For those of your with myspace, I am Cornorama, I just added an album to my pictures from my visit to Atlanta. Brandy and I went to two of the GWTW museums and some of the pictures are posted, enjoy.

As they stood waiting for someone to answer the door, Rhett reached his hand toward the knob. Ross caught his wrist and yanked it back. "You can't just burst into the house. Eulaine and Pauline are the last people to have seen Scarlett, don't alienate them."

Rhett shook off his brother's hand. "Mind your own business, I didn't ask you to come along."

"That's right, you didn't. But regardless, I am here, so listen to me, go softly. Miss Eulaine and Miss Pauline are two of the flutteriest women I've ever met. Try not to get them worked up before you find out what you need to know. They are also mother's oldest friends, she is going to be hurt as it is when she finds out what Rosemary's done, don't add more fuel to the fire by…"

"Thank you for the sage advice," said Rhett before pounding on the door again. "I'm giving it until the count of three and then I'm breaking the damn thing down."

This frenzied, antagonistic man was a stranger to Ross. He had never seen his brother so obsessed before, so ready to rush into a situation without stopping to consider the wisdom of his every move. That wasn't to say that he found Rhett to be overly cautious. "What's happened to the fabled Butler self control?"

"Scarlett O'Hara happened."

A heavyset black woman finally responded to Rhett's hammering on the door. She regarded Rhett with vague curiosity. She knew the relations between her employer's niece and the tired looking man standing on the doorstep were strained at best. Miss Pauline had told Miss Eulaine that she thought it quite odd that there niece came and went as she pleased and without her husband. "Mista Ross, Cap'in Butler, won't you…."

Rhett shoved past her, making his way toward the sound of his mother's voice.

"You must forgive my brother," apologized Ross with a crooked smile. "He's in a terrible hurry."

Jeniva glowered. "M'hm," she muttered closing the door with a little more force then was required.

By the time Ross reached the parlor doors, Rhett had already made his presence known. If the Robillard sisters thought there was anything strange about the previously estranged brothers arriving on their doorstep at the same time, obviously in some sort of accord, they never gave any sign. "Captain Butler, what an unexpected pleasure," seeing Ross hovering just behind his brother, her smile widened, "and Ross, you too." With a graceful gesture that encompassed them both, she gestured for them to come into the room. "How lovely of you to come and fetch your mother and sister home."

"Where is Scarlett," Rhett asked without preamble.

Pauline cocked her head, immediately scenting scandal. "I knew it, I just knew it. Eulaine, I told you that she had no right to stay behind," crowed Pauline. "She said she would send you a telegram telling you about her change in plans, but she didn't, did she? What a vexing, willful thing she is."

The relief was evident in his face. "She's in Savannah?" asked Rhett. The tension drained from his body and his shoulders slumped slightly as he allowed himself a moment to savor the news. She was not off somewhere out of reach. She was not halfway around the world, getting into who knew what sort of trouble. She was less than a hundred miles away. If he left in the morning on the first train, he would be there by the afternoon.

"Thank god," muttered Ross, under his breath. He tried to smile nonchalantly. "You're sure that's where she is?"

"Of course that's where she is," replied Eulaine, daring to look at her now equally confused sister. "We all went for father's birthday in February, just after that terrible thing that happened to Scarlett and you, Captain Butler, after the ball. If we had known about Scarlett's accident, we wouldn't have allowed her to come, but we only found out after the fact. Pauline and I went to visit our cousins and then we returned two days ago. Scarlett decided to remain behind at father's request. Surely you knew that at the very least, that she went with us to Savannah?"

Eleanor smiled brightly as she reached out and squeezed Rosemary's hand. "You have no idea how worried we all were, there must have been some sort of miscommunication. We weren't sure where Scarlett had gone and…"

Some of the euphoria he felt at finally having located Scarlett faded as Rhett turned his attention toward a young woman who looked as though she was trying desperately to turn chameleon. "Yes," there was no discernable emotion in his voice and Rosemary flinched at the way his eyes held nothing but a cold sort of scrutiny, "we had no idea where she'd gone, isn't that right Rosemary?"

She swallowed spasmodically as both of her brothers regarded her with two completely different expressions. Ross's gaze was sad but tinged with sympathy while Rhett looked as though he was only seconds away from strangling her. "None. You must be happy Rhett."

Some warmth spilled into his expression and she knew it was for Scarlett; everything in Rhett's life over the last decade had been for her. If she were guilty of some horrendous crime against him, Rhett would forgive her. Surely, he might find it in his heart to forgive his own blood if he could continually love his trashy wife, she thought frantically.

"I am very happy. But, caring for me as you do, you must be happy as well?" asked Rhett coldly.

"Yes. I'm happy for you" she managed to whisper around the lump in her throat. She had never counted on Rhett's single mindedness when it came to Scarlett. She had been a fool to steal the notes and to burn them. He was going to find out about them soon enough, and when he did, he would want to see them. She could not even make amends by offering to return them to him. At least he didn't know that she knew, not yet. But it would only be a matter of time.

He smiled benignly. For one lone moment time stood still and she thought that things might be all right in the end. That he remembered that they were blood and that alone should make the difference, but then, his smile faded. "Tell me something, you're a young woman Rosemary, nearly Scarlett's age. What sort of reception do you think I can expect when I reach Savannah? After all, I've left Scarlett without a word for the last three months. But then, she can hardly hold that against me since she didn't leave word to let me know where she would be."

Rosemary was, in many ways, a shrewd and intuitive young woman. She could cut to the heart of a matter after subjecting it to unsympathetic scrutiny. She was a voracious reader who devoured books at the rate of nearly a dozen a month and took from each volume some small life lesson or fact. But these gifts of scholarship and perception did not enable her to better understand a complicated man such as Rhett.

She had known Rhett Butler the caring older brother. She had known Rhett as the kind, adoring father to Bonnie and the thwarted lover to Scarlett O'Hara, but this cold, vaguely menacing man that regarded her with dark eyes so like her own was a stranger. His voice was laced with a smoldering anger that threatened to burst into flames if ignited by a wrong word. "You know, don't you?" she offered softly.

"What could I possibly know Rosemary? After all, if nothing else, you've proven to me that I don't know Scarlett as well as I thought. I believed that she would leave without a word to anyone even though everything I knew about her previously was to the contrary. I assumed that she would allow both myself and mother to worry about her without giving us a moment's consideration. I assumed that I could believe my sister when she told me that Scarlett had departed without so much as backward glance. It's true what they say…when you assume…" his lips compressed into a thin line, he regarded her for a moment.

She did not quell under his gaze even though her heart pounded in her chest. "I didn't set out to hurt you, I…"

"At least do me the curtsey of being honest now. I can guess what mother's said, what about the one she left for me? What did it say?"

She shook her head frantically, "I know it's hard to believe, but I thought it was…"

"What did it say," he asked firmly, "paraphrase it if you can't remember it verbatim. I just want to know the general jist of it, I can read it later, but I want to know if she's been waiting for me."

"You can't read it, I burned it."

His eyes narrowed slightly and his jaw tightened, but those were the only visible signs that hinted at the rage building within him. "When?"

"What does that matter?"

"It matters."

"The afternoon you came home to find her gone. As soon as you went upstairs."

His blank masked features cracked and she could see the hurt that was there. The pain at being betrayed by her was more than she could fathom and suddenly she knew regret. It came swiftly. The pain was a sharp dagger that cut to the bone. Even if she had sent him after Scarlett and she'd broken his heart yet again, he would not have returned to them in as much pain as he was in, and indeed, had been in since the end of February.

"Rhett, what's going on?" implored Eleanor.

"In a minute mother, what did the note say?"

"She loves you. She wanted you to know that she wouldn't stay here because she thought she was hurting you."

He wanted that note, hearing Scarlett's words second hand barely whetted his appetite for contact with her. It didn't matter, he tried to tell himself, by tomorrow, he would be with her and then he could ask her, face to face, to tell him what she'd written.

"Would one of you tell me what's going on, now, please," demanded Eleanor, her voice soft but stern.

Trying to keep the hatred he felt for his sister out of his voice while addressing his mother tore at Rhett, but he managed as best he could. If his voice shook a little with ill concealed rage, there was only so much he could do to hold back the torrent of violence that threatened to spill forth. "Ask your daughter. Ask her what she knew about Scarlett and her whereabouts What she really knew, not just the lies she told me over the last three months."

Her soft blue eyes glistened with unshed tears as she beg her daughter for an accounting of her misdeeds. "Tell him Rosemary that this is all a misunderstanding," she pleaded. "You told us she didn't."

"I lied."

"Why? Rhett was nearly…" she grimaced and tried again to find the right words to let her daughter know just how serious her offence really was. "I was so worried. About your brother, but also about Scarlett."

"I only wanted what was best for Rhett." She came to her feet to face her brother, her chin proudly thrust forward. "I did what I did to help, not hurt you."

"I asked you if you could remember anything that might help me find Scarlett, and you told me no. I asked repeatedly, and you told me no. You lied to me, Rosemary; I think you at least owe me an answer, why would you watch me suffer like you did and never say a word? It was within your power this whole time. With just a few words, you could have alleviated all of my worry and suffering. All you needed to do was just tell me where she was and I would have been free of the constant state of agony I've been in. Why did you take the notes?"

"I wanted to help you. You've been obsessed with her and…"

"She's my wife, I'm not obsessed with her, I'm in love with her."

"Well then, loving her was killing you, I saw how you looked when you came back from Colombia."

"I looked that way because I had gone upstairs to find her, to tell her I wanted her still and she was gone. Not knowing where she was? That nearly killed me. I've barely slept or eaten since she's left. You've watched me destroy myself Rosemary and you could not find the courage to even hint at what you'd done."

"I'm sorry. But I only…"

"Not good enough."

She reached out her hand to catch his sleeve but he jerked back. "Don't," he said, holding up his hands to ward her off. "Don't touch me. I've never struck a woman before, but I might now. I can't even honestly say I might regret it after the fact."

"Rhett, please…"

"No."

She turned to her mother, her eyes imploring her to intervene. "I was doing what I thought was best."

Eleanor shook her hand. "How could you do this Rosemary? Your brother's been frantic with worry. He's been hurting so much and you've just kept silent and allowed him to hurt."

The Robillard sisters had been all but forgotten during the altercation between brother and sister. Pauline interrupted the Butler family drama that was continuing to unfold in her parlor by repeatedly clearing her throat. "Captain Butler, do you mean to tell me that you've been looking for Scarlett all this time? That you've been worrying about her?"

"Yes."

"What a pretty mess," mused Pauline.

"She's fine though," Eulaine reassured him, "she was feeling a little under the weather when we arrived and then again when we were leaving, but otherwise, she seemed perfectly well. She's been consorting with some of her Irish relations and pursing an archbishop for something having to do with Tara. Typical Scarlett, always busy."

He glared at his sister; he'd asked if Scarlett had been well when she left. If he found out that she'd been lying ill, thinking that he didn't care enough to come and bring her home, he'd strangle his sister. It occurred to him as a second thought that her being ill could be indicative of another sort of illness, the kind that would result in a child. "She was sick?" he asked carefully, probing for further details.

"No, no. Just a little worn down. I think she was just doing too much. She made a trip out to Tara the day after father's birthday and when she came back again, she just seemed tired."

"She's with your father now?"

"Yes." Pauline pursed her lips. "It was strange, she went in and spoke to father one evening and the next we knew, he invited her to stay. Very unlike father, not to mention Scarlett doesn't really care for him."

"Will you give me the address and directions from the station in Savannah."

"Of course."

"Mother, I'll be leaving first thing in the morning."

Tugging on his sleeve, Rosemary tried one last time to make him see reason. "Rhett, I know you're angry, but still…"

Ripping his arm back, he turned to her and lashed out finally, venom in every one of his words, he was beyond caring that his mother or Scarlett's aunts were present. "Not another word out of your lying mouth or I will shut it for you. I never want to hear your voice again. You are nothing to me. If you had burned the note and kept silent for a few days, I could accept that. Perhaps even a week, but three months? You've stood by silently and watched me slowly drink myself to death for the last three months."

Eulaine gasped quietly at such a candid admission, but she still managed to have the presence of mind to take Eleanor's trembling hand and squeeze it lightly.

"I thought you'd get over her in time. I was going to tell you, but you seemed to be coming to terms with her being…"

"You did not think I was going to get over her. You thought you'd gotten away with it for so long that you were in the clear. Mother," he came to his mother's side and, kneeling by her feet, he took one of her hands in his. "I can't ask you to chose between your children, but I can tell you that when I come back to Charleston, I won't be staying at the house on the Battery so long as your daughter is also there."

She laid her hand on Rhett's shoulder. "I know you are angry, but in time…"

"In time, I'll come to the same conclusion that I reached this afternoon. Your daughter is a spineless backstabber who would rather cower and keep secrets than come forth with the truth. I won't stay under the same roof with her."

Pauline went to the small secretary in the corner and after jotting out some lines on a scrap of paper, she handed it to Rhett. "When you reach Savannah, take a cab to father's. It's much too far to walk."

He bowed over her hand, kissing it softly. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, give Scarlett our love."

Ross had already left and Rhett quickly bowed to Eulaine and kissed his mother on the cheek before leaving. He did not stop to acknowledge Rosemary. In his eyes, he no longer had a sister.