Chapter 14: Repeating History

As soon as he had received Scarlett's telegram, Gerald O'Hara rode as fast as his old nag would carry him the 25 miles to Atlanta. His Katie Scarlett had done some terribly rash things in her 19 years, things that had worried Gerald and Mrs. O'Hara, but never had he expected his eldest daughter to marry on a whim – and a scalawag such as Butler to boot.

Tara had been in an uproar when the telegraph had arrived. "Marrying Rhett Butler Friday Noon Atlanta Please Come Love Scarlett" It had said little but left no doubt as to Scarlett's intentions and her determination.

With Mrs. O'Hara and the girls in sick beds, Gerald had saddled a horse and raced like the devil to Atlanta to stop his daughter from whatever ruin she was about to bring upon herself. Gerald liked Rhett Butler, but as a drinking partner, not a son-in-law.

Mrs. O'Hara also liked the man. When she had allowed Butler to call on Scarlett at Tara, Mrs. O'Hara had said she knew Captain Butler was a kind man because she had known him so long ago, but she had been very weary when they had learned of the gossip from the bazaar two years later. She had sent Gerald straight away to collect Scarlett, telling him, "She's so headstrong, Mr. O'Hara. If she develops a fancy for Captain Butler, I don't think she could keep herself from ruin."

Gerald knew that Scarlett was a good girl, but she was too passionate and more driven than a gently bred lady ought to be. He knew that if she thought herself in love, she would make that man the center of her world and would not let anything – or anyone - stand between her and what she wanted.

When Gerald reached Pitty's house, he banged on the front door with his thick fist, loud enough for all the neighbors to hear.

Scarlett opened the door only a few moments later, and seeing her father, her face broke into a large grin. "Pa!" she exclaimed, throwing herself into her father's arms. "Oh, Pa! I'm so glad you made it! Where's Mother?" she asked, looking behind him, expecting to see her mother's carriage rolling up the road.

"Your mother and sisters are at home abed with the fever."

Scarlett stepped back, out of her father's arms, "Mother's sick?" she asked in a childlike voice.

Gerald put an arm around her and walked into the house, "No worries, puss, she's just a little sick."

"So you're the only one who came for my wedding?" She asked slowly, her shoulders dropping in disappointment.

"No, I'm here to bring you home," he told her sternly. "I'm not gonna have you a'marryin' that war profiteer! He's no gentleman, and whatever fancy you have for him just isn't proper."

In a flash, Scarlett became angry, but just as quickly, she turned her charm full force on her father, "Now Pa, don't be silly-" she said in a sugar-sweet voice.

"Oh no, that won't be a-workin' on me this time, don't even try to charm your way outta this, Katie Scarlett. I'm a'takin' you home to Tara today, and you won't be havin' a wedding."

Not bothering with the Southern belle simper again, Scarlett's eyes glowed green and fiery, "I'm marrying Rhett today, and you won't be able to stop me! I'm 19-years old, Pa, plenty old to make decisions on my own, and I've already made this one. I won't let anyone - even you Pa – stand in my way."

"You'd turn your back on your family and everything you know for this skunk?" Gerald asked, his own Irish temper raising his voice.

Scarlett raised her chin in defiance, "If need be."

Gerald's face turned red, and he snatched his hat off his head and threw the pathetic thing on the ground, "He's not fittin'!" he yelled. "He's not respectable, and he's a war profiteer!" Gerald looked directly into his daughter's eyes and lowered his voice to a low, warning voice. "He's sly and cunning, Katie Scarlett. He'll bring you down to his level and ruin your whole family right along with you."

"Oh, Pa, can't you see how he's just like me?" Scarlett asked desperately, begging her father to understand. "He's so determined and bull-headed, and he sees right through all my tricks to what I am. He loves me Pa!" she said, grabbing hold of her father's sleeve. "We're like two sides of the same coin. Rhett says we belong together because we're the same sort. I feel like without him, I'd never be quite right – there would always be something missing from me without him. He knows me for what I am and loves me because of it."

Gerald shook his head sadly, "You're so young, puss, you don't know what i'tis to love." Scarlett tried to protest, but he quieted her. "I'm a-goin' to talk to this Butler fellow an' tell 'im I don't approve of your marryin'. If he be any kind of gentleman, he'll abide by me wishes."

"No, Pa, please!" she cried desperately. It had taken months for Rhett to propose, and Scarlett felt sick that her father would give him a reason not to marry her. Tears prickled her eyes, and her stomach did flips. "Please don't," she begged.

"Pack up your things. We'll be leavin' for Tara after lunch," he said with finality before walking out the door.

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Rhett knew exactly why Gerald O'Hara was calling on him at the National Hotel on his wedding day. He laughed at his reflection in the mirror when he thought about the irony of a father coming to demand Rhett not marry his daughter when more than a few fathers had demanded just the opposite at one point or another in his life.

"But none of them was Scarlett O'Hara," he thought with a smirk, fastening his cufflink.

Rhett walked down the stairs and found his future father-in-law fidgeting in the lobby. "Hello, Mr. O'Hara! It's good to see you on such a happy occasion," he said, greeting the man with confidence.

"Hello, Captain Butler, but I'm afraid t'won't be such a 'appy occasion when you year what i'tis I've come to say."

Rhett smiled at the man waiting, not about to make the conversation any easier for him.

"I don't approve of ya marrin' my Katie Scarlett," he said in a rush. "I've come to collect her home."

"And how does Scarlett feel about all this?" he asked, leisurely taking a seat in the lobby.

Gerald O'Hara looked uncomfortable but sat down across from Rhett, "Well, she fancies herself in love with you, but t'will pass."

Rhett chuckled, envisioning Scarlett's heated reaction to her father's plans to bring her home. "I get the feeling that Scarlett wasn't very receptive to your plans," he said, pulling out a cigar and offering one to Gerald. "Because if she had listened, you would have sent a note. You wouldn't have come here yourself. But then again," he added smiling, "we both know that's not Scarlett."

Gerald appraised the man sitting across from him. He looked confident, but after Scarlett's passionate declarations of her love, Gerald knew Butler had the upper hand. "She's me daughter," he said. "I won't see you bringin' 'er down into the gutter with you."

Rhett nodded his head, glad they had reached the point of the matter. "I can guarantee you, Mr. O'Hara, I love your daughter. I'm going to marry her today and do everything in my power to make her happy until the day I die. I hope you'll give us your blessing, but I think Scarlett will marry me without it. I just hope it doesn't come to that," he said honestly.

"You're wrong, Butler, she may be strong-willed, but she's a good girl. In de end, she'll do as she's told."

"At what cost?" Rhett asked, looking the older man in the eye. "I know what it cost Ellen."

Gerald sat up a bit straighter at the mention of his saintly wife. "I can't say I know what you mean," he said hesitantly.

"I knew your wife long before you did, Mr. O'Hara. The woman I knew was carefree and passionate, not unlike your daughter." He said with a pinch of warning in his voice.

"Mrs. O'Hara is a wonderful mother and a loyal wife!" he protested.

"Mrs. O'Hara is a fine woman, but Ellen Robillard was outspoken, bold, and spirited. Some may assume that Scarlett's temperament comes from her Irish heritage, but she is the spitting image of her mother. Or at least who her mother was before her father broke her."

Gerald was at a loss for words, and Rhett took that as a good sign and continued.

"The woman I knew growing up fell in love with a man who her father did not believe was suitable for her. He said Pierre would bring scandal on the family. He was probably right, but when Old Man Robillard sent Pierre away, Ellen was never the same." Rhett leaned forward in his chair and told Gerald in a warning voice, "She never forgave her father for keeping him from her. From what I hear, she still doesn't speak to him."

Gerald sat in shock that the man in front of him would say such things. They were true, every one of them. He knew Mrs. O'Hara was content but not happy. She lived every day as her duty, and while Gerald worshiped the ground she walked on, he couldn't bare to deprive his favorite girl of the chance at happiness that his own father-in-law had denied his wife.

Gerald let out a long-suffering breath, "You promise you'll make 'er happy?"

Rhett nodded his head, not willing to break the tense truce the two men had forged.

Gerald nodded, "And you'll take care of 'er?"

"Until the day I die," he said with sincerity.

"Well then, it would seem I have a wedding to attend," Gerald said, standing from his seat slowly. "And so do you, boy. You had better not be late."

"Sherman himself could not keep me away," smiling, he reached out to shake Gerald's hand.

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Scarlett paced nervously from one end of her room to the other, formulating her plan. She couldn't leave Atlanta because Melly was practically bedridden, and her father would never dream of leaving Melly alone in Atlanta carrying his grandchild. It would be easy enough to convince him to let her stay in Atlanta, but she wasn't sure she could go against her father's wishes and marry Rhett. She loved Rhett because he was the other piece of herself, but she loved her father as well. How could he force her to choose one man's love over another's?

She walked to the window and looked out in the direction of the National Hotel. She prayed feverishly that Rhett would still want to marry her and not be dissuaded by her father. If he got cold feet because of her father and changed his mind about marrying her, she didn't know if she could bare it. She couldn't imagine losing him again. She remembered all too well the emptiness she'd felt after their fight about that Watling creature. She'd been numb for months, not caring what happened around her. She had been so caught up in her head and devastated by the hole in her chest Rhett had left her with.

When she finally saw her father ride up the road, she ran from the room and down the stairs, flinging the door open for him.

"Did you talk to Rhett? What did he say? Will he still marry me?" she asked in a rush, not letting her father speak.

Gerald looked at his flustered daughter, and a smile came to his lips, "Surely, no daughter o' mine is wearing that dress on her wedding day? You need to be gettin' ready. It's after ten now."

Scarlett stood with her mouth agape for a moment before throwing her arms around her father, "Oh, Pa! Thank you! Thank you!"

"Aye, aye, now go on and get dressed. Captain Butler assured me he'd be on time."