Disclaimer: I own nothing in regard to GWTW
Author's Notes: Thank you for all the reviews and feedback.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Rhett hadn't found Belle in San Francisco. He decided she hadn't gone west after all. He decided she had retired, and she was the widow down the street now. She left her past behind. It made him sad. He had always thought they were more than friends, but he guessed they weren't. Rhett never thought about the fact that the only time he had ever reached out to Belle was when he had needed her.
He did invest in some businesses. One of them being with two men who were named Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis. It seems Mr. Davis had invented a new type of material he had called denim. When the denim was made in to pants it made the pants strong and durable. Rhett had just happened to be in the store when he overheard the men talking about their new business that was making these pants that the men had called blue jeans. Mr. Davis had said, "We need to find someone to invest in our company. We need an infusion of cash."
Mr. Strauss had said, "Just a thousand dollars would be enough. The jeans are very popular with the miners. I know they will be a money maker."
Rhett didn't know what had possessed him to offer his money to the fledging company, but he had a hunch their company was going to be a great success. Besides nowadays a thousand dollars was not a lot of money to him.
Rhett signed the papers and gave them the money. He then took a ship west to Japan. He would go around the world again except this time in the opposite direction. Maybe he would just stay in Sydney this time. He refused to admit to himself that he was lonely. He refused to admit to himself that he missed Scarlett so very much. He refused to admit to himself he had nothing without her.
All fall Wade watched his mother get happier. She would talk with Ella and Vicky about the baby while she was brushing their hair every night. Brushing her daughters' hair every night was a ritual she was not ever going to pass up again.
One afternoon when Scarlett and her children were in their parlor Wade saw his mother put Ella's hand on her tummy. Ella started giggling. Vicky put her hand right next to Ella's hand and her eyes got big as saucers. Vicky said, "What's doing?"
His mother had said, "He is just moving around."
Vicky soon removed her hand, but Ella stood there the entire time she could feel the baby moving. Scarlett just let her. Scarlett smiled at her sweet, simple child. Scarlett thought, 'Yes, I saved Vicky, Gerry (for she had already named her son) and Melanie. She had saved Wade and Ella also. This was a better life.
When his mother had looked at him standing on the other side of the room, she had motioned Wade over. Wade had stuck his hands in his pockets. He didn't want to feel the baby. He would feel silly with his hand on his mother's tummy like Ella. He had walked over, and she said, "I just want a hug from my eldest child."
Wade had hugged her tightly. Scarlett had whispered, "Don't worry my little one. Everything is going to be fine."
"I hope so."
His mother had smiled at him and then asked, "Do you want a little brother?"
"Yes, I already have two annoying little sisters."
Which caused his sisters to squeal and wrestle him down to the floor where they proceeded to tickle him until he said, "It's not true. It's not true."
In December, Elizabeth Butler sent Suellen a telegram that her Aunt Eulalie had passed away. In the telegram Mrs. Butler had also informed her that her Aunt Pauline was no longer thinking clearly anymore. Someone would need to come to Charleston to make the arrangements. Suellen went to Charleston and made the arrangements for their aunt's funeral. When she got to Charleston Suellen did find that their Aunt Pauline was indeed senile. It was obvious that their Aunt Pauline could no longer live alone. With Mrs. Butler's help Suellen hired an attorney to dispose of their aunts' estates and pay off their debts. Suellen felt she had no other choice but to take their aunt back to Tara with her.
Mrs. Butler offered to let her friend live with her the rest of her life. Mrs. Butler said, "She and her sister stood by me during the scandal which help me retain a position in society. It is the least I can do for her now. She would not be happy living in the country."
"I can understand that. Living in the country would not be my first choice either."
Suellen returned to Tara and said to Scarlett, "Thank God Mrs. Butler was willing to take Aunt Pauline into her home."
Scarlett replied, "I met Mrs. Butler when I was in Charleston before I went to London. Yes, thank God for Mrs. Butler. Yes, she is a great lady like our mother."
Suellen had smiled and said, "That was who she reminded me of. Our mother."
On Christmas day, Ella had said, "Won't it be wonderful if the baby is born today?"
His mother had said, "Today is Baby Jesus's birthday. Maybe tomorrow."
Every day there after six year old Ella would ask, "Is today the day my baby brother will arrive?"
His mother would say, "Maybe. We don't know for sure what day he is going to arrive."
A few minutes later Vicky would ask if today was going to be the baby's birthday except all Vicky said, was, 'Baby born?"
His mother never got mad. She would smile and say, "I don't know."
The only thing Ella could talk about was their new baby.
It was enough to drive an older brother insane.
Scarlett's child was born on January 20th and he was named Gerald Kennesaw O'Hara. Mammy fell in love with Gerry upon first meeting him despite who his father was also. When Mammy put the baby in Scarlett's arms she said, "Welcome to the world, Gerry. I have waited so long to meet you." Mammy thought that was the strangest thing to say but Miss Scarlett did that sometimes. She said things that didn't make any sense. As soon as the room was cleaned up, Scarlett had her children brought into the room to meet their brother. All her children were excited. Wade was excited his mother was alive and well. Ella and Vicky were excited about the little doll they would soon get to play with. Their mother cautioned them that it would be several months before Gerry would be able to play with them.
Soon it was apparent that even the Benteen girls were excited about the new baby which Will was using to further his cause of him and Suellen having another child. Scarlett was happy that Gerry was going to be so dearly loved. Scarlett secretly thought it would be great to have a boy cousin his age to play with, but she stayed out of Will and Suellen's argument. She guessed Gerry could play with Prissy's children. Six months earlier, Prissy had another son. It was Prissy's third child. It seems Prissy was as fertile as the O'Hara sisters.
By March, Scarlett was back to her normal shape and she had her annual spring barbecue at the end of March. Melanie and Beau came down for the week. Everyone in the county came and judging by the sympathetic looks she was getting everyone believed she had been raped twice and had gotten with child both times. She really hoped so. Nobody asked her any questions not even Old Miss. It seems that now everyone was believing her stories.
Gerry looked just like his father except with green eyes and his mother's smile including the dimples. Gerry had a softness to him that Rhett never had even in sleep. Nobody in the county knew Rhett Butler. They had only met him that one time. He had made a lasting impression on the people at the party but not enough for them to remember what he looked like ten years later. It had been too long ago and too much had happened to the county folks for them to remember what some arrogant man, who had been spouting off about how the South was going to lose, at that last barbecue looked like.
When Vicky was scared of horses before Gerry was born, Scarlett hadn't thought anything about it for she had thought Vicky was following Ella's lead. When her daughter who was her fearless self in all other aspects was still afraid of horses at age four, Scarlett decided that somehow Vicky had a residual fear of horses and probably always would. That was probably why Melly didn't want to have another child. They both probably had residual fears from having died in the earlier timeline.
Scarlett never had taken any of her children into Atlanta even before Gerry was born. There was no reason to take them. Everything they needed was at Tara. The truth was she rarely went into Atlanta anymore. She went every quarter to talk with Uncle Henry about her investments and that was about it. She had branched out a little in the last year. She spent a lot of time reading about where she should invest her money. She hadn't invested in the railroads or the banks. She knew from the previous timeline those were bad investments.
When she was in Atlanta, she went to see Melanie, but she never went to see Ashley. Ashley had gotten his vigor and his happiness back, but she now found him to be a boring person. She knew she had always thought he was a bore. At the time she had thought she hadn't been smart enough to understand him which might be correct but the real reason she thought he was boring was he had always been talking about thing she hadn't cared about.
Melanie and Beau would come and spend a week or so with them in the country. Every now and then Ashley would come down, but it was too emotionally hard on him to see what he had lost because of the war.
Suellen had such a good time going every month to get the monthly supplies. For that day Suellen was the belle of before the war. After she had gone into Atlanta for the day, she would be happy for days afterwards. She would come home and share all the latest gossip about the people in Atlanta. Scarlett would listen to Suellen, but she really didn't care about anyone in Atlanta.
Mrs. Tarleton's horse farm had made a tiny profit, but it was enough. The ladies knew it was going to be a success. It seems that two of the Tarleton girls were involved in the business. 'Randa kept the books and Camilla had her mother's eye for horse flesh. Beatrice, as she had insisted that Scarlett call her, shared with Scarlett that she and Jim were less worried about their daughters' futures now. That made Scarlett very happy. The Tarleton sisters were talking nicely to her now.
Actually, all the women were talking nicely to her now. After four years of living a quiet life in the country the women were beginning to forget about her past. Everyone knew she was a devoted mother to her four children. She also never flirted with any of the men.
Scarlett knew she would always want to be the center of attention but now she was content with being the center of her children's attention. She still enjoyed talking to men more than women, but they were always conversations about the goings on in the county. Not about herself. She could recall that when she was sixteen any conversation that wasn't about her was a bore.
In August of seventy-two Mrs. Butler had written Suellen that her Aunt Pauline had passed away. She had made all the arrangements. Would Suellen inform Mr. Hamilton that her aunt no longer needed the monthly check.
Infrequently Rhett would send Scarlett a letter. He would tell her what he was up to and where he had been. There wasn't a return address really. All that was on the envelope was the city that Rhett had been in at the time he mailed the letter. San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Beijing, Agra, Cairo, Rome, Berlin, Paris, London, New York. He never asked her to meet him somewhere and he never asked if he could visit her. Scarlett could never understand why he would send her these letters. She saved them all, nonetheless.
Scarlett gave a birthday party to celebrate Gerry's first birthday. It had been well attended. Not as well as the barbecue in the spring or the picnic in the summer but it was a party for a one-year-old after all. She had also just had Wade's birthday party and would have Vicky's birthday party in a couple of weeks. Scarlett was pleased Gerry was accepted by the community. People may whisper about him and Vicky behind their backs but probably not as much as people would have if they had known their father was the infamous Rhett Butler. She was finally at peace with her life. She had her children, lots of money, and a wonderful year of memories. She still wanted Rhett, but she had accepted that it wasn't going to happen. He was never coming back to her. She guessed all she had ever been was a challenge.
In June of seventy-three Scarlett got a telegram from an attorney named Charles Mobbs. All it said was: Rhett Butler dying STOP Come quickly to Charleston. STOP