Bluesneak2001 or anyone who knows where is fallout, I would like to see how that ends please :D

Her heart was beating so loudly she was sure his neighbors could hear it. Rosemary latched the white wooden gate behind her and sped down the slate path that ran along the side of Doctor Cross's house. She had nearly told Scarlett where she was going but that wouldn't have been very fair to Scarlett. After all that would have put Scarlett in the position to have to keep a potentially damning secret from Rhett.

A jaybird cawed shrilly and Rosemary nearly jumped out of her skin. This was so wrong but she couldn't think about that just now. She'd think about it some other time. What was it that Scarlett was always saying, "I'll think about it tomorrow." Her sister in law had an interesting approach to life, do what needs to be done then worry about the consequences later.

She had no doubts that Scarlett would have kept her secret, Rhett had said of Scarlett months ago that he had no doubts that she would leave on their agreed upon departure date because she had given him her word.

They had been out on the patio outside his office at the Landing and she had asked about the trip to Europe they had been planning. She had teased her brother about the possibility they might be buying three tickets if Scarlett was still attached to his side like a thistle burr in the spring.

"She's leaving in April, she gave me her word," Rhett had replied distractedly dropping his cigar to the ground and grinding it to near powder with his toe.

Without meaning to Rosemary had laughed at his faith in the validity of Scarlett's word.

"How can you believe a word she says?" asked Rosemary skeptically. "Haven't you told me, many, many times she's not to be trusted?"

Rhett had run his hand through his hair before turning to look out across the still twilight illuminated still overgrown formal gardens of the Landing. "I could regale you with the various peccadilloes of Scarlett O'Hara but if she gives her word she won't go back on it." Rhett smiled sadly, "It's just one of those little idiosyncrasies that makes her so captivating."

"Captivating?" asked Rosemary, curious at his choice of words.

"What?"

"You said her idiosyncrasies are what make Scarlett so captivating."

Rosemary could just make out Rhett's solemn expression, his handsome face cast into shadow by the last errant beams of the setting sun. "I'm sure I said infuriating."

"I know you said captivating," replied Rosemary with a smirk.

"It doesn't matter, what matters is that in just a few months Scarlett will be out of my life, for good."

Rosemary smiled recalling her brother's vehement statement of a few months ago that Scarlett would soon leave his life forever. Now he'd most likely lock her in her room if she even teased him about wanting to leave Charleston without him.

Yes, she had proven over the last week that she could be trusted, but Rosemary didn't want to place additional stress on her sister in law so she had kept her secret rendezvous to herself. Rosemary knocked on Doctor Cross's kitchen door. A moment later she could hear his light footfalls on the planked kitchen floor before he opened the door.

It would have been immediately apparent to a causal onlooker from his expectant expression that this was not a surprise visit. He had been waiting for her for the better part of an hour. "Rosemary, come in please."

She did as he asked, pausing for an indiscernible moment before entering his house, alone. "Jason, to be completely honest I wasn't going to come this morning." She laughed nervously, "What is it the French say, nothing is as sweet as the fruit that is forbidden?"

Jason closed the door behind her and lowered the rolled linen shade to conceal the occupants of his kitchen from prying eyes though with the vegetation running between his and his neighbor's property seeing into Jason Cross's kitchen would have been nearly impossible. Turning back to face Rosemary he smiled as he took her hands in his own and lifted them to his lips. He kissed first one then the other before lowering them. He did not release her hands after he finished instead he held them at waist level caressing them gently.

Rosemary flushed guiltily. "Rhett would never forgive me if he knew where I was right now."

Jason smiled wryly. His face was hard with barely concealed loathing at the mention of Rhett Butler and his words were laced with caustic dislike. "Well we will just have to insure that he doesn't find out. I'd hate to see him cut another notch for a Cross into his dueling pistols."

"Jason." Rosemary jerked her hands back. The anger in his voice startled her for a moment and she begun to contemplate the wisdom in coming alone to see Jason Cross. She flickered her eyes toward the door she had only just come through and wondered if it would be better to just leave now before further words were exchanged.

Instantly he was contrite in the face of her anger. "Rosemary, I'm sorry. We had an agreement and I'm the one who broke it." His face cleared and it was like looking at a different man. The flesh around his eyes crinkled slightly as he smiled at her, trying to win back some of the ground he had just lost in the space of a few sentences.

"I just don't want our future to be bogged down by someone else's past," she chided warningly.

"And I agree with you, but I just can't make myself look past your brother's crimes against my family or your ancestors."

Rosemary drew herself up, her back ramrod straight and her black eyes lost their excited sparkle. They were cold now, the same eyes that would be in the face of a Butler engaged in a duel, without feeling or pity they held only pride and purpose. "Then maybe we should just say adieu. I am, when all is said and done, a Butler, same as Rhett, same as every other Butler before us."

Jason gestured to the arched doorway just off the kitchen. "Please, let's go into my study. I was just about to have a cup of coffee, join me?"

She made no move to comply with his request. Standing her ground Rosemary asked gently. "Will you ever be able to see past my brother to see just me? Or will you just see the sister of the man who killed your brother and dishonored your sister?"

"Rosemary, when I look at you I see you. Only you. At Saint Cecilia's I didn't look at you and see a scion of the House of Butler, I saw you. I wanted to ask for a space on your dance card but I didn't want to cause you a moment of discomfort if you felt compelled to refuse me because of your brother."

"I won't have refused," admitted Rosemary softly.

"Will you have coffee with me?" he asked, his voice pledging with her for a chance.

Rosemary nodded and taking Doctor Cross's proffered arm she allowed him to escort her into his study for coffee. She knew the risk she was taking by seeing Doctor Cross alone in his house sans chaperon. But she had an alibi clearly written out in her mind. He was a doctor and she could be consulting him about some embarrassing female problem. That story had a fatal flaw in that her mother should have accompanied her, but she could always go with her second scenario, Scarlett. She hated using her sister in law in such a manner, but Rhett might believe that. And that scenario would only be necessary if he ever needed to know anything at all about her visit to Doctor Cross's home. She had slipped through Jason's back gate unseen and used the kitchen door so hopefully not a soul in Charleston besides Jason Cross himself knew her current location.

"So," asked Jason as Rosemary begun to pour out their coffee, "How is Scarlett this morning?"

"She's still very pale and tired." Rosemary gestured with the sugar tongs toward the sugar bowl, he shook his head and they smiled at one another, amused by their immense understanding of one another's gestures. "She's also terribly irritable," added Rosemary. "This morning she snapped at me, and I was being particularly charming."

"She's in a great deal of pain not to mention she's chomping at the bit for me to lift my bed rest orders. She tried to charm me, reason with me, and finally she resorted to all out begging, poor thing," he commented sympathetically. "I like Scarlett in spite of herself. She isn't physically very strong I suspect, but she has a will to survive that I've seldom seen in anyone; man or woman. I can't imagine what possessed your brother to take her sailing. I shouldn't't think she knows how to swim. He's lucky she didn't die."

Rosemary sprang to her brother's defense. "She asked him to. It was Rhett's way of obliging a final request, I think he wanted to have one last good day with her before she left."

"Final request? I don't follow your meaning. Scarlett was leaving Charleston without your brother?"

Rosemary nodded. Not wanting to give away secrets that weren't hers to tell warred with the need to confide in the man she loved but only for a moment. Haltingly, at first, she began to tell Jason all about how Rhett had practically abandoned Scarlett in Atlanta months before her appearance in Charleston at the start of the Season. He sat and listened quietly without clucking his tongue or making noises of disgust or judgment. Encouraged by his complete attention Rosemary disclosed nearly all the personal details of her brother and Scarlett's stormy, often adversarial courtship and marriage.

Without a thought for the consequences Rosemary even told Jason about Scarlett's miscarriage and the tragic accident that had killed her niece Bonnie. Finally purged of all the details that her brother had poured out one night in a torrent of anger and grief she shrugged delicately. "I feel terrible for both of them, they've been through so much just to get to where they are now."

"Which is where precisely?" asked Jason Cross speculatively.

"He had once loved her very much and I suppose realizing just how close he was to losing her rekindled that love." Rosemary smiled broadly, pleased that her story had a happy ending, "So now Rhett's wild about her again. He's planning to buy her something incredible for their anniversary in May. I think Scarlett is just about the most important person in the world to my brother. Even when he was planning to divorce her I thought that he wasn't being completely truthful when he said he no longer loved her."

Jason Cross, normally the most stoic and unshakable of people had to force his mouth to close after it gapped open in shock. He was flabbergasted by Rosemary's admission of Rhett's intentions. "Your brother was contemplating a divorce? My God, I don't think that he would have ever been granted a divorce. What would he have done then? Lived apart from his wife till the day one of them died? Surely he knew the odds were against a divorce being granted."

"You don't know Rhett very well. If he was really determined to divorce Scarlett he would have found a way."

Jason held up his hand to silence her. "I don't doubt your brother tenacity but I mean to say that while it's possible to secure a divorce in South Carolina I think only a handful have been granted. Even then it's an incredibly lengthy, often humiliating process. You also have to have irrefutable grounds."

"Rhett had grounds," said Rosemary without thinking.

"Rosemary, those grounds would have to be something earth shattering. The Supreme Court of South Carolina wouldn't just grant your brother a divorce because he no longer loved his wife. The court doesn't particularly care whether or not you love your wife. In fact I've heard talk that they'll be legislation to completely abolish hearing divorce proceedings in South Carolina in the very near future."

Desire to defend her brother's motives overrode her fondness of Scarlett. "Scarlett refused to allow my brother his congeal rights after their daughter was born. They slept in separate bedrooms in Atlanta. Even here at mama's they don't share the same room."

Jason processed that piece of information before commenting nonchalantly. "I assumed that was because Scarlett was ill?"

"No, they haven't shared a room the entire time she's been here."

Jason ran his hand over his chin thoughtfully as he took in the scandalous details of the Butler's marriage. Divorce, good God, there really were no limits as to how long Rhett Butler would sink. One detail caught him and even though it was bound to discomfort Rosemary he had to know. Curiosity demanded it. "If they were no longer intimate then how was it that Scarlett lost a baby after your niece was born?"

Rosemary blushed and ducked her head to hide the red rush of blood that mottled her complexion. "I'm not although sure how that happened. Mama and I went to Atlanta and there was a lot of talk but mama told me to disregard it. Perhaps they had reconciled."

"I suppose this was all after he visited here with his daughter. I saw you all one afternoon on the battery. You were wearing a lavender dress and a hat with streamers that kept blowing in the wind. They seemed to be blowing in your face the entire time, but you just laughed. I've carried the sound of your laughter in my mind since. Their little girl was beautiful. She resembled her mother a great deal."

Rosemary's face became closed as she thought about her beautiful young niece who had lifted the gloom that had hung over her and mama after father's death. They had both chaffed under the old tyrant's rule but when one becomes use to a lifestyle it becomes disconcerting to wake up one morning and find the boot pressing you down has been removed and you can stand proud all on your own without words of scorn or condemnation ripping your soul to shreds.

Jason was waiting for her to speak so she mouthed some platitudes about Bonnie before adding. "She did. I suppose that was one of the reasons Rhett loved Bonnie so much. Because he could give her all the love he couldn't give Scarlett."

Jason nodded dismissively as he glanced at the grandfather clock that slowly ticked off the seconds in a dry constant drone. Before rising from his chair Jason spoke, his tone of voice left no room for disagreement. "Rosemary you'd better leave otherwise we run the risk of discovery. If we are going to continue to see one another without your brother's permission we must be discrete. "

Rosemary stood and followed Jason back through the arched doorway to the kitchen door leading to the side path she had trod only an hour ago. "I hate this duplicity. Couldn't we just ask my brother? Maybe he'll surprise us both."

Doctor Cross leaned forward and brushed a kiss on Rosemary's forehead. "My sweet, naïve girl. Your brother would see me in my grave before he'd see me as his sister's beau. But if you only wait, I'll find a way to see you in the light of day, you trust me don't you. To find a way for us?"

She smiled enthusiastically. "Of course."

"Good, now run along home before your missed." He kissed her forehead again and for an instant Rosemary wished she were bold like Scarlett. Then she could snake her arms around his neck and kiss him again and again till they were both breathless.

Noticing her quickened breathing and slightly parted lips Jason Cross smiled gently. "Rosemary please, you must leave before I'm tempted to do something that I really would deserve to be shot over."

She nodded her assent not trusting her own tongue. With one last longing look Rosemary hurried to the gate and after making sure no one was on the street she unlatched the back gate.