A/N - Thank you for all your reviews and feedback! I am sorry it took me so long to write this chapter, but I rewrote that several times. It's partially from Wade's point of view, cause I feel like there is so little about him in the book. I hope you will enjoy that!

At night, Scarlett was lying wide awake, unable to sleep due to the sound of rain, lightning, and some branch knocking on her window with every gust of wind. She was rolling over from side to side, falling into a shallow sleep, from which she was waking up after several minutes and everything was starting anew.

At times she wondered if Rhett was in his bedroom on the other side of the hall and if he was unable to sleep, just as she.

I don't even know if she's still at home. He might as well have gone to this Watling creature.

For a moment she felt like standing up and seeing if Rhett is in his bedroom. She sat on the edge of the bed and looked for shoes in the dark. After a while, however, she changed her mind and lay back down.

"He wouldn't go anywhere in a storm like this. Bonnie could wake up and he wouldn't let her be alone in a dark room. "

The moment Scarlett remembered the footsteps she had heard in the dining room that day and shuddered slightly and she wrapped the cover tighter around herself.

"Fiddle-dee-dee," she whispered to herself in the darkness, and at the sound of her voice, she felt a little better.

With a sigh, Scarlett adjusted the pillow under her head and pulled the covers off her legs. It felt too hot underneath. After a while, however, she felt the chill again, so she covered herself with the blanket again.

She moved to the right edge of the bed. Since she had banished Rhett from the bedroom, she couldn't get used to sleeping alone on such a large bed.

When Rhett was with me, I always fell asleep peacefully, she thought suddenly with a slight twinge of longing.

It occurred to her that if Rhett were there now, she would have fallen asleep easily. And even if she still couldn't, they would be lying in the dark together and Rhett would be smoking a cigar and telling Scarlett about the adventures of the time when he was blockade runner.

I can't back down from something I've already done, she brought herself to order. Besides: I'm doing it for Ashley.

It wasn't until the morning that Scarlett fell asleep for good when the storm finally ended. But then Scarlett fell into a deep sleep in which for the first time in a long time she had her nightmare from war.

She woke up with a soft scream, sitting up abruptly on the bed.

It was already completely light; the morning sky was clear outside. There was no trace of the storm, except for drops of rain glistening on the leaves here and there.

Seeing the weather like this, Scarlett got up, contented, and called for Prissy to help her dress. It was already nine in the morning, and by noon Scarlett was invited to Melania for tea.

I hope it won't be Mrs. Elsing there. Or any of those old gossips that hang out with her all the time, thought Scarlett as Prissy dressed her in a dark green day dress over the bustle. If I had as little money as Melania, I would not have wasted it on hosting almost all of Atlanta's Old Guard every week.

Until she left, Scarlett stayed in her room, where she had her breakfast served, so it wasn't until she left the house for the first time that day that she saw Rhett. He was just helping Bonnie on the pony.

Scarlett greeted her husband and raised her eyebrows slightly in surprise.

- I'm going to Melania now and I wanted to take the children with me.

Rhett just shrugged at that.

- You can take Wade and Ella with you if you want. I'm going for a ride with Bonnie. If Mammy wants her to ride in a ladies' saddle, Bonnie must practice every day.

Scarlett just shook her head, knowing there was no point in arguing. Rhett was relentless when it came to anything to do with Bonnie.

So, within minutes, Scarlett, Ella, and Wade were at Melania and Ashley's house.

Smiling Melanie softly asked Scarlett to her modest sitting room, while Wade and Ella ran to play in the garden with little Beau. After a while, Scarlett heard the joyful shouts of the three of them from outside.

They act like completely different children here, thought Scarlett, part with envy, part with admiration. At Melanie's and in the company of Beau, Wade and Ella ceased to be those quiet, shy creatures, that they were at home.

Scarlett, sitting in a slightly threadbare chair by the window, saw Wade, Beau, and Ella inventing some new game together.

With me, at least they are not in danger of any shortage. They have food, the best clothes and lots of toys, she thought.

And a house much better than this, she added, looking at the modest furnishing of the room. The thought didn't cheer her up much, though. In the end, she didn't have time to think about it any longer, because Melania was already pouring tea into cups.

Wade rocked slightly on the swing in Melania's backyard as he watched the enormous, glistening green beetle laboriously climb up the nearby tree. The sun was shining, and Wade felt really content and at ease. At aunt Melly's, house he didn't have to watch out all the time to be quiet and not to disturb anyone.

Wade loved his mother as much as he feared her, so sometimes he felt remorse that he would like to spend much more time with Melanie in her little house than in his mother's big, intimidating house.

- Wade!

Wade looked around and saw Beau and Ella leaning around the corner of the house and waving energetically at him.

Wade smiled, jumped off the swing (he was too short to reach the ground with his feet while sitting on it), and abandoning the green beetle, ran to his sister and cousin.

"Wade, Beau has a terrifying story to tell us!" Ella whispered, grabbing her older brother by the sleeve, half scared, half excited.

"Oh, of course, it is only scary for young children and girls. I'm not afraid of it at all!" Beau remarked, not wanting to look like a coward to his cousin.

"Of course," Wade nodded seriously, "I am not going to be scared of it either if you're not afraid of it."

Both boys were relieved that they had managed to keep their childhood honor undamaged.

„Beau, tell me now, please!" Ella tugged on Beau's sleeve this time.

"Are you sure you won't get too scared?" Beau wanted to make sure. He didn't have a sister, and he wasn't sure the girls were actually as timid as he'd been told.

„No, I won't be scared at all. I'm sure!"

The three of them went to the back of Melanie's garden, among the luxuriant magnolia bushes. It would be difficult for an adult man to squeeze under its branches, but the children, having bent down a bit, were able to hide under the leafy roof with ease.

This hideout was discovered by Wade just a few weeks earlier when the magnolias began to sprout their first leaves. The larger the leaves, the more shade they gave and the more they resembled a compact green roof.

It was in this plant cave that the three of them told each other all the amazing stories that came to their minds.

This time they quickly crawled under the bushes and sat down on the soft grass.

„A week ago traveling salesman visited us" Beau began. He paused for a moment to look at Wade and Elle, who was staring at him excitedly. Ella, though she had no idea what kind of person traveling salesman could be, found the word itself sounding disturbing enough.

"He walked across the lawn and knocked on the back door," Beau continued. „Dilcey opened the door and told him to get out. I heard it all because I was in the kitchen then and it is right next to the back door. However, he said that maybe she would want to buy something from him after all. He was dragging an awfully large cart with loads of stuff on it! The peddler was terribly tall and had a hat, but not like my dad's. My dad has a hat from the war and there is a Yankee bullet hole in the brim. The man's hat was dirty and frayed, my dad wouldn't wear one like that.

I think Dilcey got a little scared of him, maybe because of the hat, and said she was about to call Mr. Wilkes. She said it as if my dad was someone really scary. She ran upstairs to look for my dad. This salesman was standing in the doorway all the time. He looked like he wanted to laugh.

„Why would he laugh? If Dilcey had shouted at me, I'd be sorry…" Ella said, and the boys sighed softly because her tiny voice broke the completely mysterious atmosphere that began to form thanks to Beau's story.

"Maybe he remembered something funny," Wade explained patiently. He was used to his sister's questions, which often had little to do with the topic of conversation.

Beau took a deep breath and continued:

- When Dilcey left, I wanted to follow her upstairs, because I was afraid. that is - he quickly corrected his words - I preferred not to be left alone downstairs with this man. I walked out of the kitchen into the hall, and he saw me from the porch and called out. I approached him because mum always says you should be polite and listen to adults.

At that point, Wade thought that his own mother was saying something else: that adults shouldn't be disturbed and not be tormented by stupid questions.

I walked over to him and introduced myself and shook his hand, just like my father would. That's what gentlemen do. He didn't tell me his name, which I thought was very rude, but I didn't tell him. Instead, he asked me if I was afraid of strangers. I replied no."

Wade thought he was very afraid of strangers, especially those in Yankee uniforms, but he didn't say it out loud.

"Then he said that then I certainly wasn't afraid of ghosts and monsters, and I'd love to hear a story about one of them."

„A story? A new story? Beau, you are already telling one story at this point, you must finish this one first!" Ella's sunny soprano spoke again.

"If you keep quiet Ella and let Beau calmly talk, you will hear the rest," Wade silenced Ella, already a little tired of her behavior. Ella always got distracted so easily. He never had much respect for his sister, nor did he find her overly intelligent, but Uncle Rhett had told him repeatedly that he had to look after Ella. So, Wade did it.

"Go on, Beau," Wade urged because the story interested him, and he wanted to find out as soon as possible what Beau had heard from the peddler.

- I told him I'd love to hear it because I like it when someone tells me a story. I also told him that I was not afraid of ghosts and monsters because I didn't believe in them.

Wade thought he didn't believe in monsters either. The only thing Wade was afraid of were the Yankees, and when he was little, he couldn't be afraid of anything else.

- The salesman said I couldn't know because I'm too young to have a chance to meet even one. Then I asked him if he had ever seen a ghost. He answered yes.

Wade felt Ella clinging to his arm with a soft scream. He leaned forward in fascination, shaking his head at the same time.

„It is impossible, there are no monsters and ghosts," Wade said.

"Oh, that's why I said this story wouldn't be terrible for us," Beau pointed out. "But the peddler told me that he once knew a man who was strangled by such a ghost! To death! He appeared at his bedside every night. He was said to be pale as death and had long clawed fingers. Other townspeople also saw or heard him from time to time, and the peddler saw him one evening. The man did his best not to sleep with the lights off, and he put out two bright lamps in his bedroom every night. But one night the lamps burned out and what happened? This man was found in bed in the morning, dead! The salesman swore that he had seen him put in the coffin.

„And what? And what happened next? Has anyone else seen this ghost?" Asked Wade feverishly, even though Ella looked as if she was about to cry.

"I don't know," Beau just shrugged. "That's when my dad came over and told that man to leave, and he left. He didn't try to sell us anything anymore."

Wade released his breath with a loud hiss. He thought that the man who slept with the lamp on was just like the younger of his sisters.

Sometimes he and Ella heard Bonnie cry when the lamp in her room goes out. At that time, they only covered their heads with blankets and returned to sleep.

Wade flinched. Suddenly he realized how dark it was between the bushes. The sun suddenly seemed to be very far above the tangled branches, and he felt small and scared.

He remembered sneaking up the door of the room where Bonnie slept one night. Behind the slightly ajar door, he heard his mother's annoyed voice and Uncle Rhett's short, sharp replies. Wade heard his voice change completely as he began to calm Bonnie down. His youngest sister was tearfully talking about something that was big, had claws, and sat on her chest in the darkness.

Now, at the thought of this event, Wade felt a twinge of fear. Suddenly he wanted to be in the sun as soon as possible.

„Wade!"

The boy almost jumped at the sound of his name.

„Wade, Ella! Where are you?"

Scarlett and Melanie were calling for children. Wade, along with Beau and Ella, quickly crawled out from under the magnolia bushes, into the bright daylight, where it was hard to be afraid of anything.