3. Summer 39 (1/2)

chapter iii

the summer of 1939 was a very remarkable season in julia's life.

there wasn't a day when she could feel bored or tired and these two blessed months were like a real heaven to her with all her family together and endless talking, joking, dancing and singing every single day. of course, she had some time alone, once in a while, when she rode on river across the fields and along the sandy beaches of four winds.

but she spent some of her evenings walking along the shore with rose, cilia, luna and leslie and some others with blythe while sitting under the white lady in rainbow valley, listening to blythe's newest poems and re-reading the old ones together.

if that's not what heaven will look like, then i don't intend on dying at all. she said one afternoon in the middle of july.

everyone was aware of julia's romance with troy rogers. no one was quite happy with it and that was something julia couldn't understand at all. "troy is a nice boy, don't get me wrong, darling, but… i just don't think that this is something serious." faith told her daughter one evening.

"i don't intend on heaving something serious with troy. i shall not marry him nor anyone else, if that's what you mean." julia replied coldly and her mother couldn't help but to roll her eyes.

but julia enjoyed how troy was surprising her with their dances without music, right in the middle of the road; and running through the forest while holding each others hands; and covering her with compliments that would cause her cheeks turn fiery; and kissing her… it was all so sweet that julia thought that it might get serious, one day in the future. but then troy, too, didn't seem to consider their relationship as serious one either.

whatever the level of seriousness of their relationship, julia didn't think about him very often when she was dancing with gilly or joking with rose or chattering with blythe or even while riding on river through the fields. well, after all, i will not marry anyone who can't tame me. she thought to herself, remembering that she was a bathsheba after all.

on one warm morning in august, julia woke up very early and didn't quite know what to do with herself. she opened the door of her wardrobe and put on her horse-riding suite and wrapped her neck with her ancient red scarf, which she always used to put on for riding.

she prepared river for a ride, huming the song of her parents' youth called let me call you sweetheart, and decided on galloping to the rainbow valley because (surprisingly) she had never seen it during the sunrise.

blythe ford was sitting under the tree lovers, quietly reading "the lady of shalott", but looked up when he heard a fammiliar sound of horse hooves. blythe looked almost stunned by the view he saw. he even thought for one precious moment that he was watching a heroine riding on her horse towards him with a wonderful sunrise behind her.

she looked very dashing and do fair, he later reflected.

"why, blythe, what are you doing here at this early hour?" julia asked when she jumped down from river and came closer to her cousin with a smile crossing her face.

"good morning to you, dear friend." he smiled "i couldn't sleep at all today, i felt just as if some fairy from rainbow valley was calling and calling me to come here." blythe answered and grinned when julia sat next to him, her cheeks positively red and her hair all messed up "and what about you?"

"i could sleep but i woke up an hour ago and i just felt like watching a sunrise here." she said and put a strand of her hair behind her ear. she glanced at the sunrise behind her and was simply astonished by its beauty and more importantly by the beauty of rainbow valley under the spell of it.

it seemed as if blythe should recall a poem or at least a stanza from a poem about sunrises but he couldn't, and he thought that he didn't have to. he and julia just remained in silence for a while in the magical air surrounding them.

"tell me blythe: how come some people don't believe in god when there are such wonderful things on the earth like sunrises?" julia whispered wonderingly. she thought that she musn't speak too loud or the spell would

eak.

"people are just… human. and this is not a good thing at times." blythe whispered in a serious tone.

julia chuckled quietly and laid her head on his shoulder.

"i will be so lonely this year with you, walt, gilly, rose and jake going to redmond…" she sighed.

"i don't suppose that you will feel lonely, you have a too large family, haven't you?" blythe laughed and so did his friend. blythe didn't mention troy who would also stay in glen, because the very thought of troy being with julia all the time when he would be studying poetry miles away was just too much for him.

"and merry asked me already to teach him some of the new steps for swing dancing." she grinned.

"see? you'll have plenty of things to do. and we will write to each other anyway, won't we?" he asked almost beggingly.

"of course. long letters." she answered with a grin.

blythe smiled and then they fell silent for a moment. it was never awkward for either of them to remain silent with each other, and that was something which neither of them had with any other of their cousins.

blythe looked down on julia and held back the desire to sigh in delight under the perfect image he was looking at. even though julia's hair was all messed-up, her face fiery, and there were small circles under her sleepy eyes, he thought that he could never call her more beautiful if she was wearing a beautiful and fashionable evening-dress. she was a real definition of "the woman of his dreams".

"blythe?" julia asked him quietly.

"yes?" he replied softly.

"do you think that this weird rumour about the war coming is true?" she asked almost

eathlessly.

"i don't know, sheba. for once and for all i can't feel sure either way about this war. although gil and owen are positive about it." he said and couldn't help but smile at the rememberance of his

others' funny faces when they talked about going to europe just a day before.

"walt and especially merry are positive as well. and they are so enthusiastic it makes me feel sick. but just like you, i don't know what to think about it." she sighed and looked in his eyes.

"then let's not think about it anymore." blythe said and kissed julia's forehead tenderly "but what we can think of is "the lady of shalott"." he opened the small book he held in his hands with a smile on his face. julia nodded with a grin on her lips and blythe started reading the first verses outloud.