Chapter 124

When Scarlett arrived at the River bank, she tethered her horse to a nearby tree and looked around. She saw a small boat with a tiny cabin waiting quietly in the waters. The boatman had gone somewhere but loud laughter could be heard. Scarlett fancied it was the same women she had seen trespassing across her Tara. She concealed herself behind a tree and watched for a while. What exactly she hoped to accomplish, she wasn't sure. She convinced herself that she was merely curious. But why she felt that gnawing urge to put an end to all this, she wasn't so sure. She wasn't so sure why she felt angered and even.. hurt.. "Yes! That is what I feel-" she told herself in some surprise and wonder. "But why should I feel so? No one has done anything to me.. This is the way the world has moved on after the War. It is to be expected- a.. a kind of corruption and an increase in fallen women-"

Scarlett wondered for a while and then decided it must be the proximity to Tara that hurt her. She had always loved Tara. To know that a brothel was open and functioning so very near home must be what upsets her.

So, she waited in the darkness-

After a while, there was a faint rustle in the bushes and a young couple crashed through the leaves together to the River bank. The boy- he was a young boy- probably only nineteen was being pulled along by a young girl who was wearing a shroud similar to what the other girls had been wearing.

"She is much too young for this sort of thing!" thought Scarlett, scandalized.

The girl threw away the hood of her shroud and Scarlett could see that she was a plain sortof girl with exceptionally thick black hair. She had a good figure and sort of swayed as she walked about the bank. Her young man seemed content to simply be with her for as long as possible. But Scarlett could detect a nervous tension between the couple. In fact, whenever the laughter in the boat seemed to rise, the boy seemed to hold the girl closer in his arms.

"I wish you wouldn't do this-" he said softly.

The girl averted her eyes and sighed. "It's what I want, Joe- Can't you understand? We've been through this so many times-"

"I just want to take care of you that's all- Where you are going, I can't follow- And it's eating me up inside-"

The girl suddenly turned around and hugged the boy tightly. And he hugged her back as well. When the girl stepped back, the boy still held her hand.

"What.." The boy hesitated. Then he frowned as he spoke, "What if you are harmed- I could never live with myself if-"

Scarlett listened to the couple in rapt attention. She has assumed that a passionate lust in the part of the girl and an intolerable greed in the part of the boy would simply lend itself to the next scenario. But here something else was happening. Rather than to give in to the darkness of the moment, the young lovers still discussed their feelings-

"Maggie and Dolly will be there" said the girl. "And anyway Madame Lasalle knows about me. I told her that I was at the time of year when-" The girl blushed hard and the boy grunted and nodded quickly. "You needn't worry-" The girl tried to laugh at his fears. "Some gentlemen just want a girl to entertain them while they play cards or billiards- Madame Lasalle's isn't as bad as you imagine it to be-"

The boat man finally came and the couple bid goodbye to each other. The other girls climbed in and the small boat set off into the darkness of the night.

When the boy turned to leave, Scarlett quickly climbed out of her hiding place and walked up to confront him.

"Here boy-" she called out, running a little to catch up to his pace. "Wait a moment- I want to talk to you-"

The young fellow looked frightened at the sight of her. He stared at her for a moment and made as if to run away. Then his curiosity got the better of him- "M..Madame La-"

"I'm no Madame-" snapped Scarlett, angrily. "But you should fear me just the same. What do you mean by bringing your girl here and giving her up to this foolishness? You look like a respectable young man- Haven't you got an ounce of pride?"

The young man blinked at her in puzzlement. He could see that she was not the infamous Madame and yet Scarlett looked sincere and earnest- "I don't see why you should be so concerned Ms..er.."

"Mrs. Butler" said Scarlett, not missing a beat. "You didn't think the neighbors would lay quiet through all this, did you?"

"Do you live around here?"

"What do you think?! It's my farm your kind are crossing to get to your damned place-"

"Damned.. now see here-" said the man getting flustered. "It's not what you think. I..I didn't want any part of this- I-" He choked up with feeling. "We come from an encampment, just outside of Clayton County- We built log houses there and we still live like that. Gracie came from further down South. I didn't know her before the war. She refugeed here after the war- most of her family were dead and she had no other relatives to help her except for an old Aunt who lived in Atlanta. She didn't know most of Atlanta was also gone and well.. she learned that her aunt had been driven into the forest where she had died-"

"I see" said Scarlett, softening for a moment. "Is that where she met you?"

"Yes,Maam." said the boy, warming up a little. "I didn't know Gracie very long. We wanted to be married but umm.."

"Why does she want to go to that place- is.. is it a saloon?" asked Scarlett.

"Well.. I haven't been there- "

"And you trust her to be safe in a place you haven't seen?"

The boy threw up his hands helplessly. "She's been there three times.. and every time she goes, she brings back enough money for the week- She tells me she's allright-"

"Oh so you admit it!" cried Scarlett, eager to catch him at his words. "You talk of loving your girl but you don't care where she's going- you don't care to know if she is all right- just as long as she brings the money-"

The boy looked at her as if he had been slapped. He backed away from Scarlett with a dark frown on his face. Then he quietly added, "I value her plent, Ma'am. But it's her life and I haven't got the right to tell her what to do- Even.. even if she was harmed, I would go on loving her-" With that he took to his heels and sprinted away.

"She's doing it all for you and yet you let her harm herself?!" called Scarlett, after him.

"Ma'am if I stopped her, I'd be her father- not her lover- As it is, she had a father- and it's up to her to do whatever she thinks is best-" The boy grimaced and flexed his arms, once again helplessly. "- But she's got plenty of love- no matter what!" retorted the boy before disappearing entirely.

Scarlett walked slowly back to the farm. She felt she had taken charge of something but had somehow missed a vital point entirely. She vaguely sensed that the young man hadn't been entirely honest with her- Perhaps he was a coward or selfish- greedy- She couldn't place her finger on it- The way he had looked at her- She had seen that look in Ashley's eyes- "The look of a gentleman-" thought Scarlett as she went on her way.