"No! there is no way I'm going to permit this happening! I am the man of this household and I get the final say on what happens to those who live in it!" Rhett was fuming, waving his arms around as he paced. Scarlett observed how ridiculous he looked in his huff and felt a laugh bubble to her lips but quelled it with some trouble. Coughing to cover herself she caught Rhett's attention but as he glanced swiftly at her, her face was a study of placidity and slight enquiry.
"How can you be so calm about this? Don't you understand what's happening? She's throwing her life away!" the volume of Rhett's voice was increasing with each impassioned word.
"hush Rhett, the whole house will hear you. She's a big girl anyhow, you can no longer tell her how to live her life. She can make her own decisions, particularly those concerning the heart", Scarlett settled herself more comfortably on the chaise, realising that this conversation wasn't going to end anytime soon.
"A big girl? Why she's just a baby!" Rhett looked at Scarlett with incredulity, "and by God, as long as I'm her Father and she's living under our roof I will tell her anything I please!"
"Rhett", Scarlett said calmly hoping to placate him "Ella isn't so young. She's been going to balls for years now and she is older than I was when I first got married".
"Yes, and we all know how well that worked out for you" Rhett replied with a slight sneer, God help him, he stilled loved goading her after all these years.
"Don't be hateful Rhett. Mine wasn't a marriage of love, at least not on my behalf. Ella is in love, and to a wonderful boy. I don't understand why you're so hesitant"
"Scarlett, as much as I like and admire Beau Wilkes, I just cannot reconcile the fact that Ella wants to marry a Wilkes! Why couldn't Beau have followed family traditions and marry one of his cousins?" Although Rhett could admit to himself that Beau wasn't much like his father and seemed to inherit many of his mother's redeemable qualities, it irked him that his daughter would choose the path that Scarlett had once wanted so desperately to travel.
"Well Rhett, as far as I see it, you don't really have much of a choice. Everyone else seems quite keen on this match, after all they are well suited. Anyhow you don't want to push Ella away, that might encourage them to elope, heaven forbid! Can you imagine the scandal?" Scarlett asked in mock dismay
While having regained their sense of respectability and gentility in the eyes of the old guard and once again being wholeheartedly accepted into polite society, there was rarely anything more enjoyable to Rhett and Scarlett than mocking the behaviours and proprieties of the institution that once cast them out. In the privacy of their own home of course.
Rhett threw his head back and laughed for the first time since hearing about Ella's engagement. "My Dear, since when have you ever cared about whether something caused a scandal?"
"Fiddle-de-dee, you might not be a gentleman Rhett but I am now a lady and I would hate to have my reputation besmirched after all the effort I put in"
"If you really cared Scarlett, you would stop sticking out your tongue at Mrs Merriweather's behind her back after one of her arduous lectures" Rhett stated with a raised eyebrow
"Oh that old pea hen, who cares about her? Stop trying to change the subject Rhett, I want you to go and give Ella your blessing and congratulate Beau on making such a fine catch. There is nothing you can do. And besides Gabriella had her heart set on being the flower girl and I know how you would hate to disappoint your youngest daughter, angel that she is" Scarlett smiled innocently, knowing that her change in tact was inspired. Their youngest daughter Gabriella was the apple of Rhett's eye. Although no one could ever replace Bonnie, Gabriella's loving and affectionate nature, her ability to charm even the most hardened person, coupled with her willingness to please everyone around her, had helped fill the void that was left when Bonnie passed.
"Fine" Rhett grumbled, "I'll do it, but it won't please me one little bit" and with that he stalked out of the room to find the happy couple.
Scarlett smiled to herself and leaned into the cushions, musing that the last few years had been wonderful. She and Rhett had reconciled almost a year to the day after that terrible night when he left her and had finally become a proper family not the semblance of one. They had two more children, Gabriella and Jacob, who was their youngest and a little hellion. "Exactly like Rhett" Scarlett smiled fondly, recalling that Rhett preferred to say he had too much wild O'Hara blood in him.
For all Rhett's protestations that he never wanted a boy, he was overjoyed when Mammy presented him to Rhett, particularly with the striking resemblance he bore to his father, from his black hair to his swarthy skin, he was a miniature Rhett. Except for his eyes, they were pea green, just like his Mother's.