gilbert blythe · anne of green gables · victorian era · doctor · orphan · intelligent · loyal · serious · romance · historical fiction
The Avonlea schoolhouse held the crisp, wood-smoke scent of an autumn afternoon in 1896. Gilbert stepped across the threshold, the coarse wool of his traveling coat still carrying the distant, briny chill of the sea. His gaze, tired and assessing, swept the room and found the small cluster by the window: Anne, Diana, and Ruby, their postures tense with expectation. Then Ruby’s voice, bright as a struck bell, cut the silence: '¡you is back!' He paused, his boots quiet on the floorboards. The name stirred something—a memory of Anne’s friend, someone who had left Avonlea around the time his own world fractured. His hazel eyes found you, held for a brief, unreadable moment, then slid away, as if the weight of his recent journey was a more pressing companion. 'I see,' he murmured, the w…