Thank you to everyone who has read/left feedback! It is truly appreciated! This chapter, as well as the first, are meant to build a background and I apologize for the fact they are not more detailed...hoping to build up to that, as well as more interaction between Rhett and Scarlett...or as I like to refer to them, the dynamic duo! I've been a lurker here for about a year and there are so many great stories...and I thank you all for reading, giving me encouragement:)
CHAPTER 2
Rhett idly clucked to the horse, maintaining a loose grip on the reigns as he weaved the carriage down Peachtree Street. He'd made a hasty exit from the house, unable and unprepared to face Scarlett. Not yet, anyway. Yes, he would have to face her eventually. And he would face her. But not until he'd armed himself. She had the upper hand now, due to his own shortcomings.
He was hungover, not to mention ashamed. Rhett Butler was a planner and this was not how he'd envisioned things. His mind was overridden by memories of the previous night, that one wild night in which he'd withheld nothing. He could turn back, turn the carriage around an return to her, possibly entice her into permitting him to have his way with her once again. But he was too stubborn for that.
Coward... Rhett had never shied away from a challenge, had in fact welcomed them, gained strength from them. But never, not at any time, had he faced a challenge such as this one. Even his blockade running days paled in comparison to her. And I practically raped her.. Her response, the manner in which she'd responded to his advances was lost on him. This was not at all like he'd planned it. She'd never come to him now.
He wanted a drink, needed a drink. By simply having a drink, just one, his problems would be solved. He'd no longer be hung-over nor would he be haunted by the memory of last night, one in which he looked upon with tremendous regret.
"She'll divorce me now...she has every right to..."
Rhett bypassed Belle's place, his initial destination. Instead, he steered the horse-drawn carriage toward the Decatur Road, trekked the same territory he'd passed over countless times. It wasn't all that long ago he'd met her on this very road, had acted as her escort to Johnnie Gallagher's mills and back to town.
She was pregnant with Ella...and so beautiful, though she didn't realize it...
Those trips to the mill with her gave him a great sense of enjoyment. It was during those occasions they talked, really talked. He doubted she ever truly realized what those rides meant to him. Scarlett would talk of her business, tell him about the store and her plans for it, and in return he'd regale her with tales of his youth. Sometimes he told the stories purely for her enjoyment, sometimes he told them as a way of advising her, and sometimes he told them simply to rebuke her. She was his friend. With Scarlett, he could speak openly. And he loved her. If asked, Scarlett would never admit as much, but Rhett knew she enjoyed those rides, looked forward to them as greatly as he did. But she didn't love him.
Scarlett's inability to love him greatly perplexed Rhett. Why can't she see it? Why can't she see the admirable Ashley Wilkes for what he is...? I see it...and she's so like me...
"She can't have him...that's the attraction...," Rhett muttered to himself.
Obtaining the unobtainable, that had always been the source of Scarlett's motivation. Noone else realized it, save for one person. Rhett had seen it, had even said as much on occasion.
"And he was correct in that assessment...but last night...," she whispered aloud. Mother always forced education on us...but she left out one very important part...She married Pa out of convenience...and I'm willing to bet, in her entire life, she never experienced what I...
Scarlett's face reddened with shame. Her mother, that matron of Tara, Mrs. Ellen O'Hara would roll over in her grave if she knew what her eldest was thinking.