Scarlett found the plantation in much a better form then she had expected. Suellen, however, shed tears when she realized that Careen had gone and married. Scarlett wondered whether it had to do more with the fact that Careen married before she did, then with her loss. Yet she could not ignore the difference in the family meals each evening now that Melanie was in town with little Beau, and Careen gone. They had been a team. Like it or not, want it or not, they were. The team had shrunk by half in a week, Scarlett was married and Suellen seemed miserable.

They were having an afternoon tea on the porch, while Rhett went to check on the work done in their absence.

"How was Alex, Sue?"

"Oh, he was fine. He came every day twice, but Mr. Benteen did most of the work. Will knows how to run a farm. He's been teaching the new workers how to do their job, and instead of Alex supervising the work here, Alex came to take lessons from Will."

"Will?"

"Well, he asked me to call him that. He is nicer than Alex. Alex is bitter all the time"

Scarlet raised her brows.

"Did you put a flower in your hair?" She smiled

"Well, not for Alex, but it was a fine idea. You should do something about Prissy, though."

"What's wrong with Prissy?"

"Nothing is wrong with her. But she's been seeing a young man, one of the new workers your husband hired."

"Well, that is only natural, she is nearly eighteen."

"Do you really want her marrying? Where will you find another maid?"

"Sue, if Prissy marries I'll be happy for her. She had gone through hell with us, and never left. None of our neighbors were as lucky. Her life has been so hard till she came to Tara!"

"What's it to you? Darkies always have hard lives."

Scarlett pondered for a second, and then she spoke as quietly as a whisper "I don't ever want you to talk that way about Prissy or any of our servants. Pork risked his neck for us. He nearly got himself shot trying to find us food when you were too weak and ill to do anything useful. Dilcey slaved like me in every horrid work we had to do, and she nursed Beau; she could have refused to, leaving the job to me, since Melly had no milk, and I had stopped nursing only a few months back." Scarlett never shared the fact that she nursed a child who wasn't hers. In fact, her decision to nurse Wade was not accepted with ease at the time, let along continuing to do so more than two years.

After a short pause, she gave a piercing look at her sister and concluded -

"Prissy came with me on the wagon back from Atlanta when she could have fled with a load of darkies who did exactly that. And when you and I were splashing water in the pond or fighting over God knows what, she was being beaten by India Wilkes for daring to look at the horses in the stables."

Suellen lowered her gaze and murmured "You know I love Mammy and Pork. Pa's slaves were never beaten."

There was a long pause, then Suellen took some courage and spoke "That's one of the things I disliked about Alex, he keeps saying how the work will never be good if one can't beat them. How can he even dwell on the possibility of hitting a person?"

Scarlett took her sister's hand and squeezed it.

"Will says that hitting your worker is the best way to get your machinery broken."

"Well, now you know why Tara's cotton picking was never delayed as our neighbor's. Besides, I always hated India. I'm glad I stole her beau!"

"You stole, everybody's beaus, Scarlett. I say! You are more considerate to Prissy then you'd be to India or any other girl in the county. I know you convinced Pa to buy her along with Dilcey, though she's been rather useless most of the time. But I must agree that the thought of hitting Prissy! She was barely a child when Pa bought her, how could she?!"

"People are hateful. As for me being more considerate with our servants, I suppose it is only fitting, since they are kinder then any of those girls. Only Cathleen had the gut to help us when the Yankees came the second time. Anyway, forget Alex. Have you heard from good old Frank?"

Suellen smiled and blushed a bit "He came the other day just to bring me an engagement ring."

"Well, where is it?" Asked Scarlett, keen and a bit jealous that her sister would have an engagement ring, as she hadn't had one.

"I didn't take it."

"Oh?"

"I decided to risk my chances. I asked for more time. He is nice and kind, but, what you said…"

She stopped, but Scarlett understood.

"Rhett wants us to move to Atlanta." Scarlett finally spoke of what was bothering her.

"If you go to Atlanta, take me with you! I don't want to be left behind in some old farm!"

"Don't you love Tara? I don't want to go to Atlanta. Besides, what will happen with Pa?"

"Pa will be fine as long as he's with Pork and has his day schedule. Why don't you want to go to Atlanta? You loved it during the war."

"Well, at first it was fun. But after that I think I stayed because I loved Rhett; I hated the hospital though. You should thank the stars for not having to endure the misery I had to witness."

"Don't forget the dances, Scarlett, even if my vanity is incredibly flattered" – Rhett's voice came from behind.

"You shouldn't eavesdrop, Honey" smiled Scarlett at her husband "Besides, I simply said it because I felt your presence"

"You wound me, my dear" despite the tease in his voice he was tender.

Scarlett ignored him and asked "Would you like to go visit Melanie? I can spare you for a week or so, Atlanta may be vibrant and exciting for you."

"Well, no, not yet. Besides, I could die of boredom with Ashley. I never did understand what you saw…" She bit her tongue remembering the presence of her brother-in-law.

Rhett laughed, and Scarlett, rather irritated hit his arm as she gathered herself to leave the porch "Well, it is a miracle I did not die of boredom with all his poems and masses. I think I just had a good capacity of ignoring boring stuff, something I acquired back in Fayetteville. Thank Heavens you, Rhett, don't feel the urge to talk of ancient poems, even if you do know them and I don't."

She left the porch, and passed by the servant's quarters. She knocked on Pork and Dilcey's door. She had brought fabric from Atlanta on the way back for the coming winter. Last year they hardly had cloths to keep them warm. As Prissy answered the door, Scarlett remembered that Dilcey was her mother and smiled at her –

"I brought some fabric for winter clothes for all of us. I have some white linen as well. Perhaps you can make a petticoat?"

"Sure Ms. Scarlett, I can measure you tomorrow morning with proper light if you'd like."

"Not for me, for you. If I recall, you haven't had one, yet, and you are of age for a time now, and, well, we have the cloth…" she stuttered a bit.

The two looked one in each other's eye, the memory of the cow and Prissy's reaction to Scarlett suggesting she gave her the petticoat she never had, came to both. Prissy blinked away unexpected tears, then a wide grin overtook her face.

***Milady***

One of the amazing things I learned a few years ago is that even slaves had strikes! As Lord Denning put it in his words, which I don't quite recall "even a dog knows when he is intentionally stepped upon". So this chapter is a bit regarding the African-American, former slaves and their role in the plot. By the way, I rather loved Prissy in the movie, she is such a child …