Sequel to the award-nominated Home to Avonlea, consistently placed at #1 in shirbert and #annewithane
"I love you so much, more than I've ever loved anything."
After the traumatic events of the winter just passed, Anne and Gilbert must return to the...
Gilbert plummeted off the cliff into the dark abyss.
The churning river below growled below and rushed up to meet him. He let go of Scarlett and they plunged into the icy cold water, the initial shock hurting his body but not as bad as his heart hurt. The weight of the fall shot him under the water and the current dragged him along through the darkness. When he resurfaced, he looked all around, spluttering and coughing up water but Scarlett had vanished. It was only after gulping a lungful of air that his brain began to work again and he realised if he had survived the fall then it was possible that Anne would have..
This spark of hope was enough to propel his aching muscles through the water, following the current. The moon broke out from behind the clouds and shone a pale light across the water which was rushing and colliding in foamy waves. Gilbert blinked up through his wet curls and saw rocks up ahead. He pushed harder, fighting the current to reach the bank to the right which was formed of rocks and grassy earth. He needed to get there before he got dashed on the rocks up ahead. Dark thoughts intruded - What if that had happened to Anne? What if she hadn't been able to swim to the bank? She had her hands tied after all.
Don't think about that.
Gilbert reached the edge of the bank and clutched onto a slippery rock. Gasping in exhaustion and coughing up more water, he rested for a moment. Then the image of Anne falling flooded his mind again, her petrified expression and the regret in her eyes. It contracted his heart painfully.
He felt like screaming in frustration. Why could they never be happy? Why was there always something or somebody to keep them apart? It was never easy for them.
He had to find her, regardless of the state he found her in. Gilbert pulled himself up on the rocks, nearly losing his balance several times in his haste and grazing his palms on the jagged rocks. Once he was high enough onto the bank he looked around. The bank was cut deep onto the edge of the woods, with the looming pines crowding the hill. He looked up and saw the cliff, rising up to meet the cloud-strewn sky. The rain lashed down between the trees. Gilbert shivered. He was drenched even before he'd dived into the river. From a distance he could see now that the fall was not so high as he'd initially thought.
Scarlett could have survived too.
Where could Anne be? She couldn't have gotten far with her hands tied. It was hard to see in the dark but Gilbert saw between the rocks was a channel leading down a small waterfall into a gladed pool. Beyond that the river split into several deep streams... He'd follow every single one until he found Anne if he had to.
Gilbert pushed his wet hair back from his eyes and set off.
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...
Anne had taken the fall worse than Gilbert, who'd mostly landed on Scarlett. Anne had hurt her leg quite badly as she'd hit the water, dragged under before surging to the surface again. The unrelenting river battered her along mercilessly, dragging her under and pushing her up without barely a moment to recover. With er hands tied there was no way of fighting the current and it pulled her easily like a rag doll. Anne couldn't swim very well anyway but with her hands bound all she could do was keep her mouth and eyes closed as much as she could as she was buffeted along, rolling with the water and dipping under regularly as the churning picked up. Rocks appeared up ahead, jagged and black. Anne felt fear alight in her veins. She'd be dashed on the rocks! There was no way she could swim out of the way.
