For a few days, I was lost. But here's a new chapter.
They had been living in Atlanta for three weeks. After a month in Tara, upon his second return, Rhett insisted that they should move before his journey to the North, for reasons he did not care to share. He had bought a small yet comfortable house with a small stable and a large veranda near the outskirts of town. The house was freshly painted with cream a mint colored walls, had little furniture. Rhett made her goose-bumps when he whispered wickedly that the only important piece of furniture was there and was waiting for them upstairs. Indeed it was. It was the first time that she had a house of her own, and she was thrilled.
However, it didn't take long before she realized of the word that went around, that the Butler residence had been bought with Confederate money due to failure of taxes on behalf of its former owner. Scarlett was appalled at the accusations. Rhett instructed her to avoid any comment in the matter when she came one afternoon with cheeks flushed and a disturbed look on her face.
"Why do people have to be so hateful? We didn't kick anyone out of here, did we?"
"No, my dear. I am wounded you should think otherwise."
"Do stop laughing at me. You don't know how it's like for me"
His brow went up sarcastically.
"Well, maybe you do."
"The former resident was in lease. I've owned this place since early 1864. Scarlett, I told you there would be a toll to pay for marrying me, let alone wave it in the matron's faces as you have."
"I did not! And that is a fine 'thank you my wife for protecting me'"
"I don't need protection, my love, and neither do you. Though I have to say I was touched at the demonstration of loyalty your words displayed. Let them talk, it would enhance the credit I get in the bank until we travel to Liverpool"
"Will it really?" Her eyes were lit at the prospects of credit and cash flow.
"You do like money, don't you? Well, I forbid you to contradict any rumor regarding our fortune and our belongings. Never dispute on facts that you know are wrong, especially if it assists in glorifying the mystery surrounding you. Businesses, in fact economies, thrive on rumors."
However, with Rhett gone, she began to feel the loneliness of her social isolation. Only Miss Pitty and Melanie came to visit the house. None of the Old-Guard or the social circles she was part of before Atlanta's fall bothered to make the customary call on an acquaintance who had returned. For the time being Suellen was still in Tara and Scarlett found herself missing even her red-headed sister. She wouldn't visit Melanie's house in the afternoon, avoiding the presence of Ashley.
One especially cold day, at the market, she noticed that Mrs. Elsing crossed the road to the other side avoiding looking in her direction.
Scarlett found herself blinking away tears, strengthening her grip in Wade's hand, and lifting her chin up. A few steps ahead a man waved enthusiastically at her "Mrs. Butler, Ma'am, I sure am glad to see you here!"
"Sir, I do not recall we have met".
"I'm Samuel Springer, I was in your plantation a month ago, among other veterans. You cared for me for two weeks while I was down with a fever."
"Oh." Scarlett could not remember all the hundreds of veterans she had fed or nursed in the past year but she began remembering him. He had fallen on her porch one afternoon with terrible fever a few days after their return from Charleston. Mammy was sure he would not live the night, but after two weeks of bed and care he came out of it and left for Atlanta.
"I would like to call on you and your husband with my wife and express our eternal gratefulness. Would that be all right?"
"My husband is away, sir, on business. I expect him back in a fortnight or so. But there is no need for gratitude, we did what any Southern would do"
"Well, Ma'am, few did."
"I won't believe it, sir. You must have been misfortunate, for if that is true, then the Yankees had truly won the war." She answered with a rush of patriotism she could not explain to herself.
"Spoken like a true niece of mine!" Henry Hamilton was coming along the road with a wide smile on his face
"Uncle Henry!" Scarlett was truly happy to see her uncle by marriage "What excuse have you got for not calling on me and Wade yet?!"
The elder man moved a bit uneased and in a lower tone "I expect my sister is in your house each afternoon, isn't she?"
With a long laughter she promised him that she'd protect him if that would be the case.
The following day a young Mrs. Springler stood at her door with a chocolate cake. Touched Scarlett let her in and found her a pleasant amiable woman.
"Since my husband's return, I try to give at least one soldier a portion of our food. There are so many hungry folks out there. I never thought we'd be in need for others to care for Samuel, but as it was…"
"You needn't worry yourself about it. My husband came from the war and I know he was hosted by people like us. Your husband was misfortunate, apparently in his travel home."
Unintentionally and without much thought Scarlett offered to help with the food distribution. It wasn't long before Scarlett, with clenched teeth, found herself once again serving a long line of half-starved soldiers and widows each afternoon, sometimes wishing they would knock on some-one else's door.
One would think that this would make her position or reputation in a better place. Nonetheless, as far as rumors went, it was said that she was giving only crumbs from the Confederate money her husband had stolen.
Having promised Rhett as she had, and with her Irish pride, she decided to indeed not defy the rumors, quite the contrary.
***Milady***
"I would like three dresses from this cloth." Scarlett pointed at three roles of fine silk and taffeta in different shades of green.
Elisabeth Brown had been the seamstress of the entire Old-Guard for ages. She couldn't help but send her craved fingers to feel the cloth in front of her.
"I would like them ready as soon as possible. Please make them with extra care, with gloves to match and a bonnet as well for the light green one. We shall start fitting early next week, shall we not?"
Mrs. Brown shook her head enthusiastically thinking of the food this job would put on her starved table.
"Very well, I shall leave this for advance payment" She left some golden coins at the desk, causing the old lady to gasp and blink some tears away.
"And Mrs. Brown, if anyone asks you why you cannot make their orders, let them know it was on my account." She smiled at her sweetly, leaving no room for misunderstandings regarding the encouragement to create gossip.
Getting the hint, fully aware of the ban Scarlett was enduring, Mrs. Brown made sure that by the end of the day it was common knowledge that Scarlett had a whole new wardrobe in order. The rumors grew and by the end of the week, Prissy was happy to tell her mistress that according to Mrs. Bonnel's cook, she had ordered twenty dresses from several seamstresses.
"Twenty?!"
"Yes, Ms. Scarlett, she sure has told me twenty."
Scarlett laughed, "And what did you say?"
"Well, that you ordered jewelry from Paris France Ma'am!"
"Well done! They must be pea green with envy."
Truth be told, Scarlett had little time to be upset about her isolation. Mrs. Springer and a few friends of hers began calling on Scarlett, at first to help her with the daily feeding and then to introduce their children to Wade. They were not quite of the same circle Scarlett belonged to before the war, but they were educated and well-bread Southerners, and she found them pleasant. That with the fact that she never really enjoyed female company, Melany's excluded, left her quite content to a point that in her daily visits to the market she would raise her chin defiantly at the sight of any matron.
****Milady****
It was late in the evening. Rain was pouring outside when Scarlett heard a loud knock on the front door. She was startled to see a young wet boy at the front of the house.
"Are you lost?"
"Is this the Butler residence?"
"Yes. Have you a message for me? I am Mrs. Butler."
"Is Mr. Rhett Butler home?"
Annoyed at the young boy's insistence and lack of respect she snapped irritably "No, and would you introduce yourself, young man?"
The boy had a lost look in his face and his shoulders, that were struggling to stay up, fell down. Scarlett realized that he was heading to the stairs, and she left the thresh-hold seizing his arm "Come inside, young boy, if you are looking for my husband you can surely tell me who you are."
The boy raised his striking green eyes at her, not moving "I'm Robert Walter, your husband is my ward. I got a letter from my mother telling me that he survived the war and was living in Atlanta now. I just wanted to see him."
"And your mother, is…?"
"Anabelle Ruth Walter. She lives in San-Francisco."
Scarlett paled.
Realization hit her. Was there no end to the mysteries entailed with her husband? Rhett's napkin that Melanie had brought with Belle Watling's money flashed to her mind. A picture of Rhett with Wade as a baby followed. She gratefully concluded that with the boy's light hair and green eyes, her husband's dark eyes and hair and Belle's brown eyes; he couldn't possibly be Rhett's child. How she missed him at that moment. A far-away thunder woke her from her thoughts. The boy was dripping in front of her. Surprising herself she smiled -
"What are we doing here, Robert? We shall catch our death of cold here. Come inside. Rhett would be mad at me if I did not host you properly. Come."
Prissy found the boy some old garments of Rhett to wear till she washed and dried his only suit. He was 14 years old and had run from his boarding school outside of New-Orleans to come and visit Rhett when he realized that he had survived the war. The travel took him two weeks. Rhett has been his ward ever since he was a toddler. Half defiantly he stated that he would leave in the morning so as not to burden the house-hold with rumors, being a bastard.
Scarlett was stunned at the sound of the word. She watched him for a short moment, then took his small hand in hers-
"I'll tell you what we'll do. While you're here, you shall answer to the name Robert Gari, and you are half a cousin of mine from Savanah, on my French side. No one will ask questions. With the war and so many orphans, we can easily establish an imaginary relative for me. You came here to help with my son."
"I should leave, Mrs. Butler. You owe me nothing. All my life I've known that Rhett had been kind to my mother and me, but this would endanger his wife's reputation or his son's."
"Wade Hamilton is my late husband's child. As you see, you are not the only child Rhett is caring for, and as for your plan to leave - you will do no such thing. My reputation is for me to handle. I assure you that I am doing nothing my husband would disapprove of."
The boy bit his tongue, Scarlett softened at him "You must be starved, Prissy shall tend to you, and if you are pleasant enough with her, she would probably offer you some chocolate cake we have left and a glass of milk."
She stood to leave, but then turned back
"One more thing, Robert – Never refer to your-self as a bastard. You are a young gentleman, and my half cousin, as far as the world will be concerned from now on."
At her bed she kept thinking of the misfortune of the boy she found at her thresh-hold. What would she do about the child's mother was beyond her, for the time being.