Chapter 10

Scarlett's eyes were hard emeralds and they glittered with triumph! Basking in the comfort of Rhett's return, she had shown Ashley exactly what she thought of his "gentlemanly" ways. How silly he must have felt now, to have thought that she and Rhett were such a mismatched couple. She had sat by Rhett and given attention to Rhett's words and acted like the perfect wife. Served Ashley right! He led her through a fine dance, making her wait all those years thinking that he loved her and had married Melanie only for honor's sake! And finally when Melly was at the throes of death, he realized that he had loved Melly all long! Scarlett bit her lip in scorn. And she had thought Ashley was such a pillar of strength! Well, she'll show him what a good wife she is to Rhett! Yes, that's what she will do at tomorrow's bazaar as well. She'll hang on Rhett's arm and pay lovely compliments to her husband, hold him in high honor and everyone will see what an ideal couple they are! Scarlett breathed deeply with gratification and looking up, she saw Rhett's eyes gleaming at her. "You cruel cat!" he began with a mocking smile on his face. "You've sharpened your claws on Ashley and by the look on your face, you are planning to give others the same treatment!"

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean!", retorted Scarlett, annoyed that he had read her like a book.

"I'm sure you do! I saw the look on poor Ashley's face when you made that jibe about convict labor. Really Scarlett, do you think its wise to dispel the delicate notions that Ashley might have harbored of your sweetness and grace? And that too in so brutal a fashion!"

"Fiddle-dee-dee!" said Scarlett, still smiling to herself. "Who cares what Ashley thinks. He never cared for me! Oh, he said he did .. on so many occasions! But in the end, he treated me as if I was his personal Belle Wattling!"

Rhett Butler pulled the buggy to a quick halt and laughed until he choked. Scarlett crossed her arms and looked annoyed. "People are staring!" she quipped. "Do stop making such a fool of yourself!" She gazed around, depressed. "I wish we could go anywhere but back to Aunt Pitty's. I don't think I could stand another minute of that Edward Alderly. Goodness, he might still be there, banked in a corner and wooing India for all he was worth! I honestly think I shall suffocate if I go there!"

Rhett smartly laid the whip on the horse's back and turned the buggy around. "How about a drive, just out of Five Points?"

"Oh, that would be wonderful,Rhett!" sad Scarlett, dimpling at once. She laid a gloved hand on his arm and smiled happily. Rhett still gazed mockingly at her. "But I feel for Mr. Wilkes.", he continued. "You owe him some kind of respect, darling. He did take a bullet wound for you on his shoulder during that ill-fated midnight tryst."

Scarlett had forgotten this. Her eyes opened wide with realization and then grew cold. "What of it?!" she cried, suspecting that Rhett was deliberately taking Ashley's side to make her feel guilty. "You hate Ashley, don't you? You've called him wooden-headed and a fool several times!"

"But not to his face"

"Aah, who is the hypocrite now? Stop laughing! And all the time we were there, I was so devoted to you. Not one word about that!"

"Frankly, I found your "devotion" quite disturbing!Please don't do it again"

Scarlett knitted her eyebrows in anger. "Then what do you expect,Rhett Butler? You are the most odious man I have ever met. And so terribly proud and unreachable. And what do you hope to achieve through it all? Your very contempt of others makes it impossible for anyone to know you or be kind to you."

Rhett returned a blank, placid look. "Perhaps that is true", he admitted at length.

"And as for me being brutal to Ashley Wilkes. I was entirely taken in by his ramblings of honor and sacrifice. Why if he'd died in the war, I'd have gotten over him and fallen in love with you that night you kissed me at Rough and Ready!"

Rhett's eyebrows shot up in black crescents.

"And.. and you wouldn't have left me-"

"I would have-", interjected Rhett.

"All right you would have. But you would have come back to me. We could have been a lot happier together-"

"Darling, I hold you equally responsible for your affair with Ashley Wilkes. Your words cannot change anything" Rhett said those words easily, but Scarlett noted with alarm that his eyes had suddenly grown disinterested and cold. Oh dear, she shouldn't have spoken all this just yet. It was too soon and Rhett still remembered the hurtful memories. Scarlett swallowed her impatience and continued on a different tack.

"Now Rhett, I see I was wrong to bring all that up. What does it matter now, darling. We are together and I'm going to make you so happy"

Rhett didn't reply and Scarlett began to grow anxious. She noticed that his jawline had hardened in the course of their conversation. Something she had said had triggered the aloofness in Rhett. And things were going on so well just then.

"We should visit Tara, Rhett. Of course, the children are there and they'd love to see you. But mainly because, I want you to stand with me on the wide porch and imagine my nervous anticipation, so many years ago, for when Ashley Wilkes would come riding on his horse, cutting a dashing figure in his suit, full of elegance and honor. I want you to picture what its like for a young girl of sixteen to hang on to every gentle word from Ashley's mouth. They were all gentle words, meaningless most of the time, but so lovely to the ears. I think it was his gentleness that drew me to him,Rhett. That was a quality I never had. Melly was gentle and so was my Mother."

Rhett did not reply but he was at least listening to her. Scarlett continued.

"You were gentle and kind on two occasions,Rhett. The first time was when I was so distressed from delivering Melly's baby and having to flee from Atlanta on the last day of the siege. You held me in your arms when I cried and I thought I could have stayed there forever. I did too, remember? I didn't snap at you or push your arms away. And the second time when I woke up from my nightmare. I wanted you to hold me. Your were so kind and gentle and I wanted to be safe. I felt safe and happy with you that night."

"I wager you never had that nightmare again these five months"

"No. I never did. I knew you'd come back to me", said Scarlett, softly.

Rhett returned an unreadable look.

"On both times when you were kind and gentle, I didn't push you away, did I Rhett?" she asked, peering into his face, hoping to read some returning emotions.

"No you didn't" said Rhett , at last.

Scarlett heaved a sigh of relief. She'd won the conversation and that was a very rare victory for her. Rhett suddenly bent down and kissed her cheek. it was a slight peck but Scarlett was pleased.

"But you thought of men as fools, Scarlett. You held the whip hand over them and I couldn't let you do the same to me. You would have done it, wouldn't you?"

Scarlett cast her mind back to the morning after their wild night of swirling darkness. She had planned to make Rhett jump through hoops and pay for every insolent remark he had made all those years. These memories made her blush involuntarily and Rhett was quick to notice it.

"Ashley always spoke of me as if there was hidden goodness and beauty in me.. my.. my soul.. What a fool I was to believe all that! But how lovely it was to hear those words! You called me hard and scrupulous. You insulted me, mocked me, saw through my ideas-"

"I spoke the truth"

"But the truth is so hard to accept"

There was a faint smile on Rhett's lips. "I haven't returned to you, Scarlett. You haven't really changed." Scarlett opened her mouth in fervent appeal but Rhett continued, "Listen, my baby, I want you to go to Charleston or the Savannah and find out about Pierre Robbilard. I feel that would save you-"

Scarlett leaned back moodily. Trust Rhett to bring up irrelevant topics! "Oh Rhett, there's not a truth in that story." she said morosely. "I.. I won't do it"

"That story is the reason why I came to visit you" prodded Rhett, with stern patience. "Now promise me you'll go to these places and learn about your Mother. Give me your word. You are as contrary as me, Scarlett. You speak of gentleness and yet you enjoy primitive feelings. You talk of kindness but you speak the most scathing words. You need to know yourself and I think that tracing Pierre Robbilard is the best way. Now, be a good girl and promise me that you'll do what I say." His eyes suddenly flickered with a dull gleam. "You can't stay in your contrary, frightened little shell and expect to win back my affections"

"Frightened?!",cried Scarlett, prickling up at once. "I have never-"

"It takes courage to be gentle and kind to others, darling." drawled Rhett, aggravatingly. "And you admitted on your own that you possess neither qualities. I shall understand that you may not want to go to Savannah for fear that anything you learn there might jeopardize your fond adulation of your guileless, unworldly Mother-"

Scarlett fumed at this. She burst out, her Irish temper taking over- "I shall go to Savannah and Charleston! I'll get to the bottom of your rotten old story and make you pay for your words, Rhett Butler."

As soon as she said the words, Scarlett knew she had fallen into Rhett's trap. he had looked at her like a cat staring at a mouse hole and she should have guessed he was jockeying her into this position. She cursed her quickfire temper and Rhett's smooth manipulative ways.

Rhett laughed softly and turned the horse around to go back to Five Points.