Disclaimer: I own nothing in regard to GWTW
Epilog
Author's Notes: Thank you to everyone who has made this journey with me. I have appreciated your reviews and your suggestions.
It was April of eighteen ninety-three and Rhett was standing on his back veranda at the mansion. Now would have been the perfect time to have a cigar and a glass of whiskey but he had given them both up years ago. He had given them up to spend more time with Scarlett which he didn't regret.
He was looking over the lawn and thought about the ugly lawn ornaments that he had gotten Scarlett to get rid of twenty years ago. He and Scarlett had redecorated the mansion when she was pregnant with Alex, no Charlotte. It had been a home after the redecorating.
He and Scarlett were celebrating twenty-five-years of marriage with an anniversary party. The weather had thankfully been pleasant and there had been no rain. Bonnie had decreed there would be no rain the evening of the event and she had gotten her wish. That girl could be as stubborn and hard-headed as her mother although if you asked Bonnie's mother, she would say the child was as stubborn and hard-headed as her father. They had a huge celebration and renewed their vows. Scarlett and her daughters had spent hours planning and arranging the event. Rhett had stayed far, far away from those discussions. Miss Melly had been the peacemaker and had not let the women come to blows. Everyone in polite society had attended. The governor of the state had attended but because he was a democrat no one was mortified. The Old Guard had long forgotten the outcast blockade runner and the opportunistic widow who had profited from being Scallawags. Now they were pillars of the community which always made the couple laugh. Tonight, was their last night in the mansion. All the furnishings had been moved to their new home, sold or given to charity. Tomorrow morning it would be the property of the Catholic Church. They were going to turn it into an orphanage. Rhett had given it to them.
He and Scarlett would be spending the night in their new home. They bought a little house down the street from Melanie Wilkes. Rhett laughed inside when he heard Scarlett's thought, 'I'm moving closer to Melanie not that rat-bastard Ashley Wilkes.' Even after all this time she had not forgiven him for deceiving her which was just fine with Rhett. Rhett had also laughed when they chose the house. It looked like every other house on the block until his wife had painted it a pretty teal color with brown trim. Then it stood out. His wife had never lost her desire to stand out from the crowd. He hoped she never did. It was one of the things that had attracted him to her in the first place. The master bedroom was on the ground floor because the stairs had gotten to be too much for Rhett's knees. There were three bedrooms upstairs but they would probably rarely be used for all their children lived in Atlanta. It was a much smaller house than before but there was just the two of them after all.
With the smaller house had come a reduction in servants. Fifteen years ago, Pork and Dilcey had moved back to Tara. Pork had passed on but Dilcey still lived at Tara. Now Prissy was the housekeeper/ladies' maid and Elijah the butler/valet. They managed all the other servants. Rhett and Scarlett had been talking about moving to a smaller home since Melanie Anne got married. So as servants quit, they weren't replaced. Scarlett and Rhett were pretty self-sufficient these days. As much as Scarlett complained about Prissy, she had never once thought about firing her. When she was complaining about Prissy one day Rhett had asked her why she didn't just fire Prissy. Scarlett had looked at him like he was crazy and had said, "She's my friend." Rhett didn't ask any more questions.
Rhett had been thrilled when their second daughter was born in December of eighteen seventy-one and they named her after her great grandfather and her grandfather. They called her Alexandria Geraldine Butler. When Scarlett had been pregnant with Alex, Prissy had gotten pregnant. Prissy asked what it was like to deliver a baby. Scarlett had said, "It is like squeezing an eight-pound watermelon out of your nether regions except unlike a watermelon you fall in love with the baby upon sight." Rhett finally realized why everyone had kept repeating that phrase. It must be a southern witticism and explanation all in one.
Their third daughter was born two years later in eighteen seventy-three and they named her Charlotte Katie. They had planned on naming her Elizabeth after Rhett's mother but Rosemary had used that name when her daughter had been born. Rosemary had named her daughter Elizabeth Rose.
Their fourth daughter was born a year after Charlotte in eighteen seventy-four and was named Melanie Anne. Scarlett was never happy to be pregnant but it was a chance Rhett knew she would take to continue sleeping with him. He had been moved when he heard her thoughts on the subject of sleeping without him. They were, 'Those two months without Rhett were something I never want to repeat. Even before I had known I loved him I had needed him so much. Even before I had come to trust him, I had loved him so much.'
Rhett remembered reading about the procedure to make a man sterile. His first thought was, "Nobody but Scarlett is touching the boys.' Then he had read more on the procedure and had decided that he could endure a little bit of pain so she would never be pregnant again. So, after Melanie Anne's birth Rhett took the family to London and Rhett took care of the problem. There were no more Butler babies after that.
Rhett laughed out loud at the underhanded trick they had played on sweet trusting Melanie Wilkes but as Scarlett had said, "After all the ends justify the means." And he knew Scarlett of the little conscience never lost any sleep over her deception nor did he. At first, whenever Melly would talk about how she would like to have another child Scarlett would take her brood and their nursemaid over and spend the day with Melly. By the end of the day Melly was rethinking that idea. Rhett and Scarlett knew that Melly and Ashley's child would be more like Wade and Ella than Bonnie, Alex, Charlotte or Melanie Anne but it was all of them Melly got. Scarlett decided that Melly wasn't getting over this desire to have another child and that Melly needed some help to give up that foolish idea. In the fall of eighteen seventy-six Rhett and Scarlett had left Ella (9), Bonnie (7), Alex (5), Charlotte (3), and Melanie Anne (2) with Melly to watch for the weekend. Melanie had her hands full with the children. Scarlett had lied and told Melly there was something wrong with the gin and she and Rhett had to be there to take care of it. Rhett and Scarlett had said they would take the boys off her hands and leave them at Tara with Will. They had actually spent the weekend at a little inn in Jonesboro. The quality of the inn was way below Rhett's standards but they couldn't stay in Atlanta so he accepted it. They had a good time although Rhett insisted on bringing their own sheets and quilts. They did spend their nights at Tara so exhausted from their day's activities that they could barely stay awake and have supper with Suellen and Will. That particular weekend Ashley was supposed to be home to help but he got a hot newspaper story and abandoned Melly with all of the children. The newspaper story had turned out to be a false lead which Rhett had paid a man to spread. The children's nursemaid had gone with them to Melly's but it was mostly Melanie alone with the children all weekend. Finally, at age thirty-two after spending the weekend with the Butler brood Melly swore she was never having any more children.
Rhett had encouraged Scarlett to give Mr. Elsing more responsibility in running Kennedy's. Mr. Elsing with more confidence became a decent manager and he always made a profit even during the Panic of eighteen seventy-three. After Melanie Anne's birth, Scarlett sold the store to Hugh Elsing which had made Rhett happy. She didn't have time to take care of the store. Scarlett wanted to spend time with Rhett, her children and her gins. Mr. Elsing paid her so much a month for two years and he finally owned it. She had wanted to keep Kennedy's for Ella but Ella had no interest in the store. She had never known her father so she had no sentimental feelings in regard to the store. In truth Rhett was hers and Wade's father in all but biology.
Rhett knew that Scarlett needed to run a business or two. She did it now because she liked doing it but he and the children were her first priority. They ended up owning two gins and a textile mill in Clayton County. Rhett had to restrain Scarlett on more than one occasion to not over manage her managers. The first five years after their reconciliation he had worked very hard not to slip into his old habits of mockery and cruelty. He had worked very hard to always keep his statements neutral or teasing. They had discussions frequently with Rhett saying, "You have good managers let them manage." "Treat your managers with dignity and respect." "Stop second guessing your managers especially in front of their crews." Rhett knew that Scarlett had often wanted to tell him to jump in the lake but since he was a co-owner, he had the right to speak his mind. He also knew that in truth she knew he was right but she secretly loved having verbal disputes with him. She had never wanted to go back to the awful fights they had the first two years of their marriage but she did like squabbling with him. Sick individuals that they were it was a form of foreplay for them. Some of their best sexual sessions had been after a heated squabble.
Rhett also knew that if anyone ever asked her about her businesses in Clayton County, she would downplay it by saying, "They are Rhett's businesses. I just go with him when he visits them to spend time with him."
Rhett knew she was no longer obsessed with making money. She had never touched a penny of the money that was in the trust fund. They had the terms of the trust revised so that the money would go to her children upon her death even if Rhett was still living.
Rhett had never lost his ability to hear women's thoughts. With six females that he loved living in his home he had to learned several techniques to drown out their thoughts. Most of the things his daughters thought about he just didn't want to know. After they came out, he listened intently to be sure one of his daughters didn't do anything foolhardy. His daughters were always amazed that he was always one step ahead of them. From when Ella came out at fifteen until Melanie Anne got married last year, he had spent a considerable amount of his time monitoring his daughters' thoughts and activities. They had all five made good matches thanks in part to his diligence.
Rhett laughed again at the thought of how the women in his life were continually amazed at how he could always pick out the perfect present. It seemed like he always knew what they wanted even when they hadn't told anybody what they wanted.
He never drowned Scarlett's thoughts out. Even after all these years he still loved to listen to her unfiltered thoughts. Their communication had been so bad in the early years of their marriage that he was never going to take the chance of them returning to that state. There were a handful of occasions when their communication had broken down but he was able to straighten things out before it became a major issue. There were times that he had unknowingly hurt her feelings but he was able to fix it quickly. They both still had problems with apologizing but now adays they knew the other was sorry without them having to actually say the words. Rhett never ran away from Scarlett again. He was tempted to so many times but when he was, he would remind himself that it wouldn't make anything better and it would destroy everything they had built since Bonnie had been born.
Rhett unashamedly like to listen to Scarlett's thoughts when she was plotting on how she was going to get him to buy her something she wanted. It amused him greatly all the plotting she did when all she had to do was ask him for it and he would buy it for her. He guessed she still enjoyed the thrill of tricking him into doing something. He usually gave her what she wanted but not all the time. He couldn't let her always win after all.
As he stood there on the veranda, he saw his wife coming to him with love written all over her face. He saw his daughters with their husbands. He saw Wade with his wife and he thought, 'You are one lucky bastard to have all of this. You came so close to throwing it all away.'
Later as they laid in bed after the party and after they had made love Rhett was listening to Scarlett's thoughts. She first thought how much she loved him and how happy they had been most of their marriage. She thought about how nice it was that Rhett could continue to perform at his age. She thought how wonderful it was that Rhett always met her needs sexually. She guessed he did have a way with women. She thought how nice the party was. Finally, her thoughts turned to how she could make more money from either her gins or her textile mill. Rhett just smiled. He pulled her closer and hoped she never changed.