My family came from across the ocean for the holidays and I've been caught up in reading some wonderful FF…

****Milady****

She let Robert enfold the tale. For all the boy knew, Scarlett never knew his mother, and he neglected to share the part of him saying her name. Throughout dinner, Rhett's expression kept all feelings well underneath the surface. He kept his eyes on her. His brows almost jumped off his forehead when he realized their back yard had become the feeding post for veterans and widows, as Robert and Wade proudly explained.

She was silent, the fatigue that she felt seconds before he entered the house gave her a detached look. She allowed both Wade and Robert take possession over Rhett's attention, though she never left their side. A while later she remembered there was no Prissy to tuck the boys in, and she started the ritual. For all her annoyance both Wade and Robert pulled a shared resistance, which turned to a sniff from Wade and a pleading look from Robert as Scarlett's patience grew thin.

"Stop fussing the two of you and go to bed. Father will still be here in the morning!" she snapped as the three of them stared at her slip of tongue,

"Well, Wade, he is your father being my husband, and since Robert is a second cousin of mine, it's Uncle for you."

"Say what?!" The utter awe was evident in Rhett's voice.

Scarlett threw a warning look signaling toward Wade's squirming body.

"Darling, you have just gained the grand honor of telling Wade a bed-time story and relieving me to fix us the tea pot."

"Hurray! Uncle Rh… Father is the best story teller in the whole South." Peeped Wade, dragging Robert toward the nursery they had shared the past few nights.

****Milady****

As the doors were closed behind them he looked down at her eyes – "You gave him your name."

"Walter is a bit problematic of a name given your known association with a certain red-headed lady, don't you think? He said she is in San Francisco. He knows he doesn't have a father, he doesn't know of his mother's, well, of her."

He did not seem embarrassed, and merely asked with inquisitive eyes-

"How long have you known?"

For some reason she felt embarrassed – "Remember a time that Aunt Pitty said I had a headache, we made a huge turkey?" He nodded.

"I never have headaches. At least if I'm not starved or pregnant, I don't. She gave Melly money for the hospital in your handkerchief."

"Are you angry with me?"

"For giving a child some protection? No. If anything, I love you more, if that is possible. He was about to go marching back to the rain when I told him you weren't here, after two weeks of journey. At the time I cried half the afternoon. To be frank, I found it difficult to explain to myself why I cared so much at the time."

"You wouldn't come down, and then for a while you wouldn't look me in the eyes."

"I was embarrassed"

He sighed. After a while she added with a wandering gaze "Garie has a nice French sound – don't you think? Yesterday we went calling for the first time on Aunt Pitty and I embarrassed Ashley enough to concur that he remembered both him and his deceased parents from when he met my Savanah relatives."

It did not escape Rhett that she did not refer to Belle as "a creature". Nor did the smug look on her face as she described how she used Ashley's gentlemanly upbringing to her aid in the matter. He eased on the settee taking her in his arms chuckling softly.

"I really don't see anything funny about it."

"Don't you? Well, I differ, especially given our first encounter." His composure became serious – "Are you sure, though?"

"Sure I'm sure. Why must you talk in riddles? Besides, why do you keep bringing that day at Twelve Oaks? It was five years ago. Aren't we passed that?" She sounded annoyed.

"Belle once told me that you crossed a muddy road just as to not be on the same side of the street with her. She claimed you were just like everyone else. And here you are. Hosting her son, giving him your name, and not from the Irish side but from your aristocratic side. I wonder how your aunt Pauline would take it. Are you sure you are up to this?"

Scarlett blanched – "I haven't thought of that. Dear Lord. If anyone finds out, Robert will be ruined. I should write her something just in case."

He laughed and drew her closer to him.

"Robert? Not you?"

"Oh. I don't care. The only 'decent folks' visiting me these days are Uncle Henry, Aunt Pitty and Melly. How worse could they get? I chose my side and I wish to God that all those self-righteous 'ladies' drown in mud while they cross the road so as not to greet me."

She felt him stiffen –

"Who crossed the road?"

"Mrs. Elsing, as far as I noticed. I was with Wade."

As the silence grew, she turned to caress his weary face -

"I'm fine. The only thing not fine is you being away for so long." She turned to face him and pushed herself closer to him and yawned "I'm so tired. It seems I haven't had a decent night sleep since you left." She took his hand.

"As much as I hate it I will have to leave you for a short while."

She knew he would. She kept her visit to Belle to herself not knowing how he'd take it.

"Scarlett, we've been friends over thirteen years, Belle and I. She knew me when I had little more than the shirt on my back." He saw no reaction from her. She knew he was going to go there, and yet the thought of her husband going there was appalling.

"Can't you send her a note with someone else? Or wait for tomorrow?"

"I can't. She should lay low for a while, perhaps leave town at least until we find Robert a new school. The sooner I get to it the better. She will have to leave instructions and manage the…" She interrupted him -

"You talk as if you are involved in her business" she remarked looking at him suspiciously.

He seemed detached when nonchalantly he grazed her cheek with his thumb and said "Not really, though I own the building."

She became quiet as she calculated the meaning of his words.

"You, no, let me rephrase – we own an institution of ill-repute?! Dear Lord, poor Ma rolls in her grave." Her eyes were wide with horror and she moved away from him.

"I do not own the institution. I own the building, as I own this house and a few more in this city, in New-Orleans, Richmond, New-York and Liverpool. Belle runs a decent place for her girls."

"It's one thing to help her with her child, but with the place? How can you? Some of those girls are barely women!" the look of disgust was evident in her features.

"Prostitution existed in the time of the Bible and before, but her house is at least a place where they don't get bitten or worse."

"Oh, Don't you go and make it sound like charity! It's vile. When you offered me to be your mistress on Aunt Pitty's porch were you planning to pay me for my services? I never stopped to think, …"

"Stop it." He shook her "You know that if you took me on that offer I would have been your lover as much as you were mine. Besides, I was toying with you. You were planning on extracting a declaration of love from me while you were still infatuated with another man. I am a silent partner, have been for years. Belle is discreet, and… "

"Rhett, she gave Melly your hanky!"

He shrugged, "I suppose she did it on purpose to annoy you. She was well aware that I was in love with you and that you were not returning my affections in the same way, or in the way I wanted you to, at the time. She was just my friend."

She did not turn to him for a while when she realized he was no longer next to her. She looked hesitant and saw him by the door wrapping himself with the same coat she took the night before.

"It has you fragrance" he commented.

She did not bother reacting knowing it was true. If she hadn't been so infuriated at the moment she would have told him some sweet lie of her missing him so much that she slept with it, or something of the sort.

When he was by the door, pulling some long hairs from the hat he was wearing and giving her a puzzled look she turned to him and said quietly -"Give it to her."

"What?"

"Let her buy it, or just give it to her."

"I will not let my wife dictate my businesses, you are overstepping my dear. I won't be long." And with no other words he left.

She was staring at the door feeling as if someone had struck her. She knew that Rhett would not be dictated, but her mind was exploding with fury. Without much thought her hand went towards the crystal ashtray and she threw it with all her might to the door.

*****Milady*****

If my husband had come after two months of absence and gone to his whore friend I wouldn't have been on the understanding side