Disclaimer: I own nothing in regard to GWTW
Author's Note: Thank you for the reviews and the feedback.
At this time Galveston was only the fourth largest city in the state but it was the richest in the state.
Chapter Eleven
November 16th was a beautiful fall day in Galveston. There was a nip in the air but it wasn't cold. It reminded Rhett of winters in Charleston. He could smell the salt water. He was feeling nostalgic for his home town. He was missing his family especially his mother which wasn't surprising. Today was his birthday.
Rhett was sitting on Tim's porch looking at the Gulf of Mexico and wondering what his parents had thought when he was born. He knew they had been proud of him. Both his parents had been proud of him until he had deliberately started flaunting the rules of polite society. He had been fourteen when he started questioning the bible and the existence of God at the supper table. His father had tried to have an intelligent discussion but like most people at that age he hadn't really listened to what his father was saying. He had just wanted to anger his prim and proper father. Somehow his youthful desire to aggravate had become his life's mission. Now he enjoyed annoying almost everyone. The only person he hadn't wanted to irritate had been Melanie Wilkes.
He had seen the hypocrisy and when he challenged his father on it his father had told him that was the way things were in a civilized society. As he had grown, he had just become more defiant, more of an aggravator, and more of a rule-breaker. Before he went to West Point, he had broken society's rules because he could.
Rhett smiled when he remembered his time at West Point. He had enjoyed his time there until it was almost time for graduation and then he would have become a lieutenant in the army. He had not wanted to be an army officer so he got himself thrown out. At the age of forty-three he supposed there was a less dramatic way he could have accomplished not going in to the army.
The buggy incident had just been the final straw for his father. Rhett smiled bitterly when he thought about the buggy incident. He supposed there might have been another way to avoid getting married to poor Sarah besides out and out refusing to marry her. At twenty-two he had been more concerned with not getting married and not succumbing to society's hypocritical demands than poor Sarah's reputation. He had been defiant and refused to tell anyone what really had happened. He had played the part of the martyr. If people wanted to believe the worst about him, he would not defend himself. What an idiot he had been. He had at least been smart enough not to participate in that fool hardy duel.
Rhett told everyone that he had been kicked out of the family with just the clothes on his back but the truth was that his father had let him take his clothes with him. Charles Butler had even let him take all the money Rhett had in the bank. The truth was that Rhett had reveled in being disowned for the first years until he had turned thirty. When he had turned thirty, he had only acquaintances, scalawags, scoundrels and whores to celebrate with him. He had been depressed for several weeks and then there had been Christmas. In January he had shook off his doldrums and had thrown himself into his quest to make as much money off of the up coming war. He knew that most of the reason he had worked so hard at being rich was to prove to the Charleston society that he was a success despite them rejecting him. Maybe the reason he was always sneering and mocking at gentleman was because he did regret throwing away his station in life.
Rhett was still bitter about his father's pride and need to be proper preventing Rhett from helping his mother and sister during the war but maybe like Mr. Wilkes being a gentleman was all his father had left.
He needed to stop thinking of his past it was making him sad and filled with remorse. He was restoring his reputation and was slowly being accepted into polite society. He was going to learn from his mistakes. He was going to resist that devilish urge that always made him throw the hypocrisy back in the gentry's face. That urge that always made him want to tweak the noses of the most proper of the ladies and gentleman of society. Rhett smiled maybe his father had been right. Hypocrisy was just the way things were in a polite society.
Rhett laughed. He did want to settled down. He did want to be married. He did want to have children. He did want to be welcomed into every household on the island. Scarlett had made him want all those things.
He got up and put out his cigar. He needed some company. He would make Scarlett ride into Houston with him to have dinner. It was a long way to go for dinner but he would be with Scarlett so he didn't care how long it took. She wouldn't want to go. She would tell him she had to work. He would continue to tease and aggravate her until she gave up and went with him. Yes, he knew his ladylove but she still frequently surprised him. He would never ever think that he knew her completely again. With that thought he walked to the stable to get the buggy ready.
~#~#
One day in the middle of December while walking on the beach with Scarlett Rhett said, "I can't believe how mild the winters are here. We almost don't need winter clothing."
Scarlett had smiled at him then she said, "Why have you not started building your house?"
"I am waiting for you to say yes to marrying me then we can build it together. You know I love you."
"No, I don't know you love me."
"Scarlett, I love you."
She smiled at him. "I am very fond of you." She was not giving Rhett any advantage.
"I can work with that. Will you marry me?"
"Not yet but I will help you design and build your house."
They walked along for a few minutes.
Scarlett said, "Did my Pa give you permission to call on me?"
"Excuse me."
"When my Pa came to Atlanta after we danced at the Bazaar to take me back home, did he give you permission to call on me?"
"In a roundabout way. He told me, "My Katie Scarlett is a spirited girl that needs a firm hand but not too firm." Then a couple of hands later he said, "Whoever marries my Katie Scarlett would have to be Catholic." Then I replied, "I am lucky then because I am already Catholic." He then said, "Good. Good." Then we got drunker. Your Pa is the only man I know who could have drunk me under the table. At least he could have in his prime. Rhett smiled at Scarlett.
"Is that true?"
"That your Pa could drink me under the table? Why would I make that up?"
"No that you are Catholic?"
Rhett smiled his cocky smile and said, "We were destined to be together. Yes. I was raised in the Catholic church although I don't think I have been to mass since my confirmation."
That made Scarlett smile and she said, "You can start going with me and the children on Sunday."
Rhett was smiling again.
They walked on the beach a little longer then Rhett said, "Why does everyone call you Katie here?"
"Because that's my name."
"But you used to go by Scarlett."
"When I arrived at Galveston I wanted to change. I no longer wanted to be that foolish, silly, stubborn, spirited girl who never thought of the consequences of her actions. That girl who never listened when people gave her sage advice. I no longer wanted to be a rebel. I no longer wanted to be the center of attention. Katie is a mature woman who thinks about what is best for herself and her family. She is not a rash woman. She would never throw a vase across a room because she was angry that the man, she loved didn't love her."
"But I loved that girl."
"I know but you love the mature woman more. She still has enough spirit to keep you happy."
They walked along the beach not talking until Rhett said, "Yes. I do and she does."
They walked some more and finally Rhett said, "Why do you not correct me when I call you Scarlett?"
"Because I like you calling me Scarlett because you loved Scarlett. You saw me as I really was and loved me because of it. I know you loved me then or you would not have looked for me for three years. When we were in Atlanta, I never could do anything that would shock you. I could never be Katie with you." She smiled her mischievous, flirtatious smile. "She would be too tame for a man like you."
Rhett laughed and said, "Do you think I am too wild for Galveston?"
"Almost. You will make yourself fit in. This is the only place we can fit in. Here people are not steeped in the past. They are proper but practical. Most of them came to Texas to escape their past. You know how it drove me crazy the way everyone was always talking about our lives before the war and during the war." Rhett nodded. "They don't do that here. They don't go over every battle and talk about if this had happened or if that had happened, we would have won. Those things didn't happen, the south lost the war, that world is over, now let's move on. There was a Gotterdammerung and we did it to ourselves.
Rhett was still getting used to Scarlett being knowledgeable about different things. Even after all that time Rhett would still have been angry if he had known she learned about Gotterdammerung from Ashley Wilkes. "I don't like to dwell on the past either. The biggest what if is what if the south hadn't gone to war in the first place but they did. Now we are stuck in this world. That is Mr. Wilkes's problem. He can't accept the world he now lives in."
She sadly smiled at Rhett and said, "Stop. We are moving into dangerous territory. Next thing you know we will be talking about our lives in Atlanta."
Rhett was happy not talking about Mr. Wilkes also. Rhett smiled back at her and patted the hand she had in the crook of his arm. He started to say, "We were just talking about Atlanta." He realized that to Scarlett they hadn't been talking about Atlanta they had been talking about her Pa.
Rhett walked her back to her house. When they got back to her house Scarlett said, "Will you come to Christmas dinner with us?"
"Yes. I will."
"I will marry you but you must sign a waiver that states you will make no claim on my money, my property or my current children."
"I will happily sign that waiver. I don't want your money, your property or to take your current children away from you."
"I will get Mr. Forrest to prepare the paperwork."
"Alright."
"I want a big wedding. I want the wedding I never got."
"You can have anything you want my Katie Scarlett." He kissed her hand.
"Just to be clear, you are still on probation. You can still be winnowed out." She turned and went in her home.
Rhett just laughed as he left Scarlett's house.
Rhett came to call the next day and every day thereafter. Rhett did start escorting Scarlett and the children to Mass every Sunday. Scarlett finally let him interact with her children. Wade didn't remember him but it didn't take Rhett long to win the children's hearts over. Mammy would take a little bit longer. They had a lovely Christmas. Rhett gave everyone too many presents. He even gave the staff little gifts. Scarlett knew he had done that in order to give Mammy a gift. Mammy could hardly refuse the gift if Rhett gave one to every member of the staff.