1. Chapter 1 (1/2)

chapter i

"april is the month made for springtime." diana blythe announced as she looked out of the window of her room, looking with

ight, shining eyes at the rainbow valley glancing straight back at her.

it was a delightful morning, full of dew in the air and sun coming through the clouds which seemed entirely white. diana, or rather di, always liked to wake up early and watch how the sun appears on the horizon and she especially enjoyed waking up on this particular day in the middle of april 1922. this day was special, as it was marking the first anniversary of shirley's marriage to una. di sighed in delight, remembering this magical day which always

ought so many sweet memories into her mind. how radiating and angelic una looked while wearing her mother's old wedding dress and with this timid smile crossing her thin lips. and shirley, oh shirley certainly wasn't shy on that day, instead he danced, he waltzed with his wife for the whole afternoon.

di giggled, remembering how shirley and una laughed quietly together when they stepped on faith's feet while dancing in the garden of the manse. di sighed again, this time dreamily, while putting her hand on her chest. faith and jem were married for three years already and had two twin boys, merry and walt, and now faith was expecting their third child. "when will i find a love like my

others and sisters found?" she questioned herself.

her own twin, nan, was married to jerry for three years already. they had a wee boy john, called by everyone jake, who was now just one year old. and nan was expecting her second baby and was simply swimming in happiness and love, the type of love di hadn't discovered yet. then it was her baby-sister rilla, who certainly couldn't be called a 'baby' anymore with two boys, two and one year old, in each of her arms and a caring husband looking at her with adoration in his eyes. even mary vance of the old was a happy wife of miller douglas for over three years, cradling her little sweet marshall to her

east and smoothing her growing stomach.

she was the bachelor of the family, she knew it perfectly well, and she didn't mind it, not really. it was nice to still have time for having a family, for having her own home. besides, she loved taking care of her nephews, she loved them just as if they were her own little boys. di enjoyed her life as it was, the peaceful life, as peaceful as the life of a private teacher can be, that is. oh, how much she adored teaching! di never knew how much she would love it until she finished her first lesson. but as much as she loved giving private lessons, she decided on taking up another step and so she was patiently waiting for the reply from glen school informing her whether whe will or will not be able to teach there as the teacher of the "queen's group".

di shook her head, ending the line of thoughts in her head and made her way towards her wardrobe. she picked out her much beloved navy-blue suit with white edges around her v-neck collar and as soon as she put it on, her eyes turned to the clock hanging on the wall. she gasped suddenly and shut the door of her wardrobe quite quickly, running downstairs, straight to the ingleside's kitchen.

susan baker was preparing a plate full of her delicious pancakes as di's parents, gilbert and anne, were chatting with each other while sitting around the table. they all looked at di when she entered the room and smiles appeared on their faces. "good morning to you, darling." anne said to her daughter sweetly.

"good morning everyone." di said and grinned at her parents "am i late for

eakfast?" she asked sheepishly.

"i don't suppose there is a proper time for

eakfast in this house anymore, di dear." susan said

iskly and put down the plate with pancakes on the table in front of di "now sit down, and eat, you have a full day ahead of you, and young people need to get enough energy in the morning, and that you may tie to." she said and went back to the kettle again.

di obeyed dear old susan and ate her

eakfast quickly. she kept thinking about this beautiful day and oh, and this exciting day that just awoke. she intended on waking up at seven and instead it was eleven already. "thank god, it's saturday." she thought as she swallowed the last piece of a pancake.

"i think that the postman just crossed our road." dr blythe said and put down his newspaper on the table. he looked at his daughter and winked at her knowingly "i'll get it, di." he said and stood up from his chair.

di clasped her hands together and looked at the ceiling. anne chuckled quietly and put her hand on di's shaking one "you'll be fine, darling, you'll see." she whispered to her and di smiled, releasing a small sigh. gilbert came back to the kitchen with a bunch of letters in his hands. without a word he sat down in his chair again and handed over one small letter into di's pale hands. she took it slowly from him and everyone, even susan, looked at her with interest and excitement in their eyes.

di tore the envelope apart slowly and unfolded the piece of paper. her eyes quickly followed the writing on it and her cheeks flushed with red, it even seemed that her own red hair turned even redder than it was already. "i got it." di whispered and a wide smile appeared on her face "i got a job!" she repeated again and stood up to kiss her mother, father and susan on the cheek, still holding onto the letter in her hand.

"i can't say i'm surprised, di." anne said with pride filling up her grey eyes. gilbert took her hand in his and looked at his daughter with the same expression in his hazel eyes.

"now i know that this day can't be anything else but special!" di exclaimed and ran upstairs to her room, leaving the three adults laughing together.

the little white house, called the farm house, was filled up with all the blythes, merediths and fords that evening.

una and shirley invited only their family (mary vance, or rather mary douglas came too of course), but this meant around twenty people coming to a dinner to the farm house. ever since the two of them married, exactly a year earlier, they became less shy and timid than they once were. di supposed that it was because of the fact that they had each other, and were never on their own.

una was a splendid housewife, the farm house was always cleaned and shiny, all of the windows were transparent, and the shelves glistened and were filled with books. shirley was, to nobody's surprise, a wonderful husband, always standing on the top of his head to make his sweet wife laugh. di could look at them the whole day, they were her "favourite" couple. it was such a pleasant picture, una looking at her husband from time to time, as if she was checking if he's really there, and shirley doing exactly the same thing, and when they eyes met, they would smile, and oh, in such a delightful manner!

it was like a dream to di, a hope even, so that she, one day, would also find this someone who would look at her like shirley looked at una. she was so happy for the two of them to find this one special kind of love with one another, and although she didn't know the whole details of their story, she would learn about them soon enough.

the dinner was delightful, a mixture of cookings from una, susan and rosemary was the best combination of food that can ever be prepared for a party, especially for such an exciting occassion as this one. everyone chatted around the table, all the children were passed from arms to arms, giggling the whole time. the oldest gilly, with his black curls all over his head and shiny grey eyes, a complete image if his proud father, ken, was certainly the most energetic of his boys-cousins. he was running around the table, talking in half-english and half-gilish, making everyone laugh. his younger