Disclaimer: I own nothing in regard to GWTW
Author's Notes: Thank you for all the reviews and feedback is always welcome.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Prissy had a son on January 20th of eighteen seventy-four and Esau was so proud. They called him Thomas. Prissy was going to nurse the child herself and Scarlett was alright with that. Scarlett would never do it but if Prissy wanted to then it was alright. Scarlett would accommodate her work accordingly. Scarlett was very surprise when after two weeks Prissy was back to work.
Scarlett said, "Prissy, what are you doing? You should be resting you just had a baby."
"Miss Scarlett, I don't need to be lying in the bed. I need to make sure the servants do what they are supposed to do."
Prissy had Thomas in what looked to be a sling. It looked like a strip of cloth tied across her torso with Thomas inside.
Scarlett pointed at the sling and said, "That can't be good for the baby?"
"We have been carrying our babies like this when we were still back in Africa. It is how we did it when we were still slaves. This is the way we could take care of our children while still getting our work done. Thomas is fine."
Scarlett didn't know about that but it was Prissy's child. Now that she thought about it, she remembered all the slave women carrying their babies that way. She decided that it was a smart way to get their work done and still tend to their children. Scarlett never pondered the inequality of the difference between when she had her children and what Prissy was having to do right now. She was just glad Prissy was back to work because she did make the household run very efficiently. She also smiled when she thought about the fact that the more responsibility Prissy was given, the less she pretended to be flighty and stupid.
They had birthday parties in January and February. They were loud, they were noisy, there were children everywhere. All the children had a wonderful time. Most of the children at Bonnie's party were from the Asylum and therefore deaf but there was still a lot of noise.
By the first of March the temperature was staying above forty degrees consistently. Scarlett and Alex picked the children up the rest of the year. Scarlett would smile at how enthusiastically Alex greeted everyone when they got in the carriage. He greeted them like he hadn't seen them for days not just several hours. Scarlett used Alex as an excuse for not being able to linger with Mrs. Miller very long. Alex was two and he was a very big, wiggly child. Both Alex and Bonnie were going to take after their father in height. Wade too. All her children were going to be taller than she was.
She did send Prissy on more than one occasion but Mrs. Miller would not share Bonnie's progress with a servant.
Scarlett and Melly had met a lot of ladies who were part of Polite Society. They still weren't used to people not caring what they had done in their past or caring who they were related too. Melly would laugh when people teased Scarlett about her accent because after they teased her the accent got much more pronounced. Melly would tease Scarlett about her thick accent on the way home from these gatherings and Scarlett would just laugh.
Wade looked so much like and acted so much like Charles Hamilton that occasionally Scarlett would wonder if there was any of her in him. Then he would do something that was her. She heard another boy teasing Wade about his accent. Following that teasing she heard Wade's accent get so much more pronounced. She thought, 'That is my son.'
In the spring they did get the tennis court but not the swimming pool. They could go swimming in the Connecticut River when they went sailing and they went sailing all the time. Everyone in the family loved to be on the boat. They did learn to play tennis. They both got very good because as typical of their relationship they both hated losing to the other.
Wade's classmates enjoyed playing tennis and they would often come over for a couple of matches. Both Wade and Beau got very good at tennis. They did not like to lose either. Scarlett and Rhett were very surprised at the competitiveness of the two boys.
After Melanie was profuse in sign language, she still went to the school every morning to help the teachers and the students. They had asked her to teach children who were eight to ten sign language. These were difficult children to teach because they believed they were stupid. Melanie had to ease her way through their defenses and gently teach them signs. It took many weeks for the child to finally begin to believe he or she could learn. After six months of voluntarily working at the school the principal offered her a job for the next school year. At first, she didn't want to take the job because a lady didn't work.
Scarlett talked her into accepting the money. As Scarlett said, "You already have a job, you are just now getting paid for it. I'm sure you would like to have some money of your own."
Melanie smiled and said, "You are right. I am doing the job and yes, I should get paid for my labor. I also would like some money of my own."
Melly did want to have money of her own. Rhett had set her up with an allowance so she would have money for all the little things she wanted to buy. Rhett had said, "It is impractical for you to have to ask one of us for money every time you wanted to buy a hair ribbon or a hair pin." She was grateful but she wanted to buy some things with her own money.
Occasionally Melanie would feel guilty about accepting Rhett and Scarlett's charity but they never acted like it was any big deal. She like living with them not just because they had all the luxuries a person could ask for but because she loved both Rhett and Scarlett. They loved her and then there was all the children. Melly was happy in the North with them. It was easier to forget everything she had lost because of the war. It was easier for Melly to remember her husband as a fine Southern gentleman not as the washed-up man he had become.
By the time it was Spring they all like living in the North. Occasionally someone would miss something about living in the South but it was a fleeting feeling. Nobody in the North cared about their family pedigrees. All they cared about was how much money they had. Scarlett would laugh and say to Rhett, "We have enough money and enough courage. Now we have found a place to embrace us."
Scarlett would not have been content in the North if she hadn't had to give up Tara. Her having given up Tara broke her last real connection to the South. She like living in the North because there weren't people watching her all the time waiting for her to break their rules. For Scarlett the biggest plus to living in the North was she could be openly proud of Rhett. Nobody cared that Rhett was not received in Charleston or anywhere in the south. In fact, Rhett was admired and well-received in Hartford. He had several business acquaintances in Hartford and was acquiring more as time went on. Scarlett knew that Rhett had gotten his money in questionable ways but she didn't care. In fact, she thought he was smart not to let morals get in his way of making money. She hadn't. The ladies in the North didn't see her as just a fast piece. No, they saw her as a happily married woman and mother. They weren't still talking about how she had danced while only being out of full morning for a couple of weeks. They weren't still talking about all the outrageous things she and Rhett had done during the war. They weren't still talking about how she had married Captain Butler when he wasn't received. She was still bitter about how the matrons had talked badly about her when she was running the sawmills that had fed her entire extended family. Or how she had gotten Frank and Tommy Welburn killed by her foolishness. Or how she had unsexed herself. No, the ladies of the North saw her as a kind southern lady whose husband was a little bit aggravating and annoying but he sure was handsome and he definitely was rich. It was a role she had perfected during her time in Macon when she was married to Nick.
Rhett would smile when he would think about all the money he was making legally. The town was a gold mine of industry and business deals for him. He could truly be himself in the North. His aggravating, annoying, disrespectful self.
Rhett rarely went out at night alone. He rarely drank these days. He had lost all of his poker playing skills. He knew he had no more luck in this lifetime. The truth was he was happy staying home with his wife and family. The only people in saloons and poker halls were a bunch of ne'er do wells and whores. Occasionally he would wonder what had happened to Belle and Ethan Russell but only for a minute. He really didn't care.
In the spring, Rhett and Scarlett went out almost every evening. After Scarlett's self-imposed confinement had ended, she was ready to go to lots of different places. She told Rhett she wasn't going to do that next winter especially now that she had her bloomers. Rhett laughed because she had whispered the word 'bloomers.'
They went to plays, the opera, the traveling lecturers, concerts, musical soirees and dancing. Scarlett kept him busier than she had when they were first married in the first timeline. Because of Rhett's wealth they were invited to almost every social event in town. Some of the time Melanie went with them but frequently Melanie would say she didn't want to go. They felt she was letting them have time to themselves. That was part of the reason but the main reason was that Melly couldn't keep the hectic social schedule that Scarlett had her and Rhett on.
Scarlett had never known how much Rhett had been restraining himself in the second timeline or in the first timeline for that matter until she saw him interacting with the people at the parties and social gatherings. He mocked, aggravated, argued for the sake of arguing and just had a really good time being himself. He made fun of people's cherished beliefs. The thing he did that was the most infuriating was that when he was arguing with another gentleman and Rhett had convince the other man that he was wrong Rhett would turn around and start stating all the reasons why the man had been right in the first place.
He would whisper mocking comments to Scarlett about other people at that evening's entertainment. He would tell her the raciest stories about the other guest. Scarlett didn't know if they were true but the stories did make her laugh and blush all at the same time.
In the spring of eighteen seventy-four an engineer from Macon came to Atlanta to look at the buildings that had been damaged in the Siege of Atlanta. He had been hired by the city leaders to inspect the buildings. He and his wife had gone to Kennedy's General Store to look at the furniture. Suellen had waited on him. When Suellen found out they were from Macon, she asked if they knew her friend Honey and they did. They talked about a couple of other things. When Mr. Fowler said he didn't see anything he like Suellen offered to let him look at the catalogs. While Mr. Fowler looked at the catalogs Suellen made conversation with Mrs. Fowler but they soon found they had nothing in common except an acquaintanceship with Honey. Mr. Fowler didn't find anything he liked and the couple soon left. After they were gone Suellen was sorry they hadn't bought anything for she could use the sale. She had thought they reminded her of another couple but she couldn't remember who it was.
Later that night as she was drinking her brandy, Suellen thought about the Fowlers. He had been a very handsome man but his wife had not been that pretty. Suellen wondered what had attracted Mr. Fowler to his wife. She knew that she had never been very attractive to men and it wasn't all Scarlett's fault. In truth, while Scarlett had felt no qualms about stealing another woman's suitor the few that Scarlett had not stolen had never come back either. Frank had been the only one to continue to call on her. She guessed she had loved him when they had married but she knew the main reason she had married him was because she didn't want to be an old maid like India. She had also thought he would become rich and he had been on his way to being successful until that stupid clan had made that foolhardy raid to avenge her honor. After the clan raid all Frank's drive to succeed had slowly left him.
She had finally seen the truth about Frank in September. The truth was that Frank was just a big talker who never followed through with his plans. They were never going to build their own house. They were never going to open another location of Kennedy's. She knew they were never going to be rich because Frank was giving away merchandise from the store. They were barely able to make enough to cover their monthly expenses.
She thought about that feeling she had gotten last September. She felt Frank had left her on an emotional level. His body was still here but there was no longer any connection between them. They hadn't had relations since before George was born, not that she missed them but that September, as odd as it sounded, she felt like he had left her spiritually.
