Chapter 1: The Well Below the Valley

But the Lord above may save my soulFrom burning in hell at the well below the valley

"Scarlett! Stay with me, Scarlett. Please, don't give in, darling." Melly's voice was far away, miles away even. Scarlett's eyes fluttered open, thinking that perhaps Melly would appear. Nothing. Only empty space lay before her...

"Scarlett!" Melly's shrill scream pierced Scarlett's ears. "You cannot leave him. Not now!"

Scarlett opened her mouth to cry out for Melly, but it was dry. She could not speak or breathe or think. Darkness overcame her, and she allowed herself to fall into it. She was flying, spinning, falling backwards into the blackness. Finally, she reached the end of it, and heard Melly's voice no longer.

"Katie Scarlett!" the florid face of Gerald O'Hara was alit with a smile for his eight-year-old daughter, an imp of a thing who had inherited his Irish face and strong jaw. Although her mother and her mammy had secretly bemoaned the disposition of his lively daughter, the fact that she was so strong willed only increased her prettiness in his eyes. "Give us a kiss!"

Dutifully, the little girl kissed her father as he pulled her close to him, swinging her to and fro until she felt sick and demanded to be let down. The younger daughter, Suellen, also demanded a kiss. Although Gerald kissed her, he had little use for the lass and for the baby, Careen. In their placid demeanors lurked none of Scarlett's insufferable arrogance nor pride, yet it was because of these qualities that her father adored his firstborn. In truth, as Mrs. O'Hara had stated to him once, Gerald liked the child so well because she was him all over in the form of a pretty girl child. Despite his protests, Gerald knew that Mrs. O'Hara was correct in her assumption.

"Your mother said you've been ill, Puss." Gerald addressed Scarlett, already in her nightdress.

"I'm better now, Pa." Scarlett's green eyes were wide in worshipful adoration. "I've been waiting for you all day! It's almost dark, Pa! You promised me a story when you got home!"

"So I did," Gerald laughed, "but I'm tired, my wee lass. My journey was long and I've not slept well in three days."

"Then the story will be all the better!" Scarlett declared, her little hands on her hips.

"Mr. O'Hara," Ellen, his wife, descended down the staircase with more grace in her little pinkie then Gerald possessed in his entire body. "I've had a bath prepared for you. Suellen, you have not finished your penmanship lesson. Upstairs, please. Scarlett, back to bed with you."

"I feel better now, Mother!" Scarlett protested, flinging her small arms protectively round Gerald's waist. "Please Mother, Pa promised a story."

"Your father's only just arrived, love. And you've been quite ill." Ellen placed a small white hand upon her daughter's cheek.

"Do as your mother says, Puss." Gerald said with a hint of firmness to satisfy his wife. He winked at Scarlett as she sighed quite dramatically. "I'll come to you shortly. With a new story."

Happily, Scarlett began to skip up the steps two at a time, which earned her a reprove from her mother, who guarded her children zealously from all danger.

"Has she been that ill, then?" Gerald whispered furtively to his wife.

"Not so much to cause us undue alarm." Ellen soothed her husband. "You set such a store by Scarlett, Mr. O'Hara, believe me, I would never allow any harm to come to her."

Gerald's pride was slightly injured by her formal intimacy. Ellen could be chaste as a nun when she wished, yet she spoke of Scarlett as if she were not even a child which she herself had borne.

"I'll go to her now." Gerald said firmly, dismissing his wife.

Ellen nodded demurely, allowing the two conspirators their fun and returning to Suellen and her writing lesson.

Scarlett was sitting up in her little white bed, the covers pulled up under her chin to shield her from the chill, for the night was a cold one.

"Pa!" she exclaimed delightedly. "My story, please."

"Of course, me girl." Gerald looked upon the child with fondness. How pretty she was with those green eyes and that white skin. It would not be so long before he was brandishing his shotgun to keep the young men away from her. "Very well, close those pretty eyes of yours. Now, once upon a time, there was a fair maiden, standing by a well."

"A well, Pa?"

"Aye. A well."

"Is she pretty?"

"The fairest in the land."

"As pretty as me?"

"You're prettier still. This lass was not beautiful in the typical way. No lovely golden tresses. She was skinny as a whippet and had hair the color of a raven's wing and a pair of bright green eyes the likes of which had never been seen before in all the land."

Scarlett clapped her small hands delightedly. "She looks like me then, Pa!"

"Aye. Now stop interrupting me, Katie Scarlett, or I won't be telling this story."

"Yes Pa." Scarlett's green eyes met her father's blue ones.

"Right. Now, the lass was standing at the well which lay on her dear Pa's property. But this particular well was good for more than drawing water, for in it, one could see the future. The lass looked in it, frightened by what she might behold. But she owned courage, so she looked. She saw within it a terrible thing, her own land bloodstained and the trees bathed with fire. This hallucination ended quick enough though, when a man interrupted the lass's thoughts."

"A man?" Scarlett interrupted. "Was he a handsome prince?"

"A traveler he was, swarthy as a Spanish sailor. Although he had in his possession more riches than anyone in the land, the lass knew it not, as he wore the hooded cloak of a traveler. The lass, being clever, would not allow him to take a drink from the magical well, for it was her responsibility to guard it."

"That wasn't very nice." Scarlett muttered aloud. "The man was probably thirsty."

"Indeed he was," Gerald continued. "He begged a cup of water. The lass refused, for none ever drank from the magic well, only using it to see their future."

"If those are the rules…" Scarlett's small voice trailed off. "But I still think she should have helped him."

"Well, perhaps she should have. Instead, she cursed him, told him to go away from her sight. You know what he did then, Puss? He told her that he loved her."

"How exciting! And did she love him back?"

"Not at all. She rejected him again."

"He should have taken the hint." Scarlett said this shrewdly for her age.

"Well, his mind had turned bitter toward her by then. So, he took off his hood, revealing himself to the lass."

"And was he dashing, Pa? Like a prince?"

"More a pirate than prince, sweet. He told the lass that even if her own true love was asking, she would not spare him a cuppa."

"Oh, the poor thing!" Scarlett bemoaned the fate of the poor Irish girl who resembled her so. "How mean he was to her!"

"So then, the pirate cursed the lass for her disinterest, though she swore that her true love was another man. He put a terrible spell upon her, condemning her to wander the earth in torment and despair for seven years. Only then, said he, would she recover her magic well."

"But the well belongs to her! He can't take it away, can he, Pa?"

"That was the terrible part of it, Puss. She was banished from the land, exiled to a foreign country. Among friends she found only foes, and among enemies she found favor. In vain she searched for the way back home, back to the well in the valley."

"Did she? Did she find it?"

"Seven years passed, and the lass was older and cleverer. The rogue found her again, and demanded her love once more. This time, she was prepared for it, Puss. You know what she did? She married him, tricking him into believing she loved him."

"She married the terrible man?"

"Aye. And they had a child, a bonny lass like her mother. And for a time, the lass was content with her lot, for the rogue was kind to her and gave her all she desired. His only condition was that she never stray from his side to find the well, for the future, the rogue said, belonged to the fates alone. The lass was happy, yes, but she craved the well. Thoughts of it began to haunt her dreams, and she longed to return to the land she had lost."

"But wasn't she happy?"

"Not anymore. She left her husband and child and returned to her homeland. It was, as she had seen in the well, ruined by famine and war. She saw only the gaunt trees and the haunted ruin of the life she had known. Desperate to escape, she fled to the well, still intact, and looked into its depths. There was only the sky reflecting in the water. The well had lost its magic. She looked around like a desperate wretch, calling for someone to help her, but there was no one to hear her."

"What about her husband? Surely if he loved her he didn't blame her for wanting to go home." Scarlett looked indignant and pouted prettily.

"He was gone, along with the child."

"What a terrible husband! Pa, what a terrible story! But how does it end?"

"She never finds him…or at least, that's how the story ends."

"But! But Pa! He loved her." Scarlett was still at the age where she possessed an unshakeable trust in true love.

"Well make up your own ending then, Katie Scarlett." Gerald leaned down to kiss his daughter. "To sleep with you now. Dream about the lass getting her rogue of a husband back."

"Will he come back, Pa?" Scarlett's eyes owned a new fear.

Gerald nodded. "Its up to you, Puss. Goodnight."

"Scarlett! You must come back! It's too soon, dearest! I can't bear to live without you."

Scarlett was vaguely cognizant of Melly's presence next to her. There was a searing pain in her side, something she had never experienced before. Rhett. She wanted Rhett, and he was gone. Bonnie was gone with him. Where had he taken her?

"Please God." Scarlett listened to Melly pray, her little hands folded and head bowed. "Almighty God, I beseech you to heal Scarlett. We need her so much, Lord. Captain Butler and Bonnie and Wade and Ella. Ashley and Beau need her too, Lord. If I should die delivering the child you have blessed me with, they could not endure life without her loving care. Watch over her, Lord, and if it is your will, take me instead. I am so weak, Lord, and she so strong. If you must take one of us into your loving hands, I beg you, take me!" Melanie broke down, sobbing freely. "Take me! Take me!"

No Melly, Scarlett thought, stop this foolishness! I've wronged you for so many years. Please Melly, I cannot bear it!

Another wave of pain overcame Scarlett, and for a moment, she was a little girl again, still safe and warm within her father's arms…