⇎CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

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" cause its you, who, takes care of everyone else "

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AFTER THE FUNERAL things were quiet in the town. No one dared to bring up the death of Jon for Gilbert's sake. Even though Gilbert was locked up in his house everyone whispered as if one move would set him off. He would only allow Olivia and Hattie to come in and actually stay with him but people would be coming over constantly with different foods and desserts as if that will make up for him losing his dad, yet Gilbert would get up, open the door, say 'thank you, I'm fine' and take their dishes. He wasn't fine.

Whenever she could, Olivia would get the door for him to save the poor boy from the nagging town members. They had good intentions but it was overwhelming at times. If they asked to see him she would politely respond saying how he wasn't seeing anyone at the moment and turned them around to send them back home. Gilbert was beyond grateful for her since Hattie was too nice to turn away folks with good intentions.

One day while Gilbert and Olivia were sitting in the living room, Gil reading while Ollie attempted at knitting, Hattie complained about them not having any ingredients to make an apple pie.

"Olivia, can you pick them up for me? I still need to finish the soup." Hattie asks the girl and Ollie groans.

"Well, why can't you do it? I can watch the soup." She argues, setting down Paris fashion magazine that her mother brought from Gourdes with them when they moved. Ollie had read that magazine a thousand times but it reminded her of home. Not to mention, Avonlea doesn't quite have the same extravagant magazines as France.

"Olivia, knowing you, you would forget and it would burn." Hattie sasses, rolling her eyes.

Olivia pushes herself up, mouth hanging open. "Do you not trust me that much?"

"To be frank, yes." The older girl nods, crossing her arms.

Olivia scoffs and shakes her head. "I don't want to go and you can't make me." She states, letting out a huff.

"Would you like to make a bet on that?" Hattie raises her eyebrow and Ollie tries to keep a straight face but as childish she is, it proves to be a challenge. Gilbert looks up from his book, a small smirk on his face as he watches the two girls. This smirk was the closest thing to an actual smile since his father died. "You, food, now." She states, pointing from Olivia to the door.

"I would go against your wishes but your angry face sure does look angry." Olivia teases, scrunching up her face.

"Wise choice Fontaine." Hattie grins, pulling the girl off out of her seat and pushes her towards the door. "Now get going, I would like to eat the pie by tonight please."

"Okay, okay." She raises her hands in surrender, picking up her coat and throwing it on. "I shall be back soon." Olivia places her white had onto her head and goes through the door towards where KJ is held in the barn. "Hey there, big guy." She pats his neck. She gets him ready by placing her saddle pad on his back first, following with the actual saddle. Grabbing the horn of the saddle, she pulls herself up and beckons him to start riding.

She makes it to the market quickly as she just wants to get this done and get out of the cold. Unfortunately, she runs into a few older people who couldn't stop themselves from asking a million things about Gilbert and she kindly answered each one while holding back an eye roll.

As Olivia rode home with the sack of ingredients resting on the back of KJ she realized how treacherous the road was. Snow continued to fall as if it had an objective to trap anyone and everyone brave enough to face the outdoors. Luckily, KJ was a good horse to have on days like this because of his energy and love for the cold. He wasn't very old so he loved to play and prance around.

As she rode on she heard a soft whinny but figured it was just KJ since nobody else was in sight. Squeezing her legs tighter around KJ's back he picks up his pace, lightly trotting. It wasn't until they were farther along the road that she realized someone was in trouble when she heard frantic calls for help. Pushing KJ into a canter she scanned the sides of the rode and the entry way of the forest on her left when she spotted a white horse which blended in with the falling snow and a figure in a blue dress.

"Mrs. Barry?" Olivia asked the woman when she saw her face and the lady looked to her with fear in her eyes.

"Thank heavens, I've been trying to call someone for ages but nobody is out. My horse is stuck in the snow, he's freezing to death." She exclaims, tears welling up in her eyes as she shakes from the cold.

"Mrs. Barry are you okay?" Olivia questioned we she jumped down from her own horse.

"Yes dear I'm fine but my horse is not." She shakes her head. "Go fetch your father so he can get my pony out."

"There's no time for that, I'm going to have to do it myself." Ollie shakes her head, moving around Mrs. Barry to the horse.

"No you will not, you wouldn't be able to and not to mention I don't trust you to do it." She says, stepping in front of Olivia to stop her.

"So you would rather me go fetch my father who lives miles away and let your horse freeze rather than me get her out now?" Olivia snaps, placing her hands on her hips. When the horse makes a desperate cry for help the woman looks to the younger child with a frown.

"Fine, help her out." She says, stepping aside. Olivia doesn't hesitate to rush towards the horse, trying her best to calm her down.

"What's her name?" Ollie asks.

"Name? Beasts do not need names, they exist simply to serve their masters. Getting attached is foolish." Mrs. Barry shakes her head.

"They came before us, not for us." Olivia strokes the creatures white face, it takes a deep breath, snorting on her but she only laughs. "They have feelings just as us, can't you see how scared she is? You two have the same fear in your eyes."

Mrs. Barry scoffs, glancing at her horse. Ollie doesn't know if the woman even realized but when she looked, her eyes lingered as if she realized it was true. Olivia pushes herself off the ground, grabbing the reins draped across KJ, tying them to Mrs. Barry's horse.

The young girl hops on the back of KJ. "Alright boy, let's get her out of here." Pulling the reins back, KJ starts to back up and the head of Mrs. Barry's horse gets lifted up. Olivia clicks her tongue and her pony continues to move backwards. Because of the pull on his reins, the white horse keeps moving forward as to not get hurt. The temperature had frozen the poor creature half to death but with every pull from KJ, the other horse pushed on. Finally, with one last tug, the snow falls off of the magnificent beast and she gets up.

"Olivia! Thank you so much!" Mrs. Barry cries, clinging to her horse. She takes a blanket out of one of the bags that were formally resting on the horse before it got stuck, draping it across said horse.

"Anything to help you and a fellow creature." Ollie shrugs, smiling. She hops down from KJ and the woman takes no second to rush to the younger girl, pulling her into a hug.

"I underestimated you and I'm sorry. I'm also sorry that I was so stubborn to admit that you girls must've accidentally drank the wine instead of the cordial. I was just so upset." She shakes her head, stepping back but keeping her hands on Olivia's shoulders. "Your act today will not go unnoticed, you may come over and visit Diana whenever you please.

"Really?" Olivia's eyes shine with joy. She missed Diana so much and especially her witty comebacks and bright personality.

"Yes really." She nods and Ollie screeches with joy, hugging the older woman again.

"Thank you so much Mrs. Barry!" After the younger girl pulls back, realization sets in. "oh my goodness! I have to get back to Gilbert and Hattie!" Turning, she uses KJ's stirrups to swing herself up. "Will you be alright going home?"

"Yes I will, thank you again Olivia."

"My pleasure." Ollie nods, clicking her tongue and squeezing her legs to make KJ go forward and the pair canter off. The cold wind whips her in the face like a belt and she considers just having her pet walk there but that would just make her stay outside longer and she was not going to do that. Finally she pulls up to the Blythe home and ties KJ up in the barn, adding some hay to his food pail. Her legs push forward to get out of the snow and once she's inside she throws her jacket off, places the basket full of ingredients onto the table, and goes towards the fireplace to warm herself.

"It's about time you showed up," Hattie leans on the doorframe, using her apron to wipe off the food remnants on her hands. "What took you so long?"

Ollie lets out a huff. "Mrs. Barry's horse got stuck in the snow so I helped her out."

"Are you pulling my strings or did that actually happen?" Hattie asks, mouth agape.

"I swear it on my mother." Ollie nods, standing back up.

"Don't day that." Hattie shakes her head disapprovingly. "You should never put your mother and swear in the same sentence. But thank you for the ingredients, I might just let you have a bigger slice than anyone else." She winks, returning to the kitchen.

"Well then maybe I'm the one who should've gone." Gilbert jokes and for a moment Olivia forgot that he was even there.

"Yes I suppose you should've." The girl agrees with him, plopping down on the couch so that her upper body is facing him. "How are you doing?"

"Don't." He says, looking down. "I don't want you to look at me like every other person does."

"I don't, Gilbert." She places a hand on his arm. "I look at you like the bravest person I've ever met. You went through so much and yet you are still so kind."

"I hope you know that I draw my strength from you, Olivia." He states, taking her hand.

"Trust me," She smirks, patting his cheek. "I know."

_

hi...so please don't kill me.

I know I'm awful for leaving you guys but I got such bad writers block it was awful I had no motivation and I didn't know what to write about! So this chapter was basically just to tie up a loose string but the next chapter will be the LAST OF BOOK ONE!! This is so crazy, I feel like I just started writing the first chapter a couple of days ago and I want to thank everyone so much for the support!!

WE HIT 6K AND I'M LITERALLY CRYING even though I had stopped uploading the votes and comments just kept coming and I love you all so much!

Here's to more chapters in the future and a good start to the next book! Thank you all again! I love you so much!!