Chapter 6

Rhett looked startled but at the very next moment, when Scarlett was so sure that he would erupt into a passionate fit, his harsh features seemed to lose their intensity. His eyes grew frighteningly blank and his face looked smooth as if a mask had come upon it. Scarlett's eyes widened in anger and fear. Again it struck her how similar Rhett looked to Ashley on that wintry day at the orchard.

"I'm tired" said Rhett, in his impersonal drawling tone. "Are you planning on spending your night here in my room, Mrs. Butler or do I have to-"

Scarlett bit back angry tears. She trembled as she swallowed the bitter pill of disappointment. And yet she felt as if she were swallowing a knife. Her heart twisted within her.

"You are a coward!" she cried, in genuine puzzlement and despair. "Just like Ashley. .He was afraid to leave his world of Twelve Oaks and meet realities..to get out and meet people..even if things were different.. Both of you promised me safety and love but both of you are cowards. I loved Ashley for the gentleman he was, his elegant Twelve Oaks, his manners and refinement but as soon as I shared my feelings, he shut me out. Honor! Ha! He was a coward. And you.. I fell in love with you because I finally saw that we were both alike. Selfish, unscrupulous and I liked what I saw in you. But when I told you how much I loved you, you are also shutting me out-"

"I already gave you my reasons" replied Rhett, slouching in his armchair. He looked at her through disinterested eyes. "Its no use, Scarlett. What is broken is broken."

"Do you love me..even a little? Oh say you love me.. I can't live like this-"

Her voice rose to a mad crescendo. She stumbled to the bed, flung herself upon the pillows and began to sob bitterly. "There's nothing left for me!" she cried, her heart sick with sorrow. "Nothing to live for." Scarlett sobbed until she grew tired and her eyes felt heavy and drowsy. Yet in her delirium, something in her began to break. Like a small ray of light shining from within her. "She's just a child.. she's just a baby.."

"That's Melly" thought Scarlett, foggily. "Dear kind Melly.."

She felt Melanie soothing presence stoop down on her and gently run her fingers over her black hair.

"Melly, I tried.. I tried to be kind but Rhett doesn't want me.. doesn't love me-"

"Of course he does"

"No he..."

"Everything is all right. "

"No it isn't. I've ruined everything!"

"He has gone back just like Ashley-"

"I don't believe it. Not Rhett. I don't believe it."

Suddenly Scarlett sat up. She took one glance at Rhett and then quickly walked to his desk of drawers. She took a deep breath and opened one. It was full of papers. She wrenched open the other. It was full of papers too. She opened all of them in quick succession.

By now Rhett was looking at her curiously.

There was a small cabinet near the bed. It had one drawer. Scarlett walked over and pulled it out. Her breath caught in her chest when she saw Bonnie's velvet frock folded inside. Her hands began to shake. She took it out and stared at Rhett as her frightening suspicions began to come true. She looked again and there was Rhett's gold watch which was bashed on one side because Bonnie had thrown in while playing. Then there was a lock of her hair, her drawings, some riding gloves, her picture. And underneath everything, there was an envelope. Inside was old theatre tickets to the plays Rhett had taken her during their honeymoon, the bill of the National Hotel where they had stayed in Atlanta, and a locket with a picture of Scarlett just before he married her. He had jokingly asked for it and she, eager to please in hopes of matrimonial comfort, had eagerly provided him the picture. It showed Scarlett, her hair combed into a simple chignon and dressed in a rather ordinary print dress. The expression on her face was sweet..none of the hardness that the war had brought on. And on the other side was another picture of her, her fashionable self, wearing a lace collar pinned up with a diamond brooch. There was an impish grin on her face, the picture that Scarlett wasn't quite ready to pose for so it came out natural and rather pretty-"

Scarlett cupped her mouth when she saw this and stifled a sob. She ran to where Rhett was seated and fell at his knees. "Rhett, don't look back-" she cried. "Oh darling, there is so much more to our life. The happiness isn't confined in those old memories.. Don't look back!"

Rhett smiled faintly for he saw that she finally understood what he had been saying all along.

"Its all over,isn't it? You won't listen to me. You are going to retreat into memories"

Rhett quietly stood up and walked out if the room.