Disclaimer: I own nothing in regard to GWTW

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

Chapter Six

Scarlett had walked into the house and found out that Rhett's telling her that he was leaving her at Rough and Ready was not the worst news she was going to get that night. She found out her mother was dead. She found out that every slave but Mammy, Pork, Dilcey, and Old Gus had run away. She found out they didn't have any food. She found out that her sisters were in their sick beds. They had contracted Typhoid Fever like her mother.

Scarlett immediately felt the responsibility for all these people. She knew her father was going to be too grief stricken to help for a while. She was the only person available to take command and she took it. She told Pork, "Carry Melly upstairs and put her in the guest bedroom. Tell Mammy to see to her needs. She had a baby less than twelve hours ago." She turned to Old Gus and said, "Take the cow to the barn."

"She needs to be milked, Miss Scarlett."

"Then do it."

Scarlett had gone inside and found her father in the family parlor. He was drinking a glass of hooch. Surprising to her, he looked fine. She soon found out looks could be very deceiving.

She said, "Pa, what are we going to do?"

"We shall ask Mrs. O'Hara. She will know what to do."

Scarlett had turned to her father and said, "Pa, Mother…," She saw that there was no light of awareness in his eyes. She walked over and had taken the glass of hooch from Pa's hand. She had swallowed it down. It had made her cough and it had made her eyes water, but it had also made her feel a lot better. She was going to bed. Whatever other bad news there was for her to find out could wait until tomorrow for her to know.

Scarlett walked up the stairs to her bedroom. She took comfort in the familiarity of her surroundings. She sat in the chair that Charlie had slept in on their wedding night. She decided that the chair was quite comfortable. Therefore, it had been no hardship on Charlie to sleep in the chair for two weeks except that one night.

Finally, she took out a handkerchief from her chest of drawers and let herself cry. Cry for her mother, and her father, cry for what once was Tara, cry for the hardship in front of her, and cry for herself. She did not cry for Rhett Butler. In fact, thoughts of torturing Rhett cheered her up enough to be able to go to sleep.

The next day she had walked to Twelve Oaks. It had been a beautiful home. They had all been lovely, opulent, luxurious homes. There hadn't been anything of value at Twelve Oaks. Not even anything in the garden but a rotten radish. All the structures had been burned to the ground.

Tara had been lucky that Pa had enough blarney in him to talk the Yankees out of burning down their home.

They had picked cotton until their hands bled. Everyone had picked cotton. Old Gus, Pa, Pork, Dilcey, Prissy, Mammy, Careen and even Suellen. She had not felt one ounce of guilt when she had slapped Suellen nor when she had done it again. Her only regret had been that Suellen had stopped sassing her and had gotten to work therefore Scarlett hadn't gotten to slap her a third time.

It had been terribly thrilling to kill that Yankee deserter. She could easily do that again. She smiled as she remembered Melly coming with Charles's sword. She was pleased that Melly had thought about going through his pockets. He had a lot of money on him. That would probably get them through the winter. Not to mention the horse.

In November, the Yankees had shown up again. The Yankees had taken or destroyed everything the Tara residents had worked so hard to achieve including burning the cotton. Fortunately, Cathy Calvert had warned them in time to get most of the livestock especially the cow and the pregnant sow into the swamps. Those soldiers had ransacked the house. They had taken Charles' sword. She wasn't going to stop them from taking anything they wanted. After they had left, Melly came to check on her. Scarlett had cried heartbreaking sobs when she had told Melanie about the loss of the sword. Melanie had cried with her. Finally, Melly had said, "At least you are unharmed."

"I should have done more but what could I do. One woman against a band of soldiers."

"No, Darling. You did right by not standing up to them."

"Thank you, Melly. I will still feel guilty for a long time."

"Oh, Darling, I hope not."

Scarlett would not think of the sword again. It was not important to her.

Scarlett would be so glad when the war was over, and things returned to normal. She sighed when she thought, 'No, things will never return to what they once were. There will be a new normal but I'm not worried. Men will always be men.'

Frank Kennedy and his group stopped by looking for food but there wasn't any. Scarlett even begrudged them the amount they ate at supper and the next morning at breakfast.

They planted vegetables and cotton in the spring. In April they heard that Lee had surrendered. Scarlett had foolishly thought things would get better. But no. The war was over in May but again things didn't get better. The only good thing that happened was when Will Benteen had been left on their doorstep.

In August, Ashley returned. Scarlett inanely thought Ashley would be more physical help than he was, but he had not been very much help. At least he had known about running a plantation, but Scarlett had to drag all the information out of him.

Ever since Scarlett had returned to Tara the night Atlanta fell, she had asked herself at least once a week why she was working so hard to save all these people. She who normally never cared about anyone except herself. She had often thought about getting the horse and riding a way. Two things stopped her. One she may not be able to find a man who could support her, and she couldn't abandon her family. She certainly hoped she wasn't turning into a caring person. That would just be a liability.

Scarlett had been busy running Tara for the rest of sixty-four and all of sixty-five. She had been busy trying to make a success of Tara. Get Tara back on its feet in order to feed all these people. She had not been concerned about what was going on outside the world of Tara. She had been happy to let Will and Ashley deal with the outside world. It seemed to be the one thing Ashley was good at.

That cold January afternoon in early sixty-six, Scarlett found out that Ashley had let her down again. When Will returned from Jonesboro, he told her about the extra taxes. He also finally told her what the Yankees were doing in the county. She knew now that Ashley and Will had kept her in the dark about everything ugly outside her door. They had been trying to protect her, but their protection had been what had allowed her to be blindsided. She had been caught with her pantalets down because Ashley and Will had kept her ignorant of the approaching storm.

Scarlett was extremely angry. After everything she had done in the last year, she had another boulder put in front of her. Three hundred dollars for taxes! Saints alive! Where was she going to get that kind of money? Nobody in the South had that kind of money. If there was a man that had that kind of money, she could get the money out of him, but she didn't know of anyone. As she was walking around the grounds, she heard the axe as Ashley was splitting rails. He was in the orchard. She needed something to lighten her spirits. She'd have some fun teasing the honorable Ashley.

Ashley had seen her and had said, "I hear Abe Lincoln got his start this way."

Scarlett had laugh as he had intended but she thought, 'My. Doesn't he think highly of himself.'

Scarlett told Ashley about the taxes, and he had no advise. He had not even said soothing words. He had rambled on about Gods and Grecian urns. He droned on about people with brains and courage making it through these challenging times and the rest of the people being winnowed out. He droned on about his life before the war. He spoke about Melly being a dream. He talked about wanting to live his life removed from reality. He had rambled on about wanting to live a shadow puppet life. Scarlett had pitied him. When he had said that he had tried to keep her at a distance because she had been too real. She knew she had been right that day in the library even though she had just said it to emasculate him. He was a coward. She was too much woman for him to handle. He wanted a woman like Melly that he could hold at arms' length. A woman that didn't stir any great passion in him.

When she heard him mention Rhett she had heard enough of his babbling, it was time to seduce him, but she had to make him make the first move. If she made the first move, he could justify his actions by saying he had just responded to her physically because of the temptation she presented.

She made herself cry. If he thought he had made her cry, he would offer comfort.

Just as she had planned when Ashley saw the tears in her eyes, he put his arms around her. She tilted back her head and her sexuality hooked him. He kissed her with great passion. She kissed him back. She then broke off the kiss and Scarlett whispered, "Let's run away to Mexico."

"Yes, Melly will never be a real wife to me again."

Scarlett smiled a sensuous smile and said, "I was teasing Ashley. You are too much of a gentleman to ever abandon Melanie."

"Of course."

Scarlett pulled him close again and kissed him passionately once again. She felt his erection pressing into her. It was enough. She had made him forsake all honor with his acceptance of them running off to Mexico together.

She broke off the kiss and said in disgust, "Ashley, how could you betray Melly like that."

Scarlett walked back to the house from the orchard, as she did, she coldly struck Ashley Wilkes out of her mind. As much fun as it was to toy with him and his honor, she had to formulate her plan on how to get the money. She would go into Atlanta and seduce Rhett into marriage.

As she had gotten to the main house, she saw someone coming up the road. It was some people in a brand-new buggy. Was it Rhett? No! It was Jonas Wilkerson and some woman. The woman had on a pretty new stylish dress. It was Emmie Slattery.

"Hello, Mr. Wilkerson. What brings you and Emmie to Tara?"

The couple got out of the buggy and started walking up the steps to the main house like they owned it. Jonas said, "I heard about your troubles with the taxes. Emmie and I have a hankering to live at Tara."

Scarlett burst out laughing and said, "Like you two would ever be good enough to …," She knew who had raised the taxes on Tara. Jonas Wilkerson. Scarlett immediately realized that the best part of Jonas' plan was that he wouldn't have to pay the three hundred dollars in back taxes. He would just have to outbid anyone else. He could probably get Tara for a song. She continued, "I'll burn every building down to the ground before I let a Yankee and his slut live in any part of this home."

Emmie turned beet red at being called a slut. She ran back to the buggy. Jonas turned red his anger was so great. He said, "You always did think overly highly of yourself. Your high and mighty self, your snotty mother, and your idiot Irish father."

"Get off my land. It is still my land until the Yankees steal it from me."

"I will be the master of Tara one day."

"I guess I am going to have to get my gun. I believe even the Yankees cannot say I don't have the right to kill an intruder on my land. Nonetheless, it won't matter to you, Mr. Wilkerson, because you and your slut will be dead."

Scarlett didn't know what the Yankees would and wouldn't do but judging by the way Jonas was running back to his buggy she decided that he believed she would kill him.

The whole encounter had made her laugh. Yes, she would use her last five dollars to buy kerosine to burn down every building on Tara.