The morning found Rhett and Scarlett's exhausted bodies still entwined under the rich velvet canopy of her bed.

Rhett traced the perfect oval of Scarlett's face with the tip of his ring finger. She sighed softly, content.

"Happy?" Rhett asked truly wanting to know where they stood.

Scarlett laughed as she sat up cradling the sheet around her nude body. "Happy but woefully busy. You need to leave before the maids come."

Clearly those were not the words Rhett had wanted to hear from her. His face composed itself into its usual composed mask.

"Please Rhett, last night was wonderful, but I have duties to attend to."

Rhett got out of bed and began to gather his clothes. "Do you mind if I get dressed first or would that interfere with your schedule?"

"Rhett, please don't play the wounded party. I am not banishing you from my bedroom for all time"

"You've asked me to leave it before."

Scarlett stretched luxuriously. "I'd just rather not have my maid find a handsome, virile," she looked him up and down before smiling fondly, "half naked man in my bed chamber."

Rhett however was not to be pacified. "Yes, I suppose that would be awkward for the Prince of England's mistress."

"She's not my mistress," replied a voice for the doorway.

Scarlett closed her eyes and pulled the sheet over her head "Mary, mother of God," she moaned, her voice muffled by the covers.

"Scarlett, breakfast is in the sitting room if you're joining me. Mr. Butler, if you'd care to join us you're most welcome."

With that Bertie turned and left the two lovers to their own devices.

"Well, that was definitely unexpected," commented Rhett as he buttoned his shirt.

Scarlett pulled the sheet down to face Rhett. "You think this is pretty amusing don't you? This is my home. The Prince is my friend and I would have preferred he didn't witness this."

"I offered to take you to my room, now perhaps you'll make my apologies to the Prince. I think I'll pass on breakfast and go change for the hunt."

Rhett bowed and left her alone to groan and fall back on the pillows. Once again they were right back to where they'd started.

A few minutes later wearing her nightgown and a dressing gown Scarlett joined Bertie in their small sitting room. "Coffee?"

Scarlett nodded as she sat next to him on the settee. Bertie poured her a cup. "Milk?"

"No, it's a black sort of morning."

Bertie smiled "Really, it looked as though it had started out so well."

"Men are fools."

"I've heard that said."

"Rhett took a simple request and turned it into a huge fuss."

"Alexandra wants to have a child or have our marriage annulled."

Scarlett picked up her cup. "I'd heard a rumor to that effect. All of the servants are atwitter about her going so far as to propose to drag the House of Lords into your marriage." Taking a small sip of the bitter black coffee Scarlett voiced her thoughts aloud. "But for her to propose an anullment? Why after all this time?"

"In her letter she says that our marriage must be consummated at my earliest convince as she is desirous of providing the crown with legal issue. She closes with a rebuke saying that if I could give my whore a child, the least I could do is give her and the British people an heir."

"You have a whore, oh for shame Bertie, since when do we keep secrets from one another."

"You know very well who she means."

"What will you do?"

"I've no idea; this after all could be my one chance at freedom. I could send her back to Norway. I suppose this depends on your future plans."

"Mine?"

"If you are planning to stay in England than I can allow her to annul the marriage with very little fuss. People will suspect I am a silly lovesick fool. They'll look at Bess and think that I couldn't bear to make love to a woman who didn't have my heart. You are a widow, American, and a Catholic so no fear in anyone trying to compel us to marry."

"Last night doesn't matter Bertie. No matter how I feel about Rhett he is married and no amount of pillow talk will change that."

"He could divorce his current wife?"

"No he couldn't, she'd be ruined. He was her first husband. She lost her virginity to him so if he divorced her she'd most likely never be able to remarry. He wouldn't condemn a perfect Charleston lady to that fate. He'd never do that just for me. Even if he really did love me."

"For Bess then?"

"He can never know Bertie. No one can know who her father is, I'm a horrible person I know I am but I don't care, I don't."

Bertie took her coffee cup from her hands and placed it on the table before gathering her tightly to him.

Tears began to pool in Scarlett's eyes though she desperately tried to hold them back. "I just don't understand, why couldn't he realize he still wanted me before he married Anne, oh Bertie it isn't fair." She could no longer restrain her tears; they began to spill down her face. These were not the calculated tears of Scarlett O'Hara employed to met an end. These were the tears of a woman whose heart was broken and could never be mended.

Bertie kissed the top of her head, leaving his chin to rest on the crown of her head.

"Darling, shh, hush, no one will ever know. You know that I've never judged you. Nothing you do makes me think poorly of you. I'll keep your secrets till the day I die." He began to stroke her back as her body shuddered in his arms.

Bertie tried to think of anything that might illicit a small smile.

"I'll love you always, no matter whom you sleep with."

Those were the same words of support Scarlett had once offered Bertie when he'd confessed to her his own particular prédilection for the titled men of his own class. At first Scarlett had been shocked. Never in her life had she heard of men engaging in such pursuits. On closer scrutiny though Scarlett realized something valid and freeing. Who was she really to sit in moral judgment of anyone? Her own list of sins against the society in which she'd been raised were lengthy and in the eyes of most people completely damning. She didn't understand his feelings, but she could accept them as part of her closest friend.

She wrapped her arms around his neck to hold him close gathering strength from being loved so purely. She took heart knowing that Bertie loved her for herself, not simply her face or body. To be loved for one's soul no matter how tarnished was what hurt most in losing Melly. "I love you so much Bertie."

"And I love you."

Thinking to come back and apologize to Scarlett for taking her earlier request so harshly Rhett had returned to Scarlett's bedroom. Her bed was empty and cool. Rhett grinned roguishly at the memory of last night. Perhaps he should have slowly courted her. He had so much to say to her that falling into bed might not have been their wisest option, but after wanting her for so long he hadn't been able to steel his resolve towards conversation and a few chaste embraces. He'd waited to hear her say she wanted him for what seemed like an aeon. Hearing voices from the study Rhett surmised that Scarlett was still at breakfast with the Prince.

He prepared to enter the breakfast room deciding to make his apologies to the Prince for his dismissive attitude earlier that morning. If Prince Albert was so important to Scarlett Rhett wanted to be on personable terms with the man.

Rhett hesitated at the door to the study, which was still ajar from Scarlett's earlier entrance. Though he considered eavesdropping to be a very poor habit in other people was not occasionally above doing so himself. Rhett could hear Scarlett exclaim something but it was the Prince's response that froze him in the shadows.

"I'll love you always, no matter whom you sleep with."

Rhett though he considered eavesdropping to be a very poor habit in other people was not occasionally above doing so himself.

After hearing them declare their love for one another his face a settled into a hard mask tinged with anger. Nothing changed, especially not Scarlett O'Hara. He walked quickly through her bedroom startling Renee who'd been straightening Scarlett's bed in the curtained alcove. He was so focused on his anger Rhett didn't even notice the observant maid as he exited Scarlett's rooms.
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Rhett slammed the door to his bedchamber. He ripped open the wardrobe doors and began to pull out his clothes in armfuls, not giving a damn whether he wrinkled the expensive fabrics that made up his wardrobe.

Her words to the Prince pounded in his head again and again echoing "I love you...I love you..."

"Bitch," he muttered as he tossed his clothes on the bed.

"What is it you once told me about eavesdroppers, something about highly informative things?"

Rhett spun on his heel to face Scarlett. She was dressed in the traditional British hunting attire of the white chambray shirt, tight fitted red velvet jacket, and a black broad cloth skirt with only a few petticoats layered beneath for proprieties sake. The skirt was a simple cut but it flattered Scarlett. The whole outfit suited her.

Rhett sneered, ignoring her jab about eavesdropping. "Going to ride the hounds?"

"I am, I believe his grace invited you as well."

Rhett's lips drew together in a sardonic smile. "Thank you, but I've already mounted something from his stable."

Scarlett smiled tightly. "Why Rhett Butler, you're jealous. You overheard something that quite honestly was none of your business, then you twisted it into an acceptable version of the truth according to your lowest expectations of me."

"My only expectation is to constantly find you in the arms of other men."

"I've told you what it was between Ashley and I that day at the mill."

"No I don't really think you did, and it's too late now isn't it. May I ask though, what was last night, a last intimacy for old times sake?"

"I love you. I want you. At night I can't sleep because I remember what it was like to lie in the dark next to you knowing that for the first time since before the war I was safe. No one could hurt me, no one except you..." Her eyes were wide and the color of emeralds as she poured out her soul to him. For once he'd have all the facts even if it exposed her heart to more pain.

"Scarlett you don't know what you want," he replied

She grabbed the sleeve of his jacket. He had to listen; she had to make him understand, even if they never saw one another again. She needed him to understand her, even if just for this one moment in their lives together.

"I wanted to be with the man I love one last time. I wanted last night because it has to last me the rest of my life." She could see him trying to lock her out. He didn't want to hear her. Scarlett finally lost control. She wasn't the one who'd married someone else. Just who did Rhett Butler think he was to berate her?

"Where do you find the nerve anyway to accuse me of loving another man? Don't you love your perfect Charleston wife?" Scarlett yelled, letting go of his sleeve. Her face was flushed and her eyes were narrowed with anger.

"For the love of God, why do you continue to insist I'm married? To whom am I supposedly locked in wedded bliss with?" Suddenly it came to him. "Anne? I never married Anne." He laughed without humor at the predicament they'd once again found themselves in. "And if I did I'd be committing bigamy, I never filed our divorce papers. Legally and in the eyes of God and Man for all intents and purposes you and I are still married."

Scarlett's mouth opened and closed but she could not find words. Not one single word. Her lungs felt as though they'd been dipped in burning oil. The air was simply knocked out of her body. Her body was too heavy to support and she pitched forward, and the world went dark.