Remains To Be Seen

Boy's Been Drafted

**Six Months Ago**
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Dear Anne,
I couldn't go through with it. I thought I could settle with good. But I don't think I'd ever be okay with just a good life and a rich wife.
I know you think I'd gone to Charlottetown to propose. Anyone with a sensible mind would see that at the rational thing. I didn't. That train ride gave me the time to think. And after you had tried to wish me and Ms.Rose in your words every happiness, I knew it wasn't right.
The idea of you being unhappy and alone frightened me. I know it was my fault. You mustn't feel any need to forgive me because I would not forgive my own actions.
I was there, the night of the schoolhouse fire. It made my feelings more apparent than ever. When I found out you were inside I was broken. The building was nearly to fall apart. And you came out in the nick of time. Just to express how you'd lost me forever. You never did.
What I'm trying to say is I still love you Anne. Almost would say love is a strong word but to me it's not quite strong enough. The four letters does not do my feelings for you justice.
I will make it up to you Princess Cordelia. That is a promise. We will have a future together. I know we will.

Love,
Gilly the Great

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Anne,
I haven't even sent my first few letters. But I keep writing them. I've been drafted to the war. It was either me or Sebastian. I could not let Bash take my place and risk his life with Delphine at home. He needs to take care of her. Well, he and Miss Stacey.
Funny you should know that Bash and Miss Stacey are an item. They have been for a bit. Very under the brush but very much so. It's how I left the home. In Bash's name. He owns the orchard now. In case anything happens here.
Being here has made it difficult to have hope. All I have is this pen of yours I forgot to give back. But it's given me hope. I carry it in my pocket every day and night. Some of the other men make fun of me for it but it does not matter. It holds meaning to me.
Anyways, I'm thinking of you everyday. I'm still trying to figure out my plan to make you love me again. I haven't quite figured it out.

Much love,
Gilbert
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Princess Cordelia,
The sun beads perspiration on my skin near every second. It is so much warmer here than I'd thought imaginable. I'd just recovered from what they call a heat stroke. I'd never heard of a case. But I just was one.
I've come with few ideas. If only I had a creative mind like yours. You'd know exactly how to make yourself fall in love. You could make the trees and leaves fall in love. You made the world lay at your feet in love. You made me fall head over heels in love.
The days are lonely. I miss your firey hair and your explosive temper. It was probably as warm as it is here. You're temper that is. I remember when we first met and I called you carrots. I got a slate to the face. But my perfect bone structure shattered your slate instead.
I was going to buy you a new one. But by the next time you'd came to class you already had one. So if you ever go to Bash's, you can find a new one with an orange bow in the trunk at the end of my bed. Sure it's been four years. But maybe your children could use it one day.

I'll see you again someday Anne-Girl.

Take care,
Gilbert
p.s. this is a picture of me and the men I share a tent with here in South Africa. Good men. You'd find them to be quite good kindred spirits.
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Gilbert
        "Who's the girl you keep writing to Blythe!" One of my fellow soldiers teased tossing a crumpled paper at me.
        "Oh hush it Jameson," I scoffed closing the newest letter.
The last letter. By the time all 12 get to her it should be timed right. I was coming home in 5 months... hopefully. A year of war and they send me and others from PEI home. That's what they promised. I'd written Bash back and forth planning what to do with Anne. If she decides to read them. I think that's why I sent them so early. So just in case she puts off reading them.
I left of not so great terms. I wouldn't blame her for even thinking of burning them. But knowing her she loves a good, what's what would call a "quite romantical correspondence between two very forbidden lovers". She also loves receiving mail. I remember that from the steamboat.
So far here, at war, I'd only received correspondence from two people. Bash and to my surprise Diana Berry. She had moved to Paris for finishing school. That was the plan for a long time. But I'd never imagined her leaving Anne alone in Avonlea.
Diana wrote often and quickly. Then again it wasn't too far between France and South Africa like it was between here and Prince Edward Island. Diana and I wrote weekly. She was helping come up with ideas to convince Anne I was sorry. And ways to make Anne love me again. Though Diana always repeated that I didn't need to do a grand gesture. Even in the latest correspondence she told me not to do anything crazy for Anne.
So I didn't. All I did was send her the letters. The last one I wrote asking her to go to the train station in four months time. Assuming the normal delivery took about a months time according to Bash's and my own letters. That was the average time it took. I wrote down the date I'd be back too. Or the date I told her to be at the station. I didn't say why. Just that she needed to be there. And I just hoped the letters were enough.

They had to be