The Couple

Bertha Marilla 'Rilla' Blythe and Kenneth Ford are the couple from Rilla of Ingleside by Lucy Maud Montgomery, the last book in the Anne of Green Gables series.

Bertha Marilla 'Rilla' Blythe

Rilla Blythe was born in 1899, the youngest child of Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe. As a child, she was called 'Roly-poly', harboured a lisp that she dreaded, and became very afraid of carrying cakes. Kenneth Ford was one of the boys who was actually nice towards her. In Anne of Ingleside, she thought, "It was not to be borne. Ken and Walter were pals and Rilla thought in her small heart that Ken was the nicest, handsomest boy in the whole world. He seldom took much notice of her . . . though once he had given her a chocolate duck. And one unforgettable day he had sat down beside her on a mossy stone in Rainbow Valley and told her the story of the Three Bears and the Little House in the Wood." In Rilla of Ingleside, her transformation from a flighty, vain teenage girl to an insightful, responsible young woman is told in great detail. As World War One begins, she is forced to confront the realities of the war and the world, issues that never concerned her before. As her brothers leave to fight in the war, amongst them her beloved older brother, Walter, she herself is preoccupied with caring for a war baby and waiting for a man she falls in love with.

Kenneth Ford

Kenneth Ford was born in the early 1890s, the child of Leslie West and Owen Ford. The family are close friends of the Blythe family. As a child, Kenneth often played with Walter Blythe, the older brother of Rilla Blythe, whenever he visited Ingleside. Tall, good looking, intelligent and a "lady killer", Kenneth held great promise and drew much attention from swooning girls and the envious, "stiff...awkward" boys alike. Although he knew Rilla since childhood, he did not truly notice her until the Four Winds lighthouse dance; "She dared not look up lest she should see laughter in his eyes. So she looked down; and as her lashes were very long and dark and her lids very thick and creamy, the effect was quite charming and provocative, and Kenneth reflected that Rilla Blythe was going to be the beauty of the Ingleside girls after all. He wanted to make her look up--to catch again that little, demure, questioning glance. She was the prettiest thing at the party, there was no doubt of that." After World War I erupts, Kenneth enlists in the army and leaves Prince Edward Island, but not without Rilla promising to wait for him.

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