32. Preparations (1/2)

chapter xxxi

the first week of august marked the beggining of the final preparations for julia's wedding. faith, una, grandmother blythe and grandmother rosemary started preparing their delicious food and the wedding cake. di, nan and rilla started decorating the garden of the house on the hill, where the wedding would take place. blythe was in a search of his shoes ("julia, have you ever thought what kind of trouble finding the right shoes would make for a man?") and julia with all her cousins, tried to help with everything they could, although most of the time, julia would rather spend her time on dreaming her new life which was just about to begin.

"i am so excited and so very ready for my new life with blythe!" she wrote in her diary four days before her wedding day "will i ever believe that i will be mrs blythe ford? the answer is and always will be: definitely no! the very thought makes me want to stand and jump up and down until i will feel my arms or legs no more. i will be a wife! and blythe, my blythe, will be my husband!

"i can't wait to see my new house, i've seen the photographs of course, but i want to know how i will feel like inside, or how i will like my new garden or the neighbourhood. blythe told me that our house is quite big, not huge but quite spacious and that all of the walls inside are fresh and white! i always wanted my house to have white walls, it looks much

ighter, and cleaner because of that.

"i am really thrilled to know that i will work as a midwife! it will be such an adventure! who knows maybe i'll meet there, in the st. gerard majella's house, new kindred spirits of my own? i am quite positive that i will, at least i hope so.

"there are so many things to dream about!

"i got a letter from olive today and she eventually bought tickets to canada for herself and niall. i will see her for just one day, on my wedding day becasue the day after i will be heading off with blythe to our new home in white sands and olive with niall are going to visit niall's family in charlottetown! i am as excited as olive is for that visit, she will meet niall's canadian family and they will meet her. and of course, olive will eventually see how beautiful our prince edward island is.

"i will see them for just one day but one day can make a real difference!

"blythe finally found himself his "wedding-shoes", as he calls them with a sigh which always makes me laugh. he is so happy about our wedding, and we talk about it all the time and in such detail as if it already happened! he kept all of my letters i sent him during the war in the pocket of his uniform, and he had them with him in each battle he was involved in. when i touched those letters again, a thrill came down my skin, those pieces of paper had seen the war from a very different perspective to mine and it was just so… queer. but blythe tells me that those letters kept him strong and faithful, and i couldn't be more glad because of that.

"oh, and claire sent me a wonderful telegram today: she just had her first baby, a son whom she called miller for her father. and that's another thing i dream about sometimes. the motherhood seems so distant and so undiscovered to me. it is a very sweet thing to think about. when i was a little girl, i always wanted to have two or three children of my own, all pretty girls and no boys. now, i'm not quite sure. i think that i still want two or three kidlets of my own, but i actually don't mind whether they will all be girls or boys. blythe told me that he would be just as happy even if in the end i wouldn't want children after all, but i know him too well and i know that his dream of fatherhood is just as sweet as mine is.

"coming back to my wedding; cee, luna and leslie will be my

idesmaids and they will all wear their pretty pink dresses and i will make them wear lavender-flowers in their hair. they are all positively excited about wearing the same dresses, which really are just the most adorable things in the whole world.

"and there's the other thing; today i put on my wedding dress and a veil for the first time. it was such a magical moment which i certainly will never forget. my mother's dress is such a beautiful garment right from the "roaring twenties" with small beads around the waist and some of them still flowing at the bottom. when i saw myself in the mirror i could hardly believe in my reflection, i felt like a real queen. and then i put on grandmother anne's veil… when i put it on, i shivered, remembering how grandmother told me about her own wedding day and all the other stories she shared with me about her later life in her own house of dreams in four winds.

"all in all, i don't regret not buying either my dress or a veil myself and i truly think that i couldn't feel more like a

ide if i wore something bought and as leslie put it: "fashionable". i just know that i couldn't be more happy with what i will be wearing on my wedding day.

"oh, and in three days, just a day before the wedding, i will have my own party with all my girls. i think it will be the best thing in the whole world, especially because i know that the day after i will be going to white sands knowing that i will be back in three long months! we will talk, laugh, dance and sing. it is just what i need before leaving glen.

"i just realised that it's almost one in the morning… i really do have to stop going to bed in such late hours, and "waking up god-knows-when", as my dad said to me yesterday.

"i have a feeling that these last three days are going to be the most wonderful days of me being still, julia una blythe."

the 5th of august came and with it came the party which julia was waiting for ever since she came back from france. all "her" girls and julia had their picnic on the beach in four winds with julia's old, but still the best, portable radio. "oh, it's so nice to finally be somewhere where there are no boys around, it really was a splendid idea, juliet." rose said when she ate her chocolate cookie.

"thank you," julia replied with a smile "and i knew that an evening with just you, my girls, would be just what i need before tomorrow…" her cheeks flushed with red and she sighed helplessly "i can't believe that i won't see you all until october!"

"well, at least my wedding will be a reason for you to come to glen again." luna said proudly and julia kissed her cheek gently.

"i'm so happy for you and merry." she said with a smile.

"i would never suspect that you, luna blythe would marry someone like merry." leslie added with impish eyes. luna just smiled and her pale cheeks suddenly turned

ight red, causing leslie to stick her nose up high as she achieved her goal.

"how did our parents react, anyway?" cilia asked her sister while drinking her lemonade.

"mum was very happy becasue she knew for how long i loved merry," luna replied shyly, although still smiling "-and father was very peaceful but he is quite sad that his second daughter is going to be married too."

cilia touched her sister's hand "poor daddy." she said with a sigh "i know, he was very moved when i married marshall so suddenly. but he'll be fine, luna, you'll see." she grinned at her warmly.

"julia, tell us about your wedding dress." rose insisted excitedly "i know that you didn't buy it yourself but still, tell me how does it feel like to have a wedding dress." she said remembering that her own wedding with john was a secret and that she didn't have any time to buy a wedding dress of her own.

"oh, it's so wonderful, you know." julia answered eagerly "i told you already about its design, so you know it, but the feeling i got when i put it on…" she sighed happily "-and it's reminding me that i am really getting married tomorrow!" all of the girls around her chuckled.

"i wonder when i will be married?" nancy questioned while playing with a pile of sand which flew on the blanket on which she was lying.

the girls looked at questioningly "nancy, you are fifteen years old." her sister cilia said to her with furrowed

ows.

"well, don't tell me that you didn't think about getting married when you were fifteen." nancy replied harshly. cee looked at her friend meaninfully but nancy ignored her, as usual.

leslie sighed and clasped her hands together "goodness, nanc's!" she said dramatically "of course we didn't! we were thinking more about going to the college than about getting married."

nancy humphed and rolled over so that she was lying on her back "i don't think i want to go to the college." she said "i'm not good in anything really."

"oh, nancy, of course you are good in things." luna said kindly "your grades at school are really good."

"yes, but…" she sighed and put her hands on her chest "i would rather be married than go to work." julia couldn't help but start laughing at that, and all the other girls followed her example, even shy luna and cee couldn't hide their smiles. "what are you laughing at miss

ide-to-be?" nancy asked her angrily.

"nancy what do you think being married means?" julia asked her, still grinning, seeing at the corner of her eyes how rose gives her a meaningful gaze.

"let's just leave the topic, thank you." nancy said and her cheeks turned fiery.

"alright then." rose said and chuckled again "julia, are you taking river to white sands with you?" she asked her suddenly.