Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of Margaret Mitchell, her heirs, and their assigns.

I was 80% of the way through this chapter when I was asked when the heck I would post another chapter of Complimenting Your Intelligence. Well, the fact of the matter is that although I know pretty much how all of that happens, I have to re-read the book and make sure I slide things into the canon properly every time I write a chapter. (As it happens, I made a major mistake with the last chapter of that one. Totally blew it.) It's not that I want to retell exactly GWTW but with the one or two changes. I want it to be fully its own story but consistent with the original. In short, it's not a simple thing to shift a couple of plot points and then follow the rest of the story in my plot. Anyhow, there is another chapter of that work, but I'm not super happy with it. Maybe I'll post it in a day or two, or maybe I'll fry it and start over.

That has nothing to do with this story, however, so without further ado...

Charleston, SC, January 1884

Caroline Butler looked around the hall, admiring the work that the decoration committee had done. It was just as it should be. The hothouse flowers brought a heady fragrance to the room, but not too much; there were just enough flowers and not a single stem more. This ball was a time to recall all of the old traditions, but not forget the deprivations of the past ten years. Still, things had been freshened, just a bit, over what had been done the year before. This would be a ball to remember.

Ella would make her debut tonight. She was a lovely young lady with a beautiful cloud of gingery blonde hair and gray-green eyes she knew how to use, the one feature she inherited from her mother. That curtsy the girl learned in Texas was a dream. She would be presented, and Caroline knew the Charleston girls well enough to know that Ella would be deb of the year. Since Rhett was her stepfather and Caroline was his wife, the glory would be all theirs. It was everything Caroline could ask of a St. Cecelia Ball, since her own debutante days were crowned with the marriage of her choice.

Caro looked around the hall one last time. The decorators had done well, and Ella would show to perfection. Another woman might have given birth to Rhett's children, but one of them would be Caroline's child tonight. She checked her watch. She had just enough time to dress for the evening. With any luck Rhett would think she was beautiful. He would be grateful for what she was doing for Ella Kennedy. Perhaps this would be the year…


Ella stood in the dressing room, smiling shyly at the girls she'd met when she'd gone to all of those at home visits and tea parties. They knew the city, they already knew of the men she would meet tonight. She was confident in her looks, in the dress that Uncle Rhett told Mother to get her, in the simple jewelry she wore, and in her own skill. Yet, as she had learned more from Mother's experience than Mother's lips, much depended upon the attitudes of one's peers. It would pay to be humble and gracious. The other girls were beautiful and no doubt accomplished as well.

Rhett smiled as she came out and took his arm. "You're beautiful, Ella, just beautiful."

"Thank you," she responded. "You were absolutely right about the gown. The other girls are a little pleased that it's not as fashionable."

"I made your mother do the curtsy for me a few years ago so I knew what sort of dress you needed. Having you be less fashionable will make them less angry when you have a full dance card at the end of the night."

He had done all that he could to ensure an evening with no rancor. Ella's smile gave him every bit of thanks he needed. If only Bonnie …

Rhett thought he would explode with pride. He wasn't sure exactly when this wish had started in his heart, but the dream of presenting a daughter to Charleston, a daughter who was sure to thrive, was coming true. He had made his arrangements in Atlanta to do this with Bonnie, but of course fate was unkind to him there. Then he'd been angry with Scarlett for taking the children so far away from him.

When he realized they were in Texas, he was aghast, but after spending time there, adjusted his opinion. The gentility of Galveston and the pretentiousness of Houston had combined to make a young lady who was a perfectly demure debutante yet with the toughness to survive the season. After watching Ella for the last several years, he knew she was equally at home in a drawing room or on a horse helping to chase down livestock.

The hard part would be finding a young man worthy of her. Rhett was sure that he could back her financially to search for such a man in the United States or Europe to find him. Once they found him, he knew Ewan had the resources to vet the man. Once she stepped into the ball room, Ella's future would be assured.


Caroline watched as the girls were introduced, one by one. Miss Kennedy would be somewhere in the middle. They each had some sort of flaw as Caroline watched them. One didn't smile, another tottered as she curtsied, some had dresses that didn't fit well. Then Ella came in, and she was perfection, right down to a little flirtatious smirk as she walked away. Caroline saw that smirk and recognized it from the portrait of her rival, but tonight it was her smirk because it was part of her triumph. There was a frisson of delight, a sigh of pleasure as everyone watched her sink into that deep Texas curtsy after which she arose like a magnolia blooming. After it was done, Rhett looked over to Caroline and bowed his head slightly. Her heart beat fast at the shared moment.

The debutantes all danced the first dance with their fathers or guardians. The mothers watched proudly, and Caroline took advantage of her opportunity to do that, too. She might be biased, but she thought one pair looked better than the others on the floor. As she listened, some of the other people around the ballroom commented at how good Captain Butler looked with Miss Kennedy. They danced beautifully.

Then it was Caroline's turn. When she had the worst feelings of disappointment in her life that she would never truly be Rhett's wife, she counted down the months and days and hours to the moment they would dance at this ball. Whatever Rhett felt about their marriage, for some reason he always gave her this. The St. Cecelia was hers.

She was conscious of the fact that she didn't dance as well as Miss Kennedy did. She wasn't quite as lovely in her ball gown, although it was one of the best in the room tonight. Rhett, however, could make any partner float through the room. It was one of the reasons she'd fallen in love with him.

"Everything was done perfectly," he said to her, smiling at her in a way she'd always known he could but never saw. "Ella is on her way."

"It's a triumph for all three of us," she responded. "Oh, Rhett, this is exactly what I pictured of our life together."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Mrs. Butler," he responded. "This changes nothing between us. I'd hate to ruin this night by giving you the wrong expectations."

Caroline blinked and smiled. She couldn't make a scene tonight, now, in this place. She had to absorb the fact that he would never love her. She would have to take the triumph that was tonight and make the most of it.

The song ended, and he bowed properly over hand before walking her back over to the refreshment table. He walked over to a side entrance, and it was then that Caroline first saw her. There was no hiding behind a pregnant belly and deep bonnet tonight. She was wearing the blue gown from the portrait in Rhett's bedroom and a diamond parure worth more than Caroline's house. Caroline felt her stomach's contents turn to pure acid.

Then she recovered herself. No one knew the woman in blue was Ella Kennedy's mother. Rhett was Ella's stepfather. Rhett had introduced her to Charleston society. Caroline was Rhett's wife, and therefore tonight, she was the mother figure in the scenario. It was Caroline's triumph regardless of who Rhett went to stand next to.

"They say her name is Mrs. Ewan McLure," said Margo behind Caro's shoulder.

"I know of her," said Caroline.

"She's quite lovely. I wonder how she and Captain Butler know each other?" Of course Margo would hope to get the gossip and expect Caroline to give it to her. Caroline had to wonder how Margo had learned nothing since Caroline's marriage?

"I believe she's related to the Robillard sisters," answered Caro. "I understand Rhett met her during the war."

"They dance well together."

"Indeed. Of course, he dances beautifully with everyone." Caroline let her voice get a bit frosty to end the conversation.

The orchestra extended the waltz a little, and Caroline was aware of the slightest bit of guilt watching Rhett dance with his Scarlett. Caro had destroyed this perfect thing, this marvelous organism that floated over the floor. Had Rhett ever been so happy in his life? Never in Charleston, for sure. He looked taller and even incandescent with the O'Hara woman in his arms. The woman in question had a certain glow about her as well. Her daughter would be debutante of the year. It was clear just from the moment of her presentation. But if the O'Hara woman danced with all the men in the same way she danced with Caroline's husband, she would be the belle of this ball, and the O'Hara woman knew it.

Happily, the waltz finally ended and Rhett walked his partner back close to where he obtained her. There was a flash of a camera light and Caroline had an uncanny feeling of deja-vu as she watched the O'Hara woman standing in between two men. It was almost exactly the same candid pose as one of the newspaper clippings from Texas that Caroline had in her desk. Captain Rhett Butler, Mrs. Ewan McLure, and Mr. Ewan McLure were smiling for just a moment before husband and wife slipped onto the dance floor.

This pair had none of the magic or glamor that Rhett shared with the woman. There was different sort of beauty about them as a dancing pair. They were definitely comfortable together and delighted to be dancing the reel with each other. They smirked and flirted and shared inside jokes together as they came back together again and again. The O'Hara woman's eyes glowed at her husband. Rhett would dance with Mrs. McLure every chance he got, dancing with his mother or sister when Wade Hamilton or Mr. McLure claimed her, but this was his night, and this was his happiness. This was one of the things they had traded to stay together and to keep this date every year forever.

Caroline had sensed as they sat in the park a year before that she had nothing to fear from this woman. Now she knew it for a fact. The McLure man was quite handsome and captured quite a few glances from the women present, as many as the O'Hara woman got from the men and nearly as many as Rhett got from everyone. They were obviously in love with each other. Caroline took heart in knowing that the O'Hara woman would not try to hurt the Butler marriage. Any troubles there could only come from Rhett.

She saw Rhett dancing with his sister and looking annoyed every time he came close to the McLures. Serves him right, Caroline thought, without any concern for her internal inconsistency. Rhett wasn't having as much fun as he might have. Hopefully Caro could get another dance or two out of him. Meanwhile, Ella was dancing with one of the young men who had come to tonight's ball, and managed to survive the nervous youth's less-practiced dancing. All was as it should be there.


One of the great pleasures in Rhett's life had been dancing with Scarlett, and to do so here perfected a night he had looked forward to for years. "I'm not sure what the fuss is about… It's a bit crowded, isn't it?" Scarlett asked while they danced.

"That's one of the reasons it can be difficult to get an invitation," he replied. "They have to trim the numbers constantly."

"I'm quite grateful to you for letting me see this then," Scarlett answered.

"You missed her debut in Galveston. It was the least I could do," he answered.

"Fiddle dee dee, Rhett, when you use that tone of voice I just know you're on the verge of saying or doing something scandalous," she replied. For a moment they were both young again, and his heart gave a lurch.

"I hadn't planned on it, but perhaps I should repeat what I did in Atlanta all those years ago and squeeze you tighter."

"Rhett!" she hissed. He loved the way she ducked her head and looked around before looking him in the eye again. "You are a varmint." He had to squeeze her again and grinned into her guilty giggle.


Ewan danced with Eulalie and then Pauline. He had told Kate he'd been doing it before they arrived, which annoyed her. "I don't see why you have to do that," Kate said with asperity.

"They're the closest thing I have to a mother-in-law," he answered. "And they have a tale or two to tell about young Katie Scarlett O'Hara, I'm sure."

Kate watched both of their aunts flutter like young debutantes themselves as Ewan guided them out in turn. They danced quite well, actually, but it shouldn't have been a surprise. After all they were the sisters of Ellen Robillard, who cut an extremely elegant figure on the dance floor when she had the opportunity to dance, as Kate recalled wistfully. Ewan had a similar knack to Rhett's of making his partners comfortable dancing. All in all, Kate had to decide it was a good thing to do.


The former Scarlett Butler was invited to tea at her former mother-in-law's house the next afternoon. Elizabeth Butler was not at home to anyone else who happened to drop by that day. She was spending the afternoon with her grandsons. In their eight year old way they understood the relationship, based upon their mother's previous relationship to Rhett, and agreed to call her Grandmama as she directed them.

"Rhett, they're absolutely charming!" Elizabeth gushed as the boys slurped their milk and mushed their sandwiches into their mouths.

"You know it's all Scarlett's doing. We should have taken Bonnie out to Texas to raise. Atlanta was too confining for a child as fearless as ours are."

Scarlett twisted her lips. The man could say whatever he pleased to his own mother in his own home, but she knew what went into harnessing all of that energy and fire and turning it into such fine children. Rather, she knew some of it. Ewan knew the rest.

"Such a shame you couldn't bring the baby," said Elizabeth. "I've been dying to hold her."

"She's been tired and fussy lately, and we're hoping she will take a good long nap today, Miss Elizabeth," said Scarlett.

"Some other time then. You will be staying the season?"

Scarlett shook her head. "No, we're actually leaving in a day or two. We need to get back to Texas. It's not the busy season, but our farm doesn't really have a slow season."

Gerald asked a question, and Elizabeth turned to answer him. Scarlett stood and looked at the small portraits on the mantlepiece. Rhett joined her.

"Those two look so much like the twins!" she observed.

"That's actually my brother and myself at about their ages," he answered. "Mother has photographs of the twins in the drawer of the end table next to her chair."

Another portrait caught Scarlett's eye. "How did this get… what is this one?" The child looked very much like Bonnie, and by extension, Jeanie.

"That's Rosemary as a baby."

"But your sister's hair is so dark."

"She was a towhead when she was born, and it darkened when she was in school. Children's hair can do that, you know."

Rhett was smirking at her, and suddenly she understood why he wasn't terribly disappointed when Jeanie's hair was so light a year before. She looked at the picture again. The features and lineament of the face were not much like Jeanie at all, or even Bonnie. It was just the scowl on the child's face that gave the impression. The eye color was much paler than Jeanie's too. Scarlett decided not to worry about it… until she looked into Elizabeth Butler's eyes.


Kate sat on the same bench in the Battery park that she had sat on a year and a half before, watching the twins play, when Ewan and the other children found her. Aiden and Joseph scrambled on her lap and demanded kisses before scrambling back off and running after the bigger boys.

"You seem concerned," he said.

"I hate Charleston. I'm ready to go home, and Rhett will stay the whole season. Can't we just go home?"

"I need to wait for a telegram to come back, but it should come by tomorrow afternoon." So far there was only one young man Rhett and Ewan didn't have a history for, an Emmett Mayfield who sounded as though he came from the best neighborhood of London until he he'd had a couple of glasses at the saloon and sounded more like the resident of a poor dockside district. Ewan was working through his contacts in the States, while Rhett had sent some cables to England. It was particularly important because Mr. Mayfield had managed to get invitations both in Galveston and Charleston. "I thought you wanted to stop for a few days in Atlanta, and to see your other farm."

"That woman wants to claim all of my children as her grandchildren," she answered bitterly.

"I think we've established that the parents of those children want them all to live and grow up right where they've been all their lives," he responded.

"Yes," she answered, "but why stir so much up? Can't they just leave it alone?"

"I've noticed that Butler seems incapable of leaving anything alone, and it's a character trait that has to come from somewhere. I take it his mother is the same?" He smirked with amusement, annoyed by not terribly surprised or troubled.

It wasn't something she had ever considered before.

"They're just children, and they don't understand what all the fuss is about, and they're my children. Why can't the Butlers let that be?"

"Are you really so worried that they can take them away? You know they can't. If even now they succeed, we can just make more."

"God's nightgown, Ewan McLure!" She turned to see that he was teasing her, but in his eyes she saw that it was as important to him as to her.

"Don't worry," he whispered into her neck, a hand sliding across her middle. "They're our children, and everyone involved knows they belong with you… with us."


A/N: So which is it? I haven't a clue. Everyone has an opinion so I guess you're all right. There's no kit from 23 and Me or Ancestry dot com to swab anyone's cheeks. Out of my seven kids, all the pale blonde babies have dark blonde to medium brown hair now.

This chapter was originally going to be "Cheek to Cheek," and of course there are some magnificent covers out there, but come on... Fred & Ginger, speaking of quintessential dance partners. "Bei Mir Bist du Shoen" was written by Jacob Jacobs, Sammy Cahn, Saul Chaplin, and Shalom Secunda and also done by many, including the Andrews Sisters back in the day. I was recently put onto the Hot Sardines by COCO B (they're amazing!), and their cover of this, which includes a mashup with the song "Diga Diga Doo" is fabulous.

So... I get to a certain part in every story and then start dragging my feet as though I can't stand to work on it any more. There's no loss of vision or interest, but perhaps a bittersweet feeling of because it's not going to take much longer. Sorry to drag it out. I'll try to do better with the next chapter. We've only got two or three, maybe four to go.

Meanwhile, to me, all of my readers and reviewers are beautiful, including Phantom710, gabyhyatt, COCO B, breakfastattiffanygs, kanga85, Truckee Gal, Helen888, Aethelfraed, Guest 1 &2, Conlyn70, Melody-Rose-20, mega700201, TQ, christag, KatelovesEwan, and romabeachgirl.