Youngs Years Traded for Black Ones
For many years Scarlett O'Hara had been the most beautiful, sparkling, and significant personality around. She'd had so many beaux and everyone expected her to soon marry either Brent or Stuart Tarleton, or another descendant of a wealthy and well-respected family. Some even thought the lucky man would be Ashley Wilkes, but they soon changed their minds about that when they heard of his engagement to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton. Scarlett, however, did not change her mind. No matter how many men surrounded her, or even proposed to her, she only wanted Ashley. And Ashley was the one guy she could never have; he'd made that perfectly clear at that infamous day of the barbecue. He preferred that silly, plain Melanie to her, the most beautiful girl in the neighbourhood! Sometimes Scarlett truly did not understand him. Perhaps him and her were not meant to be after all, but that thought simply did not cross her mind after he broke her heart at that horrible day. The only thing that crossed her hurt mind was that she wanted Ashley for herself, and could not have him. And then, all of a sudden, there had been Charles. Charles Hamilton. He was definitely not the best she could get. Charles was not so stunningly handsome as her former beaux, and he was so shy he could not even speak a single word of sense during their conversations, but he was Charles Hamilton. Melanie's brother, silently promised to Honey Wilkes, and, he loved her, Scarlett. Scarlett had been so enraged with Ashley for not reacting the way she had expected, or hoped he would. And she'd been so enraged with Melanie, simply because she was who she was, and also with Honey whom had said unkind things about her, that she took a decision she would very much regret later on. She agreed to marry Charles. At the time it seemed like a wise decision. If she married Charles, the rumours about her and Ashley would quiet down, and she would hurt and upset Honey, like she desperately wanted to right now. She did not think of any further, possible consequences.
And so, in a very short time Charles Hamilton got Scarlett O'Hara married, right before he joined the army in the newly begun war, and widowed, before she'd even gotten used to the idea of being a matron! Soon after that, motherhood followed. Scarlett gave birth to a baby boy, a son; Wade Hamilton. This was supposed to be a happy thing after the new tragedy of her husband's death, yet her heart still ached for Ashley and she could not seem to set her mind to care only about this helpless baby she had no idea how to take care of. When she got the telegram that told her Charles had died, Scarlett's young and carefree life was completely over. Everyone around her thought she was grieving, but in fact, her husband's death did very little to her. It was Ashley's absence and the harsh, sudden transfer of a young girl to a mother that troubled her so much. Scarlett was now a widow, forced to spend the rest of her life in black. Her young years were over, they had been traded by black ones. Against her will, and all because of one very wrong decision during an enraged moment.