Ella Kennedy's mind drifted, as she gritted her teeth, having to bear Hetty Tarleton's ramblings about the good old days. Sitting on the front porch of the Jonesboro Schoolhouse, Ella fanned away mosquitoes.
"…and oh, Ella, my God, I had the most beautiful gown at the cotillion that year. Ma was so devoted to her horses, had no time for designing it, but my Aunt Faye and I had a milliner come and make something that I'd seen in the Godey's Lady's Book." Hetty's eyes danced.
"Hetty, I really have to go home and correct spelling papers, hon." It seemed that all people did around here was talk about before the war. Ella's mother and stepfather were brisk people, but one thing you didn't hear from them was excessive reminiscing.
Ella had been born just before the war was over, and, thanks to her father Frank Kennedy's prosperous store, her mother's mills, and then her mother marrying Rhett Butler, had grown up living fairly well.
But she'd spent a great deal of time listening to her elders discussing the war, before the war, the great Cause of the war, and you'd think they'd won the war from the way they went on! Atlanta just seemed like the epitome of a weeping willow, or something.
After a rocky beginning, Ella had grown close to her Aunt Suellen, and her cousin Little Sue, and on her fifteenth birthday, had decided to move back to Tara full time, and soon thereafter, had begun working with the Tarleton girls, teaching school in the little clapboard shack down the road.
Ella had hoped that she'd finally escape the boring reminisces, but oh no…now, at age seventeen, the only time Ella had any relief was when she saw her beau, Rodney Parrish.
And Rod had been a Yankee soldier…now he worked at the post office in town. So Ella couldn't tell anyone. And yet, Rod was decent, a bright fellow…he talked funny, and had terrible manners. But he didn't go on about the old days!
And now Hetty was going to talk about what a bitch Mother was, how she hogged all the men. Ella sighed.
"..Scarlett was so beautiful, and she had so many beaux…"Hetty's voice rose. "Of course it would have been nice if she'd been closer to the rest of the girls, so we all could have gone on skating parties or hunts together, instead of just gathering the boys to. But your mother had her own way."
It was no wonder that Ella, two decades younger than Hetty, and with much less seniority, was teaching seventh through ninth grades, while Hetty still did grades one through three…all she probably talked about was her own history, pre 1961!
There was a sound of hoof beats, and the ladies looked up to see Wade Hamilton in a modest cart coming into the schoolyard.
"Hey, Miss Hetty, hey Sis, you want a ride home?" Wade was staying at Tara for a week or so, and Ella was glad for the distraction. She jumped off the porch and, picking up her skirts, climbed into Will Benteen's old cart, and they took off.
"So you had enough of Hetty going on about the old days?" Wade grinned as Ella made a face. Wade, of course had spent his first seven or eight years in almost complete poverty, but for some reason was fascinated by the beauty of the old stories.
But Wade sympathized with his sister's practical nature…he was much more like his father, Charlie Hamilton, the intellectual who had died in camp before seeing any battle.
Ella, like Scarlett would have none of it. "On and on, Wade, it's all the woman talks about. Sure, it must've been great, big plantation, horses, dogs, parties. But it's not that bad now. We have little dances, and events. And in school, I'm actually beginning to pound arithmetic and primer reading into the little white trash heads. That's a miracle, you know."
Wade threw his head back and laughed. "Oh my…" But then he calmed down. "Did you tell anyone about Rodney yet?"
Ella smirked. "Did you tell anyone about Hugh?"
Wade reddened. "I might get hung if I did, Ella, you know that." Wade paused. "And now there's this new business."
The "new business" was Mother's friendship with a wealthy Frenchman who had a daughter of marriageable age—a beauty who ignored the other swains in Atlanta in favor of the well mannered Wade Hamilton.
Scarlett needed money to purchase back the stocks to the mills, and Sagesse needed a husband. And Wade was between a rock and a hard place.
"Wade, I understand Hugh Elsing is getting married his own self." Ella said gently. "Maybe you could just continue to meet clandestinely. It's not as if you're a couple—"
Wade sighed. "But I don't want to sneak around. My whole life I've been meeting boys in the woods, messing around with the piano player in the Atlanta Theater between shows…it just isn't natural."
Ella shook her head. "But Wade honey, your nature isn't uh, natural. You can't seem to give it up, this I understand, but…"
"You have it a lot easier than I do, I think" Wade said to Ella earnestly. "The view of Southerners towards Yankees is starting to soften a bit, and I think they'll accept you two getting hitched at some point."
"No, I don't think so." Ella said sadly. "What's incredibly sad is, Hetty is so sweet on Alex Fontaine, who is about three times my age. And he keeps dropping by Tara and bringing me gifts, it's almost embarrassing. And Aunt Suellen and Uncle Will really think I should marry Alex, because Alex—"
"Has a nice rear end?" Wade said meditatively. "He does"
"No, pervert! Because Alex has a very prosperous farm. It's almost as the same problem that you have, although not really." No, Wade's sickness was truly unnatural. Ella didn't want to say it.
"Well, it's good to have someone to discuss this with." Wade said to Ella, smiling. "You've always been my best friend."
And the siblings held hands in the cart.