"Miss Scarlett, is that you?" Mammy's dark face smiled widely at her favorite O'Hara girl as Will and Scarlett rode up in a rather pitiful wagon.
"Of course it is, Mammy," her somber expression faded as a smile finally crossed her lips for the first time in what felt like decades. She climbed down as soon as Will stopped, moving quickly into Mammy's arms and resting her head on the comforting shoulders that had received her tears graciously for years.
They embraced for several moments, Mammy lightly rubbing Scarlett's back as she fought the urge to break down right there. But then there was the sound of someone clearing their throat a bit haughtily as Will lifted Scarlett's luggage and brought it into the house. She looked up, and her smile faded slowly at the sight of a rather grumpy Suellen eyeing her from the doorway of the great house.
"Well, Scarlett. I see you've decided to grace us with your presence again." Scarlett's jaw dropped slightly with surprise, her eyes regaining a bit of their former life as they flickered with the faint yet fiery spark of anger that filled her voice: "Why, Suellen Benteen, I -"
"Ahem. Perhaps it'd be best if we all went on inside," Will's quiet voice cut sharply through the tension that had already formed between the two O'Hara sisters, his gaze steadily fixed on both.
Suellen stared furiously at Scarlett for several long moments before she turned on her heel sharply and swept back into the house. At the same time, Scarlett relaxed uneasily, the tension in her thin frame evaporating with the absence of her sister's presence. She shook her head slightly, moving up the steps and into the home she had grown up in while Mammy looked on, her wise old eyes narrowed as she watched her favorite O'Hara girl. Something was wrong, horribly wrong, and although Mammy couldn't be sure as to the true source of Scarlett's obvious misery, she had a growing suspicion that the cause wasn't just Miss Melanie's death.
"It jus' ain' right," Mammy grumbled softly as she followed Scarlett, shaking her head as she continued to puzzle over this newest mystery. Lost in thought even as she moved, she barely noticed Will as he moved passed her and began unhitching the horse.
"Mother?"
Scarlett looked up sharply from where she stood beside her bed nearly a week later, having just finished smoothing out the last wrinkle from the faded coverlet. Wade stood in the doorway of her room, watching her with apprehension clear in his troubled gaze.
"Yes?"
"Can I…can I talk to you for a moment?"
"Of course, Wade," she replied, managing a slight smile that took more effort than it should have. She sat lightly on the edge of the bed as he moved to stand in front of her, his eyes looking anywhere but his mother as he struggled to find a place to begin.
"What's wrong?" she finally spoke again, her eyes taking on the rare yet genuine look of concern.
Wade appeared visibly startled at the new emotion, but hesitantly began to speak at last: "Mother, why…why did you come here? Why aren't you in Atlanta with Uncle Rhett?"
Immediately, Scarlett's lips tightened as her relaxed demeanor vanished. Her eyes widened slightly as she fully regarded her oldest child. "Uncle Rhett had some…business he needed to attend to, Wade, and I didn't want to be alone while he was gone. That's all."
"But why didn't you -"
" I said that was all!" Scarlett's raised voice felt like a slap to Wade, whose own eyes now widened as he regarded his mother in the same fearful way in which he had done so for years.
But her son's expression froze Scarlett, slowly giving into the feeling of shame she felt steadily slipping over her, another foreign emotion that both startled and frightened her. And yet when Wade turned quickly to flee the room, Scarlett's hand was suddenly on his wrist, stopping him abruptly before he turned to look at her, just as startled as she was.
"I…I'm sorry, Wade," she said after a moment had passed, the apology surprising Scarlett herself just as much as her son.
"It's alright, Mother. Really," Wade managed to reply, eyes wide with surprise still. Neither one said anything for another instant or so, but then Wade suddenly leaned forward and embraced his mother, holding on to her just long enough for her to return the affection despite her increased shock before he left the room quickly, leaving a startled Scarlett to sort through the unexpected events of mere moments before.
Several days later, Scarlett sat on the front porch of Tara, her vivid green eyes gazing off across her family's land as she once again found herself lost in thought. There was a slightly desperate look about her as she dwelled on that fateful night now a week past. She didn't doubt that Rhett was now safely tucked away in his precious Charleston, miles away from Scarlett - just the way he seemed to want it.
But distance wasn't her most important problem. No, she had faced greater problems than a couple hundred miles between herself and her goal. What she needed to figure out was what she could do to make Rhett realize just how much she loved him, and then he would of course realize that he loved her in return. Simple, really. Or perhaps not quite so easy.
A slow, stubborn scowl settled over Scarlett's face as she continued to think. Rhett would not be won over with the feminine traits that would break almost any other man's heart in no time. In fact, she was fairly certain that he very nearly hated it when she put on any sort of act in front of him. Which meant that she would essentially have to be herself, something that may or may not work, seeing as how he had run from her when she was herself…
Oh, it was simply too much to contemplate in one sitting! Scarlett stood abruptly, slapping her hand down angrily on the railing of the porch. It shouldn't be this difficult, and yet it was. The only positive point at the time was that the relationship between herself and her children seemed to be slowly improving, something that she unexpectedly had begun to find comfort in. It was a hesitant process for all three parties involved, but Scarlett found that with each day's passing they all seemed to grow more comfortable with each other. It was a great source of pride to Scarlett, for she remembered all-too clearly Rhett's remark concerning her mothering skills several years before and it felt wonderful to prove him wrong at last, even if he wasn't there to witness the cautious yet improving relationship she had managed to form with her two remaining children.
After a moment, Scarlett sighed a bit huffily, considerably calmer even if she did remain frustrated. She promised herself silently yet again that she would find a way to win Rhett again, and she would continue to bond with her children. Things would eventually turn out alright in the end, she resolved. After all, how could they not? And so, with that thought, Scarlett turned to go back into the house, content now that she was on her way to arranging her life back into what she wanted it to be.
But that was before the telegram arrived, not even three weeks later.
