Random AN: Yep. If you guys didn't notice it before the details that I include for backstory and surrounding story stay throughout all the major stories. Lol. Which is actually a lot because the two you guys didn't choose over "Bear to Love" have several chapters already written. I like seeing the small changes/differences and how they play out on the story.
AN: So we are getting some MM in the fic today, in a vastly different scene. Hope you guys like it! Thanks for all the wonderful reviews last time!
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Part Eight
Mid-June 1868
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She did so savor getting to just lay with Rhett. She should be utterly horrified at laying naked amongst the trees with Rhett, the evidence of what they just did evidenced on their skin. She never was in the moment. In the moment all was good. The only thing wrong with the moment was that they would have to leave it.
"It's a good thing you demanded I get my ward from New Orleans; we are running precariously low on sheathes."
"Is that where you get them?"
"You can get them anywhere, but I rather imagine you'd prefer if there were no chance of connecting us to them."
Her brows furrowed; she hadn't thought of that.
He laughed.
"I heard even if I fell pregnant, it would be easy to not be pregnant," she told him, recalling the information she had overheard when she and Suellen had overindulged in blueberry cordials with the Tarleton and Monroe sisters. She was ripped out of the bliss from their lovemaking as Rhett suddenly rolled away from her and was then balancing on his arms above her.
"Where did you hear such a thing? Who's been telling you such things?"
"Well-" she hesitated, she certainly not confess it had passed from Randa Tarleton's lips, before Hetty admitting she'd heard such a thing and then Sally confessed the same, swearing it was what an older cousin had done before the war to stop from being overwhelmed with children. "Why does that matter?"
"Because I need to decide if I will kill them. Did they tell you the chances a woman takes when she does something like that?"
"Well no. But she said her cousin was fine and she had done it several times."
"Well, whomever her cousin is, she is damn lucky. You could die Scarlett. I won't ever have you take your life in your hands. We will stop this right now if you would be driven to such an act."
"I don't know why you're so mad at me," she wasn't quite sure what was wrong with her, but she almost felt tears threatening behind her eyes.
"Oh my dear," he said dropping his head down to rest on her own, after a moment he lifted it back up, "I don't care if you have one child or twenty, but I do care that you're alive."
"She didn't mention anything about dying."
He let out a breath and then twisted his body onto the side, sliding one arm in under her before rocking back to sit up with her in his lap. "I saw a girl die that way once. It's not an easy way to die."
The look in his eyes, the tone of his voice, she didn't think she'd ever seen him so moved, she pulled his hand into hers and held it between them.
He looked down at it and the look he gave it held even more emotion.
"Who? When?"
"Years ago, she was a girl, she was a-well she was a pretty sort." Using the arm he had hooked behind her, he moved his hand to her thigh and moved his thumb over the soft flesh, "It was back when I was young and impressionable."
"Hard to imagine such a time," Scarlett's lips lifted up in a teasing smile.
"Isn't it?" he smiled back. "Promise me my sweet. You'll never even think-"
"I won't. I swear they didn't say anything about me dying."
"I will always take care of you," he promised her, "you know that, don't you?"
She nodded.
Then as if a wand was waved over his features the emotions were gone. "I had Estelle pack me a snack, are you hungry?"
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Late June 1868
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Scarlett let out a breath she hadn't been aware she was holding as Rhett got off the train in his tan suit and put on a woven hat to block his eyes from the strong June sun. At his side was a blonde boy. His hair nearly the color of straw. He was fair, not quite as fair as Ella, but not even as dark as Wade, far lighter than Rhett's deep skin color. Scarlett didn't care what color his eyes were they could be blue or green or gray or even white if such a thing happened, Rhett couldn't have made that child even if he'd mated with an albino.
"Go on," Scarlett nodded at Wade, who was hesitating at her side.
He took off at full speed, she envied his youth, at not being afraid of someone not liking him. He was sure he and Lawrence would be best friends; he had been peppering Rhett for weeks regarding details about his new best friend.
Scarlett struggled to contain Ella on her hip and regretted not bringing Prissy along. "Ed Ed Ed," Ella cried with glee with her arms wide and flapping.
Rhett exchanged a quick hug with Wade or as they did it, Wade flinging his arms around Rhett's waist and Rhett patting a hand on the boy's back and then dropped an introduction between the boys before his long legs closed the distance between he and Scarlett. He held her eyes the entire time. It was very nearly a kiss hello, the way he held her eyes, but as he got close all he did was a brief nod and "Mrs. Kennedy," before scooping Ella up into his arms. "Hello my pet. Have you been good for your mother."
"Hardly," Scarlett rolled her eyes. "You play with her too much, she's impossible to keep happy when you're not around."
"Why Mrs. Kennedy that does sound like a wonderful reason to make sure I am always around."
She rolled her eyes, "Introduce me to your ward Captain Butler."
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Calverton
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"I admit Scarlett," Rhett said several days into Lawrence's visit, dropping onto an easy chair on the porch next to Scarlett as the boys ran in the yard playing tag with only two. "This was a wonderful idea."
"Even though you've gotten no work done."
"That's your complaint, it's certainly not mine," he smirked at her.
"I suppose enough is done that it doesn't make much difference if you spend three hours playing with the boys and the pony."
"The Janssen's have a small Morgan, they've agreed to sell me him."
"Will Lawrence be remaining with you? Or rather us?" Since the boy was living with her at Tara.
"No, but this way, we can take the children for rides."
"That sounds incredibly slow," she admitted.
He laughed, "It does. I imagine it will be nice as well."
"I suppose you're right."
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Tara
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Scarlett stepped out onto the back porch where Will was sitting with Iris and watching the boys as they caught fireflies.
Will looked up with a smile, "It's something isn't it?"
"Is it just me or is that an oddly beautiful sight?" Scarlett took in the boys practically running in circles and sometimes diving to try to capture a speck of light. Their laughter together, it was nearly music.
"It's beautiful alright. I think we take for granted how much better it is to be with others than alone."
"You can be with others and be alone," Scarlett softly added.
"You can. I suppose that boy was for the last year as well."
"I didn't think of that when I brought him out. I don't imagine I thought of him at all."
"I know. It'll be easier next year Scarlett. Wade has school and his pony now. Ella's talking now. This time next year, she'll be a little girl and not a baby."
"Wasn't I just a little girl?" She turned with a questioning look.
"You sure were Scarlett, then you grew up far too fast."
She smiled, "You sound like my mother."
"I saw a lot of boys turned into men far too fast. I imagine I was one them as well. But there's no going back, only forward."
"And what is forward Will?"
"Enjoying the life we're in. Taking in moments like these. Remembering to make more of them."
"I don't know if I know how to do that," she admitted.
"You probably don't, but Rhett does and you never say no when he asks you on a picnic or to take a walk with the children. I haven't even seen you look at Tara's books in months, but they're done every morning when I wake up."
"You make it sound like the elves and the shoes," she smiled.
"When we're all together you don't sit with your head in the mending or a needlepoint that we don't need." He nodded, "You don't want to miss this. I reckon the last year felt like ages to you, but pretty soon you'll realize it was a blink of your eye. He's going to be on his way to college in a decade."
"A decade why that-"
"Is far sooner than you think."
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Calverton
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"Join me for a ride today?" Scarlett questioned as she sat on Rhett's lap in the office.
He had pulled her to him as they passed by an armchair on the way to their desks. He had pulled her with him not to make love with him or to kiss him, but to simply talk about the same matters she would have discussed at their desk.
"My dear are you suggesting-"
"I actually mean a ride Rhett. The boys aren't here, we could actually go faster than a walk."
"That sounds lovely. Should I dare question why?"
"It's a nice day," she said taking a moment to press in even closer to his chest.
His arm tightened around her.
She adored it when he held her.
"Well, I can't think of a better reason."
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Late June
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"Scarlett he's not a puppy you can keep because he entertains Wade," Rhett and Scarlett were taking tea in the parlor of Calverton as Scarlett was attempting to get Ella to sit still on the sofa so she could drink her tea.
"A puppy would be far less work than a nine-year-old," she gave Rhett a look, fully annoyed with him for demanding Ella stay with them for the break.
"Then I will get him a puppy," Rhett nodded and took a sip of his tea.
"Don't you dare," Scarlett's eyes were wide, she'd never hear the end of it and she would be the one forced to clean up muddy paw prints.
"The boy was only staying for two weeks."
"Yes, but his school isn't in session until early August, why would you send him back to a town with nothing to do."
"My dear there is plenty to do."
"Hardly little boy things."
"Speaking as a former little boy. They find a way to do little boy things wherever they are."
"I've already talked to him and he's more than agreeable to staying."
He shot her a look of bemused annoyance. "My dear, I had a set itinerary for the summer, I was going to New Orleans for three days, I would be stopping-"
"Rearrange your schedule. I can hardly imagine anything is so pressing that you can't take a few days in August to return the boy to New Orleans."
He sighed, seeking patience to deal with her. "I was supposed to go to Montgomery after New Orleans."
"You'll be there and back in two days if you don't go to New Orleans instead of likely being gone for a week."
"My dear, well you could have just said that you didn't want me to be gone for so long," he smirked taking a sip.
"Well-that is not, I most certainly did not say that," Scarlett was torn between her annoyance at Rhett and stopping Ella from getting jam into the couch.
He sat across from her chuckling.
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Calverton
Late July 1868
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"Why do my aunts keep writing asking me to visit?" Scarlett asked practically oblivious to Rhett's having entered the office and tugged her up into his arms.
"My dear the door is closed."
"Yes, you closed the door."
It certainly felt as if they were married instead of just courting on plenty of occasions. He let out a breath and let her go. Apparently, the thoughts that had been driving him for the last few hours would go unanswered. "What is it?"
"My aunts, they keep writing asking me to visit."
"Well have you visited them since Wade was a baby?"
"You know I haven't."
"Then there is your answer."
"I don't believe for one second that is the answer, what have you been telling your mother?"
"Are you asking if I wrote to tell my mother we fornicate outside of the bonds of matrimony every time I can convince you?"
"That is not funny Rhett," she shook her head, she'd not give in to fighting with him over that, "do you write to her about me?"
"Of course I have. I lived with your family for months and we're business partners."
"What do you say about me?
He sighed, this was certainly not how he expected his morning to go. No one would suspect Scarlett had only been a wife for a year of her life with her behavior. "Scarlett if you are suspecting that I have informed my mother of my intentions towards you. I assure you I have not. Nor have I in quite some time. I imagine the last time my mother was given any information regarding my romantic affairs; I was cast out of the family."
"Are you sure-"
"Scarlett, I am turning forty this year, I assure you. No sensible man of forty is keeping his mother abreast of his mother of-"
"You're turning forty this year?"
"I am."
"Where did the years ago?"
"I assume the war, we at least lost far less of them than most."
She frowned as she always did when he mentioned the war, a sure sign that he was not supposed to bring it up again. "We'll have to throw a party."
"What?"
"For your birthday, a party. It's in the fall, right?"
"Yes."
"We'll have to do it at Tara otherwise it'll look like you're throwing yourself a party," she nodded, already thinking about the guest list.
"Whatever you want."
"I assume I can use Betina-"
"You may use whatever staff you want and have Estelle get whatever goods you want or you can go into town and have them put on my account."
"I'll have to start planning a menu," she nodded.
"We can start planning one right now if you want," he said hoping their previous conversation was done and he could get back to what he had planned when he entered the office, he began to tug her towards a chair.
"Rhett," she stopped steps away from the chair, "how dare you try to distract me when I was trying to have a conversation with you."
"Forgive me for not having the foresight to know that mentioning my age would cause such a distraction." He sat back into the chair alone. "Where were we?"
"Why my aunts keep asking me to visit? Do you think they need money? I wrote them that there would be no more after Frank died. They couldn't be so crass to ask a widow on a struggling farm for money."
"I am sure they are not asking for money, I settled plenty upon my mother and she knows she has my blessing to support those that supported her."
"Your mother has been giving my aunts money?" Scarlett looked slightly put out for that.
"She may or she may not."
"My aunts know you're rich and that I don't currently have the money to support them…" Scarlett shook her head, amazed she'd been oblivious to such an obvious answer, "my aunts obviously want me to go to Charleston to arrange a marriage between us. You're rich and forgiven by your mother."
"Then might I suggest a visit to Charleston, so that in moments like this in the future I could just throw you over my shoulder and carry you upstairs to bed."
She gave him another annoyed look.
He pulled her down onto his lap regardless. "A visit to Charleston sounds nice. I didn't spend nearly enough time with my mother and sister after my return."
"So you could go to Charleston." She held her back stiff, despite remaining on his lap.
"If I go to Charleston, I'll be gone weeks. You were put out by the week I was to spend returning Lawrence and going to Montgomery."
"No I wasn't," she refuted.
"You need to get out of this county. I agree Atlanta's wounds are still too fresh for you. Are there any ghosts that haunt you in Charleston?"
"You mean aside from my aunts?"
"You live with Suellen, I'm fairly certain anything that happened with your aunts was far less. What of your other sister, when was the last time you saw her?"
"Two years ago."
"Two years is a long time for someone your age. Two years is a tenth of your sister's life, why she hasn't even met Ella."
"She's the one who left."
"Yes, but you're the one who's trying to establish herself as a great woman and live up to your mother's expectations. I am sure she'd want you to visit your sister."
"Mother never saw her sisters after she left home."
"Never?" Rhett looked stunned by that fact.
"Pa took us to visit. My Aunt Pauline's children came to Tara once."
"Even more reason for you to go to Charleston. I'll certainly not abide by you following your mother and never leaving the county. I can admit there are charms to living here, but the railroads have all been repaired, there is no excuse not to travel."
It was a reassuring thought that Rhett had followed her out into the country, she did still enjoy the thought of Rhett being forced to do something he abhorred because of her. "Charms?" Scarlett questioned, enjoying her momentary power.
He quickly sensed the change in the mood, more importantly, her mood which was suddenly far more suited to why he had come into the office. His hand went up to her jaw and he looked into her eyes, "Yes, the country certainly has its charms."
Thanks for reading!