An especially long chapter. The italics are MM's words, altered slightly but not enough so as to claim them to my story. I just love that bit when she kicks off Mrs. Merriwether to mind her business Please R&R!
"Ma – take me with you and uncle Rhett" Wade was pleading with tears in his eyes.
Scarlet felt her heart tangle, she raised her eyes questioning Rhett if they could.
"Scarlett, the road is not that easy." He muttered in a low tone.
"Oh, Ma just can't not be with me when I go to sleep." The toddler was wailing clinging to his mother's skirt.
"Captain Butler, I can care for Wade while we travel" Careen interrupted "He is no bother and he does go to sleep only with Scarlett beside him.
"Go pack for him too. It seems the ladies here are in of need your company, son. You'll help me manage the horse though?" Rhett took the boy in his arms and wiped his dripping nose.
"I already have." She gave Rhett a small pack containing few cloths for both. The low weight of the package did not escape him. "I have to admit that I was having a hard time with leaving him behind and I don't want Sue to have him on her hands. I would have asked you anyhow even if he hadn't started this scene."
He gave her a long smile and touched her cheek with the back of his fingers as he turned.
"Will you wait a few minutes while I talk to Sue?" Without waiting his reply, she entered the house in haste taking Suellen by the hand to the parlor.
Once there she breathed deeply and prayed to be able to pull this one out properly without causing any harm -
"Suellen, I have asked Alex Fontaine this morning to come by while we are away and make sure that the work is done properly by our new workers. Do make sure that you can host him properly in these two weeks."
Suellen bit her tongue nervously "Surely Ashley can do this with the workers."
"Ashley left for Atlanta early this morning. Anyhow, Alex is more practical, and I am not sure if Ashley can handle these new free laborers. Alex was willing to give a hand. He'll come around twice a day, at dawn and just before dusk. You should have something light for breakfast maybe that fine cake you make, and he will probably be in a hurry to leave, but in the evening, do invite him to dine. You may offer to invite his family, but let him decide on it."
"Couldn't Melly do this?"
"What is it with both of you? First Careen wanting to join a convent, now you reluctant to host a fine young man! Well, Melly can't do it because if I recall you are Ms. O'Hara and it is your home that Alex is helping!" Seeing her sister's paling face, she tried to change a tune "Sue, Alex is a nice lad as Pa would say, or chap or something of the sort. He doesn't bite. He lost a brother in the war and works as hard as we do. You'll find him easy to talk to. You've slaved here just like his sister-in-law, you had to put up with typhoid and with me, Heaven knows what was worse."
Though Suellen seemed surprised at Scarlett's encouraging manner, she hesitated.
"Go on. What's bothering you?" Scarlett was beginning to lose her temper.
"Should I tell him I'm engaged?"
"Why on earth would you do that?!" She lowered her voice and took her sister in her arms, startling her completely "Honey, Frank's only just asked you, surely you are not that obligated. Why he hasn't even given you a ring, or set a date, or presented you to his sister in Marietta, now has he? There's nothing wrong in entertaining a fine neighbor or hosting or even calling on him if it happens to be suggested…"
Scarlett felt that she was running out of words when Rhett entered the room and smiling added "What your sister is trying to say is that you have not entered wed-lock in a Catholic Church, like the one she is planning for us. Besides, it's not as if you are in mourning and being asked to dance. Isn't it?"
"Good Grief! You and Melly keep bringing it up as if I have something to be proud of!
"But you do, in an ocean of hypocrites and narrow minded fools you came out and danced as an eighteen-year-old should! Thank goodness you had the courage to do that".
"You can't imagine the letter I got after that episode from Ma!"
Rhett smiled devilishly as he said - "I get the general theme - disappointment, forgetting your upbringing and, let's not forget, sending your father to have a nice little chat with me."
Scarlet turned her eyes to Rhett with horror, He wasn't going to tell her of that night, now was he? - "No you don't! Don't you have anything better to do than embarrass me in front of my sister?"
Suellen joined his laughter – "Ma was baffled when Pa returned without you. I wondered how you managed to pull that one off. Before he left for Atlanta they were acting as if you had died or killed someone."
"Let's just say that Rhett can hold his liquor better than Pa. But returning to the main subject which is you, and Rhett do get out of here, I do want to talk to Sue alone" she snapped and almost shoved him out the door.
"How delicate of you milady." He took her palm and kissed it mischievously as he left.
"Sue, look me in the eye when I say this, because I shall never repeat it – You are lovely, lovelier than me, you just never had a chance of feeling it because the war started too soon for you."
Her sister gazed at her with sheer surprise -
"Ma isn't here to tell you this, so I suppose it is my duty. Alex will be here. So, wake yourself up way before dawn tomorrow, make sure that the kettle is hot and that you are smiling like the hostess you can be when he arrives. You are The Lady of this mansion, even if it is more farm than a mansion now. He is a gallant neighbor helping us. And Sue, don't complain – man hardly like it. Listen to him. Don't be too grateful."
She saw Suellen was still not sure of herself -
" When I called on them to ask him this, it was so gloomy there. Yes, you are lovely and spirited. Put a flower in that red hair of yours and smile. Remember, you're my sister, and God help a man we set our eyes on!"
Having said that she left the room thinking that her mother must be rolling back and forth in her grave right now 'Well, you are not here, and you were the one who tried to persuade me not to marry Charlie'.
She went up to her room and gathered in a small bag a spear blouse and some under-garments and a shawl. She had nothing more to gather. She wouldn't wear her first wedding dress, even though it was still there.
As she approached Rhett who arranged the same wagon that brought her from Atlanta she smiled – "Ready?" He asked
"Oh yes. How are we going to do this?"
"Although the tracks are not back to normal I thought we'll take our chances with a train from Atlanta to Augusta and from there to Charleston, we might just be there early tomorrow. A veteran you seem to have saved will be joining us until Atlanta so he can bring the wagon back."
"Will Benteen?"
"Yes, that's the one."
She kissed her father and took Rhett's hand assisting her to climb the wagon. For a second she hesitated and closed her eyes breathing deeply. Then she climbed the wagon and turned to her little son smiling and whispered "I have news for you Wade. You are about to have a new father!" Not wanting Melanie to hear her out.
"These aren't news, Auntie Melly said Uncle Rhett was going to be my new pa yesterday." He answered dismissingly causing a laughter in and out of the wagon.
"Well, and I am going to marry my love" she added whispering in his ear secretively.
Wade looked amazed "Really? She hasn't told me that!"
"What has not been told to you, son?" Asked Rhett as he took his place at the front of the wagon next to Will Benteen after Careen settled.
"Aunt Melly said you were going to be my new pa, but she didn't say anything about ma marrying her love. Who's that, Uncle Rhett? "
Rhett breathed deeply eyes fixed at his bride to be "I suppose we shall both just have to wait and see, won't we?"
************Milady****************
It was mid noon when they reached Atlanta. As they had two hours of waiting Scarlett took Wade and Careen to visit Ms. Hamilton. To her dismay she found Mrs. Merriwether with her Aunt looking at her with a severe face.
She took Scarlett's by her hand, ignoring her protest that they had only come for a short while and with no introduction she fired away at Scarlett:
"Because your own dear mother is dead and Miss Pitty, not being a matron, is not qualified to — er, well, to talk to you upon such a subject, I feel that I must warn you, Scarlett, Captain Butler is not the kind of a man for any woman of good family to marry. He is a —"
"He saved me and Melly, not to mention Ashley's son, for I gather that it was Ashley who had found the most pursuing errand of his to come and notify you of my coming matrimony fully aware that I will stop here on my way."
The conversation heated and ended when Scarlett, practically yelling at her as she breathed deep and turned to take Wade's hand "Dear me, how the time flies. Aunty do kiss your great nephew goodbye. You'll have to come visit us at Tara because I am not sure Atlanta will have much appeal to me when I return from Charleston".
Scarlett knew she had an open enemy now instead of a disapproving friend. But she did not care. Nothing Mrs. Merriwether could say or do could hurt her. She did not care what anyone said. Ashley's betrayal was a different thing 'Why can he not be happy for me?' she wondered as she swallowed her tears.
Careen had heard Scarlett's words with Mrs. Merriwether and though shocked at her sisters standing in front of the worthy matron, she felt Scarlett's discomfort. However, she kept her thoughts to herself.
Scarlett found a bakery and bought them some muffins and hot chocolate. Careen's questioning eyes were met with the sad eyes of her sister – "I don't think my son remembers the taste of hot chocolate or fresh muffins" she whispered.
With gloomy eyes, she met Rhett on the dock, reluctant to share the reasons for her foul mood. As the train started its travel it evaporated, and excitement washed over her. She leaned at his shoulder with excitement – "I am so happy, Rhett."
"You had me fooled for a minute or so."
"I met Dolly Merriwether and she gave us warm blessings naturally." As he pondered a second "Oh, Rhett, they were as warm as the Arctic seas!"
"So, good old Ashley came tattle telling?" He chuckled "I wondered at his haste this morning."
She did not answer but the hurt was evident in her features.
She hushed him as the puzzled look in Careen's eyes made her self-awareness grow, "er—I suppose that if you were planning on settling in Atlanta you should think again. I shall be an outcast for years after this little talk, reminding her of Maybelle's wedding gown."
Careen lift her head smiling "Dear, I do believe it had to do more with you telling her that you'd marry Captain Butler even if he had fought on the Yankee side and sending to tell that, to what was it? Her busybody friends? Sherman would have fled Atlanta had he seen the look in your eyes that moment!"
"I'm not so sure it's a complement." She giggled "but she did look rather upset, did she not?"
She decided to change the theme and looked at him- "Rhett, would you rather the Anglican church you talked about?"
"Are you really interested in what I'd rather?"
"I'm asking, aren't I?"
Only after Careen and Wade fell asleep he answered her -
"I don't know, Scarlett. Maybe that church represents the father who disowned me."
"Well, God did not disown you. He was with you when you made all that money before the war, when you ran blockade, in the war and he was with me when he returned you to me."
"I'm not so sure I believe in him, my dear." he laughed though moved.
"Well, I do, and that's enough for both of us. Just think about it until tomorrow. If you prefer, I think I'll be proud to follow you to any church you'd like. And if it helps upset your father, that is fine by me!"
"This wouldn't have to do anything with Careen's new fascination with the convent, now would it?"
"If you're nasty I will not talk to you." She said as she cuddled to his chest, ignoring the possibility of her sister observing her.
"Now that will make a fine bride, won't it?"
****Milady*****
They arrived closely in the early hours of the following day in Charleston. Scarlett had telegrammed her aunts that she was coming the day before. Scarlett and Careen entered first to find their two aunts waiting with a serene look accompanied by an aging man in his mid-sixties. The features were far too similar.
"You must be Mr. Butler. To what do I owe the honor?" she did not bother greet her aunts having seen the scenery they so easily arranged for her.
"I believe you are about to wed my son." The man talked with Rhett's familiar drawl and the tone of his voice was almost identical to Rhett's.
"True."
"I do hope you reconsider your decision, young lady. Have you given a thought to the fact that in marrying him you are disgracing both yourself and your family? I see you have a son, and you are a respectable widow, even if my son's courting you during the war has done some harm to your reputation."
Overwhelmed and suddenly feeling extremely tired she sat and looked up – "Careen, we shall be departing shortly, do go to the garden find Wade and Rhett and see if he can find a carriage to take us to the St. Michael's. We shall not be assisting with Auntie's help."
Careen gave her sister a look and rushed out.
Scarlett looked at the man "How dare you try ruin your son's chances for happiness. Haven't you done enough? Twenty years and you haven't had enough?"
"You don't know him, as I do, young woman."
"Dear God, you know him? You haven't seen him in decades. You disowned a boy. He is a man. And a man of standing and worth. I am not talking of wealth. Let me tell you this – your son is a great gentleman. Wise, funny, generous, kind and strong. Nothing breaks him. He loves life and appreciates it no matter how hard it must have been for him. He can see a child to his heart. Heaven's knows that if I did not have my father's love I wouldn't be half the person I am. The same Irish man who's home these fine ladies were too high and mighty to call upon except for my wedding. No, respecting choices is something this town tarnishes, it seems." Her voice was stern with the effort she was making not to cry, not to scream.
"We shall be marrying in your church, today, before God. If you decide to disrespect that, God have mercy on your soul."
"How dare you?"
"I dare."
"Well, I commend your courage and your heart, even if I have my doubts regarding your wits."
She stood, for the first time looking disapprovingly at her aunts. The two women seemed to shrink under her gaze – "I do believe this call had gone far enough" as she closed the front door behind her.
Scarlett held her sister's arm and said in a low tone "Dear Lord! What should I tell Rhett?"
"Pray, something will come by your way."
"Why should she pray?" Asked Rhett.
"For guidance, of course." Answered Careen with considerable conviction " My aunts were giving her a terrible time, blaming her for my resolution to inquire about the convent. Scarlett, well you know her, retorted, and I am not sure if Pa's Irish style is acceptable by The Lord. Even if she did mean well. Other than that, it's pure kindness of her to decide we should depart immediately to a hotel."
Scarlett's mouth formed a surprised O as she blinked-
"You'd make a terrible nun, Ms. Careen. Lying is a sin young lady." She whispered to her sister as her sister stepped in front almost dancing out the front gate.
