Ella Kennedy sat at Tara at during Wade and Anne's wedding day, quite sad. Ella wasn't sad over Wade getting married; it was more over the announcement of Joe and Susie's engagement. Susie, her cousin and the one who taunted her and made her life difficult was getting married to the one person she ever loved.
However, one wedding came at a time. This was Wade and Anne's wedding day, and the folks from all over the county and Fayetteville were at Tara, where apparently years before, Scarlett and Wade's father Charles were married shortly before the war. Uncle Will and Aunt Suellen were acting like the proud parents of Wade. Ella wondered if even her mother or Rhett even knew about the wedding. She knew that Aunt Suellen and Uncle Will had come to think of Wade as their own son, so Suellen probably didn't bother to tell Scarlett about the wedding. Suellen was the one who kept up correspondence with Scarlett whenever Scarlett wrote a letter, which came about once every three months.
Ella, with the rest of the people stood up when Anne and her father came to the end of the aisle. Anne did look pretty in a dress that looked to be made of white satin and lace, and that looked very intricate and hard to make. Susie sat closer to the end with Joe, and Ella saw her eyes open wide and her face shine like a sunrise.
Anne and Mr. Robertson came to end of the aisle and the wedding commenced. It was a happy day at Tara, and it should've been a happy day for Ella also, but the one man she loved was going to marry her cousin in several weeks. This broke Ella's heart, she distracted herself from the unpleasant thoughts by thinking of the trust fund that she was about to receive from Scarlett.
Ella was about to receive a large amount of money from Scarlett, and Ella wouldn't have to worry about money for a good long time, she could finally leave Tara, Wade, Susie and her taunts, Aunt Suellen's cold hard looks, and she could finally explore the world for herself, and never look back.
By now, all the people at the wedding were chatting with one another, and people were dancing. Ella could dance for a long time without being tired. She had practiced dancing with other people in the past, with Wade, with Joe, and other boys. She liked to dance, but nobody ever asked her to dance because of her face, she wished she could just dance and dance the night away.
Finally, a dance ended, and Wade came over and asked Ella to dance. Wade and Ella danced for awhile, and she wished that someone other than her brother would ask her to dance. After that dance was over, she sat quietly and waited for the day to end.
The day did come to an end, and the servants began to clean up and Ella went up to her room and started to read a book. Aunt Suellen came to the door, and banged on her door. "Ella, come down and say good-bye to your brother!" She said through the door.
Ella got up grudgingly and walked downstairs were Uncle Will, Susie, Jane, and Martha were all hugging and embracing Wade and Anne with their good-byes. Anne saw and Ella, and embraced her with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Ella, dear" she said, "I do wish you the best of luck, with whatever you do, and I do hope you come and stay with us at our place for awhile at least." Ella could only smile at this. Anne was wishing her good luck on whatever she did with the inheritance, and wanted to visit their place.
"Thank you Anne, I hope that you have a good trip." That was all Ella could think to say. Anne smiled briefly at this, and went to Aunt Suellen. Wade came over and gave Ella a kiss on the cheek and smiled at her. Ella didn't expect anything less than this from Wade.
Ella went back upstairs and read her book for a little while and went to bed earlier than usual. The wedding had made her tired. Ella fell asleep quickly, not before thinking about where she could and visit with her inheritance. She could travel all across the country, all the places that she read about and dreamed of visiting. Places like Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, New Orleans, and all the places like that.
The next several weeks until Ella's eighteenth birthday, and the day she could officially get her inheritance crawled by extremely slowly for Ella. Susie's wedding day was also coming up, and Susie hadn't said anything directly to Ella's face, but she knew that in a way, she was getting something that Ella wanted more than the money; she was going to be Joe's wife.
Finally on the day of her birthday, Ella could go to the bank in Atlanta, and get the inheritance. That was the best eighteenth birthday that Ella could ever receive, her official departure from the god-forsaken Tara. On the night before, Ella personally packed all of her belongings, clothes and books, and other items. Uncle Will and Aunt Suellen had a little birthday party on the day before her birthday. Aunt Suellen had made a bland chocolate cake, and the whole family had gave her several books, Les Miserables and The Story of a Needle, both of which Ella had read previously, but now she owned them.
That night, Ella had a hard time falling asleep, she was so excited. The next morning, Ella got up early and got everything ready; she would be going to Atlanta alone, while Uncle Will would drive her to Jonesboro to catch the train. Ella dressed in what was most dressy that she could find. She would definitely have to get some new clothes when she got the money.
She went down at 8 in the morning to find Uncle Will and Aunt Suellen the only ones up, and Aunt Suellen had made a meager breakfast. Aunt Suellen smiled at Ella when she saw her, but Ella noticed that her eyes were cold and heartless as stones. The three of them sat down and ate rather quickly.
After that, Ella and Will left Tara. The reason for the lack of emotion for Ella's departure was that Ella hadn't exactly told her Uncle Will, Aunt Suellen, Susie, or anyone for that matter that she was leaving Tara, hopefully for good. She had her luggage packed in what looked like a chest, but there were a quite a bit more things in the chest. Ella intended to tell Will that she was leaving at the train station, and then he wouldn't do or say anything to force her or persuade to stay at Tara.
Ella and Will went along the road to Jonesboro rather silently, mostly admiring the sights and sounds of the early morning. Ella felt extremely jittery and the fact that she would hopefully never be returning to Tara to explore the world made her feel like a hyper child. She had to tell him of her intentions; she had to let it off her chest.
"Uncle Will, there's something that I must tell you about." Ella began rather nervously. Uncle Will looked over at Ella the way he looked at everyone, rather dully and without emotion in his eyes, as though there wasn't a problem in the world, and the piece of wheat that was in his mouth was in his mouth even now. "I think you should know I am leaving Tara." Not to Ella's surprise, there was not a flood of tears and whining from Uncle Will. "I see" was all he said.
"You see, there is so much that I want to see and do in the world-" Ella started, but Will interrupted her with: "No need to explain, Ella." "I can tell that you are restless," he began. "I can also tell that it will break your heart to see Susie get married." "It'll be nice for you to get away from Suellen's nasty looks that she always gives you." Ella couldn't help but ask. "Why doesn't she like me?" Ella asked rather sadly.
"Well, Ella, I don't think it's you that she doesn't like, rather it's that she sees Scarlett in you." That was the last thing that Ella expected to hear. Scarlett? Ella had always tried her hardest to be unlike her. "I see quite a bit of Scarlett in you too." Uncle Will finished. Ella sat there, her mouth agape. No one had ever compared her to Scarlett, not ever, and she had never done anything in her life that she remembered her mother doing or heard of her mother doing.
"Also, Sue sees someone else that hurt her a long time ago." Uncle Will said. "That's another story, however." Ella was now rather curious in who she could be like that hurt Aunt Suellen along time ago. However, before she could even give it much serious thought, Will and Ella had arrived in Jonesboro.
Still, without argument or in anyway trying to persuade her, Will drove the wagon straight to the train station. Ella gave her luggage to a man who placed it in the train. "Well Ella, I guess this is goodbye." Uncle Will said. "At least try to write back to Tara and keep up with us," he said while lightly smiling. "I will, Uncle Will." Ella said. She then realized that she should be getting on the train soon. "Well, goodbye Uncle Will." She said giving him a hug and a light kiss on the cheek. She then smiled and turned around and faced the train, but before boarding, turned and waved and smiled at him.
Ella then entered the train, feeling rather nervous. She had never been on a train alone before in her life. She found an empty seat and sat down. Ella was extremely nervous for the first trip to Atlanta she would be making in several years, she was still jittering as the train began to move and it sped up toward Ella's destiny, Atlanta.