AN: Lol. I mean this is normal for the kids, this is actually likely nicer than normal. There is more interaction occurring within the house.
Thanks for all the fantastic reviews. I hope everyone celebrating Thanksgiving is having an okay day. It is 2020. I like to manage expectations.
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Part Six
September 1871
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Ella was thrilled with excitement over the movement in Scarlett's belly, she repeatedly let out high pitched squeals as she sat next to her mother on the settee in the family parlor.
It had been the squeals that had drawn Rhett towards the room after returning home in the evening hours. He had returned home briefly for his afternoon stroll with Bonnie, but had been quick to escape back into town, not taking dinner, tea or supper with his family, forcing himself to take meals and refreshments in town, instead of a steady stream of liquor. He followed the delighted noise of his stepdaughter, immediately upon his entrance to the foyer, it drew him in like a beacon.
He paused in the doorway, his wife was in a pale blue dress which disguised her growing stomach quite well while she was standing, but not seated. His stepdaughter's green dress was fluffed up around her as she was kneeling sideways on the couch. He wondered was had overtaken Scarlett that she was allowing Ella to behave in such a manner. His stepson was reading in a chair with his dog by his feet.
There were a few discarded dolls on the floor.
"How is everyone this evening?" He greeted the room.
Scarlett and Wade's greetings were overwhelmed by Ella's. "Uncle Rhett, I can feel the baby," Ella turned in excitement to him.
"Can you really?" He said walking into the room, being drawn in by her eager pale green eyes. He thanked god the only trace of Frank Kennedy in the child was her strawberry blonde hair, even that was nowhere near the flat gingery shade of the man who had stolen his right to father Scarlett's second child. Right now as her eyes sparkled so and the green of her dress, they seemed nearly the shade of Scarlett's.
Ella nodded enthusiastically.
"What does it feel like?" He questioned.
"It's like…Umm…it's, it's like this," she finally made a sea of movements with her hands.
Scarlett laughed.
Rhett did as well.
"You have to feel," she said tugging at his hand.
He smiled and caught the girl up in his arms so he took her seat on the couch and made her seat his lap.
"Now where is the baby?" he questioned.
"In Mother's belly!" Her eyes were wide.
"Now how did a baby get in your mother's belly?"
"Rhett," Scarlett quickly scolded her husband. She almost smiled as she saw his eyes twinkle.
"Did you eat a baby?" Ella suddenly questioned with a narrowing of her brow as she examined her mother.
Wade sighed from across the room as Scarlett and Rhett both laughed.
"I did not eat a baby Ella. The baby is growing in me just like a plant."
"So you ate a baby seed?" Ella tried to piece together what she had learned at Tara.
Scarlett paused, "More or less Ella."
"Regardless of how the baby got into your mother's stomach, I believe you were telling me that you could feel it," Rhett took pity on Scarlett and redirected Ella's thoughts.
Ella didn't hesitate to grab his hand. It was still so tiny in comparison to his own.
Scarlett's own hand joined them as she shifted their placement slightly.
His heart leapt up to his throat. He understood Ella's arm movements now; it wasn't quite a kick, but a ripple. Suddenly he loved this child just as he loved all of Scarlett's children.
"I believe he's trying to find a comfortable spot, it's like he's burrowing under the covers."
Rhett laughed lightly. "What do you think Ella, will it be a boy or a girl?"
"A boy! Mother wants a boy. I already have a little sister."
"You certainly do have a little sister, speaking of which, where is Bonnie?"
"She has been dragging Prissy up and down to the playroom all night," Scarlett responded with obvious exasperation at the situation.
"Why didn't you just spend the evening in the playroom?"
"Because this is the family parlor. The entire purpose of this room is for the family to spend their evenings in it."
"Does someone in our family play the piano?" He was still not sure why their house had two pianos when he'd never seen one played aside from events his wife hosted and she was certainly never behind the keys.
"I do," Scarlett shared, "not well, but I do. The girls will play it when they're older and I can figure out how they can learn outside of this house or I'm outside of the house."
"I get to play the piano?" Ella's eyes went wide again.
"Yes and if you'd like I could find you a teacher soon."
"Yes please Mother!"
"Very well Ella. I'll start to make inquiries."
"That'll be so much fun."
"As much fun as your little brother?" Scarlett questioned with her hand still on her stomach with Rhett's even though Ella's had left.
"Oh no! Brothers are the best," she turned her adoring eyes on Wade.
He sighed again, "I would also prefer a little brother."
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Mrs. Bissel chatted Rhett up as her husband talked to a teller, entirely too many wives had been coming in with their husbands since his return. They all hunted around seeking out some new detail of his time away, Scarlett's pregnancy, which was impossible to overlook, despite his massive dressmaker's bills meant to camouflage her rapidly expanding waistline.
The timing of it damned them. He could see it in everyone's eyes, the pity for him, the amusement that Scarlett Butler had hoodwinked her seemingly intelligent husband.
"Mrs. Butler's actually been trying to find a piano teacher for our eldest daughter," he supplied as Mrs. Bissel inquired after Scarlett.
He smiled as she took the bait and the topic changed.
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"Where have you been going in the mornings?"
Scarlett startled as Rhett stepped out of the dining room as she walked down the hallway. "What?"
"I stopped by the mills and the store today looking for you."
"Oh, what for?" Scarlett questioned.
"I found Ella a piano teacher."
"Mrs. Rowley," Scarlett nodded.
"How did you know that?"
"I saw Mrs. Bissel after you."
"Where?"
"At a sewing circle if you must know Rhett."
"A sewing circle?"
"Yes Rhett one of those necessary evils you talk about to make our children's lives better."
"Really?"
"Yes, Rhett thanks to you all those women think I'm the worst mother in history and thanks to that cruel-hearted India-I'll not stand by and allow my child be the victim of her gossip."
"You mean your lurid embrace with your sister-in-law's husband."
"I hugged a member of my family Rhett that should hardly be a crime worthy of being labeled an adulteress. I will not let that malicious gossip follow my-our child around and if you have any care about the children. You would put an end to it."
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"I have business to attend to in New Orleans," Rhett spoke in a casual manner as they were passing in the hall.
Scarlett was caught off guard and responded in a manner that did not appropriately express her disinterest in her wayward husband, "You just returned home."
"I returned home in July, we are well into September." He then smiled at her, "Why Scarlett are you going to miss me."
"Hardly," she rolled her eyes.
"We won't be gone long, I can't imagine it taking longer than three days."
"We?" Her eyes widened.
"Of course, I would hardly go to visit my ward without Bonnie, they adore each other."
She noticed the sparkle in his eye, he had seen her temper start. She tempered it down, she would not give Rhett the satisfaction of seeing her tempestuous nature. "Bonnie has not adjusted to home since your last trip, you can hardly take her away again.
"You'd deprive your daughter of joy?" Rhett inquired.
"She can find joy here with her family, as a child should."
"Should I sneak out in the middle of the night and let Bonnie think I've abandoned her?" He questioned.
"You used to go away without her all the time," she reminded her husband. It was that blasted trip to New Orleans that had started Bonnie's bad behavior that had only grown worse over time. Scarlett had little respect for Rhett's mother with how poorly Bonnie returned home after 3 months with her, then again what had she expected from someone that had raised her husband.
"She was a baby Scarlett."
"She's still a baby," their daughter wasn't even three.
"If you'd like to explain that I'm going away without her," he offered.
"You rat." They both knew how their daughter would respond. The meltdown, the screaming.
He smiled, "Bonnie and I will be on the morning train tomorrow."
Thanks for reading!