Disclaimer: I own nothing in regard to GWTW
Author's Notes: Thank you for all the reviews and feedback.
Chapter Seven
Scarlett had taken some of the money she had received from selling the mansion and had bought a little five-bedroom house. When she saw the house, she fell in love with it. It was in the Queen Anne style. She had spent some time and some money redoing the décor and having the latest conveniences added. The décor was not as Avant Garde as the mansion had been, but it wasn't a traditional décor. She loved her home. She loved it more than she had loved the mansion because there were no unhappy memories associated with it.
It was after she signed the papers that she found out Rene and Maybelle lived next door. Scarlett had not forced a relationship with the Picards. After a while, the children had been allowed to play together. After a year, Wade had been invited to their eldest son's birthday party. Scarlett had sent Wade by himself. Shortly after that Ella got an invitation to a birthday party from one of the other mothers in polite society, Jewell Jackson. Scarlett had attended and she had planned to stand off to the side alone, but Mrs. Jackson would not let her. She made Scarlett join the other ladies. She also kept including Scarlett in the conversation. All the other ladies had been polite to her.
Scarlett still didn't know why Mrs. Jackson had been so nice to her that day. Scarlett would never know, nor would she appreciate that Jewell pitied Scarlett. Jewell had watched Scarlett make mistake after mistake in her life. Jewell had also known that Scarlett would not have appreciated Jewell telling her that she was making those mistakes. Scarlett had been too proud, arrogant, and haughty before Mrs. Wilkes death. She was still proud and arrogant, but she was no longer haughty.
Two years after they had become neighbors Scarlett saw Maybelle in her front yard. She had walked over and asked the other woman, "Does the pain ever go away?"
Maybelle had not asked what Scarlett was talking about she knew Scarlett was talking about the pain of losing a child. Maybelle had said, "Not really. You just learn to push it to the back of your mind.
A year later, Mrs. Merriwether died suddenly, and Scarlett offered comfort to Maybelle over the loss of her mother. Scarlett said, "The pain never goes away either, you just learn to push it to the back of your mind. I lost my mother and father when I was nineteen. I was never the same."
"No, you weren't. And nobody gave you any sympathy."
"No. Not a single person."
Scarlett had thought, 'Not even the man that had claimed to love me.'
Slowly over the years she had been received back into polite society. Ashley helped by escorting her to some social events. It had started off as Ashley just trying to help her get received again but then they had decided to see if they could form a romantic relationship. After Ashley had been courting Scarlett for six months, one night she said, "We are never going to be anything more than business partners. You were right that day in the library, a marriage between two people as different as we are will never work."
"Friends and business partners but no, not husband and wife. As business partners our differences enhance the situation."
"I'm glad you feel the same. I'm still glad we tried. I wish we had been able to try ten years ago."
"I think a big part of that relationship was the aspect of forbidden fruit."
Scarlett smiled and said, "I believe you are right. I am going to let Daniel Armstrong start calling on me."
"Doesn't he own the sawmills we used to own?"
Scarlett smiled a smug smile and said, "Yes, he does."
"I am going to start calling on Mary Smith."
"Why would anyone name their child something so unimaginative as Mary Smith."
"She's the fourteenth child of sixteen children. I guess her parents just ran out of ideas."
They had laughed together. Gave each other a hug. Ashley had walked out of her parlor. There was no disruption of their professional relationship.
Two years later she had attended Ashley and Mary's wedding.
Scarlett didn't join their committees or their sewing bees. She always bought tickets to their fund raisers, and she gave them to India. India and Mr. Jackson would attend. Scarlett didn't need the tickets for she knew that Daniel would buy tickets for their use. She and Daniel received invitations to events happening at night. They attended about half of them.
Once Scarlett had read Shakespeare's plays, she had enjoyed them very much. She hired a cast of actors and had them perform the plays. She had invited everyone in polite society. The performances were held in the back yard of her home in the early evening. There was a meal of sandwiches and finger foods served. Scarlett knew that at first most people attended for the free food, but she didn't care. She hired lecturers to speak on different topics. She hired writers to talk about their books. She no longer cared if people thought she was a blue stocking that was better than some of the names people had called her through the years especially the man who had claimed to love her. My Pet, indeed.
The rest of the time Scarlett had spent on the stores. It was no longer for the money although the money was nice. It was for the thrill of success.
As the years had gone by, Scarlett had thought about Rhett less and less until he had returned to Atlanta two years ago. She wasn't surprised that he had returned to Atlanta after she heard about Belle's death. In fact, she had been surprised he hadn't return to Atlanta upon the death of his mother. His mother may have welcomed him into her home, but Scarlett was sure that Rosemary would have only tolerated her brother in her home because of his support checks.
Rhett had nowhere else to go. He had nothing and no one. All he had was his money. His looks were gone, and he was no longer charming. In her more charitable moments, she knew he had nothing after he had been disowned. He had no real friends. He spent all his time with the scum of society yet, he didn't belong. He was disowned so he definitely wasn't accepted by the cream of society. His brother didn't speak to him. His getting accepted by Atlanta society would not have happened if he hadn't humbled himself completely. Scarlett wondered how long he could have stayed in the matrons' good graces. Certainly not until Bonnie turned sixteen.
The first time Scarlett saw Rhett in eight years, she almost didn't recognize him. His hair was all gray, he was about thirty pounds overweight, and he looked to be sixty-five instead of the fifty-three she knew him to be. She had actually wondered how he was still living after the life he had led.
Scarlett wasn't worried about Rhett ruining her in Atlanta. He had already done his worst to her with the final blow his divorcing her. She had survived it all.
Scarlett was not worried about Rhett. Rhett would never show up at her house for she now knew that Rhett was the biggest coward she had ever known. He had been too much of a coward to ever tell her he loved her for twelve years. He had been too much of a coward to take any responsibility for the demise of their marriage. He had been too much of a coward to truly face her ever again after her fall down the stairs. He was too much of a coward to walk-up to her front door and ring the bell.
Wade walked into The Painted Lady. He had come back tonight to tell the man what he really thought of him and maybe get some answers from the man that had once been his stepfather. Wade smiled.
Wade looked at the poker table and Rhett was sitting there. Wade watched as he shuffled the cards with a lot of dexterity. When Wade walked up to the table Rhett said, "I had hoped you hadn't recognized me. I had hoped that you had forgotten all about me."
"How could I ever forget a bastard such as you?"
"Yes, I was a bastard. I was a lousy husband, a worse stepfather and even worse father."
"How could you leave us at our worst possible moment."
"That is what I do. I run away when times get hard. I told myself that you all were better off without me. I was a bad husband to your mother. I caused my daughter's death then I went on a drunken bender for three months. I had abandoned you and your sister long before that."
"No, those were not your finest moments. We were better off without you but you still shouldn't have left us."
"Since you aren't going away, sit down. Tell me what has happen to you in the last ten years."
As Wade sat down all his anger at this pathetic, broken, wretch of a man vanished. Wade knew he didn't need to tell Rhett Butler what a horrible person he was for Rhett Butler was telling himself that every day. Wade said, "After Aunt Melly's funeral, Mother got things settled here in Atlanta. She then took us to Tara. After a week, she told us you all had started the process to become unmarried. When I asked if that bastard was ever going to come back. She had smiled and said, 'No, he will not be back.' I remember asking her how she was sure that you weren't coming back. She said, "Uncle Rhett has never taken responsibility for anything, and he won't now. Rhett's response to any crisis is to run away." That made it easier to bear knowing you were never coming back. We became a family of three."
"Go on."
Wade continued, "She hired a tutor for Ella and me because we couldn't go to school. The gossip was just too bad. It worked out because we spent a lot of time at Tara. Christmas would have been horrible that year if we hadn't been living at Tara. That spring we went to Europe. I remember her saying, 'Let's find some of that charm and grace."
Rhett smiled at what Wade had said. He said, "Did she find it?"
"I believe she did. She said, 'There is such a slow charm here' which I agreed with her. I also thought it was a strange thing for my mother to say. For you know she was always a hive of activity. When we got back to Atlanta, she was a much calmer woman. When we returned in August, she formed another partnership with Uncle Ashley.
"You are joking. How could she knowingly go back into business with that incompetent fool. I guess she will always have blinders on where that man is concerned."
"No, you are wrong. Uncle Ashley has become quite respected in Atlanta for his business skills. Uncle Ashley handles the employees, and the customers and mother handles the financial side of the business."
"People skills are something that your mother does lack, and I can see Mr. Wilkes being able to handle the employees and customers much better than your mother."
"The partnership has been quite the success," Wade said with pride, "They have five stores."
"I don't understand why she runs any businesses I made her a very fine settlement."
"Rhett, don't you know? She does it because she loves running a business. She loves having a say in her destiny. She enjoys the challenge of making her businesses successful. Why did you spend so much time making money even after you had several million in the bank?"
"Because I wanted to rub it in my father's face that I was successful even after he threw me out without a penny in my pockets."
"Wasn't he dead long before you married my mother? Yet you were still trying to make lots of money when you were married to my mother."
"Yes. Besides his greatly improved business skills how is your Uncle Ashley doing?"
"You would not recognize him as the same man. He is a man with vigor and vitality. He got married again and they have a daughter. I think she is four or five. I think she is sweet, but Beau says she is a brat. I understand that. I used to think my younger sisters were brats too."
"Did you go to boarding school?"
"No, I wouldn't leave Mother alone."
"You always have wanted to protect her."
"Nobody else ever wanted to."
"No, you are wrong. Melanie Wilkes always wanted to protect her too. I never did. I thought I loved her, but I threw her to the lions, time after time. Did you end up going to Harvard?"
"Yes, I like the school, but it has been hard being away from the South."
"There is something about the South that keeps calling her sons home. As much as I want to, I can never truly leave. And Ella?"
"Ella is getting married to Raul Picard."
"Are you saying your mother is received again?"
"Yes, she is, and Ella and I definitely are received. I think her original goal was to get received enough so Ella and I were received. In the process the matrons received her also. She attends enough of the functions that she keeps receiving invitations. Quarterly she has an event at our home, at first people came for the food. Now they come for the food and the entertainment."
With a rare smile Rhett said, "Is she happy?"
"Yes, I think she is. She is happy in her relationship with Mr. Armstrong. That is her gentleman caller. They have been together for about seven years. She is happy she is so successful. With Uncle Ashley's help they built Kennedy's into a thriving business although they did change the name to Caveat Emporium. As I said they have four more locations. I know what caveat emporium means and I asked her why they named the stores that. She had laughed and said, 'Ashley and I thought it was appropriate to warn the customers. I wanted to do it because it summed up my life until your Aunt Melly's death,' Then she had smiled her smile that she smiles when she has a secret and she had said, 'Rhett would have enjoyed the irony of the situation."
Rhett smiled. He understood why Scarlett had named her stores that. He knew it was what she thought of their entire relationship. She should have been wary of his gifts and of him.
Rhett said, "I do. Why hasn't she married Mr. Armstrong if he makes her happy?"
"She said being married to you ruined her from ever doing that again."
Rhett with an incredibly sad smile said, "I certainly did ruin her."
When Wade had returned to the saloon, he had wanted to torture the man with everything that he had left behind, but he couldn't. All he felt was pity for the man in front of him. This man in front of him could have had it all but his pride and arrogance had been his downfall. Wade stood up and said, "Goodbye, Rhett."
"Wait! Why did she not go back to O'Hara?"
Wade smiled a mean smile and said, "I don't know for sure, but I suspect it was, so she never forgot that bastard that she was married to."
Rhett ignored the slight at him and quickly said, "Don't tell your mother that you found me in this bar. Don't tell her how you found me."
Wade didn't tell him that his mother already knew. He said, "Of course not. She doesn't need to know how far you have fallen."
Rhett didn't answer Wade. He turned his attention back to shuffling the cards. Rhett smiled a sad smile and thought, 'Scarlett did an excellent job raising the boy. Probably Ella too. I guess she was a better mother than I ever gave her credit for. She certainly had been right about not giving Bonnie everything she wanted.'