So this is the final end of Act II. Thanks to all my wonderful reviewers – if you are a fan fic author – you know how much a review means. Especially if someone tells you why they liked or didn't like the story. And I don't mind bad reviews either – so long as they are thought out! How else can any of us improve if we are too scared for honest feedback?

Chapter 25

By the time Scarlett returned to Peachtree Street, the house was exhibiting palpable excitement. As she opened the front door, Scarlett saw Ella running towards the kitchen shrieking and laughing with Pansy, her beige dress floating behind her. Scarlett walked towards the staircase and came within earshot of Minnie and Reena gossiping about Minnie's sister and Minnie's forthcoming visit to Charleston, as they worked in the parlour, polishing the silver. She saw Wade's travelling cases, neatly stacked by the hat stand in the hallway, ready to be whisked away by its young master.

Wearily, with her tread reflecting her heavy heart, she walked up the staircase and into the nursery. Ella's half eaten breakfast lay cold on the table, her cutlery splayed on either side of the bowl as though she had dropped them at a moment's notice, but Wade was sitting obediently eating the last remnants of his porridge. He looked up as Scarlett entered, and he brushed a stray, brown curl out of his eyes. He could do with a haircut, Scarlett thought and he was looking more and more like his dead father each day – at least the picture of him in Melly's old daguerreotype that Wade had inherited on his aunt's death. Her own memory of her first husband had long ago vanished.

"We're all packed, Mother," Wade said, draining his tea. "My trunk is downstairs and Ella's…"

"I saw it," she said quietly. She walked over to the window seat, sat down and began to fidget with her wedding ring.

"What time is Uncle Rhett coming again?"

Scarlett turned to her son and looked at his eager, upturned face. What explanation was she going to offer for being the cause of such disappointment? What did he really understand about her relationship with his stepfather? "You know, Wade, I've been thinking…" she started.

"Yes Mother…" he said nervously as though he could sense that she was about to crush his hopes.

"It's just that…" and again her voice trailed off. Life would be so much easier if she only had herself to deal with or just Ella. Ella never asked difficult questions – she asked questions, yes, all the time, but they were of the inane, easy to handle variety. When had raising children become so hard? She sighed and then stared out onto the back yard and caught a glimpse of Ella and Pansy jumping around on the patio playing hopscotch. Ella would have just as much fun in the next fifteen days staying in Atlanta as she would going to Charleston.

When she returned to look at her son, he was watching her closely, his eyes narrowed in expectation. Or maybe it was suspicion. Her son was no fool.

"Wade, I'm sorry darling but I'm afraid, as much as I would love to, I simply can't leave Atlanta and go to Charleston. I…well…you see…something has come up which makes any trip impossible." He continued to stare at her and didn't say anything but she saw his nostrils quiver. "And, you see…" She cleared her throat, in anticipation of the verbal onslaught she would no doubt shortly receive from her eldest child. "I don't think you and Ella can go to Charleston either."

But Wade still didn't say anything. Her edict appeared to have temporarily cut out his tongue and the only reaction he elicited was a trembling of his jaw.

Unsure whether he had fully comprehended what she was saying, Scarlett continued, "I want the three of us to go to Tara next week for a few days." The idea had quickly come to her as she had thought how best to soften the blow. "You can see your cousins and your Aunt Sue and Uncle Will. I know they miss you and Ella! And Uncle Will hasn't got any sons and he wishes that we lived closer so that he could take you fishing and out riding too. Maybe Beau can come…"

"Uncle Rhett hasn't got any sons either," he pronounced steadily. "And neither has he got any daughters." Momentarily, Scarlett felt flustered. Oh, her son was too smart for his own good! Then she thought of her conversation with Rhett last night, where he had claimed Ella as his own, and a conversation that they had had years ago, about his ward. Was that right? Did Rhett have no children? It had been one of those questions that had frequently been on the tip of her tongue to ask him but she had always sensed it was one of the few topics he didn't want to discuss. And she wouldn't have got a truthful answer from him anyway

"Well, I'm…"

"I don't want to go to Tara!" Wade cried petulantly. "I don't want to see my cousins or Aunt Sue or Uncle Will. I want to go to Charleston." He stood up from his chair, a chair that he had outgrown more than a year ago, and walked over to his mother. "Why do you always have to spoil things?" he asked, staring intensely into his mother's emerald eyes. Why can't I go with Uncle Rhett to Charleston? If he says I can go, I'm going to go and you can't stop me…"

Scarlett sat up straight, steeling herself for battle with her increasingly difficult son. "I think I can, Wade. I…"

"Mother! I want to go! I have to go!"

"Darling," said Scarlett, trying to keep cool. "I understand how you might feel but sometimes things…happen…and change…and…"

"You don't know how I feel! If you knew how I felt you would let me go!"

"I do understand how you feel. But I know best in these situations."

"No you don't! That's the problem. If you knew best, you'd decide that we could all go. And you'd come too!"

"Wade…"

"I'm going Mother. I know Uncle Rhett will let me come with him. I'm almost grown up. I can do what I like!"

"That's enough of your cheek, Wade Hampton. I've just about had enough of your disobedience of late. I'm your mother and I'll decide what's best for you. And whilst you're still living under this roof, you'll do as I say. You're not going."

Wade temporarily retreated and in a calmer but still determined voice said, "But Mother, going to Charleston will be the most exciting thing I have done all year! I'm bored of Atlanta…"

"Don't be silly Wade. How can you be bored of Atlanta? There's so much to do here! You have friends, you have Beau, you can swim in the river, you've got your pony. I tell you what, I'll even let you ride Red Hunter next week," Scarlett bribed frantically.

"None of that matters! I want to go to Charleston with Uncle Rhett! He makes everything fun. I've hated him being away. I've hated it! It's been horrid without him. Horrid! I've missed him, Mother, even if you haven't and I want to be with him, even if you don't!" At the sting of his words, Scarlett's temper flared and because her own nerves were so overwrought and she was exhausted, she slapped her son across his cheek.

"Don't you ever say that again!" she shouted. "And don't you ever speak to me like that again." She looked at her son, and suddenly the boy who was struggling so hard to become a man, started crying, wailing like he hadn't done in years. He hadn't even cried this fervently when Melly had died – he had just bitten his lip and turned away and run to his room when she had told him, the morning after the night that Rhett had told her he was leaving her.

His body shook with his sobs and at the sight of his own tears, Scarlett felt her own eyes water again, and then the all too familiar sensation of dripping water on her cheeks. She pulled her son to her and enveloped him in a comforting embrace, suddenly overwhelmed with her own sense of failing as a mother, at her own inability to curb her temper, even if her son had goaded her. "Darling, I'm sorry I got angry," she said as she ran her hand up and down against his back. "It's just…" but she faltered. Wasn't she using Wade and Ella as a cat's-paw in exactly the same manner as Rhett had used Bonnie? Wasn't she better than Rhett?

"I…didn't…mean…" Wade stammered.

"Shhhh…" Scarlett whispered. "I know you didn't. And I know how much you like spending time with your…stepfather."

"Can I really not go?" he asked, breathing in his mother's unique scent. "It doesn't mean I don't love you, Mother."

Scarlett sighed and wiped her own tears in Wade's thick, brown hair. She pulled away from him and, in a gesture reminiscent of Gerald's attempts to level with her, she cupped his face in her hands and forced him to look at her. "Do you really want to go that much?" she asked quietly.

He nodded. "I want you to come too though," he replied equally softly.

"I've thought about it darling and it's just not going to work. Maybe another time. But…" she paused as she realised the enormity of what she was about to say and do and felt discomfited. Wade had won. "Alright, darling. You can go. You and your sister can both go. You're right. Seeing another part of America will be good for you. And I know you will have lots of fun with your Uncle Rhett," she added generously.

A faint smile crept onto her son's lips. "Really? I can go?"

"Didn't I just say that? Yes, you can go."

"We can always visit Tara later in the summer, can't we Mother? I mean, I do want to see Uncle Will and Aunt Sue and Susie and Emilia and…"

"That's a good idea. We can go for a few days before your new school year starts."

"Thank you, Mother!" and he impulsively flung his arms around his mother's neck and kissed her. "You are the best!" he said.

"Alright, alright," Scarlett said, trying to disentangle herself from her son's hold. "Now, finish getting dressed please because it's almost nine o'clock and your Uncle Rhett might arrive early."

"I'm going!" he said and he kissed her on her cheek again. "I'll miss you. I wish…"

"Go on," she urged as her eyes glazed over. "Otherwise, you'll make me cry. And grown-ups aren't meant to cry."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~S&R~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Scarlett was lying on her bed in her room when she heard a gentle commotion downstairs. She looked across at the clock by her bedside. It was eleven o'clock exactly. Rhett must have arrived. She heard faint voices, some quick footsteps and then a girlish squeal that penetrated the velvet walls. She had told Minnie that she had changed her mind and wouldn't be going to Charleston as she had too much to do in Atlanta and then asked her to tell Captain Butler that she was out if he asked for her. Minnie had merely frowned and even though she didn't say anything, Scarlett felt judged.

Scarlett lay still, her ears straining to listen. She heard the front door open and close a couple of times before a hush descended on the house and she was finally able to expel the breath she had been holding in. They had left and she was all alone in the house, save for the faithful Tara triumvirate, Reena and Dilcey and Pork's children. She sat up and looked across at her unpacked trunk, and a couple of hat boxes that Minnie had put aside. Maybe she would go to Tara for a few days after all and perhaps Mammy could go with her too. She didn't really need to stay in Atlanta and it would be lonely without the children.

She got out of her bed and walked over to her vanity. If she wrote to Suellen today, she mused, she could ask her to arrange for Will to meet her at the station on Wednesday. She could spend a week in the countryside, where the air was less humid and the summer heat was more bearable. She sat down and took out her writing paper and started a letter but as soon as she had penned the opening endearment, she heard a gentle knock at the door. She sighed testily, annoyed that her peace had been broken, and walked over to the door. She opened it wide, ready to give a tongue lashing to whichever servant had disturbed her. But it wasn't one of servants that stood before her. It was Rhett, dressed in a grey travelling suit, looking as debonair and swarthy as ever.

"R…Rhett?" she stammered.

"May I come in please?" he asked.

She shrugged and allowed him to pass before closing the door.

He looked at her and then at her cluster of packed belongings and then back at her again. "Scarlett, why aren't you coming?" he questioned calmly.

"I never said I was coming," she replied icily.

"Not in so many words but…" He looked into her green eyes as though he was searching for something. "I had thought that some time away from Atlanta might be good for us…I mean you. I…I thought you had come round to the idea last night."

"No, I…"

"Don't lie to me Scarlett," he scolded gently. "And don't get the servants to lie to me either. I knew you hadn't gone out. And you obviously were going to come as otherwise you wouldn't have gone to the effort of getting your things ready. Or be wearing a travelling dress."

She blushed at being caught out by her own deceit. "This…this isn't a travelling dress," she attempted to deny but she knew her husband had always taken a keen interest in women's apparel.

"Indeed. I'll have to re-educate myself."

"And if you had arrived five minutes later, I would have been out. In fact, I…I...was just on my way out now. I have a mountain of chores to get through..."

He looked across at her vanity, where her pen lay across the almost virgin paper and then down at her stockinged, unshod feet. "Don't compound your lie, Scarlett. I'm no fool." He sighed and then smiled. "Come on, darling, you should come. I'll help you with your bags." He raised his eyebrows cockily at her. "I promise I won't bite."

She felt a dry constriction rise in her throat before she tasted bile. So he thought this was all about nerves! That she was wary of him! The arrogance of this man knew no bounds! And he had the audacity to come upstairs – into her bedroom no less – after he had spent the night with that woman. He had the audacity to call her darling and make jokes after it was obvious that, last night, he had only wanted her for one thing! He was as vile as the woman he had spent the night with! Her breathing increased at the same rate as her sense of indignation but despite wanting to hurl a mouthful of insults at him, she turned away and started to move towards the window. She couldn't let him know how she had thought last night had been about something more, that she still cared desperately for him, that she had been willing to take a gamble and accompany him to Charleston.

"Please leave, Rhett. You'll miss the train," she said trying to sound detached and wishing that she had learnt the art of ambivalence that he had perfected so long ago.

"I don't care, Scarlett," he replied. She heard his footsteps behind her.

"Well, I care. The children will be tired enough without additional delay." She knew he was inches from her but she didn't turn round. It was easier to talk to him if she didn't have to face him - she didn't want him to see how betrayed she felt. Suddenly, she felt his hand on her arm and in one fluid move he swung her round to face him.

"Scarlett…" Strangely, his voice was still soft, almost as though he was pleading with her but his hold on her was firm.

"I've got a lot to do Rhett," she said impatiently. "So I would appreciate it if you could leave me alone." She cast her eyes down to his offending grip. "And please take your hands off me."

Instead of unhanding her, his eyebrows curved as lunates. He smirked wryly. "You didn't seem to object to my hands touching you last night…" So he thought it was a game they were playing? That she was his toy?

"Go to hell, Rhett," she said coolly and twisted out of his clutches. "That won't be happening again." Then, as her suppressed feelings of hurt rose to the surface, she said, an inflection of aggression creeping into her voice, "What do you think I am? One of your whores?"

He frowned slightly. "No…I…."

"Well you certainly treat me as one."

"Scarlett, I have never…"

"And you seem to have forgotten that I asked you to leave this house and Atlanta weeks ago!" she said, her voice rising as the thought of his perfidy continued to bubble inside her, like an old wound seeping its poison into her bloodstream. "I don't want you coming back. Ever. And I mean it this time. You're not welcome."

"Scarlett…" he said calmly but his face had hardened.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I want to start my day. Again." She moved towards the door but he was quicker than her and blocked her exit.

"What the hell has gotten into you?"

"What the hell has gotten into me? What has gotten into you?" she spat at him. "You waltz back in to my home – which I would like to remind you is not yours anymore – get me drunk, attempt to seduce me and then…and then…" She couldn't quite bring herself to level her full accusation at him. The thought of him going from her to that rouge lipped, dyed hair, scarlet woman was making her stomach turn.

"And then what?"

She ignored him. Did she really have to spell it out? "And this vacation with the children! What's the real reason behind it? Why are you taking them? So that you can try and hurt me, like you used to do with Bonnie? So that you can try and turn them against me?"

His ebony eyes flashed with anger. "I have already assured you that…"

"Your assurances are worth nothing, Rhett! You only say what I want to hear!"

"Since when have I done that? I've never told you what you want to hear."

"No? Ha! That's a lie! You have a way of manipulating…"

"When have I ever said something to you just for the sake of it?"

"When have you ever told me the truth?" she countered.

"Good God woman! You are the most infuriating, obstinate…"

"I'm only allowing you to take the children because I don't want to disappoint them," she interjected, refusing to allow her husband to continue his barrage of insults and wanting to turn the conversation back to the subject in hand. "You've provided enough disappointment to last them a lifetime! If it wasn't for that, I would be insisting they stay here with me …"

"Don't play the martyr, Scarlett. They are my children too. I'm their stepfather…"

And then a thought struck her. "Not if I divorced you! You'd have no claim on them then, would you?"

"Dear God Scarlett! What is…"

She wasn't deterred. "If I divorced you, you would have no claim on my children…"

"I've never known anyone so prone to vacillation! You asked me to stay in their lives. Now you don't want me to be in their lives. Make up your mind but while you're at it, think of Wade and Ella rather than yourself for once!"

"I am thinking of them and how I don't want such a…depraved influence in their lives…"

Rhett started laughing at her but it didn't reduce the tension between them – it only served to increase it tenfold.

"Shouldn't you have thought about that years ago? So, let me get this straight. You are now threatening to divorce me…just to…erm…spite me?"

"I will if I have to. To prevent you turning my children against me. Like you have turned everyone else I know against me! You have a habit of doing that!"

For a moment, Rhett looked perplexed before he reaffixed his bland mask. "Well, I've never had to try very hard, have I?"

She let out a strangled cry and bit her lip in an attempt to curtail what she really wanted to do to him. She wanted to scratch those horrible, mocking eyes. She wanted to kick him, bite him, hit him. After a few moments, she said. "What was last night about, Rhett? Why do you still want to torment me after all these years? Haven't you done enough damage to me? Can't you give up?"

"Oh, I gave up on you a long time ago Scarlett! It's just that I have never been overly discriminatory as to who shares my bed – so long as they're attractive - and you were the easiest option last night." There! He had finally admitted it. All his subterfuge and pretence had just been a smokescreen!

"I hate you! You cad…you…"

"Spare your energy and your words. You've said it all before and I've heard it all before."

"I mean it this time!"

"And you didn't mean it last time…"

"Ohhhhh…you…Just get out!"

"I'm leaving Scarlett and don't worry, I won't be back."

"I don't want you back…"

He smirked. "And that is why you've been moping around Atlanta since April. Trying to prove to everyone that you don't need me. Or my money. I've heard it's been quite an amusing sight. Quite pathetic really…"

"I don't need you…"

"So you've said. But you need my money…"

"No I don't! I have the store…"

"A store that made a loss not so long ago because the ever reliable Mr Elsing couldn't price properly…"

"How do you…" she began, trying to remember whether she had told him the story last night.

"I have pretty reliable informants," he interjected.

Informants? Who was he relying on to tell him what was going on in her life? Who was spying on her? His revelation momentarily confused her. "Well, they obviously didn't tell you that the store is doing very well now, better than it has ever done."

"Oh, they told me that too…." he goaded.

Irritation manifested itself on her brow. "I'm not relying just on the store! I also have the proceeds from the sale of the mills. I made quite a tidy sum…"

"Which was my money…"

"No, it wasn't. I paid you back. I paid you back before we even got married."

He laughed - his chilling, mocking laugh – the laugh that he always emitted just before he revealed his snare. It set her teeth on edge and she wanted to slap him. Hard. "Stop it," she cried. "Stop it."

"The money that Ashley used to pay you for the mills was mine. I lent Miss Melly the money and she died before she was able to repay me even a cent. Not that I mind but that money that you think of as yours is actually mine. Or at least, it came from me."

"What?" Scarlett said, her eyes incredulous, her mouth open wide with astonishment. "You mean…"

"Yes. I mean. I mean the money that Ashley received miraculously in the mail was mine. It was Miss Melly's and my little…scheme…to try and keep you two lovebirds apart. Or at least that was my motivation behind it. She was doing it for Beau."

"You mean, you made her lie to me?"

"Oh don't discover your moral compass now, Scarlett, when it no longer matters. Besides the words pot, kettle and black spring to mind."

"What do you…"

"Hadn't you lied to her for years and cheated her out of something that was rightfully hers…"

"And haven't I suffered enough for that? Haven't I paid my dues? I've lost her and…" She stopped short. She had also lost him but she would never tell him that. Never again allude to the fact that she still loved him. Even though at this very point in time she hated him.

"Paid your dues? Not for some people. Anyway, my loan to Miss Melly was a poor investment. I made it too late and now I wish that I had kept well alone. If you still owned the mills, you might have agreed to my request for a divorce. Perhaps the allure of Ashley Wilkes wouldn't have died quite so spectacularly."

"Oh you know that…" Why did he always have to bring up Ashley? "Yes it would have!"

"But anyway, it seems that you will now agree to a divorce, to keep Wade and Ella away from me. How fickle you are!"

"Get out!" Scarlett repeated, the realisation that he might actually go ahead and serve her with divorce papers suddenly rearing its ugly head. She had said it in a moment of madness! She didn't really want a divorce…she just wanted to hurt him. She wanted to take something away from him – her children – that she knew he loved.

"I'm going, darling. And I'll stay away this time." He opened the door. "The children will be back in two weeks," he said and he walked out of her bedroom, and down the staircase and Scarlett stood staring at his back, until she could no longer see him.

These two need to learn to communicate – that is all I will say. MusicRocks – your comment in Chapter 24 was very astute…I struggled with whether Scarlett could really drive a carriage down a half empty street without Rhett noticing her…but I think I have to pretend (and I am probably stretching the realms of possibility here – but sometimes it is necessary for a story…) that he was too wrapped up in his own thoughts (perhaps Scarlett thoughts, his own excitement about returning to Charleston with his wife and children) to notice her. That's what I am sticking to, even though I agree with you!

Separately, I have always wondered what Rhett's real motivation was behind lending the money for Ashley to buy Scarlett's half share of the mills out…in his closing speech he said that after the miscarriage, he realised that it was all over between them when Scarlett never called for him when she was ill…but he must have still wanted her or harboured some hope if he lent Melly the money for the mills – he still cared then. I can't believe he did it out of spite – I am sure he hoped that maybe reducing the time Scarlett spent with Ashley might mean she was less obsessed with him (but wasn't her obsession already starting to wane by then?)

Please let me know what you think!