Lol. So the epilogue is Rhett reflecting. It needs to be read slowly because there are multiple uses for he. If the style/format of it bothers you, the last part can certainly be an ending.
Everyone thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews throughout this story. Lol and for all of you that stuck with it when it didn't turn all happy and perky within a few chapters and then became a different type of worse
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Epilogue
Atlanta, Georgia
1908
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Their time in France changed the children. Likely changed them in more ways than the loss of their sister. There was an aspect of Nice that still existed in the old ways, life was slower, more thoughtful. But it was a place of thoughtful growth and change, there had been wars around them, along with wars of opinion, royals still struggled to regain power. It was a place of thought and discussion, a place where color had been removed from the discussion of war and it had simply been people.
He hadn't been surprised when years later Wade and Beau failed to follow through on their original plans for college.
When Wade had said goodbye to his family and headed off to Oxford. Spending nearly a decade afterward exploring Europe and Asia instead of just his grand tour.
When Beau had gone off to Harvard and then married a student his age from Wellesley studying to be a doctor.
He hadn't been surprised when Ella, who had begun mothering at the age of 5 became one just before she turned 18.
When she had placed the baby in his arms and called him, "Grandpa."
When she had accepted in good nature the little brother, they had presented her with after the birth of her own second child, despite all of their best efforts at avoiding that.
When she had nursed her father through the long months of his final decline.
He hadn't been surprised to watch Nicholas grow up and go to college in Georgia so he wouldn't be far from his mother.
When he had returned to establish a law practice in Atlanta.
When he had married a woman, Scarlett enjoyed taking tea with nearly every other day.
He hadn't been surprised when Claire had gone off to Wellesley.
When she fought for the rights of women.
When she had come home wearing trousers.
When she gave her mother a pair.
He hadn't been surprised by the little girl they conceived in Europe.
When Letty followed him everywhere.
When she insisted her mother hold her hand every night until she fell asleep.
When Tara ended up being her favorite place in the entire world.
When she fell in love at 15 and married him at 18.
When they lived on her in-law's plantation and rebuilt the home and the land to suit the new world.
He hadn't been surprised when one preventative measure had not been enough to stop his wife from conceiving again.
When Prissy had questioned weeks after their return from France if Scarlett's inability to lose the thickness in her waist from the baby she had born was because she carried another.
When their son came into the world, eleven months after his sister in the middle of the night and Prissy had come into the room minutes later.
When Alex took to the seas and the world instead of college at 17.
He had been surprised by that little boy, Benjamin, born when he was nearing 60.
When he had become a father again when he was already a grandfather.
When the little boy's favorite thing was to sit next to his father for hours and be read to.
When the servants had little to do with caring for him.
When he and Scarlett changed nearly every soiled article of clothing.
When he had bathed his first child at the age of 59.
When he had spent years watching Scarlett beside him at the tub, cleaning their boy, while he often made the task harder by including boats in the tub.
When they took all meals with Ben.
He had been surprised by nearly everything with his last boy, but not all.
Not by his son refusing to go off to school after his father had a heart attack.
Not by his son refusing to leave the three years that followed.
Not by his son keeping vigil at his bedside in his final hours.
He hadn't been surprised by Scarlett there either.
He hadn't been surprised by the tears that kept streaming down her face even though they'd known the end was near for weeks.
He recalled back to that 32-year-old man he'd once been and the greatest surprise he'd ever known.
Scarlett.
Surprise to find that the life he'd planned out, the life he'd expected would not be the one he led.
Surprise to find the great joy and his best years in the second half of his life.
Surprise to find that even at the worst moments in their life his wife was beside him.
He could close his eyes now with her hand in his.
He could close his eyes, perchance there would be more dreams to follow, but if not. This had been enough.
It had been far more than enough.
Although he suspected, he wouldn't be surprised to see Bonnie one more time.
The End