HULLO! This is a story I had started a while ago and posted on another site (so some of you may have read it). I never finished it due to the fact that I've had fan-fic-itis, and haven't had the creative energy or drive to write anything in...forever. So I'm posting it here, and hopefully if people like it, it will give me incentive to finish it. Ummm, it's losely based on Cold Mountain, which is a story I really like, at least the premise of it anyway, I hated the writing style of the book. So, some events have been changed and I've taken liberties with weaving fan fiction magic, lol. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and do let me know what you think. This first one is a short chapter.
oh! and PS, I know some of my LJ friends read stories here, so I just dove behind the couch because the cat's out of the bag. Yes, I'm Kendra, and I write fan fiction. Keep it on the DL.
Scarlett stared at the black sky in front of them as the carriage rounded the turn that would bring them to Rough and Ready; her mind was in a state of shock. Behind them the fire, with flames so tall they licked the sky, still burned in the ravaged city of Atlanta. Oh, how could something like this have happened? How could that city which she had loved so much for its spontaneity and newness be laying in ruins in the span of just a few years? It was all too unreal for her, as if she was having a nightmare and the strong arm that she was clutching was the only thing that could salvage her soul from the blackness that threatened to consume her world.
Rhett Butler. It did not clear her mind to think of him, but she was so grateful that he was doing this for her—taking her back to Tara during the middle of a siege. She did not want to think about him per se, only that his presence was calming, and without his assistance she would still be in that city, more than likely awaiting her death when Sherman's army came and burned the roof over her head. She turned her tired eyes up to study his face which was set, as if in stone, looking straight ahead into the black night. Why was he doing this for her? It was the first time she let herself ask the question. Was it solely because she had asked him to, or was it something more? Her mind did not have the chance to wander much further because in the blink of an eye, his head snapped to the side and his dark eyes connected with hers.
"Scarlett, are you still determined to do this crazy thing?" he asked with slight amusement in his voice.
"Oh, yes, Rhett I know we can do it, I'm sure we can."
Scarlett thought she saw a flash of admiration in his eyes as he stared at her, but as quickly as it had come, it was gone again, replaced by that mocking smile she was so used to.
"As long as you're sure, my pet," he said smoothly with a wicked grin on his face which caused Scarlett to seethe inwardly, and she looked straight ahead as Rhett continued to maneuver the horse down the ravaged road. It would not be so long before they came to Tara now, and it was all she could think about. How good it would be to step foot in her own home again! What heaven it would be to see Ellen and Gerald and Mammy and to have a good meal and a soft bed to sleep in instead of this hard wagon seat.
The world was cloaked in the black shroud of night as the wagon started up the drive to the plantation. A cloud cover was blocking the moon and Scarlett strained her eyes in order to catch a glimpse of the outer white facade of the house. "I don't see it, Rhett!" She exclaimed nervously, "Is it still there?"
She made a move to get down from the wagon but Rhett's strong hand held her back. It would be no good for her to injure herself after they'd come all this way.
"Hold on," he instructed. Jumping down from the wagon, he walked around and offered to help Scarlett down. His grip on her arm lingered, and he was about to enquire what she wanted to do with Wade, Prissy, Melanie and her baby, when the clouds drifted from the face of the moon, lighting the rest of the driveway.
"It's still there!" Scarlett cried, wrenching herself free of his grasp, leaving Rhett and her dependants behind to watch as she ran toward the once majestic home.
She saw him standing in the entryway as she wearily trudged up the stairs. The look on his face was one of slight pity and obvious remorse, but she did not want anyone's pity. She couldn't handle pity tonight. Once inside her room she gingerly fished the one old nightgown out of her bag that Mammy had brought up when she first arrived. When Scarlett tried to undo the buttons on her dress she became acutely aware of the serious aches and pains that had been stored in her body over the rough journey home. Finally, she managed to get changed before wearily collapsing on the feather mattress and closing her eyes in a pathetic attempt at sleep. But as soon as her eyes closed the thoughts she had desperately attempted to push to the background of her mind came forth with a force so rapid she felt a burning sensation in her throat and her stomach coiled into a knot, causing hot tears to slowly course down her cheeks.
How could this have happened to her? She, Scarlett O'Hara, who had never known anything but the pleasantries of life, was now left to face such terrible desolation. Her father was trapped in the past—a past which his mind would most likely never let him escape; her sisters were on the brink of death in a room down the hall, and if she listened hard enough, their moans would sometimes rip through the silence surrounding her. Tara, her Pa's beloved Tara, was in ruins, and the one person who she had looked up to so much was gone forever. It seemed as if it were yesterday that she was in this very room dressing for the bar-b-que at Twelve Oaks, a girl of 16 again without a care in the world. She once thought she had nearly everything, and now she realized bitterly as she absently stared out the window into the moonlit night, she had nothing, and the feeling of loneliness was painful enough to make her faintly acknowledge that sleep would not come easy on this night.