A/N - this is an AU story that takes place during the American Civil War. I would appreciate any feedback you have to offer. Being a huge fan of Gone With The Wind, I've always wanted to write a fiction about strong women during that incredible time period in American history and couldn't think of anyone better than Quinn and Santana and Mercedes to be those women.

A/N 2 - Set during the American Civil War; Quinn is from the South forced into an arranged marriage, Mercedes is her freed slave, Santana comes from NYC to marry a man she's never met to escape crippling poverty. Santana and Quinn dislike each other from the first moment they meet but can they save each other when the harsh brutalities of war come to their doorsteps with their husbands off fighting and no one else to turn to for help. Does this grudging respect they finally develop turn into something more or is it just loneliness. I hope you enjoy the story. Take a minute to let me know if you do.

This was posted under a different penname before! It is my story.

Chapter 1 – A Fish Out Of Water

May 1860 Lima, Ohio

Quinn Fabray Hudson sat in her beautiful day dress feeling like she was going to faint. The sun was hot overhead and the tiny umbrella Mercedes held over her head and her pretty bonnet did nothing to stop the stifling heat. Why hadn't anyone told her that Ohio in May could be so stifling hot and humid? She was fanning herself briskly but all it was doing was blowing hot heavy air across her face. She was going to be a mess by the time they arrived back home from church.

She had been sitting in that buggy for half an hour while her new husband Finn was animatedly talking about horses with that handsome young blonde man, Sam Evans. It made her think of Rachel. She tried to think of something else.

It seemed all Finn ever talked about was horse breeding, state's rights and slavery. At least they both had that in common; a hatred for the institution of slavery but that really wasn't much to base a marriage on.

The blonde looked discerningly at her new husband. She had been raised by a man with a keen eye for strength, so Russell must have seen something in Finn Hudson or he wouldn't have entered into a partnership breeding horses with him. What marvelous qualities Russell had seen escaped Quinn's eye regarding Finn Hudson. He was nice enough and didn't drink and wasn't violent so as far as arranged marriages went, she could have done far worse.

Quinn was not stupid like so many of her friends at least pretended to be. She realized she was just the sweetener for the deal, a bargaining chip. She was pretty and smart and from day one her father saw her as an asset to be bartered. Love never entered into the picture in the Fabray home. Her mother was a silent, docile, porcelain doll and about as warm. Quinn Fabray was not sorry to leave her home, the only person she cared about anyway in South Carolina was Mercedes and she came with Quinn to Ohio. She just wished she felt something for the tall, handsome gentle man she was forced to marry.

She had tried talking to him but he had not been blessed with an overabundance of brains, so the things that interested Quinn; books, music, plays, were of no interest to Finn Hudson. Quinn knew more about horses than most people and loved their spirit and loyalty but breeding was not considered an endeavor for ladies and so she was not consulted or considered during those conversations. That had always upset her, she had a keen intellect and a curious nature but she had felt her father's buggy whip across her backside enough to have lost interest in horse breeding.

Quinn's father had moved from Kentucky to South Carolina to breed mules before she was born. Southern mules were small and scrawny and her father was a man ahead of his time. He saw a need for the strong breed of mule Kentucky bred and set out to make a fortune. That's exactly what he did. Russell Fabray always got what he wanted. He had wanted his only child to marry a horse breeder from Ohio and he got that too. Russell saw a war coming and knew there was going to be a need for strong able horses and had no qualms making a fortune off of the blood of others. Quinn despised her father and his values and had no feeling whatsoever for the cold detached woman who gave birth to her.

The beautiful blonde girl had come up North with her best friend Mercedes, the slave that had been given to her on her second birthday, whom she had grown up with and loved like a sister and freed as soon as she turned 18 years old and was able. She felt like a fish out of water from the moment she arrived. Northerners were wilder and more vulgar, even the women. They understood nothing of manners and grace. Longing to fit in she had tried but soon realized the other women in the community didn't trust her and wanted nothing to do with her. These women who knew how to plow alongside their husbands giving birth to their children along the way had carved a community out of a wilderness, they were pioneers, they were as tough as the land they lived on and Quinn Fabray Hudson was a lady, and she might have been a purple spotted zebra for all they could understand of her or her ways.

Quinn tried her best to befriend them but they made fun of her clothes and her accent and her manners and so she put up walls and withdrew behind them, only Mercedes knew the pain it caused her and was the only witness to her silent tears.

The blonde came out of her musings when Mercedes cleared her throat loudly, she looked back at her friend in fond amusement, "Something on your mind Cedes?"

"I just said we couldn't have this conversation under a shade tree? You know how to drive horses, can't you plant us under those trees down yonder." She grumbled before smiling, "Even if the scenery isn't half bad." She said staring pointedly at the handsome blonde man.

Quinn laughed delightedly, "Oh yes, I could see the look on Mr. Hudson's face when I take off in his wagon for the trees. He thinks I'm too stupid to lace my own boots." She looked with interest at Sam Evans, he was handsome enough, "Mr. Evans is an attractive man I suppose but he's too delicate looking for me and look at those lips, goodness he could swallow a person whole. Besides Cedes he's married already."

"I thought his wife died?" Mercedes said sadly, she read some of old Mrs. Fabray's romance novels and could easily fall into the drama and heartbreak of any situation, "Those poor little motherless babies and poor Mr. Sam losing his wife and newborn son on the same day. "It's tragic."

The smile died from Quinn's face, it was indeed tragic. She had forced Finn to drive her over when she heard about Rachel's death. She wanted to comfort those beautiful little children who looked so much like their mother. It had broken her heart to see them in dirty clothes and dirty faces. Rachel would never have allowed that. Quinn bathed them and cleaned their clothes and tried to draw them out of their shells, but they were as lost without their mother as Sam Evans was.

The tiny brunette had been the only woman who had been kind to Quinn when she arrived. She was a tiny ray of sunshine that loved to sing. Rachel talked endlessly about music and plays and her husband and two children. It had been a love match, and she had followed Sam Evans into the wilderness and blessed him with two beautiful children. Rachel had been so excited about the new baby. Quinn had taken over a few delicate lacy items she had made for the new baby as a gift and the brunette had cried with joy. The southerner was amazed at how free the brunette had been with her feelings and wished she could be more like her. Quinn had delighted in having at least one friend besides Cedes to save her from loneliness and despair in this very strange place. Then Rachel had died in childbirth leaving her husband and children and Quinn alone and desolate. The tiny brunette had always been too delicate for the wilds of Ohio, and Quinn wished Rachel and Sam Evans had considered that before moving to this godforsaken place.

The blonde was drawn from her musings by Mercedes talking about the poor widower and his orphaned children, "He married a woman from New York City. He's on his way to the train station in Chillicothe to meet her and bring her back. Evidently she is going to be the new mother for his children. I hope she's as kind as Rachel was," She said softly keenly feeling Rachel's loss again and willing herself not to cry, "He's leaving tomorrow and should be back within two weeks. We get to take care of Caroline and Thomas while he's gone. It will be a joy to have children in the house."

Mercedes scoffed loudly, "I hope that woman knows what she's got herself into leaving a big, bustling city like that to come to this here ghost town," She looked around disdainfully at the dirt roads and big fields that needed clearing.

Quinn said softly to her friend, "We don't always get to choose in this life, you know that better than anyone."

Mercedes did know that, purchased by Russell Fabray to be the house maid for his daughter, she never knew her own family. She was lucky that Quinn was a loving, kind person who was more interested in a friend than a slave. The heavier woman sat back in the wagon. She missed the cry of seagulls and the salty smelling spray of the ocean. She missed the poplar trees and the rain. If you had told her she would miss the South the day she left Carolina she wouldn't have believed you, but she did and knew her blonde friend did as well.

"I'm sorry Cedes, I'm just a little melancholy thinking about Rachel and her children. I didn't mean to make you sad as well," Quinn said lovingly.

"You didn't make me sad, Miss Quinn; I'm just a little homesick today is all, but it will be nice to have babies to fuss over for a spell," She perked up and smiled widely, "Miss Quinn if you don't get that good for nothing man of yours to get us out of the sun though, I'm going to have a heat stroke and die, and then I will spend eternity haunting you."

"I told you that you're free now; quit calling me Miss Quinn for pity's sake," She said irritably, wishing she could just grab the reigns and drive her and Mercedes somewhere, anywhere just to get away from this life she was stuck in and had not chosen.

-Q-S-Q-S-

Next up we get to meet Santana, I would love some reviews, be nice :D

Sorry to have killed off Rachel so soon but there will be flashbacks about her.