Thank you all to those who have stuck by me and reviewed ! Its been harder and harder to come up with these moments, but this one...though not as fluffy as usual will hopefully entertain. I do believe that from time to time the Butlers got into some nasty, nasty fights...here's one of them. If you like it...or have any ideas for another moment, please let me know...
ps- for those of you who watch The Walking Dead, i've been posting a couple of things as ex zombie...check em out.
And now enjoy...or cringe !
THE BATTLE
They came home in a fury. The servants who were still up and about, mostly to keep an ear out for the sleeping children scattered away when they heard the sound of the front door slamming with such force it threatened to take down the house.
Usually the war between the Butlers was fought discreetly. The cutting remarks and snide comebacks occurred throughout the day. But usually the battles, the true out and out verbal bloodbaths that occurred on a more and more regular occurrence were fought up in the privacy of their chambers. Well, at least not in the grand entrance hall, whose high ceiling and polished marble stood to reverberate every sound, including insults and obscenities and escalate it to a point where it nearly shattered the stain glass windows.
But on this evening something out of the ordinary must have occurred, because the shouting could be heard from the street. And the slamming of the front door signaled a battle that was bound to be at least as grand as the final siege on Atlanta.
"You had no right!" Scarlett shouted, her face, burning in fury.
Rhett froze for a moment in the foyer, his hands slipping into the pockets of his overcoat his eyes narrowing slightly. "I had every right actually." He said with a smirk. "You're my wife, even though you don't behave as one, you are Scarlett, and I can do with you as I please."
She was on the first of the steps when that last line reached her ears, and she turned in an instant, her hands grasping to gather her skirt at her thighs. "Do with me as you please !" she shrieked, "what sort of world do you think we live in Rhett Butler ?" she screamed at him as she ran down the two steps to face him off, "to parade me around like…."
"Like the whore that you are." He cut her off briskly.
The first blow came so fast he scarcely saw it. But he felt it, a slap so sharp across his face, that he felt for sure she must have drawn blood. After years of fighting he still hadn't learned to dodge her claws.
The second one he caught. His large hand held firmly onto her wrist as she fought to yank herself free.
"Let me go you foul pig." She seethed under her breath. Her eyes so filled with venom he thought she would surely poison him from her look alone.
"I won't Scarlett," he said through gritted teeth, "until you calm yourself."
She could see the muscles in his jaw clenching and the thin drop of blood that ran from the scratch on his cheek. She would feel that slap in her hand tomorrow, or when her adrenaline stopped running. Whichever came first.
"You're hurting me!" she hissed.
"You haven't seen hurt." He replied tightening his grip on her arm and pulling her closer.
"I'll scream." She threatened.
His lip curled into a smile, "do it Scarlett," he goaded, "scream and wake the whole house up."
"Let go of me." She countered between clenched teeth of her own.
"I'll let you go darling," he said calmly, "but strike me again, and you'll wish I'd held onto that pretty little wrist of yours with a bit more force."
His hand released her and he simultaneously took a step forward to crowd her. He wanted to fluster her, to frighten her, to intimidate her with his sheer size and force. But she squared off instead. Had he forgotten, cornered animals never cowered?
"You don't scare me Rhett Butler," she snapped, "and you never will."
Those green emeralds he had though he could not live without, were now rapidly becoming the death of him. He took a step back, then turned and headed towards the bottle. His only refuge to her frequent storms was found in a bottle.
His laugh broke the silence, "I could frighten you in a heartbeat if I wanted to darling." He said off handedly, regaining some of his composure. He had never laid a hand on a woman, but God help him. "How about I cut off some of your funding…." He poured himself a drink, "or call in some loans."
"I have the mills…."she started.
"I'll burn your damn mills to the ground!" he shouted slamming down his glass. "And I'll burn Ashley Wilkes with them."
"Stop it." She whispered.
"Oh," he raised a dark eyebrow and turned to face her. "Something that frightens you then, is it the thought of losing your mills….or losing your precious Ashley?"
"It's always Ashley, Ashley, Ashley. He's all you think about Rhett. Why sometimes I think you think about him more than I do?"
He laughed bitterly, "Oh, I sincerely doubt that. That man's been in bed with us since the day I made you my wife."
"What?" Her eyebrow rose up. She had never touched Ashley, never once, did he think that …. "Don't be a fool Rhett, why you know I've never…."
"But you've thought about it haven't you?" He tilted his head to the side, and nodded slightly at the pink flush that spread down her cheeks and onto her chest. "Every time you've lain in my arms Scarlett, you've wished it was him instead, haven't you?"
"Rhett stop it." She said quickly, as bad as the conversation had been before, it had taken a definitive turn for the worst.
"No goddamn it." He shouted flinging his glass across the wall, "Do you know what it's like to want someone…." He turned to glare at her, and for once she could see how truly intoxicated he was. "To want someone with every fiber of your being and to watch them….." he paused, and closed his eyes for a moment taking a deep breath. "Yes, I suppose you do know after all. Perhaps you know better than me." He added with a small snort.
She shook her head dismissively. "You're drunk, and angry, and…."
"And I'm right!" he finished forcefully. "Tell me woman, how many times have you lain in my arms and thought of him?"
She faltered. It was the truth, he knew it and so did she. Of course she had thought of Ashley, she always thought of Ashley, maybe not during the act itself, why Ashley would never…he wasn't the sort to demand such base pleasures. But after, as she had lain comfortably in his arms, Yes, why that would be more Ashley's style, the soothing comfort, and the tender words. The fingers running up and down her spine, or seeking out the softest hairs at the base of her neck and …..
"You witch!" he spat out under his breath, "You can't even refrain from thinking of him now can you?"
"Of course I can't," her cheeks reddened and her eyes narrowed, she had been caught, but she was a master at turning the tables, and she did so quickly. "How can I think of anyone else after how you behaved this evening….you embarrassed me…and Ashley, and….and Melly?"
"Melly's been embarrassed for years you little fool," he shook his head in amazement. Sometimes, he thought, his clever little wife was nothing more than a petulant child. Most times actually, and he should have been used to it by now. "And you, why you only embarrass yourself with this constant ridiculous fawning…..I only did it for you this evening."
"You practically threw me into his arms!" she countered. "The way you behaved…you had the better half of Atlanta questioning our…"
"Our union," he smirked, raising an eyebrow and raking it up and over her body, "You were the worst dammed investment I ever made Scarlett. The most perfect example of what happens when a man loses his head in business."
"Why you vile hurtful pig!" she gathered her skirts and charged towards him, "Business investment? You nearly begged for my hand, and don't you forget it!"
"You vain little vixen!" he laughed, "I did what I did to close the deal. I bought this marriage, bought you essentially and we both know it…what I didn't realize is…that no matter how sweet the deal, a bought woman will always behave as such."
Her hand swung out again, and this time he caught her wrist mid swing, and yanked it to the side with such force he threatened to knock her off her feet.
"I'm the furthest thing from a bought woman that you've ever had Rhett Butler." She screamed fighting to pull herself free once again.
In one swift move he pulled her wrist forward and reached his other hand up to grab her chin and pulled her face upwards and towards him. "You are bought Scarlett, in every way but one. I own every last bit of you except for your goddamn spirit. I can't buy it," here he tightened his grip on both her wrist and her chin menacingly, "but perhaps I can break it."
Her breathing came out in sharp gasping pants and her teeth were clenched together against the pain he was causing, but she wouldn't show him and she would not cry out.
"You don't own any part of me you fool," she spat out, "and you won't ever, break me."
"Perhaps, I can break you upstairs," he seethed. "Perhaps I should claim my marital rights, as I've never done before, and break that damn spirit of yours in our bedroom."
Fear and panic settled in the bowels of her stomach. A sober Rhett would never even think such things, much less suggest them, but this intoxicated version…she had no doubt that he would act on anything if she prodded any further. "Please Rhett," she whispered, struggling to pull herself free.
"How quickly you turn to begging Scarlett," he laughed, letting go of her, "when the talk turns to the bedroom, suddenly the fight's all gone is it?"
"Stop it Rhett." She said firmly, stepping backwards and away.
"Scared ill force you?" He raised an eyebrow and took a step forward.
"Stop it!" she cried out. "You're frightening me."
"I'm frightening you," he repeated blandly, running a hand over his thick black hair. "Suddenly I frighten you….moments ago, you threatened to claw my eyes out, and now…."
"And now you speak of ….forcing…."
"Don't worry darling," he drawled as he walked over to the divan and dropped upon it. "I won't force you. I won't force you to lie with me or sleep with me or even goddamn touch me." He paused and looked up her, "unless we are outside the home, and then my pet….I will force you to behave as if you were my wife."
She took a step forward than faltered, "I am your wife Rhett."
"Then prove it." He said simply.
"I'll behave….differently." she whispered, gathering her skirts and edging carefully around the divan. These were indeed dangerous waters she was navigating. She could sense that his moods were shifting, his heat and fire shifting from anger towards something perhaps far more dangerous to her.
"Differently how?" He asked gruffly as his hand reached out and grasped the edge of her dress as she walked by, holding the silk between his fingers as his eyes locked on hers.
She could see in an instant, that her assumptions had been correct. His dark eyes burned with a lustful intensity that threatened to swallow her whole. And she knew, that he meant to settle their differences between the sheets.
She stopped briefly "I cant." She said quickly, pulling away.
"Dammit Scarlett," he roared jumping to his feet, "Is there none of that passion that you hold so dear for Ashley left for me? Your husband….do you feel nothing…?
She backed away, her eyes filling with fear, panic….and an almost shear form of dread, things he had hoped to never see in those bright green gems he had loved so much.
With one swift blow from his hand he upended the small table that stood before them, shattering glasses and decanters on the marble floor.
"You know Scarlett," he said lightly as he brushed a few drop and shards of glass that had sprayed up on his coat. "I never fold on my investments, even if at times they're not…putting out…. as I had intended." He pulled a cigar, from his breast pocket, and quickly nipping the end of it brought it to his lips and lit it in a manically methodical way. "I tweak them, and work them, until I get what I want. Eventually darling, I always get what I want."
Scarlett fixed her eyes on his. She knew better than to open her mouth, but she did not let her hard green glare waver from his own.
"But on this evening, I suppose I'm better off outside the home," He said briskly, with a quick nod, before turning his back, and striding across the foyer. "My money will be better spent on a woman who actually knows what it is that I am buying." He finished, walking out the door and slamming it behind him, with enough force to alert the servants that it was now safe to venture out and pick up the pieces.
Scarlett took two steps towards the stairs and rested her hand on the banister. He had drained every last bit of fire and strength from her veins as he always did. His anger and temper were uncontrollable and frightening when he drank. And his wants and desires were nearly impossible to harness.
Oh, she was no fool. She knew she had been bought. She had known what Rhett Butler was like, and what it was that he was offering and she had stepped right into it. She had wanted the spoils, and the money, and maybe some of him as well. The fun, light-hearted man that had spent the evenings with her on Pitty's porch, not this over-powering, cold hard stranger, who's emotions flipped from one to another so quickly, she scarcely had time to keep her feet beneath her.
She had known him, and what he was offering. And she had stepped into it, never once thinking what it would be like to spend a lifetime trapped beneath a man she could not control. What it would be like, when Rhett finally decided to claim his due, because though she had spent the first couple of years in denial, pushing the truth back to the far reaches of her mind, she had known, she had always known, that Rhett Butler always gets what he wants in the end.