Amazing Grace // Gilbert Blythe

Chapter 4

The walk back was quite pleasant and the two shared jolly banter at the expense of the odd appearance of their professor. 

"He really would fit right in with any caricature of a french person with such a moustache." Grace giggled to which Gilbert's smile only widened. 

"Oh truly! And with hair so large he could perhaps blend into any display at a wig store." Gilbert retaliated setting Grace into another fit of giggles only to realise they had reached her gate. 

"Thank you for walking me I found it rather enjoyable." Grace smiled up at him. 

"Of course it was a pleasure for me too. In fact I enjoyed it so much I'd like to do it again. How about I walk you to school tomorrow?" Gilbert asked with an ever so charming grin on his face that Grace said yes and bid him farewell with a silly grin on her own face all the way up until her front door. What she didn't know was that Gilbert held the same silly grin all the way across the field to his own home. 

That night felt rather lonely for the two of them as they sat in their respective houses. Grace was sat by the fire her book in her hand which was clearly not as interesting to her anymore as was whatever day dream she was having. And Gilbert sat by his fathers bed as he slept thinking of all that had happened that day. 

Morning came and Grace rushed to put on her clothes and eat a croissant that her maid had prepared in order to not be late to the gate. She had over slept after she had spent the whole of the previous night falling in and out of fitful sleep. When she reached her gate Gilbert was there smiling like a ray of sunshine while Grace had the ribbon in her hair half done and half a croissant left. 

"Sorry I'm late I over slept. I was having awful nightmares last night." She excused breathing slightly heavy.

"Not to worry," Gilbert smiled before he seemed to notice something,"here." He reached up behind her hair before pulling out the ribbon. He motioned for her to turn around and she did as told, ever so gently she felt his fingers part her hair and tie the perfect bow about it. When she turned back around the were stood much closer, almost only an inch apart.

"Thank you," She breathed. 

"No problem," Gilbert smiled kindly. "We best be off to school though or else we really will be late." 

Grace nodded and the two made their way to school, discussing the days agenda and what subjects they were likely to cover. She only realised her mistake when she entered the school building and Dianna came rushing over. 

"Grace! Whatever were you doing with Gilbert Blythe? If any of the girls saw you they'd be bound to tell Ruby and she'd get ever so upset." She whispered frantically looking about as suspiciously as one could get.

"Oh I'm sorry you're right. It meant nothing though, I'd only happen to run into him and thought it would be rude to ignore him." Grace excused and all though it wasn't completely true it felt far more of a lie then it should have done. 

Diana warned her to be more careful in case she hurt Ruby's feelings and Grace agreed. The two took their places, morning lessons passed without much happening at tea she split her food with the girls before joining Cole again and they talked about the most beautiful things in nature, ranking them in order. In the afternoon lessons Grace was sat imagining she were a sailor and that she was on a search to find the ship her husband had been wrecked on in order to rescue him when all of a sudden Anne stood up and swung her blackboard over Gilbert's head.

Grace watched on in pure shock as he whispered something to her and sat back down. Mr. Phillips wrote something on the board and told Anne to stand below it, only she didn't stand for long, instead running out of the classroom. It wasn't until after school she found out what happened. 

"And then he called he carrots and you know how very sensitive she is about her hair." Dianna finished. 

"Oh my, that really is frighting." Ruby said, "to think she could fly into a temper at any moment.

"Well it wasn't really any moment," defended Grace, "he did call her names, although I wouldn't expect such a strong reaction." 

The conversation carried on and Grace broke from the group making her way home. She walked quickly as she could in hopes of leaving before Gilbert could catch her, she really didn't want to disappoint the girls. She had thought she had gotten away as she reached the beginning of her lane and slowed down only to be tapped on the shoulder by none other then Gilbert Blythe. 

"Why did you leave so quickly?" He asked panting slightly after hurrying after her for so long. 

"I can't walk with you anymore." She said as icily as she could, although she wasn't sure how successful she was, Gilbert was still taken aback. 

"Why ever not?" 

"I just can't." She answered shortly.

"Well if you don't want to walk with me then fine, we won't." He said angrily.

Grace just nodded before turning and walking away. 

"Grace," he called after her, "I thought we were friends?" and she couldn't help but feel a slight pang in her heart as she walked away to be loosing what had looked to be a promising friendship. 

That night she sat in her bed and watched all the lights flicker off in the Blythe household. "How utterly ridiculous to be watching out the window like this" she thought and then a single tear rolled down her cheek. "How stupid to be crying over something so small, after all we were hardly even friends." And the the tears started to stream. "How silly that I cannot be friends with him just because Ruby cannot bear it. He really did seem like a real friend, not like that Josie Pye who only criticised and he's ever so nice. Surely I shouldn't let them tell me who I can't be acquainted with. They don't very much like that I hang out with Cole either, Anne and Diana don't mind but the others think we're courting. Why can't we just be friends?" It was then that Grace decided that crying over it was nonsense and that if she wanted to be friends with Gilbert Blythe she would be friends with Gilbert Blythe and resolved to meet him by his gate the next morning.