Disclaimer: I own nothing in regard to GWTW
Author's Notes: At two a child loves both of their parents. Bonnie is going to be OOC.
It was the first of July and Scarlett was wondering when her husband was going to return to Atlanta. She knew she was pregnant. She would start showing soon and the gossips would go wild but if Rhett claimed the baby as his everything would be alright.
Scarlett heard Prissy's voice. They must be back. She walked rapidly to the top of the stairs. She would just stand here and look regal. She saw Prissy and her trunk but there wasn't anyone else. Where were they? Where was her Bonnie? Where was her husband? He arrived back just in time.
Scarlett saw Prissy's face and knew that rat-bastard had let her down again. She felt the tears sting her eyes. No! No! No! She walked down the stairs. She would not cry. She just wouldn't. Unfortunately for Scarlett it was already too late. The tears unnoticed where coursing down her cheeks.
Prissy said, "I'm sorry Miss Scarlett. They aren't with me. They are on their way to New Orleans."
With the confirmation of the bad news, she sat down on the stairs. Her life was over. Her reputation ruined. Even if this baby looked just like Rhett, everyone would call it a bastard. For a moment she considered going to see Mamie and getting rid of this child. No, she wouldn't kill her baby and herself. She didn't know why but she wanted this baby.
Prissy sat down next to Scarlett. Miss Scarlett looked like a lost child. Prissy took a chance and put an arm around her shoulders. Scarlett leaned into her. Scarlett said in a whisper, "Tell me about Bonnie. What has she been doing these last three months? Tell me everything."
Prissy talked for about thirty minutes. The two women continued to sit on the stairs the entire time with Prissy's arm around Scarlett. At the end Prissy told Scarlett, "She ask for you every day."
Scarlett brightened up then got sad and said, "If he ever brings her back, she won't remember me."
"No, Miss Scarlett, remember you put that family picture in her toy bag. She looks at it every day. I hid it from Mr. Rhett. Mr. Rhett got mad every time she asked for you. Nonetheless she kept asking for you. At first it was once a day but then it got to be two to three times a day."
Scarlett gave a sad smile.
Prissy said, "I didn't know what he was going to do. I thought we were returning to Atlanta. We had all gotten off the train and suddenly Mr. Rhett tells the porter to put his trunks back on the train. Almost like he was talking to himself he said, 'I will not be the cuckold husband anymore.' Then he and Miss Bonnie got back on the train. Miss Bonnie was crying but Mr. Rhett didn't seem to care for once. After they were on the train, he turned to me and handed me five dollars coin. He said, "Take a cab to the mansion and tell Mrs. Butler I will be back in a year or so."
"A year?!"
"That is what he said."
"Thank you Prissy."
Scarlett walked up the staircase. What was she going to do? She would have to go to Tara until the baby was born. She wouldn't be able to stand all the speculation about who was this baby's father for the next six months. She could already hear it, 'I wonder who the baby is going to look like. Don't the Butlers have separate bedrooms.'
She told Pansy to tell Mammy she would not be down for dinner. She wasn't feeling well. Mammy would have to deal with the children.
She sat there in her bedroom and drank glass after glass of brandy. She fleetingly wondered what all this brandy was doing to her baby. She looked into the glass of brandy and pondered her life. Later she would know it had been the brandy talking but at that point in time the brandy had been her best friend.
Several things she and her friend brandy had figured out was that she should never have married Rhett, her daughter, Bonnie, was lost to her, she would need to be gone at least until the baby was born, she had no friends in the entire world but Melanie Wilkes, Rhett had once been her friend but he wasn't any longer, the Scallawag wives had never been her friends, Ashley would run her mills into the ground in a year, and Hugh would ruin the store in a year, she would have to sell her mills and her store, Ashley had been no help to her in this crisis in fact he had made things worse by his guilty behavior at the party, and the last thing brandy had helped her see was that if Rhett offered her a divorce she had nothing to lose by accepting it.
Scarlett didn't comprehend it, but she had finally begun to realize that Ashley wasn't the man she thought he was. It was a very tiny crack in her perfect image of Ashley, but that crack would soon grow and grow until she finally saw the truth about Ashley Wilkes.
No! She would not live through everyone speculating on who was the father of her baby. She would go to Tara. What was there here for her in Atlanta? She would move to Tara. She would sell the mansion also. What was the point of having a house this big when no one but white trash would attend her events? No point at all. The peahens had not been jealous they had looked down their noses at her. They had always looked down their noses at her. Every matron had looked down her nose at her. Even the older women in the county had looked down their noses at her. She wished her mother had lived. Her mother would have told her what to do. In her booze addled brain, she remembered it was Ashley's fault she hadn't been with her mother when she died. If she hadn't promise Ashley to stay with Melanie, then she would have been at Tara with her mother in her last moments. Another cracked formed in her perfect image of Ashley. What had her mother's last words been. She had been calling for someone named Phillipe. She would ask Mammy.
She went to see Uncle Henry the next day after her head stopped hurting. She contacted that Yankee, Tom Motts, who wanted to buy her mills. She no longer needed the mills. Rhett was willing to support her aunts. He was good friends with them after all. That almost made her cry when she thought about her aunts being more loyal to Rhett even after everything, she had done for them. She would continue sending them a check from Rhett's account. If Rhett cut her off, then she would cut her ungrateful aunts off also. That made her giggle. They would find out what a bastard her husband could be. Rhett had said she could use his money for anything but supporting Ashley Wilkes which was fine with her. It was Ashley Wilkes' fault she was in this mess. Ashley Wilkes and Rhett Butler, may they both burn in hell.
By August, the first Scarlett had sold her mills and her store. Rhett had signed a piece of paper that said he had no legal claim on the mills, the store or the house. She sold them all and the huge diamond engagement ring. The ring had been a cruel joke by Rhett. He had known it was too big, but he had bought it to mock her greedy nature as if he wasn't equally greedy.
She sold the store to Hugh Elsing. He had wanted to make payments. She hadn't wanted to do that, but Uncle Henry had explained that if Mr. Elsing failed to make the payments, she could take the store back.
It made her giggle when she thought about Rhett finally coming home to the mansion being sold out from under him. She wondered for a moment if he would be mad. She didn't care she would be at Tara.
Ashley decided to sell his part of the mills also. One afternoon Scarlett and Ashley met Tom Motts at Henry Hamilton's office. After signing the papers, they handed over their keys. Mr. Motts was taking over right away. Ashley had agreed to stay on for another week to help with the transition.
After they left Uncle Henry's office, she asked him, "What are you going to do for a job?"
He had looked over her shoulder and said, "I don't know."
Something about Ashley's statement and his far away stare made her think of a foolish dreamer and another crack appeared in her image of him. At that point she didn't care about anyone but herself and her baby. She said, "Good Luck." She walked to her buggy and didn't look back. Ashley was surprised he would have thought she would have wanted to help him find a job. He didn't want her help, but he was a little bit disappointed that she hadn't even offered.
As she was driving away in her buggy Scarlett thought about the fact that Ashley had been more concerned about the fact, they were selling the mills to a Yankee than the fact that they were selling the mills at all. The man had no common sense. She knew his sense of honor had hurt their business. He wouldn't lie to or cheat anyone. He had cost her so much money. Another crack appeared in her image of Ashley.
At that moment she was more concerned that people wouldn't find out about her baby than she was anything else. Scarlett didn't want Rhett to know about her baby so nobody else could know either. If they didn't know they couldn't tell Rhett. She would not give him another child to steal away from her.
She had taken all the money she had received from the sale of her businesses and had bought gold with it. She felt good about ensuring her future. She took the money from the sale of her diamond and bought US bonds with it. She bought a strong box and put the gold and the bonds in it. She wanted some money that nobody knew about. It made her think about the argument she and Rhett had in New Orleans over him having a lot of his money in US bonds. She had been so offended that he had bought Yankee bonds. Now she was buying them. She guessed it wasn't as bad as welcoming Yankees into her home. She smiled a sad smile. She had to admit it. She had behaved no better than white trash. When she got to Tara she would start behaving as a lady once again.
Scarlett had gone to see Melanie when she knew Ashley wasn't home. She had been avoiding Ashley. At the time she had told herself that it was because of the scandal. Later she would come to know it was because she absolutely despised Ashley Wilkes. They had talked for a long time. She had smiled at her friend. The one person doing anything to help her during this crisis. She told Melanie that she was going to Tara for the summer. She would write her. She had hugged her and left the little house on Ivy Street. She had wondered if she would ever see Melanie alive again. She had known that Melanie in all her stubborn determination was going to do something stupid.
During the month of July, Scarlett and her staff had packed up the house. She had even hired a couple of extra women. She had to be out of Atlanta before she started to show. She took most of the items and put them in storage including Rhett and Bonnie's belongings. When she had walked away from the storage unit, she had felt like she was abandoning her daughter. She consoled herself by telling herself, 'I have already lost Bonnie. I will not lose this child also.' It didn't make her feel better, but it helped her managed to put one foot in front of the other.
All hers, Wade's and Ella's belongings were going to Tara with her. She had telegraphed Will and told him to get some men to build a shed for their belongings. She may never return to Atlanta. She asked herself, 'What is there for me in Atlanta?' When she answered herself there was another crack in her image of Ashley. She had replied, 'Nothing. Ashley will never be mine. He will never leave Melanie. I no longer want Melanie to die.'
She managed to sign the papers to sell the mansion. She managed to deposit the money in Wade and Ella's trust fund. She had to ensure her older children's future in case she died while giving birth to this baby. She managed to sign the papers to turn Wade and Ella's trust fund over to Uncle Henry to administer so Rhett couldn't get his hands on their money. She managed to get on the train to Jonesboro with her children and her loyal staff, Mammy, Pork, Dilcey, Prissy and Dwight. Dwight had requested to go with them to Tara. Scarlett could see that he was sweet on Prissy and had said yes. At least someone should have romance in their life.
