Guys it's always going to be Gerald Butler and window instead of widow. Haha. If you ever see it as Gerald O'Hara, realize that 1. That took several reads before I saw that it was Gerald Butler, 2. Someone else told me before you (to be noted you have all told me in "Insignificant Moments" I have yet to export that chapter and find the scene) and I already changed it, 3. Wait two paragraphs and it will be Gerald Butler. Keep up the good work telling me. Also every time you see widow…I have typed window at least twice before getting it right.

Um your reviews were too nice. Now I'm worried I'll do something you'll hate. Thanks sooooo much for the super kind reviews.
PS- Frank's sister gets a name in this scene, report in if she has a name in the book and the Pansy O'Hara blog failed to find it.


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Part Five

Late April 1868

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"I hate that woman," Scarlett said as she sat in the wagon with Ella upon her lap and Wade in between her and Rhett.

Rhett gave a look down at Wade and with a simple shake of his head and the look he gave the boy, the boy was sure not to repeat his mother's words. "Then why on Earth did you invite her to dinner, Scarlett?"

"I have no choice, she's Ella's aunt. Oh why couldn't she live further away or be like Melly? Why does Melly live in Atlanta and Mrs. Murphy live in Jonesboro?"

"I imagine because you invited the Wilkes to move to Atlanta with the offer of employment."

She gave Rhett a harsh look, "It was the sisterly thing to do. Ashley would have moved Melly and Beau north."

"And why my dear would that have been bad."

"The north Rhett," was all Scarlett said in terms of her defense. "Can we please get back to the matter at hand? That woman blames me for ruining her brother and causing his death?"

"Does she now?" The woman had certainly not given that impression, she wasn't overtly warm, but never was she cold.

"She certainly does and I suspect that she thinks she should have been given more than she was when I sold the business."

"You gave her funds?" Rhett was taken aback by his money hungry Scarlett freely giving away funds, she had seemed more than put out supplying funds to her own family.

"Well, of course, I gave her money, she no longer had Frank in case of any trouble. I made it very clear though that was all I could spare. Why I have two children to raise."

"You do," he nodded.

"She just looks at me every time like I'm responsible for it all. I mean how long did Frank even have? He wasn't exactly healthy. No healthy man gets gout and he'd have nothing if I hadn't been around to take care of the store."

"I can't disagree."

"I gave him a child. I even gave him a child with his awful hair. A daughter of all things with his hair. Why she's going to spend her life like Suellen shying away from unflattering fabrics. I will have to teach my daughter that certain colors make her look worse, what a horrible fate, to be bound by your looks in such a way."

He gave Ella a look, he could see the whisps of her short hair peeking around her bonnet. He didn't imagine it would be that many shades, it wasn't a glaring red, more of a muted strawberry blonde and with her soft green eyes that were far closer to blue than her mother's. Her old man face had been replaced with that of a sweet little girl during the time he had been away. She shouldn't be in glaring colors anyway; she was meant to wear soft sweet dresses. "It sounds as if you have given the matter some consideration."

"I had no choice but to every time I see her in Suellen's arms."

Rhett bit back his laugh. "My dear are you sure that in your desperate need to avoid Hell, you didn't run straight into it?"

She turned and gave him a glare.

"Say the word and we can go anywhere. Somewhere so new and far the ghosts won't be able to haunt you."

It was so tempting. It always was. The idea of a fresh new life with Rhett without the burdens of her past. Without Ashley's betrayal. The rash decision to marry Charles Hamilton, she had married him to be rich and far away from the memory of Ashley's betrayal, that had failed miserably. Scarlett could never outrun Frank, the cruelty she'd shown for her sister and he, the meanness he'd had to endure the last year of his life from her. Every time she saw Ella, Scarlett saw the person she had become. Ella didn't know what she embodied: her grandmother's name who would have been horrified by her mother's actions, her father's hair, reminding Scarlett of all the times she had been so very mean and made his life so hard, until her actions ended up taking his life, the faint traces of Suellen in the way Ella's eyes were set and the slope of her nose, Scarlett had stolen away her sister's love.

Ella had no idea how hard it was some days just for her mother to be with her when all she wanted to do was lock that period of her life away. Scarlett knew that she couldn't, that was her penance, not the country, not Tara, but Ella. All the love, attention and compassion that she didn't give Frank or Suellen, she had to give to her daughter, as hard as it was. She had never wanted children, but she'd had them. She had no desire to sit and hold a child for hours, but she had no choice, but to.

"Why fiddle dee dee that is exactly what ghosts do."

"Give me a chance to banish them."

He couldn't not without banishing the children. It was such a enticing thought, not to banish them entirely, but perhaps just a bit less of them. Some time away from the proof of her sins. No, no, she couldn't do that. She didn't say anything.

"Let me make it easy for you my sweet after all the hard years."

It would be so nice to be the lady of a grand house, to have nannies for the children and maids for the chores. To be back in a city, back where they still laughed and danced.

She didn't dare look at him, she knew if she looked at him it would be even easier to succumb. He had been nothing like the boys of her youth, he had a face that had seen the world and lived it, his broad shoulders that could carry anything. His clothing no matter how fine or dandy could never hide the man that lay beneath it, she could see the strength in his hands, she imagined he could crush a skull with the force of his hands alone. The idea of that alone so comforting. To finally be safe. To be protected by someone. Like Big Sam. Rhett could pull her from the worst moments, keep her safe.

"I can't," her voice was low, nearly a whisper.

"You can Scarlett, you're not bound to the punishment you've sentenced yourself to. Just look at Ella. You might have acted selfishly, but she's the outcome Scarlett. Whatever bad things you think you've done, she's good and she wouldn't be here without them."

"Oh Rhett, enough of this serious talk," she changed the tone of her voice to light and dismissive, "we were having such a lovely day until we saw Mrs. Murphy."

"Fine my dear, we shall table this for another day," he paused and thought about threatening her that he wouldn't wait around forever. No, he wouldn't do that. Not with his impulsive girl, she'd be just as likely to send him away as she would be to pull him close.

He gave a look over to Scarlett her simple straw bonnet, raven locks tucked neatly into a low chignon, a simple and sturdy peach dress. Looking at her quickly she looked almost like a simple country wife and mother, especially as she held Ella on her lap.

It wasn't enough. He knew that, he knew her. As much as she wanted it to be enough, it never would be. She was meant for larger things, grander things, far more grand than could be found in Clayton County even before the war. If only she would let him give them to her.

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April 30th 1868

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"Have you figured out when your next anniversary will be?" Suellen asked approaching Scarlett's desk, where Scarlett sat with Ella in her lap and Ella's dog's ear in the little girl's mouth.

Scarlett bit her tongue, physically, she bit her tongue in order to stop from lashing out at her sister, while sitting at their mother's secretary. Suellen had been in a mood all afternoon since Scarlett and Rhett had returned home. Ella was fussier and certainly clingier than normal because of a tooth starting to break through and Suellen had been more than put out at having to deal with the toddler all morning. It was on the tip of Scarlett's tongue to reply that her next anniversary would be in January and remind Suellen at how easily her beau returned to courting Scarlett instead of her. "I've told you, I'll not marry again."

"You without a man is like a spring with no rain. Why I'm amazed you lasted the full year of mourning this time."

Scarlett was hardly fool enough to bring up that it had been nearly five years between Charlie dying and marrying Frank. She knew for certain Suellen would bring up how Rhett had made her a spectacle a year after Charles as well.

It was taking everything within Scarlett to be like her mother and not her father. The fact that she had ended up napping with Ella when the little girl had refused to go down for her nap and Scarlett had eventually resorted to laying down with Ella in her large bed, why the nap should have put her in a good mood but it hadn't. She was just as put out as Suellen, she hadn't wanted to return home from Calverton, not while so much was going on. So many details to go over, so many plans to make and revise. She had been forlorn standing on the veranda with Ella on her hip watching Rhett ride off to return to their business.

"Did you need me for anything aside from idle chatter? I was working?" Scarlett asked dismissing her sister before she could make any of the numerous cruel retorts spinning in her head.

Scarlett didn't smirk as she watched the displeasure cross her sister's face, she was infinitely proud of herself and thought her mother would be as well. Suellen gave a fumbling response as she was given the cut by her sister. She turned back to her books.

The smile emerged a few moments later as she heard her sister's shoes going down the hall.

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May 1868

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"No one needs to know the house is done," Scarlett said as she was caught up in Rhett's arms as they were out for a walk. Ella was down for her nap and Wade was at school and they had taken the opportunity to be alone despite Mammy and Suellen's disapproving looks.

He debated lifting her up and pinning her against a tree to put her at his level to allow their bodies to align as God intended. "My dear every night I grow precariously closer to breaching my own already low morality and stealing down the hallway to your room and I respect Mr. Benteen far too much for that."

"Do I need to lock my door?"

"A lock couldn't keep me out Scarlett," he promised.

Why did that thrill her so? She felt her toes leaving the earth and suddenly she was being held higher to Rhett, his arms shifting so they rested under her bottom, she should yell, truly she should, but it was so wonderful to be the one leaning down to kiss him, not straining up.

They kissed for some time before she heard, "My dear I'm about to lay you down upon the grass."

"You'll dirty my dress."

"If you'd allowed me to carry the blanket-"

"Then Mammy would know-"

He wanted to tell her that he had no doubt that woman knew what her eldest charge got into, but it was almost sweet how Scarlett still wanted to make her mammy proud. He decided he would hide blankets throughout the property. "Do allow me a bit more."

"What-" her words were lost as she suddenly shifted as he took her weight onto one arm and moved his free hand over the buttons down her dress. She should stop him, she thought with every button he easily undid. She didn't though instead her head fell back as his lips fell upon her flesh, eventually her head fell forward, their dark hair entwining with each other, her hands tore through his hair as they shared hungry kisses.

No thoughts of Mammy or her mother. Of penance or propriety. It was just them. There was no room for anything, but them.

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"I don't know why you won't just marry him," Suellen said after Scarlett snapped at Prissy. Only days after Rhett had moved out, he had gone out of town to see about a horse and a manager. He would be gone over a week. Far longer than the three days he'd been gone the month before when he had gone to see about his ward.

"What are you talking about?"

"Even a blind fool would know what I'm talking about," Suellen told her sister without any humor, Scarlett's poor mood had grated on everyone's nerves.

"You know I have no interest in marrying again."

"Are you planning on becoming his mistress?" Suellen asked.

"Suellen!" Scarlett's eyes were wide with shock and horror. The audacity of her sister to say such a thing.

"How many ways can this possibly end? Even your beaux when you were a girl got bored of waiting."

"I got married," Scarlett dryly pointed out.

"You weren't even married three months."

Scarlett despised the fact that her sister had developed a backbone since her marriage, she had complained before, but she never really stood up for herself or anything else. "They were fighting a war and I went to Atlanta."

"Atlanta is hardly that far," Suellen pointed out.

Scarlett hadn't really thought about that. Several of her beaux had found themselves at home in the years after Charlie's death, Brent had even decided to court her sister instead of seeking her out.

"You showed them you never gave a fig about any of them when you married Charles Hamilton after an afternoon. Those boys had been courting you since you were 14. They barely even tried to talk you out of it."

No, they hadn't. There had been none of their normal adoring and persistent ways, no one had tried to fight Charles. They had mostly just let it happen, they had said some words and given her a few looks, but she had been far too caught up in everything to pay any attention to them.

"Someone has to remind you of the reality. Either you marry Rhett before he bores of you or someone else will end up with your gothic revival, if he even bothers to build it."

Scarlett felt the words upon her lips, about to ask her sister when she had turned so mean and cruel, but before they left her mouth Scarlett realized she had been the one to turn Suellen into the cold woman before her now.

"You won't do better than Captain Butler."

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"This is a wonderful surprise," Rhett said as Scarlett pulled up to the house at Calverton with Ella in her arms.

"This has been an exhausting trip," Scarlett said as she handed the reigns to Rhett, "thank god the horse is so old, I barely need to use the reigns."

He let out a laugh as he tied the lone horse to the pole before stepping back to retrieve Ella.

"Fiddle dee dee, you may think it's funny, but you can carry her back to the house on your horse later like you do Wade. I'm certain Will can devise something to keep her in place," she handed off the increasingly mobile toddler.

"Scarlett if you commandeer Iris' highchair for Ella, we will never hear the end of it," he offered her a hand out of the wagon.

"Well I hadn't even thought of that, I was thinking of just binding her with some rope," she paused, "fabric."

He laughed again, "Now none of this explains why Ella is here now, not that I'm not delighted to see her."

"Suellen insisted I bring her; she says that I am already shirking my responsibilities by coming here instead of tending to things around the house and that they can't take care of Ella and the house. Why there are only eight rooms open in the house, nine if you include the entryway."

"It is a rather large entryway, perhaps we should call it an even 10."

She gave him an annoyed look, "There's hardly that much to do in the house. We weeded the garden the other day, there's practically nothing to tend to out there. How am I supposed to take care of Ella, while taking care of correspondence, doing the books and talking to the builder," she didn't make note or mention of the fact that her daughter remained in Rhett's arms, "she has no concept of work towards the future, why if it's not the here and now she can't even begin to understand it." Scarlett also didn't make note of the fact that he was more than capable of dealing with the builders and the workers now on site and that she had been the one who decided the books and correspondence needed to be taken care of at Calverton and had insisted they set up an office in what had once been a parlor on the first floor of the house.

"Not to worry honey," he smiled, "I hired a housekeeper just the other day."

"A what?"

"A housekeeper, that's what they call the Mammy's of the house over in England, someone to keep the house organized, deal with the staff."

"That's why I'm here Rhett, why would you need someone else to deal with the staff."

"For the house Scarlett, not the stables. I'll need someone to deal with the maids and meals and all the other intricacies I am sure come along with having a house that I have no interest in undertaking."

The idea of this bothered Scarlett more than she cared to admit even to herself. "You cannot trust a servant with the household funds without diligent oversight."

"I will review the accounts weekly my sweet."

"Did you get an old widow or something, I've barely met a servant who could keep records."

"No, a young maid from the Beaumont Plantation."

Oh she knew exactly who he got, "Let me guess the one that plays the harp," Scarlett seethed, recalling the whisper in her ear from Suellen that Scarlett should be thankful the entire county knew of the girls colored mother or Scarlett herself would have no beaux.

"I am unaware if Estelle plays the harp, we can ask her, I take it you are acquainted with that family."

"The entire town is well aware of that family." Scarlett spoke with disdain.

"Do be nice Scarlett," he nodded at her as he walked into the house, Estelle, the young and exceptionally beautiful maid was not the one that had greeted all guests with the harp, the day of Paul Beaumont's first party after his father's passing.

"Estelle, this is my business partner, Scarlett Kennedy, I expect you to follow her orders as if they were mine."

"Of course, Captain Butler, pleasure to meet you Mrs. Kennedy."

The gall of that woman, why she made them sound as if they were peers. Scarlett gave a weak smile.

"Mrs. Kennedy wondered if you played the harp," Rhett added.

"No, sir. My sister, Aveline plays the harp. I play the piano."

"Do you really?" Rhett questioned.

"Yes, my sisters and I all received instruction in music to entertain the family."

"Four sisters?" Rhett questioned.

"How kind of you to recall Captain Butler."

"And one brother?"

"Correct sir."

Scarlett wanted to laugh out loud. All of the county knew that she had more than five siblings, since Jonathan Beaumont had three children before Estelle's mother had been purchased.

"This is one of Mrs. Kennedy's children, Ella. The ones I informed you would occasionally be under your care."

"I already cleaned the nursery for her," Estelle smiled and held out her arms.

That traitorous daughter of hers went right into the woman's arms.

"We'll be in our office you need us," he nodded at Estelle before the woman moved to take the stairs.

Scarlett's mind roared at the discovery. She'd always known exactly the type of man Rhett Butler was, or not exactly since he had shocked her more than once with suggestions of being his mistress, but the idea that he'd, why that he'd take a mistress under the roof he lived in while courting her and he expected her to conduct business with his mistress taking care of her daughter. The gall. That egotistical, narcissistic- The door closed behind them, the moment she normally looked forward to when he would take her into his arms and they would be alone from the world for just a few minutes. The RAT.

"I supposed I should be relieved that you've given up on the idea of me as your mistress and we can focus on being business partners," she kept her voice cool.

"A marriage is a business of sorts."

Her head cocked, "What type of desperate woman do you take me for that I'd accept my husband's mistress under my own roof?"

"Why, now Scarlett, are you jealous of my housekeeper?"

"Of course not, but folks won't stand for it Rhett, they will run you out of town." And she'd be holding the largest torch.

"Oh now calm down Scarlett, you're overreacting."

"Have you forgotten already the Atlanta's opinion of Belle Watling?"

"I believe half the town is very fond of her."

She dug her nails into her palm, "I think I'll take the books home, Suellen is right I've been shirking my share of the chores," she went to turn.

"Come now Scarlett," he said easily catching her at the waist. "You're overreacting."

"You installed a mistress in your home."

"She's a housekeeper my sweet."

"I don't believe that for one second."

"The girl was looking for a job in Jonesboro, after meeting her last employer-"

"He wasn't her employer, he was her brother, her mother was his father's mistress. He installed her as a house slave while his wife was still alive."

"Now Scarlett that might be crass, but it's hardly uncommon."

"She was bred to be one thing Rhett and I can tell you it wasn't a housekeeper."

"I imagine she was raised to be a wife, the same as your parents tried to raise you to be. She would have likely been a gens de couleur libres if her father lived past her 15th birthday."

"So you do know who she is?"

"The town folk were more than eager to gossip."

"I'll not stand for this; I'll not stand for her in your home."

"Honey," he said with a smile, "I must admit, I rather like your jealous side. Oh I do enjoy how riled up you get at the builder or the workers, certainly how excited you get over how Calverton is progressing. But this, there is some innate selfish male pleasure at watching the fire in your eyes-"

"I am not jealous."

"Oh yes you are my dear. Why I do believe this is one aspect of your youth that I tend to overlook."

"Because you thought I was old."

"I thought you'd seen far more of the world and men than you had. This," his hand his hand along the front of her dress, "what lays between us is far more than what lays between most. You might have thought it were just your husbands and your beaux, but you could have laid with dozens and not found what we have."

"And what do we have?"

"We are two parts of a whole my dear. We are so alike and perfectly suited. That is why it feels so good with us." He pulled her even tighter to him and his hand dropped even lower and pressed into the most intimate part of her as he had taken to do often unexpectedly.

She would hate what it did to her later, right now she just wanted it deeper and her hips rocked with the movement of his hand.

"Do you need me to tell you, I would never stray, if I could have you, I would remain in your bed for always?" His voice low as her body moved against his, feeling the strength and hardness of him.

Yes. She wanted to say yes. Yes to it all.


Thanks for reading!

PS- Pretty sure I lost a couple of you with this chapter.