Chapter 16

Rhett had dressed quickly and headed out to issue a few orders regarding his departure to the servants. Scarlett gazed after him, a look of pride and possession creeping into her eyes. She wanted to think of how kind and loving Rhett had been just then. This was their second, genuine conversation together. They had spoken and acted like normal human beings. She felt relieved. She looked forward to more such moments. But there were a few words spoken by Rhett which made her faintly uneasy. She didn't want to think of them but her mind kept floating back, like a moth to a flame.

All her life, she thought Rhett and Ashley were the two men she could never comprehend. She had always linked them together, pitted them against each other, compared them.. tried to conquer them and they always seemed above her reach.

But now her notion of the equality of Ashley and Rhett appeared vaguely challenged.

It was in the way Rhett spoke. When she advised him not to look back, he said he had been looking back for so long. Ashley wouldn't have said that. Ashley would have taken her in his arms and helped her look back too. Rhett spoke those words as if he had been foolish. It was so strange.

And when Ashley had spoken of memories of riding with her through the county hills and the picnics by the lake, he never spoke of comfort of the memories.

Rhett mentioned that word "comfort".

But until then she had thought she was extremely uncomfortable and unhappy with life. The memory of herself, sixteen years old, lying contentedly on the fresh grass of her beloved Tara was her only beloved memory, listening to the buzzing of the bees, the sweet smell of the white magnolias.. It was a comforting memory. It was strange that she hadn't been aware of this comfort for so long.

Scarlett never had the ability to think in abstract terms. But after spending moments of affection in both Ashley and Rhett's arms, holding similar conversation but subtly different, her mind could not help drawing comparisons and a vague, dark idea taking shape.

Suddenly a shiver ran down Scarlett's spine and before she could press the thoughts out of her mind, Rhett came barging through the door.