Chapter Two (for real this time)

by Saber Girl Leia

1/22/06

Rhett studied Scarlett's face as they boarded the ship together, her arm on his. They had spent the night together, which was an improvement over most of their recent relationship, but... she had said she no longer loved Ashley Wilkes, but nowhere had any inkling of her loving him, Rhett Butler, come into the conversation.

It annoyed Rhett that he was putting so much weight on this. And yet he could not deny it to himself. He loved her, and it was desperately important to him that she love him back, but he did not know quite how to go about making her.

"Daddy!" Bonnie's gleeful shouts broke him from his reverie.

"What is it darling?"

The girl jumped and pointed to the sea. "Look at the big bird!" Rhett obligingly looked about at the gulls, and lifted his daughter for a better view.

Scarlett, meanwhile, seethed inwardly that Bonnie had called out only to Rhett, and showed no interest in showing her mother the same birds. Although she had never gone out of her way to care for Bonnie the way Rhett had, in her mind the girl owed her some love just the same.

Was Bonnie the way to Rhett then? To prove to him that she was not in love with Ashley, that she was fond of her family? Bonnie did not belong to Rhett alone, and she seemed to think she did, and for that alone Scarlett was determined to win her over.

Little Bonnie, of course, wanted everyone to watch the gulls she had spotted, and loved her father and her mother, and in fact the whole world with all her heart.

"They look like they're laughing at us," Scarlett commented, inserting herself into the conversation. The gulls, circling with beaks open, did indeed.

"Can I feed them?" Bonnie's hair was already disheveled as she jumped in the breeze.

"Later, darling," Rhett answered her, "After you're lunch you can feed them the scraps."

"That's not very ladylike," Scarlett said, trying to imagine her mother throwing scraps to gulls.

"I seem to remember telling you: I have no use for ladies." There was a twinkle in Rhett's eye, and it made Scarlett feel warm inside.

Mammy looked on, wondering exactly what was going on between the couple now.

Their cabin on the boat was spacious, a tribute to Rhett's millions. Bonnie, after a few moments of running about exploring the room, wanted to go back outside, and Rhett agreed to take her. Scarlett promised to rejoin them soon, but sank into the bed happily, glad for the moment, however brief, to loosen her stays. And to plan.

She contemplated talking to Mammy about it. But that would mean revealing all that had passed between Rhett and herself, and she quivered to think of the older woman's disapproving gaze upon her. It tended to make her feel about ten years old once again, and caught stealing sweets from the kitchen.

It did not cross Scarlett's mind to let things be for the moment. Life was little to her without a job to do, and far in distance from her mills and store, and not so far away in time from her infatuation with Ashley, she needed an objective.

Maybe she could tell Mammy without telling everything. "Mammy," Scarlett called, and she appeared from her own little room off of Scarlett's.

"Yes, Miss Scarlett?"

"Why do you suppose Bonnie spends all her time with Rhett? She never wants to play her little games with me, and I do care for her so."

Mammy thought of Wade and Ella, back at Tara for the time being. She recognized Scarlett's simple question as something more. "I reckon it has something to do with you being away at your mills all day," she ventured.

"It's not very ladylike of me, is it?" Scarlett sighed and chewed her bottom lip. There was definitely more to this conversation than she was revealing.

"Miss Ellen wouldn't have approved." Mammy waited for the girl on the bed to turn into a shrieking monster. But she did not. Danger, warned the alarms in Mammy's mind. Scarlett only did this when she wanted something badly.

"Oh, but Mammy, Mother would have understood that I needed to, don't you think?"

"Yes, Miss Scarlett." Pause, then louder, quickly, maybe with a hint of criticism, "But you don't need to now. Mister Rhett's got all the money you need."

Time for Scarlett to play her hand. "Yes... but Mammy,... I don't think he respects me as he should." She waited a moment, but a response was not forthcoming. "Neither does my Bonnie. He spoils her so." She paused again, to let it take effect. "Oh, Mammy, he told me you were one of the few people whose respect he really cared about. I think you should talk to him."

Trouble. "About caring for you? Only you can change how he feels about that. I think he likes you well."

"He's always with Bonnie. How am I ever supposed to be a mother to her if he's forever doing it for me?"

"Maybe he thinks you're playing at her father, running those mills." Mammy worried suddenly that she had gone too far. But to take it back now... better to see how Scarlett took it.

Scarlett glared, her voice becoming cold. "I won't give up my mills, if that's what you mean. Not he nor you nor anybody is going to make me be a fool."

Mammy thought of Ashley, always at the mill, and Scarlett going to see him, but she didn't dare broach that topic, after the recent scandal. Her musings were interrupted by Scarlett, who spun around in front of her, doing a little dance to pull her loosened corset straight. "Do lace me back up. I'm off to the deck to see my child."

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