Okay MM is briefly borrowed from like for a nano second but don't want to get the lawyers on my back...I'd have to sic my own future legal consul on them lol.
For those of you who've requested a certain thing over and over for the last 30 chapters again and again, I hope you'll be happy.
This one is nearly 5,000 words literally so I am taking the weekend off loves as reality calls. Let's all meet back here Tuesday...although perhaps I could be swayed by an outpouring of love and post Monday, I may already have the next dozen chapters done :D
The books for the mines were piled on Scarlett's bed with slips of scrap paper marking off discrepancies. There were so many that she had to make the scraps of paper half the size that she'd initially intended them to be in order to avoid running out. Thus far she was unable to tell if the mistakes were the work of an inept bookkeeper or deliberate theft.
She hoped for the former. They were so sloppy and obvious to anyone who knew where to look that she couldn't decide what to think. Surely Ross wasn't enough of a fool to be so blatant in his attempts to steal from Rhett. Ross didn't seem all that competent so maybe it was just a series of mistakes…except that the math was what told her that something was wrong. If it was a series of mistakes, then there should have been a continuous thread of mistakes steaming from previous errors.
The further she delved into the books, the more she came to see that one series of mistakes had nothing to do with the next. Some columns ended short on one page only to be duplicated on the next. Others had lines missing, but then the lines showed up later in the ledgers. After years of running the mills and the store Scarlett was privy to nearly every underhand method to alter the books of a business. Here it seemed that someone who sought to use every one of those tricks in one book was doing the book keeping.
Laboriously she had begun to correct the math and enter it into the master book she was building. There were so many errors that even if Ross was innocent of a calculated attempt to pad his pockets he had still cost Rhett's mines a great deal of money.
Her eyes ached from studying row after row of scrawled cramped handwriting. Glancing up from the ledger in her lap, the bouquet that Rosemary had brought back from her trip to the flower market with Doctor Cross caught her eye. Rosemary had arranged it and placed it on the demi-lune table by the door leading to Rhett's room. It was a suspicion arousing bunch of flowers and Scarlett had asked Penny to dispose of half of the blooms before Rhett returned from the Landing.
If Doctor Cross had set out to select a bouquet of flowers that looked like something a suitor would present to a lady he was courting and not a bunch of flowers to brighten a sickroom he had succeeded beyond question.
Rosemary had told her, while smiling dreamily, that Doctor Cross was an amateur botanist. He had personally built her bouquet from scratch as opposed to bringing her back one of the pre-made up bundles that were sold at the stalls on Ruth Boulevard.
Chewing her pencil thoughtfully Scarlett continued to study the blooms that comprised her bouquet. Trilliums, Wild Orchids, and Freesia made up the center arrangement. The outer ring of flowers were pale violet hued hydrangeas, French lilac, and bluebird roses. It was a bouquet meant to impress and it did. It impressed upon Scarlett that if Rhett ever figured out her interest in transforming Rosemary into a belle had led to his beloved sister and Doctor Cross courting he'd strangle her no matter what his romantic feelings toward her were.
"Damn,' she muttered aloud before throwing the pencil at the arrangement.
"Something not adding up?" Rhett asked politely from the hall door.
He had returned, just as promised. "Rhett," she said smiling beatifically.
"Scarlett," he answered with a half smirk at her enthusiastic welcome. "Now that we're clear on who we are, why don't you move on to telling me how much you've missed me?"
She rolled her eyes dramatically. "Why you conceited thing, who says I missed you? I'd hardly noticed you were gone."
He came into the room and shut the door gently behind him before coming to the bed. He'd been in and out of her room many times since she'd come home from the hospital, but she could already tell things were different between them. This time he didn't bother to observe formality and settle himself into her bedside chair. Instead he sat on the bed, facing her. "Really, that's a blow to my vanity. You see, I noticed I was gone from your side. To return only to find that you didn't miss me a bit is crushing."
"Well," she said with a small grin, "I may have missed you", she smiled coyly "a bit."
He glowered at her and she fought to suppress a fit of giggles. "A bit. Not quite the homecoming I expected. Didn't someone promise to count the minutes till I returned? The seconds too."
Her face took on a look of supreme innocence. "You mean me? I was so distraught that I couldn't look at a clock for fear the hands hadn't budged."
He took her hands and stroked her palms gently sending a shiver through her body. "Distraught, I am sorry to hear that. May I be so bold as to inquire why you've been distraught?"
She leaned forward till their faces were only inches apart. "Because as it so happens I hadn't been kissed enough for one evening after all."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Would you allow me to try to make it up to you?"
"Mmm," she murmured softly, "What do you suppose you could do to make it up to me?"
He laughed softly at her boldness. This was an entirely new side to Scarlett, one that he could become use to. "Never fear, I'll think of something," he said softly as he leaned forward to close the distance between them.
His lips brushed hers and he was so gentle that it brought tears to her eyes. They began to spill from the corners of her eyes and it only took a second before Rhett noticed her wet cheeks. He pulled back and gently with his pointer and middle fingers brushed the tears from first one cheek than the other.
What could have made her start to cry? He was about to ask when she tilted her head in what he always thought of as her little girl way and his heart nearly broke, she looked so vulnerable that he only wanted to lock her bedroom door and hold her close.
She cleared her throat and looking him squarely in the eye so he couldn't doubt the sincerity of her words she spoke softly. "I love you Rhett. I don't care if you don't say it back, I did miss you while you were gone and I'm glad your back."
He slid off the bed and left the room. He left; her mind and heart were sent reeling. He left her after she told him that she loved him. She had pushed him too far and he'd left her again rather than deal with her feelings. Her chest hurt but before she could begin to weep he returned bearing a large bunch of daffodils.
"I was going to bring these in before but I noticed your other bouquet and I thought I'd wait till tomorrow."
He hadn't left her, only left the room. Could there be hope after all? He hadn't said "I love you" back, but he hadn't asked her not to say it again. She reached out for the daffodils. They were beautiful, in a combination of shades that she'd never seen in a daffodil before. "Rhett, they're lovely." She lifted them toward her face and inhaled deeply. The daffodils had a soft, fresh scent that was much nicer than the cloying aroma of the bouquet Doctor Cross had chosen. "Where did you get them?"
"You have an admirer in the form of Julia Ashley."
That haughty old thing, why on earth would she send me a gift, thought Scarlett. She said as much to Rhett. "Miss Ashley? You're joking?"
"Not a bit, she came to see me at the Landing to have me bring them to you."
She inhaled again. Yes these were exactly what she'd had in mind earlier. "Rhett would you have Penny bring that bouquet on the table down to either the dinning room or Miss Eleanor's office if she'd like them."
"Your casting off the bouquet from an admirer for my humble daffodils? I'm touched."
"Humble my foot. After listening to Miss Ashley talk last month I'm sure that they are some exotic breed known only to her and about three other people."
"Four," he replied with a grin. He took the flowers from her and laid them on the table next to the other bouquet. "Mrs. Butler, may I ask, where did that enormous bouquet come from? Have you acquired an admirer in my absence?"
His words were light but she could see expectation in his eyes, expectation coupled with…dread. She was becoming better at reading him. Though he meant his words to be taken lightly, they still had an edge beneath them. He hoped that her giant bouquet was an innocent gesture from a friend, but he couldn't help but worry that Middleton Courtney or one of the other numerous gentlemen she'd bewitched during the season had sent them.
Honesty would have been the path to take but Scarlett couldn't bear to start a fight so soon after he'd returned. She opted for half the truth, which when considered was more of the truth than she would have ever given him during most of their marriage.
"I have indeed Mr. Butler", she teased gently, at the very least they could have a little time to laugh together before he discovered just what she had facilitated concerning Rosemary and Doctor Cross. "You should take that into consideration when next you plan to leave me alone."
"It was for one night," he countered with a stern frown that failed to reach his twinkling eyes.
"I work fast," she replied primly as she moved the ledger book from her lap to the bedside table. Then she folded her hands modestly in her lap, the very picture of maidenly innocence.
Rhett threw back his head and laughed at her demure appearance. He knew now that however she got the bouquet it wasn't from an admirer.
"They were from Rosemary", she confessed, well that was partially true Scarlett rationalized to herself, "I asked her to bring me flowers from the market. I thought they'd freshen up the room." Now should she mention Doctor Cross? No, that wouldn't be wise. It would keep till later.
He seated himself back on the bed and glancing at the piles of books at the end of the bed with ragged bits of paper making numerous pages a frown settled on his swarthy face. "You've marked off quite a few pages."
"I expect to be marking off many more," said Scarlett gently.
"Ah."
Moving to sit next to her, Rhett wrapped his arm around Scarlett's waist and drew her close. "My brother is stealing from me, isn't he?" he asked, from his tone of voice Scarlett could tell that Rhett was resigned to the possibility that Ross had abused his own brother's trust and goodwill.
She settled herself comfortably against his side. "Yes, I suspect he is. Rhett I'm sorry." She wanted to color Ross as incompetent, but that wasn't the truth and after combing through numerous ledgers she was nearly positive Ross had stolen a great deal of money from Rhett. Practically from the minute he'd started working for him.
"Don't be," he exhaled deeply. "I've known for some time that the books were becoming progressively worse. I suppose that's why I asked you to review them. I knew that if there were glaring inconsistencies you'd stalk them through the books like a bloodhound. Toby barked suddenly from his bed by the French doors. "Like a foxhound," amended Rhett with a halfhearted chuckle.
"If you've known he was stealing why didn't you fire him?"
Rhett leaned over and kissed the top of her head. "My dear when you aren't being very Irish, you are very French. The French aristocrats during the revolution were often more than willing to send family to the headsman to save their own necks. Much as I loathe my brother's actions, he is still my brother. I don't think I could turn him over to the authorities, to be honest I don't even think that I'll turn him out. I'll have to find him a position where he can't steal from me."
"Poor Emily, I wonder if she knows?" mused Scarlett aloud.
"She doesn't because if she did she would have been the first to tell me. I'm asking, as a favor to me, don't tell her about Ross. I'm not even going to tell him I know, I'll just tell him the books are far too disorganized for me to allow him to continue as executive accountant. He'll know I suspect something but as I plan to never directly allude to what I know that should make the situation bearable for us both."
Scarlett tilted her head up to study Rhett. "You don't mean us as in you and Ross, do you? Are you afraid that Ross may be angry with me, because he knows it's me that's reviewing the books?
Gently he began to run his fingertips up and down her side. The thin muslin of her nightgown was the only barrier between her bare skin and his maddeningly gentle stroking fingers. She shivered as his hand stop just at the underside of her breast. He moved his hand downward toward her hip where it stilled, resting lightly on her hipbone.
He wore an expression akin to a scowl and Scarlett knew, after years of never being quite sure as to what he was feeling, that the scowl wasn't directed at her.
When he finally spoke his words were soft, but firm. He spoke so softly that she would have thought that he might be talking only to himself if he hadn't used the word you. Only then was she sure that she was meant to hear his words.
"I won't let anyone hurt you, my own brother included. I can stand him stealing from me, I can ignore his drunkenness, and even the constant caustic remarks; I can overlook all those things. But I will not allow him or anyone else to cause you harm."
"You're not even going to hint that you know he's been stealing from you," asked Scarlett incredulously. She was all for family loyalty, hadn't she done what ever it took to support her own. But to condone theft? She honestly didn't think she'd be able to do such a thing.
"I am not even going to mention that you found any sort of discrepancies in the mines ledgers. I am going to ask that you continue to go over the books. While I'm not planning on exposing my brother's embezzling that doesn't mean I don't want to know precisely how much he's siphoned from my coffers." His face had fallen into the lines of a man much older than Rhett usually seemed to her and she searched her mind for any topic. The children. She smiled. Rhett loved talking about the children.
"Oh, let's not talk about this anymore," said Scarlett lightly. "Ella and Wade will be here tomorrow."
He knew what she was up to, but he had no objections to changing a particularly distasteful subject. "They will indeed. I will be very glad to see those two. They'll liven up the house."
"I meant to ask you, would you take Wade to your tailor? He's probably grown a foot in the last three months. Also, I'm going to have Miss Eleanor's seamstress come to the house to fit Ella for a new wardrobe. I'm sure Sue hasn't spent a penny of the money I've been sending on Ella or Wade, especially not on Ella."
"Maybe Suellen's changed?" offered Rhett.
"If Suellen's changed, then I'll divorce you after all and join Sister Mary Joseph's order."
She was at her best when being flippant and he couldn't help but laugh at the audacity of bringing up his only just recently discarded desire for a divorce. "My love, I'm sure you'd make a charming nun but God predestined you to be my wife. He gave you to me and I'm not willing to give you back."
"So you mean to keep me?" she asked coquettishly even while trying to conceal her elation of his use of the word love. Not my pet which she sometimes disliked the sound of; but love, his love.
"It seems I have too, how could I divorce you? I have no grounds, don't you recall our honeymoon in New Orleans when I told you that you ate as though each meal were your last", he grinned at the memory, "I also told you that there was no need to be such a glutton."
"What has that got to do with having grounds for divorce?" She asked trying not to sound annoyed. She hated to be reminded of how when they were first married she would scrape the plates during meals. It embarrassed her because it was just one more example of how she could never follow conventions. In public a lady should eat like a bird, Mammy had told her that after marriage she could eat all she liked, but dinning in a restaurant was governed by a completely different set of rules.
"I told you if you kept eating like that you'd be as fat as the Cuban ladies and then I would divorce you. However," He turned to better face her allowing both of his hands to span her waist "You haven't gained so much as an ounce since the day I married you."
He pulled her close and before she could say a word he drew her to him and kissed her. She managed, by wriggling against him, to free her arms from her sides where he'd unintentionally pinned them when he had taken her into his arms.
Her arms were around his neck and before she knew how they got that way they were lying back on her bed. Their kisses grew frantic as they tried to take their fill of one another. She moved trying to manage herself into a more comfortable position and as though he read her mind Rhett moved himself to her right side. Now he was leaning across her, bearing his weight on his elbow. Rhett's mouth was on her throat now, sliding lower toward the rise of her breast even while his hands were sliding down her rounded hips.
Why didn't I go after him after I told him I didn't want any more children? Her chaotic mind cried. How could she have given up embraces like these? The feelings evoked by his lips, his teasing tongue tracing damp circles on her skin, the heat of his hands scorched her through her thin nightgown, so much so that she was sure she'd have burn marks in the shape of his hands in the morning.
Rhett always had this effect on her; he left her flushed and anxious every time he looked at her in that suggestive way of his, the one that spoke of just what he'd do to her when he got her alone. A man who, even now at forty-eight, affected her twice what he had in their early years.
Without warning he lifted his dark head from her breast and his hands stilled. Their gazes met and locked, sweeping her out of her jumbled thoughts, drowning them in a tidal wave of emotion. He was so careful not to rest his weight on her for fear of aggravating her injuries. She knew that even though she had made it abundantly clear that she would welcome him, he wouldn't make love to her now no matter how badly he wanted her. No matter how much she longed for him.
She wanted him, needed him with a consuming hunger that she'd never felt for any other man in her entire life. Not even Ashley, no matter how beloved he'd once been had inspired passion like this. The aching feeling that if he stopped touching her she'd go mad. They'd hadn't shared a bed for so long, any reaction to him should have been tinged with nerves. But there was nothing inside her now but this need for him; it had always been there, no matter how hard she tried to deny it, and after all this time she never thought they'd be together again. She had hoped, prayed to God if he still paid her any attention, but she had never completely believed she would win him back.
There had been so many things that had gone wrong between them but none of that mattered now. All that mattered was the feel of his lips against hers, his touch, the way he'd tease her again and again before satisfying her in a way that had to be sinful. She'd never even heard so much as a whisper from the woman of her acquaintance about their husbands making them feel the way Rhett made her feel.
"Scarlett, look at me."
The way he said her name, like a caress made her groan as though he'd physically touched her. Her eyes opened and she admired him, wondering if she had ever really noticed just how handsome he was. Dark, dangerous, that sense of unbridled sensuality just barely suppressed below the surface...
His face was more mature, more open than ever before, and impossibly handsome. He had dark eyes that seemed to hold all the mysteries in the world, and full lips that smirked slightly when he was mad. Or when he was aroused, a voice whispered coyly in her mind The features of his face seemed to be carved from stone. His square chin gave him an arrogant, devil may care appearance. It was the face of a man who knew he often evoked admiring glances among woman he'd only just met. Only now did she know that he hadn't cared about other woman admiring him, he had only ever wanted one woman to admire him, and at long last she did, with everything that was in her.
At one time, she'd barely noticed his existence and now she knew every line, each every expression on his handsome face. She'd stored them in her mind in case she never saw him again after her agreed upon departure date. She'd actually believed that she'd known the man she was married to in Atlanta. Now in Charleston after all this time she still knew next to nothing about the inner Rhett, but that next to nothing was still more than she'd known about him previously in Atlanta.
He watched the play of emotions on her face and he knew that she was thinking about him. He wanted her, wanted to make love to her till they were both limp with exhaustion and satisfaction but he wouldn't risk making her condition worse. But if he couldn't physically show her how he felt, then it was time to tell her.
It was right now, even though it hadn't been the night before. Speaking about her to Julia this afternoon, he'd come to realize that Scarlett had made the ultimate gesture. She had opened herself up to his anger, ridicule, and harsh treatment. She hadn't rebuked him for any of it. She had accepted it all, waiting for him to exhaust his hostilities until he came to the bottom of his emotional well and found, that under all the hurt and pain was the love he'd always carried for her. That took a strength of character that he'd never credited her with. He had always known that she could surmount any obstacle in her way, but he didn't know she could do it with grace and patience.
He knelt before her on the bed and took her hands in his own. If she could open herself to him, then it was only right for him to do the same.
"I want you to know something, I think you know already, but just so that I'm sure you do, I love you. God, I've never loved anyone the way I love you. For years I would have given you everything I had to give if you'd only let me. And now, to be near you constantly, I've been so cruel to you for much of the season because I knew that the longer you were here the harder it would be to keep from falling in love with you all over again."
And that was that. The idea of courting her was ridiculous. He loved her and there was no need to prolong telling her so. She was smart enough to know that even if he pitied her that wouldn't drive him to profess love where there was none to be found. He loved her, it was as complex and as simple as that.
Scarlett could only stare at him, startled by this unexpected admission. She'd assumed that it would be months before he admitted that he loved her, not days. She had to be sure that he wasn't saying he loved her out of some misplaced sense of responsibility or guilt. She was sure that that wasn't the case, but her own treacherous mind couldn't accept his words without being completely sure. "You love me?"
He leaned forward and gently so as to not jostle her him over much gathered her close. "God help me, I do."
She tilted her head upward so she could look him in the eyes. They were warm and there was no trace of his usual self-mockery. He was smiling a little, not a smirk or that twisty half smile that curved his lips when he though something amusing. No, this was an honest smile filled with emotion, emotion that was directed at her exclusively
Still, she had to be sure. "You told me just yesterday that you weren't sure if you could love me again, that you couldn't trust me with your heart. Why has that suddenly changed?"
"Do you know how close I came to losing you?" Raising his fingers to the to the furrow lines of concern between her eyebrows he stroked her forehead gently before smoothing her hair back away from her brow. "Not just when you were unconscious after the boat capsized, but when I left you in Atlanta. Only now do I realize the enormity of what I nearly did. I almost divorced you, what if you found someone else after that…a new love? Or an old one," he added bitterly thinking of Ashley Wilkes. "I could have lost you forever."
"I wouldn't have found someone else, there could never be anyone else for me, just you. I love Rhett; I love you with so much of my heart that I have no more heart left to give to anyone else." Tears began to course down her face though she tried desperately to blink them away.
She couldn't help it, the agony and heartaches of the last few years had finally caught up with her just as they had the other night when Rosemary had read that poem to her. She began to cry and he held her to his broad chest, stroking her back and in a low voice he continued to speak to her. About how much he loved her and what she meant to him. About how happy he was going to make her if she gave him a chance.
Those words caused her to lift her face from his now tear soaked shirtfront, "Give you a chance?" she asked incredulously, "Isn't that what I should be asking for?" She begun to smile, "Of course if you had told me you loved me years ago then maybe I would have said it back years ago." She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips playfully. "Although I think if you hadn't always been such a skunk I…"
He began to laugh even as he lowered his lips to hers to silence her. Anything else they had to say to one another could wait. For now the knowledge that they each had the love of the other was enough. Everything else was unimportant in the face of that.
