But I couldn't make good on my threat, because ratting him out meant telling your secret and I couldn't do that."

Anne calmed down.

"He knows you know, then." She stated.

Gilbert nodded. "I told him you didn't tell me, that I had just figured it out on my own. ...I didn't want him to think you were going around telling people, because I worried he'd retaliate."