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Author's Notes: Thank you for all the reviews and feedback.

Chapter Thirty-Five

When Ashley got home from getting his new job at the bank, Melanie was shocked at his actions. She was shocked that he had done anything on his own. To get him to do something usually took a lot of pushing on her part. She was also mad. She didn't want her husband to be just a teller at a bank. She had been proud he was a manager of a sawmill. In her opinion a manager was a dignified enough position for her husband in this new world they were living in. It certainly wasn't as grand as being the master of Twelve Oaks but distinguished enough. What was a teller at a bank but a lackey? She also knew that was all Ashley would ever be – a teller. He would never work hard enough to even advance to Head Teller.

For the rest of the evening, she gently and covertly tried to convince him to keep his job as the manager of the sawmill. For once in their relationship Ashley was adamant about something. He was going to be a teller in a bank. He would then never have to sell wood again. He would never have to order men to do their jobs. He could go to work, wait on the customers, then go home to his books. It wasn't a perfect life, but he had decided it was pretty darn good. What's more his salary at the bank was going to be more than he was making at the sawmill. His salary had not been good at the sawmill because half of his salary had been based on the amount of profits they made. Since he rarely did better than cover cost, he rarely received more than his base pay.

In the early morning the next day, the Butlers were on a train to New York. After they arrived in the city two days later, Rhett showed them around the city again. They ate in some great restaurants. The couple took in an opera. They took the children to the circus and the menagerie. Rhett and Scarlett attended a couple of plays. One being Romeo and Juliet. As they were going back to the hotel Scarlett said, "I didn't like that play."

"Why?"

"They both died in the end."

"A lot of Shakespeare's plays don't have happy endings."

"I only want to go to plays with happy endings."

"Alright. I will see what I can arrange."

"Or at least warn me it doesn't have a happy ending."

"Alright, my love."

Rhett, Scarlett, and Wade went to a lecture on electricity. Wade who was nine didn't understand a lot of the lecture, but he was so excited about getting to do an adult outing with his parents.

The family would be traveling from New York to London. They would then travel all over Europe for the next several months.

Rhett had absolutely refused to sail out of Charleston. He had been snubbed by his mother for the last time. He had been snubbed by his sister for the last time. But more important his wife and his children would never be snubbed because of him again. Scarlett had given up so much to be married to him and because she loved him that he was going to make sure she never had to give up anything ever again.

Scarlett had taken all her jewelry with her on their trip to Europe. She loved her jewelry. Mainly because all her jewelry had been gifts from Rhett. She had taken the jewelry Charlie and Frank had given her and put it in a safety deposit box at Rhett's bank. It wasn't that valuable, but the pieces had been gifts from her two first husbands and their children should eventually inherit the pieces. The jewelry had no value to her personally, but it would mean a lot to Wade and Ella. She would give it to them when they were older.

The Wednesday after the Butlers left Atlanta, Melanie went to call on several women. She would say, "Scarlett and Captain Butler suddenly decided to go to Europe."

Most women would say, "Wow." Or "Really." But fortunately for Melly there was always one who said, "Why?"

Melanie would look embarrassed and say, "They are having trouble in the marriage. It seems that Captain Butler has still been …. Well, boys will be boys."

All the women were happy to assume the worst about Rhett Butler. These same women were gleeful that Scarlett was being shamed in this way. India was quite happy to tell everyone about Captain Butler's activities. PittyPat was no more discrete than India because the old maid was an avid gossip, and she believed the rumor about Captain Butler and Scarlett was the hottest piece of gossip that had circulated through Atlanta since the Butlers got married.

What Melanie, India, and PittyPat didn't know was that the hottest piece of gossip was Ashley Wilkes's alleged use of whores. Although the matrons and other ladies enjoyed the rumors about Captain Butler it really wasn't surprising that he would use whores after all he wasn't a gentleman. The ladies enjoyed Scarlett baring a little bit of shame because of her husband's activities but most of them secretly thought that it was a win-win situation for Scarlett. Scarlett didn't have to perform her wifely duties and she got to live a life of extreme comfort.

The gossip most of the other ladies were genuinely enjoying was the 'entirely too proper for their own good' Wilkeses' shame. Most of the other women were just a little bit tired of perfect Melanie. She was too nice, too proper, and well too goody-goody. She never did anything wrong. She didn't even complain that her husband was not providing her with a decent living which all the ladies would have understood if she had. No, instead of complaining Melanie was always singing Ashley's praises.

Maybelle Picard, Fanny Elsing, Jenny Bonner, and many others had grown up with Melanie Hamilton Wilkes and they were tired of her and her perfect ways. All their lives Melanie had been thrown up to them as a perfect young lady. Their mothers had always been saying, "Why can't you behave more like Melanie Hamilton does. If she can behave properly so, can you." Therefore, they were quite happy to learn the Melanie was not so perfect. Well, maybe she was perfect but her husband sure wasn't and that was almost as good.

The young ladies also had an axe to grind with Melanie. As a child, Melanie had always been tattling on them and sometimes even making things up about them. Of course, all the mothers believed everything Melanie said because she was such a perfect young lady.

All the ladies also knew how meager the Wilkes household budget was despite the lavish party Melanie had thrown for Ashley's birthday. All the ladies knew by having seen the inside of the Wilkeses' home that the Wilkeses household budget was even more meager than they had thought. The ladies also thought it had been extremely foolish for Melanie to throw such a lavish party when they could barely pay their bills. Mrs. Meade often complained that Melanie owed the good doctor an outrageous amount of money, but Dr. Meade would never turn the woman away when she needed medical care. After the ladies finished talking about Mr. Wilkes's activities and Melanie's shame they would always sigh and say, "But in truth who can really blame him because of Melanie's condition."

Everyone else would say, "True. True." While trying not to laugh.

Melanie kept that gossip going by continuing to talk about it. Talking badly about Rhett and Scarlett was just about the only joy in her life. Unfortunately for Melly, every time she brought up Captain Butler's misdeeds it reminded all the other ladies of Ashley's misdeeds. The matrons and other ladies wanted to talk about the Wilkes' rumor much more than the rumor about the Butlers.

After a month, Melanie was not a happy woman. Unbelievable to her, Ashley was incredibly happy with his job as a teller. India was as sour as a lemon. Beau couldn't seem to remember his sounds. Aunt PittyPat and her vapors made Melanie want to scream. Scarlett had sold Hugh Elsing the store. According to Fanny, Scarlett had made it possible for Hugh to buy the store by allowing him to pay for it over time. Furthermore, Scarlett had sold it to Hugh at an incredibly low price. Fanny said, "She practically gave it away to Hugh. I guess she wants to spend more time keeping an eye on Captain Butler." But the worst part of Melanie's life was that she felt like all the other ladies were laughing at her. She didn't understand why she felt that way or what they would have to laugh at her about, but she certainly did. Especially when some of the other young ladies gave her amused smiles.

Sourly at night she would think, 'This is not the life I was intended to live. I should have been living Scarlett's life. I have always felt so smug that Ashley married me instead of her but maybe in truth Scarlett was the lucky one to not be married to Ashley Wilkes.'

On the ship to London, Rhett asked Scarlett, "Do you want to visit Ireland again?"

"No, once was enough. I do want to go back to Paris and Florence."

"I will take you there. First, we will go to Scotland then to Paris then to the Cote d'Azur. We can go swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. Then onto Milan and we can go see another opera. Then Florence and then Rome."

Scarlett smiled at Rhett's excitement. It was refreshing to see. She said, "That is enough for now. I have the perfect dress to wear to the opera."

"We might go see two or three."

"Alright. I can wear my sapphire parure, my emerald parure and then just my tiara."

Rhett smiled at her and said, "You can wear whatever you want or nothing at all in our bedroom."

Rhett and Scarlett were on the deck taking a promenade. The children were all in bed except Wade. He was in the common room with his book. Mammy was with the children, so the couple had all the time in the world. It was refreshing to be able to openly show their love for each other.

Rhett stopped Scarlett in the shadows and kissed her with a very passionate kiss. She kissed him back just as passionate.

The family arrived in London and checked into the Savoy Hotel. Rhett said, "Let's go eat at Wilton's tonight."

"Fine but no oysters. I'm too worn out from the ship voyage to do all that activity.

"Me too."

That made Scarlett giggle. She said, "You are too worn out to engage in …."

"I didn't say I was that worn out. I'm not dead. I said I'm too worn out to do all the activities we engage in when we eat oysters."

Rhett took the family to Scotland and Scarlett liked the scenery and the weather. It was June by then and the high for the day was sixty-two. The family had bought light weight jackets because of the cold. Wade said, "Dad, this sure beats the heat of Georgia."

"It certainly does."

Mammy and Rhett thought Scarlett was silly when she insisted that Genie and Ella wear a long sleeve dress and tights every day so the girls would not be cold. She also made her daughters wear a sweater every day. Rhett didn't overrule Scarlett but if the little girl took off her sweater, Rhett made Scarlett not put it back on her.

After a week of touring Scotland, Scarlett saw some men in kilts and wanted to leave the country immediately. Rhett said, "It is their custom. There is nothing wrong with it."

"There will be a lot wrong if you ever decide to wear a dress."

Rhett laughed and didn't respond. The family soon left Scotland to head to Paris.