Haha. Yea, Rhett is not awesome. Everyone's comments about him crack me up (anyone else missing ADEtP's Rhett?).
Bonnie: she's an odd little one, most children would fight and want to stay with their mother. I don't get that from the Bonnie briefly talked about in the book. Rhett likely dotes more attention on her and likely physically plays more than Scarlett and is less reserved with her than Scarlett, who was raised to be a lady. He's in the room with her at night, so he's the one she seeks comfort from (also as evidenced by Scarlett being unable to console Bonnie after a night terror) and she just spent 3 months with her father. 3 months when she was just over 2 years old. Rhett is her person (this is not saying she does not love Scarlett).
The Ward: Lol. I don't know if I'm ever going to assign him a heritage. Likely he is Belle's son. He is NOT Rhett's son. Rhett would claim his child. I'm not saying he would have raised him personally, but he would have claimed him.
Again thanks for all the FANTASTIC reviews!
-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Part Seven
September 1871
-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Scarlett oddly liked Ella's attention. She liked that someone was excited for the baby, was happy she was having a baby. Ella gave her the attention Rhett had given her with Bonnie. She was adored and she and the baby were wonderful. Her daughter wasn't truly so tedious. She was simply something to be managed, like Aunt Pitty. It was more than easy to survive Aunt Pitty once you mastered her, which Scarlett had, at least done her best after years of living with the older woman, sometimes there was no managing that woman, which is why they had Uncle Peter.
Wade might be afraid of her, but Ella was not. And Ella was hers and not Rhett's because Bonnie ran out of her mother's arms and into her father's far too often. Ella was easy to keep happy, there were benefits to having a simple child. She was fair enough to look at, she would never be a striking beauty like Bonnie, but she was pleasant, sweet. Scarlett could take Ella visiting with her in the afternoons while Rhett was out with Bonnie, after all who could be a bad mother to have a child that adored her so.
Ella made it so she wasn't so dreadfully alone for this. Her husband wasn't quite nasty anymore, but he was hardly kind. Courteous, but cold.
She wanted nothing more for him to hold her in his strong embrace, to be pressed against his chest.
There was a weight in her chest every time he came home in the evening. Every night she could no longer turn a blind eye and pretend he hadn't been at Belle's. It haunted her every night he was out. Knowing where he was, what he was doing.
Still though, she wanted him to hold her. She wanted him to be happy about the baby. She couldn't understand how she'd been so dreadfully wrong about how he would react.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Early October 1871
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Rhett Butler ached for his wife. Every day her body grew more lush, her skin glowed, her hair shined. She was radiant in this pregnancy in a way she hadn't been in the last two. His wife almost seemed happy when she wasn't in his direct company.
They had both been around the house more and it seemed as if he was unable to avoid her despite the house being the largest on the block. Scarlett's advancing pregnancy meant she rarely left their home. Ella at least had allowed him an easy excuse to lay his hands on his wife. He was starved for her touch after years of their empty marriage. Ella was always following around after her mother now. Her hands seeking out the baby whenever she could. Peppering her mother with endless questions.
Scarlett had been handling it surprisingly well and with significantly less alcoholic fortification than he had recalled in several years. She'd made some headway with Miss Melly's friends and several had turned up to visit Scarlett as she started her confinement. He had turned on the charm for them and played the role of doting husband and happily expecting father.
He rather suspected he was the latter. He could hardly punish the child over the actions of its mother. The child would be his legally that would matter more than whose blood the child carried, at least that was what he kept trying to tell himself.
There was an easiness to their life that was not entirely unpleasant. Making him believe that maybe they could have a better life together than most.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-
They began taking meals together as a family. She didn't sulk in her room as she often had with Bonnie.
Scarlett no longer took her breakfast upstairs before getting ready to head into town. She dressed simply for the day, seeing as most days she only saw her family and Melly.
Rhett often joined Scarlett and the girls for dinner.
During supper most of the focus turned to Wade, Rhett noticed Scarlett focusing on their-her son more and more. Forcing him to engage with her. Occasionally Wade could get so caught up, he appeared to almost enjoy the conversation.
Ella was Scarlett's little shadow and no matter how many times Scarlett lost her temper at the child being always present, Ella always returned.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"Good to see you Rhett, we haven't seen you here much lately," Belle said coming over to Rhett, he'd come in with a fellow he'd been thinking about investing in a jointure with. The man had eventually abandoned him for one of Belle's girls.
"Good to see you too Belle, I was here days ago."
"That was last week," she remembered the last time he'd been in playing cards.
"Was it really?" He seemed almost puzzled by that.
"How is Mrs. Butler?"
"Good, the children have been doing their best at keeping her occupied."
"Baby's got to be almost here," Belle smiled at him.
"At least another month," he commented. It would be at least a month. He was sure of his wife the day of Ashley's party. She hadn't lain with the man before that. She hadn't lain with anyone who wasn't her husband before that night, albeit there had been three of them.
"It's certainly nice that you've been staying home, keeping her company during this."
Nice? Had it been nice? It was an odd mix of emptiness and everything. To sit near the woman he adored. The woman who filled his soul and sucked it dry.
To have stilted conversations about superficial things.
The oddest thing was Scarlett looked fine with it. Like she hadn't wanted a life of excitement and fun.
Like she was okay with never having a conversation that went deeper than the weather or the new buildings going up around town.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-
She never slept a full night anymore. The baby already took after his daddy with his strength, a well placed kick could wake her out of the deepest sleep.
Her body was growing cumbersome more so than it had with the other children, getting up in the middle of the night to relieve herself was such a chore that it left her exhausted, but wide awake night after night.
She wondered how she'd managed to be so oblivious to Rhett's nightly activities before, while now she sat awake wondering if he were home or still at Belle's.
What if it grew worse than Belle's? What if he took a mistress? Why she'd be the laughingstock of the whole town.
Thoughts like that kept her up at night with her eyes trained on the open doorway her husband never crossed.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Mid-November 1871
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
She was quiet.
Oddly quiet.
She had snapped at Bonnie while their daughter was throwing a fit at the supper table for not getting the food she wanted off Wade's plate.
Scarlett had then apologized and offered it off her own.
She then returned to being quiet, never quite hearing what the children were saying. Not even feigning interest.
At the end of the meal Rhett had tried to direct the children towards Mammy wanting to get them away from Scarlett.
"Mammy's not here."
Rhett looked down at his stepson, "Where is she?"
"Tara."
Well that explained Scarlett's mood. He sent Wade and Ella upstairs and followed after Scarlett to the parlor.
She was on the sofa and had Bonnie in her arms, proclaiming her love for the child and making their daughter declare it back.
They both looked practically jubilant, devoted and in love.
It was a sight.
A beautiful one.
Scarlett's face was full with the pregnancy, it gave her a more youthful appearance which made her and their daughter look even more similar.
He was struck by the magnificence of the moment by the deep violet gown his wife wore, the way Bonnie's navy blue dress lay against it. The baby mound between them.
It was everything he had ever wanted and hadn't realized until it was too late. Until he'd let Scarlett's obsession with Ashley Wilkes fester to the point of no return.
He should have lanced it.
Lanced it by marrying her when she'd arrived in Atlanta.
She had been so miserable in her widow's crepe. She would have run away with him in a heartbeat. All it would have taken was a ring, she had basically throw hers away in front of him.
It all could have been his and not in this superficial manner.
"Wade informs me that Mammy's gone to Tara," Rhett's voice as always betrayed none of the deep emotions running through him.
"Yes, Will sent a telegram this morning. Suellen lost her baby. Mammy's gone to make sure she'll be all right and the children are taken care of."
"I'd rather thought you and she were carrying closer together."
"Likely two months apart," Scarlett informed him, although she'd wanted to inform him that Suellen had looked pregnant last summer when she hadn't been.
That was still rather far along to lose a baby. "Will she be alright?"
"Telegram didn't say anything to the contrary," Scarlett was quiet again. She seemed crestfallen when Bonnie got bored by simply being held by her and pushed away from her mother's embrace to go play.
"Dr. Meade seems more than confident in your pregnancy," Rhett found himself saying. He could see the worry on her face.
She gave a weak smile, "Baby certainly feels strong and healthy."
"And you have a body meant bear children according to Dr. Meade and Mammy."
"I certainly get pregnant easily enough," she said with chagrin as her lips lifted up.
"That you do," he fought to keep his face neutral. He wanted to smile at the thought of the children, all four. He wanted to take her in his arms and comfort her. Promise her that the worse was over. Her life would be good now, if only she let it.
"Daddy," Bonnie said tugging on his pant leg, "I want my kitty."
"Let's go find your kitten then," he smiled looking down at her and scooped her up.
"Goodnight Bonnie," Scarlett called out, turning her gaze to follow their path to the doorway.
"Goodnight Mother," Bonnie smiled.
The words caught in Rhett's throat for a moment. The sight of Scarlett alone in the room. She looked lost and alone. He wanted to go to her.
"Daddy, my kitty," Bonnie whined when he took too long.
"Goodnight Scarlett," he nodded.
"Goodnight Rhett," she gave a soft smile.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Thanksgiving 1871
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Rhett could hardly refuse to be present at his wife's Thanksgiving despite the fact that she invited the Hamilton-Wilkes to join them. It was a sumptuous affair that had gone off without a hitch. Everyone had a wonderful time around him, but Rhett had wanted to use the carving knife to peel off portions of Ashley Wilkes' handsome face as Scarlett had laughed at Ashley's words and gouge the stem of his wine glass into his neck as Bonnie had placed kisses on Ashley's cheeks.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Early December 1871
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"How is Mrs. Butler doing?" Mrs. Merriwether asked as she chatted up Rhett as she often did while doing her banking.
"Quite well thank you for asking," he smiled as he always did.
"The baby?"
"Dr. Meade says they are both progressing wonderfully."
"You must be excited; baby must nearly be due."
He had known where the conversation was going the moment she mentioned Scarlett. They were all always fishing for gossip. The damn timing of it all.
"Dr. Meade expects nearly another month."
"A new baby for the new year."
There was a smile on her face, but Rhett could see the look in her eyes. He damned his wife and that embrace she had been caught in. The most reckless and selfish act she had ever taken with their family. It made all of her antics from the first year of their marriage seem mild. That act would haunt an innocent child, worse than not being invited to parties. If the child were born fair…
Rhett could bring in his entire family from Charleston, his sister and brother with their pale blue eyes, his brother's children, none whose hair was truly dark, only one with dark eyes. He could bring in Scarlett's sisters.
If Bonnie were born now, he had no doubt the entire town would declare her Ashley's based on her eyes. It didn't matter that her eyes were the exact shade of Gerald O'Hara's.
Damn Scarlett for not thinking of their family until after the entire town had declared her an adulteress.
Thanks for reading!