Part 2 of "In The Woods When First We Met"

208. Mrs. Moody Spurgeon

The morning was no better. She struggled to get out of bed. She did not feel sleepy, she felt as if a weight had been placed on her shoulders.

It took more energy than she had to dress for the day and make it down the steps.

Matthew drove her to school, and she did not talk. Something in her eyes concerned Matthew. It was as if she was an empty vessel; there was nothing behind them.

In school, Anne found herself swallowing over and over, as if there was something in the way of her voice.

"Are you all right, Anne?" Diana asked, her brow creased.

Anne looked at her for a long moment before she nodded.

"Listen- did you tell anyone else about the baby? I mean- how there isn't one?" Diana whispered.

"Oh- oh, I'd forgotten about that," Anne said absently.

Diana was surprised that it could be forgotten at all.

"Um-" Anne swallowed again- "I told Gilbert."

"So no wedding after all, then?" Diana asked teasingly.

Anne's expression did not change.

"I was only kidding, Anne. I knew you weren't going to marry, I knew that was all about Ruby! Have you told her yet?"

Anne just shook her head.

"Do you want me to tell her?" Diana asked. "You don't seem particularly social today."

"I can tell her," Anne finally said. "I've forgotten why I didn't."

Diana frowned. "You said you wanted to make sure she was dead gone on Moody first."

Something in Anne's mind finally clicked. "Oh. Yes...I'll go do that now."

Ruby poked Jane to make her stop talking as Anne approached the window sill they were sitting on.

"Ruby," Anne said, the one-word greeting taking up far too much of her energy.

"Yes?" Ruby asked pleasantly. Jane looked back and forth between them.

"How much do you like Moody?" she asked bluntly. At least she remembered to keep her voice down.

Ruby swooned. "Oh, he's just the most perfect gentleman. He's walked me home three times now and he always carries my books for me and offers me his jacket in case I'm cold. And he says the funniest things, without even meaning to! At first, he thought I was making fun of him, because he wasn't meaning to be funny. But I told him he's just delightfully funny in the most natural way. He calls me pretty, too, and he blushes just adorably when he says it." She sighed. "It's positively heartbreaking that I wasted three whole years thinking about Gilbert when Moody was pining away for me and I didn't even know how much I'd like him!"

Anne was relieved. "So you don't want to marry Gilbert anymore?"

"Anne, I can't marry Gilbert, you're marrying him. ...And he's so noble to do it!"

"Well...the thing is, Ruby...even if Gilbert and I didn't get married, you still wouldn't want him? Because you've found Moody, and he's yours now? ...And you're really happy together?"

Ruby said dramatically, "I could never love another, not in a thousand years." Then she nodded and said practically, "It helps, of course, that he worships the ground I walk on."

"Of course," Anne said. "Logically I suppose it would. Now, about weddings, though-"

"Oh, Anne, I wish I hadn't let you have all my wedding plans! I was thinking only yesterday how I have to start planning my wedding with Moody and I'm starting from scratch! I don't have anything at all, I gave it all to you!" Ruby looked crushed. "And of course I can't take back my plans, because I can't do everything the same as your wedding- how humiliating it would be to use the same baskets, and the same color dresses, and fixing our hair the same way! I'm going to have to plan everything new, all over again!"

"Actually, Ruby, it turns out I'm not getting married after all, so-"

"You're not?"

"No. There isn't going to be a baby, so you can tell your mother...d'you think your mother will be upset at me, for not going ahead with a wedding?" Anne asked fearfully.

Ruby laughed as if Anne was being silly. "Of course not! She never wanted you to get married, she only thought you should- you shouldn't let it be born out of wedlock! She'll be so glad you're not having a baby! ...By the way, Anne, how'd you find out for sure?"

Anne hesitated. "You don't have any womanly flowering time when you're expecting. So once I got it, I knew."

Jane let go of a big breath.

Anne looked over at her as if noticing for the first time that Jane was sitting there, too- but Jane wouldn't meet her eyes.

Anne realized that Jane already felt stuck in the middle of her brother and her friend. So what things would have been like for Jane if her new friend was expecting a baby that would, technically- unavoidably- be her brother's baby too- Anne did not know how she and Jane could have managed to navigate that and remain friends.

Anne turned back to Ruby.

"So with you and Moody being all happy together...would you still be upset, now, if I'm friends with Gilbert?"

"Of course not, Anne. I think it's nice, you and Gilbert being friends and all. He's no Moody, but...do you think I should go by Ruby MacPherson, or Ruby Gillis-MacPherson? Or maybe everyone will just call me Mrs. Moody Spurgeon. It pains me to think I'm not twenty-one; how long I'll have to wait to become a bride!"

She sighed, then perked up as she asked, "Oh, Anne- since you're not getting married after all, can I have all my plans back?"

Anne smiled, but it was a hollow smile. She was happy that Ruby still wanted to be her friend, and she was happy that Ruby didn't mind her being friends with Gilbert.

Why didn't that make her feel any better?