Chapter Twenty-Five

Scarlett twirled her parasol absently, walking beside Rhett through the late-afternoon sunshine. "It was nice of you to offer India a chance to earn her own stake in Twelve Oaks," he said, after a moment.

She smiled. "I am capable of being nice," she said dryly. "Upon occasion. And I believe in paying my debts – even if I don't much like the person I owe them to."

"So you don't think that you and Miss Wilkes will be becoming bosom friends anytime soon?" Rhett asked, watching her closely. He could see something bothering her, but he did not know what it was.

Scarlett laughed. "Hardly. But India living at Twelve Oaks takes away one of my options for carving out a place for me and the girls. I have no particular wish to live in England anymore; now that travel has become so fast – did you know it only takes about a week on one of the new ocean liners? - I will be able to visit Ella often, even if I live in this country. Plenty of time for me to be there for the babies."

"Shall you like being a grandmother, Scarlett?" he asked, smiling wickedly at her.

"Do you know, I rather think I will," she said, smiling back. "And this is not the first discussion we've had about my future grandchildren, do you remember? You once told me that I would have to wait to get approval from them -"

"And you've proved me wrong," he said quietly. "You've done an excellent job with Wade and Ella, Scarlett. I have to admit, I would not have believed it, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes."

"But then, you never had much faith in me," she replied. "I think that realization, more than anything else, was what made me leave, and stay gone long enough to find another husband. The fact is, Rhett, that although you said you loved me, you almost never acted like it. During the whole time we were married, I can't remember a single time when we went as long as a week without a quarrel because you had deliberately said something vicious to me. Made fun of something I cared about. If it were only Ashley, I could understand, but it wasn't. You seemed to take great delight in mocking everything I loved."

Without even knowing they walked in that direction, they had arrived at the same park bench they had sat on twice before. Scarlett sat down, and looked expectantly up at Rhett as he seated himself beside her. Obviously, she awaited an explanation; he looked down into her face, forcing honesty upon himself. He had promised himself that their future, if they were to have one, would be based on the truth, and this is where that began.

"I was afraid," he said.

"Afraid?"

"Yes, afraid. I'd seen you with other men, your beaus at Twelve Oaks, both your husbands, all the other men you met who took one look into your green eyes and were willing to do anything for one of your smiles, and I was afraid of becoming just like them. A besotted boy, with his heart on his sleeve! No, thank you!"

"And so you acted in a way that kept me from knowing how very much I liked you," she said, softly. "I never even thought about the possibility of loving you, not once in all our marriage, because I disliked your behavior so much and so often."

"And because of Ashley." He could not hide the bitterness. "Always Ashley."

"There was Ashley," she said. "But more and more as time went on, he began to seem like a dream, something that had happened long ago. Even if he had been what I thought he was, I was already leaving him behind. But you gave me nothing to move forward to. Even aside from your flagrant infidelity, which was very badly done of you, by the way -"

He looked at her. "Until you kicked me out of our bed, I was never with anyone but you, once we married. And afterwards, I don't think you can blame me."

"But you were always at her house," Scarlett said. "We hadn't been back in Atlanta for a week before the old cats made sure I heard that you'd been seen at her place, drinking and gambling just as though you weren't married."

"And what did you say to that?" he asked.

"What could I say? I told them I guessed a man could have a drink and a game of cards if he felt like it, even if he was married. That you would go to her when I was at home if you wanted me proved to me that you were telling the truth when you said you didn't love me.."

"I'm sorry about that," he said quietly. "I should have known better. But drinking and gambling a little was all it was, then. If I had known it hurt you – that you even knew of it – I wouldn't have done it. "

To his surprise, she took his hand and squeezed it gently. "We didn't do very well by each other during our marriage, did we?' she asked.

He squeezed back gently. "No, we didn't," he agreed.

"I suppose the real question is, can we do better in the future, or should we simply leave matters as they are? We can, you know, Rhett. I can go back to England, and raise the girls there; you can go to Charleston, or New Orléans, or wherever you spend your time nowadays. We'll hear about each other from time to time, through Wade and Ella, who will both want you in their life now that you've met again. You'll know how many grandchildren I end up having, and I'll hear if you ever decide to remarry... we both have enough money that we don't need each other in that sense. So if we decide to, we can go our separate ways with nothing more lost between us."

"Scarlett," he began, but she shook her head and placed her fingers over his lips.

"Shh," she whispered. "I've given some thought to the matter over the past few days, Rhett. I'll even be brave and be the first to admit that I'd like to try again. But I have conditions. Do you want to hear them?"

"Go ahead," he said. His heart had leapt crazily when she said she wanted him back, but this was the crux of the matter, he knew. If Scarlett was going to bring up issues that he could not accept, now would be the time.

"First comes the matter of children," she said, looking up at him. "I'm a little long in the tooth for continual child-bearing, but I am willing to try to give you one more child, if you want one, and if we can agree to try in the next year or so. After that, the offer's off the table, and I'll expect you to cooperate in matters of birth control – condoms, and sponges dipped in vinegar, and such."

"We can try for a child," he agreed. "And if one doesn't come soon, well, there are the two you already have. I imagine they will keep us busy."

"I imagine they will. I won't allow you to spoil them the way you did Bonnie, however." Her face was stern. "They're sweet, well-mannered little girls, and they're being raised to be polite and considerate. I'd expect you to uphold that."

He smiled. "Agreed."

"Now comes something you may not find as easy to grant," she said. "There's a bit of doggerel poetry I once heard that describes my opinion on the matter quite well, I think. It goes like this: Here's to me, and here's to you, and here's to love and laughter. I'll be true as long as you, and not one minute after. Are we clear on that issue?"

He stroked his mustache. "Perfectly."

"Good." She smiled at him. "Everything else is negotiable, I think. Where we live, what kind of life we have, all the rest. I suppose you may have some conditions of your own," she said. "We can discuss them when we're at Tara – you are coming back to Tara with me, aren't you?"

"When are you leaving? Tomorrow, did you say?"

"Yes, The sooner I get India busy, the better. I also need to have a business meeting with Alex and Will and try to get them – both of them – to accept some of the ideas I have for Mimosa and Tara." She sighed. "I imagine it will be like trying to herd cats. Neither of them takes very well to being told what to do, especially by a woman, and they don't much like each other, either."

"Then I will definitely go, if only to save you from being bored to death by stiff-necked men," he said gallantly.

"Oh, how sweet of you," she murmured, looking at him under her lashes.

He smiled. "I can be sweet," he said. "In fact, although the chocolates I ordered for you from England burned up in the hotel fire, I still have the other present I bought for you and never gave to you..."

"Oh, Rhett," she sat up straighter, her eyes alight with anticipation. "I do so love presents!"

"I remember," he said. "I could never tell if you liked Christmas or your birthday better." He slipped his hand into the inner pocket of his jacket and withdrew the slender box.

"Oh, my birthday, definitely," she answered, accepting the gaily wrapped parcel. "Then, all the presents are mine!"

He laughed, and watched indulgently as she tore away the shiny silver paper and thin green ribbons with which the packages had been decorated. She opened the jewelry case and gasped with pleasure. "Oh, aren't they adorable," she murmured, looking at the bracelet and matching earbobs.

"You'll have to manage the earbobs yourself, but give me your hand and I'll fasten the bracelet," he said. Scarlett extended her arm obediently, and he fastened the delicate chain around her wrist with a skill that made her suspect that he had not spent the years since she had last seen him entirely away from feminine company. "There, that looks entirely at home on your arm. Emeralds always suited you, Scarlett!"

"You know, Captain Butler, a lady is always warned that if she accepts presents of value from a gentleman, he will think that he can take liberties with her," she said, her eyes laughing.

"One can only hope," he agreed, moving closer. "And just so you'll know, I always did intend to take a kiss for the hat I brought you during the war. Right up to the time you made it clear that you expected me to. Talk about cutting off my nose to spite my face! You always had that effect on me Scarlett, making me do foolish things that I didn't intend..."

"And now?" she asked, tilting her head back to watch him with interested eyes as he moved closer. She made no effort to resist, however, so he pressed his advantage, bending to kiss the red lips that had enticed him since that day at Twelve Oaks, so long ago.

She twined her arms around his neck, and kissed him back, with far more passion than she had ever showed during their marriage. In those days, she had accepted but never truly responded to his kisses and caresses, and he had allowed that because of his fear that if he tried to rouse her to passion, he would discover that there was none, not for him. Looking back, he was startled and dismayed to realize just how deeply their marriage had been poisoned by his fears. He had blamed Scarlett, but it was not all her fault, was it? He had never been honest; what made him think he could get what he wanted, when he held so much back?

"And now I love you," he said, when their kiss ended. "And if you wish me to jump through hoops to prove it, I shall do so, asking only that you make allowances for my rheumatism. It makes my back hurt of a night."

She smiled, and raised a hand to touch his cheek. "Perhaps I will rub your back with scented oils and herbal medicines, to make it feel better," she whispered. "But it shouldn't hurt much; I find I've mostly lost my taste for making people do jumps..."

"What a relief," he said, only half-joking. Scarlett could be so casually cruel.

"And besides, how could I? When I love you, too?"

"Do you?" he asked, looking into her eyes. "I didn't really hope that you would, not so soon. I thought I would have to woo you, perhaps for months."

She sighed. "I think I've always loved you," she said quietly. "It was only dormant, sleeping under everything else that goes on in my life. If I had never met you again, it would probably never have awakened, but when I saw you again, at Tara, it was just there, as if it had never been gone. Was it the same for you?"

"Not quite," he said, drinking in the sight of her, looking at him with love in her eyes. Finally! After how many years? "I realized that I still loved you about the time that I realized that you had gone away to where I could not find you," he said. "It took a long time – years, even – for me to understand that it wasn't a game, or a ploy to get me to come after you; you had really gone, and never intended to see me again. I was so hurt – that's why I wrote you that horrible letter. And when I got your reply, that perfectly worded, entirely proper little note that could have been written to a stranger, I was crushed. 'I believe I shall not trouble you further,' indeed! I stayed drunk for a month, and afterwards, nothing was the same."

She touched his hair, smoothing it back from his face. "Let's not do that to each other anymore, hmm?"

"No," he agreed, tightening his arms around her. "This time, we'll do better. I'll be more honest, you'll be kinder, and we'll both love each other..."And he kissed her again, his embrace filled with the passion and joy they had never managed to find together before.

So, what do you think? Scarlett and Rhett are back together again, and although a few more details remain to be worked out, it's only a few. One more chapter, 'sniff, sniff,' and then it's over!

Review, please, and let me know what you think. While only a few things remain to be settled, they are interesting things, like: where are they going to get married? and when? What will the twins think? Where will they live, afterward? And Rhett has a really big present for Scarlett, one I think she'll adore!