Chapter Nine
Rhett smirked as he opened the door into Scarlett's room. He knew he might catch her in some compromising situation and it amused him greatly. He opened the door to find her sitting at her vanity brushing her hair so that it crackled and shone. She turned when he spoke. "Ah, Scarlett, some things never change."
Rhett fought back against the urge to take the brush from her and brush it himself. He loved the feel of running his fingers through her hair, but he knew that touching in the slightest might weaken his resistance even more than it was already weakening at the site of her. He had lied, he still loved her, but he was too raw from his precious babies death. He couldn't allow her to have power over him now. He'd once told her that he wasn't in love with her. He had causally remarked that if he ever were in love with her that she would be the last person that he would tell. He further stated that "God help the man who ever really loves you. You'd break his heart, my darling, cruel, destructive little cat who is so careless and confident she doesn't even trouble to sheathe her claws."
And he hadn't told her. But now she knew.
But she wouldn't be his destruction.
"Scarlett, I'm going to Washington. I'm going to take the children." He told her directly, there was no question in his statement, he was his usual brash and authoritative self.
"O, Rhett, you can't taking them up North. Surely your joking." Scarlett said with a knowing smile. "Why you would never take my children up among those nasty Yankees."
"O, but I most assuredly am not jesting. I think it will be good for them, and it isn't terribly far north. I think they would benefit from seeing the nations capitol." He assured her.
"Over my dead body!" She exclaimed. "O Rhett, you are vile. I don't want my children around the Yankees. The nations capitol, God's Nightgown Rhett, then take them to Richmond." Scarlett loudly protested.
Rhett chuckled, "You might have considered that before you let them play with the Scallywags and Carpetbaggers. Now you can come or not, but I am leaving and Wade and Ella are going with me as well. We might even swing up to Boston so that Wade can see the college has dreamed of going to."
Scarlett frowned at him and turned back to the mirror. "Vanity, vanity Scarlett. The mirror will still be there in the morning." Rhett grinned knowing that he had won this battle. He left the room whistling, when he was gone she turned and glared at the place where had recently stood. She wanted to throw something, but she knew that it would only amuse him more.
The ground that so recently had been nothing but a bog, was now dry and cracked. Scarlett pulled the reigns as the horse and carriage bumped along the road to the mills. She shuddered as the horses quickly raced around the bend in the road above Shantytown. The dust flew up into her face, nearly choking her. She set her jaw with grim determination. She was going to see Ashley. She knew Rhett would be furious, but she needed to let him know what was going on.
She scanned the yard that was full of darkies as she pulled in, but Ashley was no where to be scene. She exited the carriage and headed towards the office. She found him seated at the desk with his head in his hands. The office was in terrible disarray as papers and other items littered the normally carefully organized surface. As she entered, Ashley lifted his gaze to the door. His pale gray eyes held such grief and loss that it tore Scarlett in two to look into them. They were as despairing as a stormy day.
"Scarlett." he greeted her in a flat dull tone that held no warmth and no life. 'What brings you here?"
"O, well, I was just thinking about you. And I had to know how the mill was doing. Even though its been a while, I still miss them sometimes." She simpered.
His eyes followed her as she paced the room, back and forth, back and forth. "Scarlett, please will you take a seat? Scarlett, I must make a confession. I've decided that I'm going to find someone else to run the mills for a while. I just can't bear it. I haven't the strength that you do."
Scarlett's eyes flashed angrily "You're giving up the mill?" she screeched. "But I worked so hard and…" she trailed off realizing that what she was saying had no value to him. "O Fiddle dee dee, like this silly little mill ever mattered a whit to me."
At this a faint ghost of a smile crossed Ashley's face. "Scarlett, you are such a terrible liar. Hasn't anyone ever told you that?"
"Well what do you want me to say? That I am terribly upset about it, that I think you're a fool to do so. Would that make you feel better?" She demanded.
"Scarlett, I'm not selling them. I've decided to accept a position as a professor at Harvard. They have asked me to join the faculty in the masters program. I just need to get away from Atlanta. I'll return. But for the moment, I dread returning home and not finding Melly there." Ashley sighed the pain almost visible in the air between them. "And then in the summer's Beau and I will return to Twelve Oaks. At the Sheriff's sale, no one wanted it. And so I bought it back. It may never have the grandeur it once held, but my son will get to see Twelve Oaks again." Ashley finished.
"Why Ashley, you're going North?" Scarlett said in a tone that implied he was doing something akin to murder.
"Scarlett, I have to leave. I can't stay here and see the town that we lived in. I can't do it. I'm not strong like you. I never have been. Sometimes I wonder if everyone wouldn't have been better off with me dead. Sometimes I almost wish I'd never come home from the war. Melanie would still be alive. And I would never have to see the ruins of Twelve Oaks. And Scarlett, you would have had a better chance at loving Rhett. I led you on. I talk so often about gallantry and honor, yet I have none. Nor do I possess any bravery or valor."
"O Ashley, you mustn't talk like that." Scarlett soothed. "You are a gentleman, you are so brave and so strong." She spoke the words, but even she understood that they weren't true. She spoke them for Melly and for Wade.
"Ahhh, well I see that Scarlett, you have finally come to claim your stupid Ashley for yourself." Rhett's voice came booming from the doorway. He leaned casually against the doorframe, filling it completely. His face was almost indiscernible as the light flooded behind him, masking his face in the shadows.
"O Rhett," Scarlett exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to see my ex-wide make a fool of her self. The gossip mill already told me that you were here." He said in a lazy, flat voice.
"Rhett," Ashley spoke. "She doesn't love me. She loves you. Can't you see it?"
"O I can see that she thinks she loves me, but she thought she loved you for all of those years and now she says she was wrong." Rhett spoke quietly, dangerously. His normally placid or laughing eyes dared Scarlett to refute him.
"I was just telling Scarlett that I am moving up North." Ashley said without elaboration.
"Ahh, well how convenient, I can leave Scarlett when we go visit and then I can be done with her."
"Your ex-wife? Surely you aren't going to divorce her. She would be ruined." Ashley defended.
"Ahh, yes, but Scarlett was ruined long ago. And if we divorce than she is free to join you in your bed." Rhett drawled. Scarlett knew the signs, Rhett was drunk And Rhett was a mean drunk when he went past the limit. As she approached him, she could smell the liquor. And she could see his bloodshot eyes boring holes through her.
"Rhett Butler, you are severely inebriated. I'm going home now. Alone." Scarlett tossed her head and tried to slide past Rhett.
"You'll do no such thing." His words pierced the air, and Ashley looked away as if unable to face the scene in front of him.
Rhett grabbed Scarlett and forced her to walk close by his side until he lifted her into the seat of the carriage. His horse had been tied to the back of the carriage, and Rhett took the reigns from her hands. "If you recall, coming out here alone has been detrimental to your well being before. And I can't see the honorable Mr. Wilkes doing anything about it."
Scarlett seethed as she watched Rhett drive. She had done nothing wrong. "Rhett, you are just being vindictive."
"O really Scarlett? May I remind you what happened to your second husband?" He spoke crisply and clearly.
Scarlett refused to look him in the face. But settled into her set and allowed him to drive her back to town, knowing that there was nothing that she had power to do.
