The Night Before the Wedding


Beau stepped carefully down to ground level; he had discovered in the past few months that the stone steps here at Mimosa were far from level, and sometimes crumbled unexpectedly underfoot. The last thing he needed was a broken ankle, or even a bad sprain; too many event over the next few weeks required his presence. Tomorrow's wedding was first, of course; he could just imagine how it would be if he had to act as his cousin's best man with his leg in a splint! He reminded himself to mention the steps to Alex, who seemed always to be working at something.

Katie and Lanie, as usual, complained about having go go back to Pine Bloom. They loved Mimosa, and coming here to spend time with their Aunt Sally and Uncle Alex was one of their favorite things to do. Mimosa never regained the gleam she had possessed before the war, the gleam that came from unlimited money and slaves, but it was not the run-down, almost decrepit place that Beau remembered from his childhood visits to the county, either. Scarlett had seen to that. Mimosa belonged, in part, to her daughters, and she would not allow their inheritance to stay in such a state of disrepair. That didn't surprise Beau much; he knew Aunt Scarlett was a force to be reckoned with when she wanted something. What did surprise him was that she found a way to do it that allowed Alex to keep his pride, setting up a co-op system that all the County farmers could join, helping them to get cheaper prices for seed, feed, and equipment and providing a venue for exchanging farming knowledge and tips. This showed unusual tact and discretion on Scarlett's part, as her typical methods were blunt to the point of offense.

"Are you going to come see us tonight?" Lanie demanded, grabbing Wade's hand and lingering after Beau and the more obedient Katie were heading towards the wagon. Katie stopped, waiting to hear Wade's answer. Beau sighed, and stopped himself, suddenly feeling glad that he had no siblings. These two were a handful.

"That wasn't the plan, Lanie-love," Wade said, with the gentle smile he reserved for his sisters. "The plan was that I stay here, so that the girls can get ready for the wedding. Ella has come such a long way to spend be the matron of honor."

"Just for a little while, Wade? Please? We'll sit on the back porch and eat watermelon and tell stories. Maybe Dilcey will even make us some ice cream? Please? You and Miss Sally will be going away for such a long time after tomorrow..."

"Please, Wade?" Katie added her voice to her sister's. "We won't bother Ella and Sally; they won't even know we are there. You can just sit with us on the back porch for a while, til it's bedtime."

Wade shook his head. "I swear, you two," he said, then smiled. "All right, I'll come this evening, for just a little while. Maybe long enough for a slice of watermelon, but that's all, you hear?"

"Yay!" Lanie cheered. Katie ran to him and flung her arms around his waist.

"I hate to think what you're going to be like with your own kids," Beau told his cousin, shaking his head in rueful reprimand. "Sally had better watch out, or you'll spoil them rotten, including the one she already has."

Wade laughed. "I know, I'm a soft touch. But there's something about kids that just gets to me, and I can't stand to disappoint them."

"Oh, I know that," Beau said, laughing as he settled the two girls in the wagon that would carry the three of them back to Pine Bloom. "And so do they!"


The back porch at Pine Bloom was dappled with sunlight and shade in infinite combinations that changed with every breeze through the branches of the trees that devoted themselves to making this one of the coolest places in Clayton County. Wade and his two sisters were unsurprised to discover that Scarlett sat on the swing here; as July edged slowly towards August and the time when she would give birth, she spent more and more of her time on this porch, doing whatever small chores she could manage without moving very far, or very fast. The breeze from the river blew across this terrace, and here Scarlett stayed as cool she could.

"Do you want some watermelon, Mama?" Wade asked, setting a large example of the aforementioned gourd down on the table with a small thump. "It's been cooling in the spring all afternoon."

"I believe I would like a slice," she agreed, turning her head languidly towards him.

"All right." Turning to his little sisters, he said, "Girls, go in the house and ask Dilcey for some plates, and spoons. When you come back, I'll have melon sliced up for you."

The girls leaped to obey him, eager for the watermelon which was a rare treat for them. "Mama, are you sure you're quite well?" Wade said, approaching his mother and taking her hand. "You seem... I don't know, rather tired, these last few days."

"I'm always very – tired isn't really the word for it," she said. "Tired implies something that's abnormal, and I promise you Wade, having gone through the process four times before, that what I'm feeling is quite normal. I'm not really tired, exactly; it's more as if all the excess energy that I would normally use to be active is drained directly to the baby. It's growing very quickly at this point, putting on the size it will need to be healthy when it's born."

"Does that leave you weaker?" he asked, squeezing her hand.

"Not weaker. I just find myself content to lay around and doze, like an old dog in the sun." She smiled lazily at him. "Especially in this heat, I just don't want to do anything much. But I'm fine; nothing hurts or feels out of place. It just takes a lot out of me."

"Well, if you're sure," he said, releasing her fingers and turning to the melon.

Scarlet smiled at him. "I am. But thank you for being concerned, darling; it's very sweet of you."

By the time the girls returned, Wade had sectioned the watermelon and was ready to serve it to them. After they each had a piece, and had squabbled briefly and typically about who had the bigger slice, a long moment of silence fell, broken only by the sound of spoons tearing into the meat of the watermelon. Then Katie said, "Wade, will you tell us a story?"

Wade shrugged. "I guess I will, Katie. What kind of story do you want?"

Katie hesitated. "Cold you tell us a story about our daddy?" she asked. "Cap'n Rhett said you would help us to 'member him. I forget what he looked like sometimes."

She looked so woebegone that Wade put aside his surprise and said, "I guess we could do that. Is there anything in particular you'd like to hear?"

Lanie spoke up then. "I want to hear about how he died," she said. "Mama always told us he was a hero, that he died saving her, but we never knew exactly how it happened, and we never liked to ask, 'cause Mama was so upset. You were there Wade; can you tell us?"

Wade hesitated, glancing over at Scarlett. It was true that the girls had never gotten more than the bare-bones facts, but Wade didn't want to tell the story if it would upset his mother. She smiled at him – a little sadly, true, but still a smile – and waved a hand at him to show that she didn't mind.

"Well," he began. "We were in Scotland, visiting the home of a man your papa did business with..."


The house they were staying at belonged to a friend of Uncle Tony's, a man he did business with. Mr McTavish owned a large estate not far from Aberdeen; it was where the Scotch whiskey he made was manufactured. Wade was a curious boy, and had been given a tour of the distillery, as well as having the run of the stables and the companionship of the stable-masters youngest son, who was just his age. They had come for the Christmas holidays, and intended to return to London in the first week of January, but then first Katie and then Lanie had fallen ill with a cold. It was not serious, just enough to make them cranky and keep them in bed, but Mr McTavish insisted they stay until the 'gurrrls,' as he said it, were well again.

Mama stayed mostly with the girls in the nursery. She took care of them herself, and Wade knew that their hosts were surprised and rather dismayed to see this. It was not uncommon for upper-class British ladies to have children they saw for only a few minutes a day; Wade knew this from conversations with his school-friends, who were always surprised at the amount of attention his mother paid to him. But he also knew that the British had some very strange customs, so he was not surprised to see that his mother's action caused the nursery maids to gossip about her.

In that week, Wade spent most of his time with Uncle Tony, sampling the pleasant activities that could be had in the Scottish countryside. They hunted, and Uncle Tony, who seemed to know a lot about many different subjects, taught him to find and follow the tracks of wild rabbit, and how to use the dogs to hunt birds. They even set up a blind one morning and bagged a nice pair of geese, which were served for dinner that evening on a bed of wild rice. Still, the almost eighteen-year-old Wade found the Scottish countryside of limited interest, especially after a day or two of warmer-than-usual-weather caused most of the snow-cover to melt away. So he was pleased and surprised one morning when Uncle Tony had announced that they were going to do something a bit different today, and that Mama, who needed a break from the sick-room, would be accompanying them.

After breakfast, Uncle Tony led the two of them to the barn, where he grabbed a burlap sack full of mysterious items that clinked together in a metallic way. "What's in there?" Wade asked, as his stepfather lad them to a path that wound behind the barn.

"Equipment," Uncle Tony answered, laughing at the eager interest Wade showed.

The two of them had become very close since that day, more than three years ago now, when Wade had decided to accept his stepfather. Uncle Tony was just the kind of person Wade would have asked for, if he had made a list of qualities for his mother's husband; he was charming, kind, and thoughtful, yet he seemed to have a good instinct about when to back off and allow people to have time alone. Wade admitted to his mother that Uncle Tony was 'a good enough type,' and his mother had the good sense to accept that, and not probe further into the sensitive emotions of an adolescent boy.

When they arrived at the pond, Uncle Tony startled Wade by pulling ice skates from the bag he carried. Sitting them down on the huge fallen tree that served as seating not far from the edge of the ice, he strapped them on, over-riding Scarlett's protests. "I promise, you'll love it," he told her, smiling into her eyes in that way that always made Wade wish he were somewhere else. "Give it half-an-hour; if you don't like it, then we'll stop."

His mother rolled her eyes, but allowed her husband to strap the skates to her boots. Wade finished attaching his before Uncle Tony did, and began to carefully maneuver himself the half-a-dozen feet to the edge of the frozen pond.

"Do you need help, Wade?" Tony asked.

"No, I've done this before," he answered. "Remember when I went to spend a weekend with my friend William in Yorkshire? He taught me then."

"Ok, great!" Tony turned back to Scarlett and helped her as she gingerly attempted to stand. Her natural grace seemed to have deserted her in those first few minutes, but Uncle Tony was right; long before the thirty minutes was up, Scarlett was laughing and skating on her own, though she still clung to her husband's hand. And perhaps that was a good thing, because when they heard the ominous crack of breaking ice, they were together. Tony, always a man who made swift decisions, spun Scarlett out of the way, pushing her so hard that she slid, bruised and breathless, a dozen yards from where they had been. On the safe side of the rift that had opened in the ice.

Wade tried to rescue Tony, but the older man was heavy enough that the breaking ice collapsed beneath him, dumping him in the water. Even then, Wade tried; he lay down on the ice and reached out to his stepfather. For a moment, the two grabbed hands, and Wade tried to pull his stepfather out, but the crack of the ice came again, louder, and Wade felt the frozen water giving away beneath him. Tony looked at him with those dark eyes that were so like both his daughter's, and Wade saw the awareness in his eyes.

"Take care of your mother, son," Uncle Tony whispered hoarsely, and then he let go, sliding his hand out of Wade's grip. His shoulders disappeared beneath the water, and though Wade knew that Tony could swim, he made no effort to do so, merely slipped soundlessly away leaving his stepson to wonder how a day that had begun so well could lead to such tragedy.


"Oh, he was brave," Katie said. She had come and curled up on Wade's lap while he spoke, and he smiled at her, brushing the tears from her face.

"Yes, he was," Wade agreed. "He pushed Mama out of the way, not even trying to save himself first. And that makes him a hero, in my eyes."

""What caused the ice to break, Wade?" Lanie asked. She had not crawled on Wade's lap like her sister, but she did have her hand curled tightly around his arm.

"Apparently, the warmer weather we had that week was enough to weaken it," Wade said. "No one would have known, just looking at it; it looked fine."

"I wish it hadn't happened," Katie said. "I'm happy now... and I really like Cap'n Rhett... but I didn't want my daddy to die."

"'Course you didn't," a deep, masculine voice said. Turning, Wade saw that at sometime in he past few minutes, Rhett had joined them, which should not have surprised him; rarely was Rhett away from Scarlett for long, if he had the choice. "Remember, we talked about this, darling. Your daddy was a good man, and it's ok for you to miss him. Sometimes, we just don't get what we want in this world." Rhett's gaze sought out his wife. "Which means we have to appreciate the things we do get all the more." He smiled at the two girls. "And that includes the ice cream Dilcey is making for you in the kitchen."

"Ice cream? Yay!" Lanie said. She grabbed Katie's hand. "Come on, little sister. Let's go get some!"


I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update. I've had family responsibilities, which have to come first. Maybe this is the reason I never tried to write for a living... I would have gone hungry too often!

Still, I enjoy writing, so I'm going to try to get back into the habit of it. Next up, Wade's wedding. Hopefully, I'll be able to post that on Monday. Thanks for reading this, and if you'd like to leave a review, I'd appreciate the feedback.