Chapter Five

The train pulled away from the station, noisily belching clouds of foul-smelling smoke. Rhett sat beside Wade, who once again looked as though he had been up late the night before, leaned back in his seat, closing his eyes as if the sunlight hurt them. Obviously, he had no wish to talk, but Rhett was in no mood to indulge him.

"Another rough night?" he asked, more to begin the conversation than because he was really interested. "What are Ella's fiance's people like?"

After a moment, Wade lifted his head and smiled wearily. "They are English," he said calmly. " I like Justin – the fiance' – well enough, I suppose, but he has a family."

"Perhaps he thinks the same thing about Ella?" Rhett mocked gently. For a moment, Wade scowled, but then a reluctant smile touched his lips.

"Touche'," he said. "I suppose they might. The problem is, they are minor English aristocracy – Justin's uncle is a Viscount – and they are absolutely determined to believe that Americans are barbarians. All of us, including Ella. As I said, Justin is not like that, but there are twenty members of his family, plus servants, who are. And dealing with them is driving me slowly insane. I will never be so glad to see a couple leave on their wedding trip as I will be to see the back of those two."

"Will his family leave immediately?" Rhett asked.

"No. I'm supposed to take them on a little tour of the south, let them look around so they'll have even more horror stories to tell their relatives and friends back home."

"So how is the wedding going bring you any relief, if you'll still be stuck with them for another week?"

Wade smiled. "Once Ella marries him, I don't have to be polite anymore," he said. "I can, for instance, tell lecherous cousin Rodney to keep his randy hands to himself, next time he molests an unwilling girl – and believe me, they're all unwilling when it comes to him. Man looks like a walrus."

"He might take that badly," Rhett warned.

"I'm counting on it," Wade replied with an impish smile.

Rhett laughed, and the two sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes.

"So," Rhett said, after that brief pause. "Does your mother know we are coming?"

Wade grinned, teasingly. "Well, she knows I'm coming," he said.

Rhett rolled his eyes. "So you haven't mentioned me?"

"No. it's easier to apologize afterward than ask permission ahead of time. Not that I think Mama will be upset with me; it's Aunt Suellen I have to worry about. If I had cabled them ahead, that would just give her more time to complain about me to mother, which is the last thing anyone needs – Aunt Suellen with more time to complain."

Rhett hesitated. "Your Aunt hasn't had an easy life-" he said, feeling oddly diffident.

"And my mother has? Look, I know Mama stole Aunt Sue's beau – Ella's father. I also know that Aunt Sue married another man, has six children, and a comfortable life,a good part of it provided by my mother, while my mother has buried three husbands and was divorced by a fourth, has lost two babies, one before it was even born, and has spent a good deal of her adult life in exile from the place she loves best. So Aunt Suellen just needs to calm down and realize that it's not a competition to see who has the most beaus anymore."

At any other time, Rhett might have sympathised with Wade's stridently uttered words. Now, however, he stared at the younger man in shock.

"Three?" he asked.

"What?" Wade looked momentarily confused.

"You said she buried three husbands?"

"Oh." Wade looked a little sheepish. "Yes, I suppose I did. I didn't really intend to divulge anything about her private life; I thought it was her place to tell you what she wanted to know, but... yes. Mother remarried, and was widowed again two years ago."

Rhett started to ask a question, and Wade shook his head, raising a hand. "No," he said. "I won't tell you anything more; you'll just have to wait and ask mother."

Rhett sighed, recognizing the adamant gleam in Wade's eyes. Good lord, the boy had grown up to be more like his mother than anyone could have expected. He used to be timid and shy, and gave every evidence of being weak-willed, as well. Now he was a man, strong and sure of himself, and Rhett would have been proud to call him son... except it was too late for that.

"All right," he agreed. "Let's talk about what you've been doing, then."

They spoke of Wade's attendence at Cambridge, where he had studied military history "- and I promise, Uncle Rhett, they take a very different view of our civil war than anyone here does, regarding it as a minor squabble between tribes of barbarians... much as we might think of two bands of Apaches fighting each other out in Arizona. And you don't even want to hear what they say about the American Revolution. I suppose it proves that it's all in the perspective, though, doesn't it?"

"Yes," Rhett replied. "I suppose it does."

He wondered if Wade even noticed that he had called him 'uncle.'

Even though he spent the entire train ride talking to Wade, Rhett was aware of the impatience building in him. Sometimes he wondered how he had ever thought that he could forget Scarlett so easily, just walk away and be done with her. Well, he did try. And look at him now! It had been over a decade since he saw her, and he was as anxious as a schoolboy waiting to see the object of his first infatuation.

The train pulled into the station around ten o'clock. They might have arrived earlier, but the first train, the one they had taken, stopped at every small town on the way, which meant that it arrived very little before the second train, which left a full two hours later. Rhett had no luggage to carry – it was clearly understood by everyone that he would be returning to Atlanta on the last evening train – so he was free to leave the train as quickly as he could. He had hoped that perhaps Scarlett had come to meet her son, but no such luck. Will Benteen stood leaning against a shabby buggy, chewing on a stem of grass, his lanky body looking totally relaxed and at ease. His eyes widened as they took in Rhett.

"Well, boy," he greeted Wade. "Looks like you put the cat in the chicken coop 'gain, s'far as your Auntie's concerned. Don't reckon as I'll be helpin' you out none, neither."

"I wouldn't expect it, Uncle Will," Wade assured him, shaking the older man's hand firmly. "I can take care of Aunt Suellen."

Will gave a bark of laughter. "Braver men than you've said that," he told Wade. "Good t'see you again, Cap'n Butler; gotta say, though, you have interestin' timin'."

"I do, don't I?" Rhett asked. Will's hand felt rough and dry under his hand as they shook, more like wood than flesh.

The drive to Tara, normally accomplished in fifteen minutes, seemed to take three or even four times that long today. Rhett vaguely heard Will and Wade talking, but he made no effort to join their conversation, and was completely unaware of Will watching him, a faint frown on his face.

Then they came over the hill, and the house that Scarlett loved above all others was below them, and Rhett could see people on the lawn, moving around. Surely one of them was her?

Most of the people were servants. Even had he not known that an important social affair was being held at Tara later in the week, he would have read the signs easily. A series of pavilions had been built, each covered with a colorful awning, and tables and chairs were being brought out of storage, cleaned and set up.

It looked completely chaotic, but Rhett had grown up on a plantation, and knew that appearances were deceptive. By the time guests began to arrive, everything would have been put together so seamlessly that it would seem that the hostesses had done nothing but don pretty clothes and prepare to greet the guests. The thought only briefly touched his mind, however, for he heard the click of a latch and looked up.

And there, at last, emerging from a side door, was Scarlett.

He had a moment to observe her before she saw him, and he took full advantage of it. She looked a great deal like he remembered; tall and still slender, she carried herself with a natural elegance that time had not changed. Her hair was darkest ebony, and if he had still been a betting man, he would have bet it owed nothing to dye. Her eyes were still a deep emerald-green, and they still sparkled with life and energy. There were a few lines around her eyes and mouth, but all-in-all, she could almost have passed for the sixteen-year-old girl who had so enthralled him all those years ago.

He walked towards her slowly, enjoying the view. She wore a plain dress, obviously meant for work; its lines did not flatter her, but the light green color suited her well. Her hair was swept up in a messy bun, but little tendrils escaped to curl around her face. She was talking to the man beside her, gesturing to one of the pavilions as she did so. She gave her attention so completely to what she was doing that he was within a few feet of her before she knew he was there.

Then she looked up, and their eyes met.

Her lips made a perfect cupid's bow of surprise. Rhett remembered that in the honeymoon of their marriage, before she had become pregnant with Bonnie, he had loved to bring her presents just to see that expression... and kiss it off her face. He restrained himself now, but it took a disquieting amount of effort.

"Scarlett," he said, taking her hand and raising it too his lips. "You look as lovely as ever."

After a moment of startled surprise, she burst into laughter.

"Why, Rhett Butler, you're just as much of a varmint as ever!"

All right, so Scarlett is center stage, and it doesn't look like she and Rhett are going to shoot each other... not yet, anyway. We've discovered that she did remarry, but the circumstances are still a mystery. I think Rhett and Scarlett are overdue for a long conversation, don't you?

Review and let me know if you like it! I'll consider any suggestions for what they ask each other in the next chapter, though I can't promise anything!