Author's note: As I do throughout this story, there are passages in this chapter that are taken word-for-word from the book. This chapter, in particular, has quite a few quotations, and I hope you enjoy how I have altered them to fit this storyline! The musical is one of my favorite scenes to view from the perspective that R & S are aware of their feelings for each other.
Chapter 7: Impropriety
On a chilly February evening in 1863, Rhett sat patiently in his carriage outside the hospital, waiting for Scarlett. When he'd left Atlanta almost two months before, he'd sworn to himself he would not return, but like every time before, he found himself unable to stay away from that green-eyed vixen.
He didn't know what it was about her, but she had succeeded in what his father had never accomplished; he had become a gentleman. In the attempt to earn her love, he had paraded in front of the Old Guard of Atlanta as the dashing, patriotic blockade runner they wanted him to be. He'd bit his tongue, had not even kissed the hand of an unmarried girl in public, and even spent a fortune on yards and yards of white satin for that droopy-eyed Merriwether girl's wedding dress. He had been the proper Charlestonian his father had always wanted him to be. Until one night, he realized that he still acted himself when he was alone with Scarlett, and hers was the only opinion he gave a damn about.
She had done what his mother's pleading and his father's shouting had never persuaded him to do, and it hadn't taken a single word. It wasn't until one Sunday afternoon when he found himself at Sunday supper at Dr. Mead's house discussing the glorious cause that he realized he'd been trying to become a gentleman so she would become his mistress. He couldn't have run from Atlanta and her grasp fast enough. She was toxic. But as he sat in front of the hospital, he realized that every vein in his body had been poisoned by her.
He was in love with Scarlett O'Hara.
He didn't know when it had happened. It may have been when she passionately demanded her brother not marry Miss Melly or at the bazaar when she had looked up at him with eyes that dared him not to love her. But at some point in the last two years, he had fallen in love with the spoiled, demanding, high-tempered girl.
"Rhett!" Scarlett exclaimed, startling him out of his thoughts. He smiled dashingly at her and watched as she picked up her skirts and ran down the stairs to his waiting carriage. He stood from his perch smiling and jumped down to greet her.
"Oh, Rhett, I'm so glad you're here!" she exclaimed, laying her hand on his arm affectionately and smiling brightly up at him.
It felt like coming home, and that was a feeling he hadn't had in a very long time.
"It's been a terrible day, and I don't think I could bare to walk home," she said with her burst of enthusiasm running out and her shoulders sagging weakly.
Rhett took her hand and helped her into the carriage and then climbed up himself, "Bad day at the hospital?" he asked, clipping the reigns.
She laid her head on Rhett's shoulder, "My feet ache so badly I can barely stand anymore. And I have to go back tomorrow morning," she pouted.
"Well, I think I have something that will make you forget all about your feet."
"Oh, Rhett! What did you bring me?" She asked, jolting upright in her seat, energized by the idea of one of Rhett's wonderful presents.
He smiled, "Look under your seat," he said enticingly, brushing her arm with his.
Scarlett then made quite the picture, pushing her hoop to the side and practically diving under the carriage seat.
She emerged with a brightly trimmed hatbox in her arms. Throwing the top off, she squealed in delight when she pulled out a dark-green taffeta, lined with water silk of a pale-jade color. The ribbons that tied under the chin were as wide as her hand and they, too, were pale green. And, curled about the brim of this confection was the perkiest of green ostrich plumes.
"Oh, the darling thing!" she exclaimed.
"Put it on," said Rhett, smiling.
"How do I look?" she cried, tossing her head so that the plume danced. But she knew she looked pretty even before she saw confirmation in his eyes. She looked attractively saucy, and the green of the lining made her eyes dark emerald and sparkling. "Oh, Rhett, did you really bring it all the way from Paris just for me?"
"Who else could wear that shade of green? Don't you think I carried the color of your eyes well in my mind?"
She smiled, "Did you really have it trimmed just for me?"
"Yes, and there's 'Rue de la Paix' on the box, if that means anything to you."
It meant nothing to her, just at that moment, nothing mattered to her except that she looked utterly charming in the first pretty hat she had put on her head in two years. What she couldn't do with this hat! Her smile faded slightly; the line was so closely, so carefully drawn where gifts from men were concerned.
"Candy and flowers, dear," Ellen had said time and again, "and perhaps a book of poetry or an album or a small bottle of Florida water are the only things a lady may accept from a gentleman. Never, never any expensive gift, even from your fiancé. And never any gift of jewelry or wearing apparel, not even gloves or handkerchiefs. Should you accept such gifts, men would know you were no lady and would try to take liberties.
"Oh, dear," thought Scarlett, looking at Rhett's unreadable face. "Whatever are you trying to do to me?"
"I'm tempting you with fine gifts until your girlish ideals are quite worn away, and you are at my mercy," he said. "'Accept only candy and flowers from gentlemen, dearie,'" he mimicked, and she burst into a giggle.
"You are a clever, black-hearted wretch, Rhett Butler, and you know very well this bonnet's too pretty to be refused."
His eyes mocked her, even while they complimented her beauty.
"Of course, you can tell Miss Pitty that you gave me a sample of taffeta and green silk and drew a picture of the bonnet, and I extorted fifty dollars from you for it."
"No. I shall say one hundred dollars, and she'll tell everybody in town, and everybody will be green with envy and talk about my extravagance. But Rhett, you mustn't bring me anything else so expensive. It's awfully kind of you, but I really couldn't accept anything else."
"Indeed? Well, I shall bring you presents so long as it pleases me and so long as I see things that will enhance your charms. I shall bring you dark-green watered silk for a frock to match the bonnet. And I warn you that I am not kind. I am tempting you with bonnets and bangles and leading you into a pit. Always remember I never do anything without reason, and I never give anything without expecting something in return. I always get paid." His black eyes sought her face and traveled to her lips.
Scarlett cast down her eyes, excitement filling her, and she hugged her new bonnet close.
R&S&R&S&R&S&R&S&R&S&R&S&R&S&R&S&R&S&R&S&R&S
During the months when the town accepted him, Scarlett had been under no illusions about him. She knew that his elaborate gallantries and his florid speeches were all done with his tongue in his cheek. She knew that he was acting the part of the dashing and patriotic blockade runner simply because it amused him. At the beginning of 1863, however, he seemed to suddenly tire of the game and no longer try to please society, but instead seemed to mock them at every opportunity.
Though she was thoroughly aware of his insincerity, she much preferred him in the role of the romantic blockader. For one thing, it made her own situation in associating with him so much easier than it had been at first. So, she was intensely annoyed when he dropped his masquerade and set out apparently upon a deliberate campaign to alienate Atlanta's good will. It annoyed her because it seemed foolish and also because some of the harsh criticism directed at him fell on her.
It was at Mrs. Elsing's silver musicale for the benefit of the convalescents that Rhett signed his final warrant of ostracism. Every girl with any pretense to accomplishments had sung or played the piano, and the tableaux vivants had been greeted with flattering applause. Scarlett was much pleased with herself, for not only had she and Melanie rendered a touching duet, "When the Dew Is on the Blossom," followed as an encore by the more sprightly "Oh, Lawd, Ladies, Don't Mind Stephen!" but she had also been chosen to represent the Spirit of the Confederacy in the last tableau.
She had looked most fetching, wearing a modestly draped Greek robe of white cheesecloth girdled with red and blue and holding the Stars and Bars in one hand, while with the other she stretched out to the kneeling Captain Carey Ashburn, of Alabama, the gold-hilted saber which had belonged to Melanie's brother and father.
When her tableau was over, she could not help seeking Rhett's eyes to see if he had appreciated the pretty picture she made. With a feeling of exasperation, she saw that he was in an argument and probably had not even noticed her. Scarlett could see by the faces of the group surrounding him that they were infuriated by what he was saying. But as she hurried toward the incensed group, she saw Rhett bow jauntily and start toward the doorway through the crowd. She started after him, but Mrs. Elsing caught her skirt and held her.
"Let him go," she said in a clear voice that carried throughout the tensely quiet room. "Let him go. He is a traitor, a speculator! He is a viper that we have nursed to our bosoms!"
Rhett, standing in the hall, his hat in his hand, heard as he was intended to hear and, turning, surveyed the room for a moment. He looked pointedly at Scarlett, who let out a small "oh" before taking a handful of her Greek robe and pulling it out of Mrs. Elsing's grip. "Let go of me," she demanded, loud enough for everyone to hear, then ran across the room through the parting crowd. By the time she realized what she had done, the decision had been made. She had publically chosen to side with Rhett over proper Atlanta society. She did not hesitate, and she consciously raised her chin in defiance of the slack-jawed matrons.
Rhett smiled widely as Scarlett came running over to him. He draped his overcoat around her shoulders and ushered her quickly out of the house. "I believe we've shocked the Confederacy, Scarlett," he whispered, tickling her ear.
Her smile was meant only for him, "It's a little bit like blockade running, isn't it?"
Rhett kept his arm around her shoulder and held her far closer than was proper. He couldn't believe his eyes when she had run after him with no concern for what everyone would think. "Scarlett, do you know what you've done?"
"Oh, I believe I've completely ruined myself," she said, laughing. "You'll certainly have to marry me now, for no one else will have me now that I've dishonored the glorious Cause!"
Rhett laughed with her, then lifted her into his carriage. "It is truly a shame then that I am not a marrying man, my dear, for I would be a lucky man to have a woman who would cast society aside for me." His words were joking, but they resounded in his head over and over again. If only he were a marrying man…
Pitty's house was quiet, and all the lights were out when Scarlett opened the door. Following her in, Rhett grabbed her around the waist and turned her around to face him. Unable to articulate what he was feeling, he leaned down and kissed her forcefully with every bit of passion that had been building in him since he'd watched her running toward him.
Scarlett sighed, relaxing in his arms and wrapping her arms around his neck. No one else's kisses were like Rhett's, and she enjoyed every minute of them as his warm hands ran along her side. He bent down farther and laid gentle kisses along her neck. Scarlett giggled and smiled brightly, unable to contain the exciting, happy feeling that was bubbling inside her.
Rhett pulled her close to him, "Do you feel what you do to me?" he whispered in the silence of Pitty's entryway. Scarlett looked up at him, barely able to make out his features in the darkness, and he laughed. "Of course you don't," he said, leaning back down to her lips.
Rhett's hands roamed up and pushed his overcoat off her shoulders. He felt her shiver gently in his arms. For a moment, he wondered how she could be cold when he was growing warmer with every moment. He reached up and brushed his hand across her breast, and she gasped quietly into his mouth but didn't pull away. Instead, she leaned into his hand, enjoying the intimate pressure. He slipped his hand under the Greek robe and, finding her chemise, moved that away as well. He felt her naked, warm skin under his hand and kissed her deeper, wanting to explore every inch of her body.
Hearing a carriage stop in front of the house, Rhett and Scarlett pulled away from each other. Rhett pushed the curtain out of the way and saw Uncle Peter jump down to help the ladies out. "Damn," he cursed, looking Scarlett over.
She stood rooted to the ground, touching her fingers to her smiling, swollen lips, her Greek robe gaping apart. He pulled her robe closed forcefully, jolting her out of her trance. She pulled it tightly together and looked to Rhett for guidance.
"Go upstairs and change. I'll light the candles in the parlor and greet them." He said.
She nodded, still dazed, and ran up the stairs.