Happy weekend all as we move into that stage of the story that finally has Scarlett and Rhett speaking face to face… (Thank you again Sushi Bear for staying with the story and all your reviews. I hope you and others will enjoy this chapter as well.)

Chapter 25

As Scarlett settled in on a section of bench inside the gazebo, she gazed out at her beloved mallard ducks gliding along the sun-dappled pond before she turned her attention to Rhett. Their presence was comforting as usual as she watched one of them smoothly slice through the water and waddle onto the shore to preen itself. She turned around towards Rhett and decided no matter what he decided to say she wasn't going to let his words get the best of her like they had before he'd abandoned her while Melly was on her deathbed.

She stared at Rhett intensely and waited for his announcement. Little could she have known what words were about to fall from his lips.

"My pet, it seems somehow the proverbial cat slipped from the bag before I traveled to Tara to see you the first time and you learned I had attentions of coming here to divorce you. For some inexplicable reason, however, when I arrived at Tara and you were gone, it became a very real metaphor that if I followed through on the divorce, you would vanish out of my life forever. At first I tried to escape what those consequences would mean to me, but gradually I couldn't – until I arrived today and saw that Mr. Breckinridge was here with you and it appears that while you may have missed me for a time, you've moved on to what you presume to be bigger and better things and so I…"

"Fiddle-dee!" Scarlett declared as she rose to face him, not happy with his continuing false accusations that her relationship with Chandler was more than a friendship. "I'd say it's quite typical of a man to be the pot that accuses a woman of being a black kettle!" she fumed as began to convey the secret she had been harboring about him. "It is my understanding that you met a gentleman named Angus St. James when you were spending time in Asheville recently and –"

Rhett's face darkened with shock that Scarlett had even known about him being in Asheville, let alone about his acquaintance with Mr. St. James. All of the sudden the old Rhett shone through as he tilted his head back and let out a hearty laugh, "My dear Mrs. Butler, have you had detectives trailing me all this time? What effect could my brief encounter with this man have on you?"

"Oh, Rhett…it wouldn't be worth my money or time to hire a detective – not even to follow you! It just so happens Angus is a relative of the proprietors of the Merriwether Inn where I happened to be staying for a while. I don't ordinarily open up to strangers easily, but he is a good Christian man and one afternoon I happened to share with him that I was separated from my husband so he could pray for me. During the course of our conversation, I told him you were my husband and he mentioned to me that he saw you flirting on several occasions with a girl named Rebecca who works as a waitress at a restaurant in town. He also said you both were staying at the Cedar Inn and that you'd mentioned her to him a few times in passing, but that you had never revealed to him that you were a married man. I happen to think his prayers may have touched your heart about us, but I cannot in good conscience allow you to continue to accuse me of having an affair with Chandler, when neither one of us have ever had any sort of romantic inclinations towards each other. If you were paying attention, you would have noticed he was there to call on my sister Suellen and yet you stand there guilty of pursing a relationship with another woman before the ink from our signatures on the divorce papers have even dried up."

Rhett let out a sigh, wanting to avoid the delicate subject of Rebecca, and took Scarlett's delicate hand into his and settled them both back on the bench before he spoke. "My pet, I can't contradict the facts you've just presented. It just so happens I've been jealous of Chandler since I first laid eyes on him at our home in Atlanta. Then I came here today and saw the two of you cavorting very happily so I immediately assumed the worst. I suppose Chandler got under my skin because I know he would be a much more formidable competitor than the lackluster Ashley could have ever been. He's much closer to your age, attractive and quite the charming young man. However, I do believe you now that your association with him is purely platonic."

"But Rhett!" Scarlett responded with bewilderment. "I wouldn't have even thought you were concerned about another man being a 'competitor' after you left me with such finality – as I recall distinctly you said you didn't give a damn about us anymore!"

Rhett leaned in and put his arm around Scarlett and started to reveal the depths of his heart. "My dear, I was hurt and offended that you ran to Ashley after you spoke with Melanie. I felt like I was invisible and unneeded and that you were counting the seconds 'til Melanie expired so you could become the next Mrs. Wilkes. When you came back to the house and explained that Melanie's dying had broken your long spell of infatuation with Ashley and that you'd finally figured out you were in love with me, it felt like I was a reluctant substitute you were turning to because you needed someone to replace Ashley with immediately. After all the time we've been apart, do you even see that now?" Rhett asked her pointedly.

Scarlett gazed deeply into Rhett's eyes. She knew this was the most important question she would ever answer in her life and wisely waited several moments before she would give him her answer.