Thanks for all the great reviews last time! We get a little bit of the novel in this, lol. I included an actual line or two, but mention the other bits that get covered so feel free to pop into the end of chapter 47 and remind yourself.


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Part Fifteen

Mid-October

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There was such domesticity in Rhett playing with Ella in their office as Scarlett worked on the books. There was such freedom from being set loose from their business partners' roles. No longer being forced to work or appear to work during normal business hours. Estelle didn't have to shuffle Ella off and keep the child occupied.

It reminded Scarlett of her own childhood, of her mother at her desk and she and her sisters and father wandering in and out throughout the day.

"What?" Scarlett questioned as she realized she'd heard Rhett speak and it sounded as if it had been directed at her.

"We've been married five weeks."

"So it's been five days since you told me that we've been married for a month," Scarlett didn't bother looking up from the household accounts.

"35 days."

"I do know how many days are in 5 weeks," she shook her head.

"Has it slipped your notice that you're late?"

She looked up, clearly understanding what he was saying, "Barely Rhett."

"What exactly is your definition of barely my dear?"

"It's only a few days."

"My dear it is past a week, I imagine it's closer to two weeks rather than one."

"You should not be so familiar with-"

"I am familiar with all of you my dear as possibly evidenced by your missing courses."

"Why must you be so vulgar sometimes?"

"You knew who you married."

"Why though," she rolled her eyes.

"You find me irresistible, also as possibly evidenced by-"

"Oh will you stop Rhett. However, will we explain it to people that one of the few words Ella knows is," Scarlett paused as Ella was looking at her, "puppies."

He let out a loud laugh. "Your puppy has never taken this long to arrive."

"It took months during the war. It's hardly surprising with all the changes in the last month. Put the thought out of your head Rhett, I told you at least a year or two before I will even entertain the thought. The only new baby in this family will be Suellen's."

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"Would you like to go into the city tomorrow?" He asked across the supper table. They had taking to dining alone in the evening hours, far later than the children took their supper in the nursery. They no longer took all three meals with the children as they had at Tara, Scarlett had flawlessly shifted from a farm girl to an upper-class wife. The only concession she made for their location was keeping the late meal far earlier than one would find in the cities, a fact that he was sure the staff was grateful for. They kissed the children goodnight at 7 and took the meal at 7:15.

His wife dressed for dinner, so he therefore dressed for dinner. Right now, she was in a green dinner dress with lace cuffs and a broad collar, the children had nearly gotten lost in the train as they'd said good night to her. Estelle had spent at least an hour on Scarlett's hair and if he wasn't mistaken several of the curls had not been on his wife's head when he kissed her good morning. The gold band in her hair with the white feather sitting jauntily on the side was more than informing him that his wife longed for more than the country.

"Why?" was the entirety of her response before she lifted a fork of Betina's land locked take on etouffee up to her lips.

"I thought you might enjoy a night away."

"We've barely been home these last two months."

"Yes, but if we were in Atlanta you could show off your new wardrobe to more than just me and the children."

"I could never wear this in Atlanta, I'd never hear the end of it," her face took on a sour expression.

"You could do anything you want."

She gave him another look, "I would look ridiculous wearing this with Melly and Maybelle."

"But not if we socialize with some of the more well-off families."

"You mean the northerners?"

"You just had the DeVaughns and the Janssens to this very table."

"Yes, but that's different."

"And how is it different?"

"Well here they're our neighbors and there they're the-"

"Northerners?" he supplied.

"Rhett, you know how awful the Old Guard is."

"I certainly do, we'll not let them dictate our lives."

"Then why won't you let me get a carriage with a driver?"

"Our neighbors are our friends, it's an entirely different matter."

She sighed.

"Do you really want me to be the only one to see all of your beautiful dresses?"

She sighed again, "No."

"Would you like to go back to New Orleans?"

"Yes, but we shouldn't. The children missed us dreadfully."

"We could take the children."

"Well that would spoil it all," she exclaimed and then realized what she said.

He smirked. "Then we will go to Atlanta tomorrow. I'll send word in the morning to a few that we are hosting a supper-"

"At Franklin's House?"

"How do you know of Franklin's House?"

"Leticia mentioned it at your birthday."

"And what do you want to eat there?"

Her eyes went even wider, "The cream fritters in orange sauce and she said the lamb was divine."

He laughed, "Then Franklin House it is."

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"Did you have a good time tonight?" he asked sitting with his cigar and a glass of brandy as she readied for bed at the vanity.

"Oh Rhett, it was absolutely wonderful. The food was just as delectable as Leticia said it would be."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it, although I am shocked you only ordered one of each course."

"Don't think I wasn't tempted to order more. It's one thing for you to see me as gluttonous, it's another thing for all of Atlanta to know."

"We can always return or I'll steal away their chef if need be."

She shot him a look, "Don't you dare do that. Betina is a far better cook."

"Betina certainly does indulge your every whim."

"Planning a nice meal is hardly a whim."

"You're right, I'm sorry. It is an unexpected perk of having a wife. While Betina is an excellent cook, I have no doubt your influence leads to having far more variety with our meals."

"It's such a shame the DeVaughns will be leaving for months," she reflected upon the news shared with them earlier.

"Their children are already in New York; it would be irresponsible for them to remain here."

"I don't know why she's insisting on their children to go to school in the north."

"They've established a routine since the war. Perhaps they'll revise their plans as the south continues to rebuild."

She pouted.

"You like the Janssesns."

"Nowhere near as much as I like the DeVaughns."

He let out a loud laugh. "I'll secure us invitations for you to meet more of-"

"Don't say northerners."

"The wealthy."

"As in the northerners."

"Possibly. Although some are like me. Southern scoundrels."

She sighed. "Can we really go back to New Orleans in six months?"

"We can go tomorrow if you want."

"I can't just leave the children," she repeated the sentiment from the previous night.

"But you want to."

"No I don't," she went to crush the satchel of lemon verbena only to realize she was dressed in her nightgown.

"Your mother is not in our bedroom my sweet."

She hated how observant he was. "Fine, I'm a terrible mother and I have a wonderful time without them. Only then I return and they insist on making me feel guilty."

He laughed. "You're their mother. They love you."

"I know," she returned to brushing her hair.

"What happened to the woman, who never wanted to leave Tara and spent nearly every moment with her daughter on her hip or at her feet."

She paused, "Well, I'm no longer their only parent. They have two of us, so they get far more time with parents now than they did before. I hardly need to be there for everything."

"Very true."

"Oh, Rhett stop making me feel like a bad mother, you're the one that wanted to come to Atlanta."

"My dear, you are more than living up to the saintly specter of your mother. Watch how the children greet you tomorrow. You'll see you do no wrong in their eyes-" He paused, "Actually, Wade is getting older, he is certainly more aware than Ella. Wade seems to find it amusing when you are not a great woman." He took a pull of his cigar, "Why I suppose one day you may be considered an even greater mother than your own for you have not hidden so many of the thoughts we've been trained to keep tucked away that are wrong to even have, certainly to voice. You show the children you are human and what it means to be human, to be complex, not a one-dimensional doll. You are not just a wife and a mother, but a woman, your own person."

"Even when that person is spoiled and silly?"

He smiled, "Especially when that person is spoiled and silly without a true care in the world. Come sit with me for awhile and describe that dessert you did not utter a word throughout."

Scarlett smiled, forgetting where she had been in her brush strokes and went to her husband, settling herself upon his lap as she recounted the fluffy white cake with figs and brandy.

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The next morning Scarlett set off for the bookstore without her husband, oh she'd hated his smirk when she told him where she was going as he headed out to see about his business ventures before they took the early afternoon train home. Why she was very nearly tempted to buy an actual novel along with the cookbooks she wanted to pick up. Of course, knowing Rhett he'd have already read it and try to have a discussion about where she was in the book and she'd be forced to actually read it.

It was simply wonderful to be walking the streets of Atlanta in such a fine dress, the skirt short enough to show off her bronze boots, the blue dress with two flounces all trimmed in mauve, the bright white collar peaking out from under the blue of the jacket. Why she even held a bronze parasol in case the sun would come out, for the Marie Antoinette bonnet with the mauve tie and white flowers would hardly protect her skin from the sun, should it dare to peak out on the overcast day.

Rhett had of course made a comment about the style of her bonnet, reminding her the price Marie Antoinette had paid for overindulging in riches while those around her suffered. The suffering was hardly great anymore, the citizens of Atlanta were hardly suffering and starving anymore, anyway, she was sure she had suffered and starved more than most. She imagined they at least hadn't had to deal with the whining and incompetence she'd had to deal with. Starving was far worse when it was talked about ad nauseam.

Scarlett didn't give much thought to Mrs. Merriwether approaching, her only thoughts were how to escape quickly from the monotonous conversation she'd be forced to endure. Scarlett had barely been paying attention to the drivel they passed back and forth, when she heard, "I wish we had word of your engagement to Captain Butler before you went to Charleston, why we were planning on coming out to see you when you returned, only you arrived already married."

"Why ever would you come out to see me?" Scarlett spoke before she realized what she said.

"Well to warn you of Captain Butler, he's not the kind of man for any woman of good family to marry. He is a-"

"He managed to save Grandpa Merriwether's neck and your nephew's too." Not that anyone in this town had ever given Rhett the credit he'd deserved for saving so many of their men, no they had taken insult that he had drawn Belle Watling into it.

Scarlett listened as the old bat badmouthed Rhett and she had quickly reminded the woman how long Rhett had been hosted in her parlor, how he had gotten her daughter her wedding dress. The woman then called Rhett's lack of enlistment into question and Scarlett was quick to put her in her place. Suddenly the suffering she had endured when Rhett told her he was enlisting was not totally unjustified. Then that fool of a woman called him not being wounded into question, why it was if the woman had never met Rhett, he was smarter than the lot of them. He evaded the Yankees for years getting goods in and out of Atlanta, did the woman really not think he couldn't avoid getting his leg blown off?

"I don't care what you say. Rhett could have fought for the Yankees for all I care. He's an excellent husband and father. What right do you have to say anything about who I should or should not have married. My brother-in-law regards Rhett as if they shared blood, the entirety of my family in Charleston was present and more than pleased with our wedding, his mother is my aunt's best friend. My father came to get me after you all wrote to my mother to inform her that I had the indignity to dance with Rhett at the church bazaar and I refused to give up on life simply because my husband died. My father spent the evening with Rhett and chose to leave me in Atlanta. Why if my own father gave his approval of Rhett Butler in what world do you think your opinion matters in the least to me?"

The rage in the woman's face and the sharp turn she made caused her bonnet to jerk to the point Scarlett was expecting to see a rosette fly off. Scarlett knew she had made an enemy instead of a disapproving friend. It simply didn't matter. They had their life out in Clayton County, which Rhett was regarded in high esteem despite the misdeeds, which had brought him such fortune. They simply couldn't hate the richest man in the county, without him so many would be forced to live in poverty. They had their friends in New Orleans. She could learn to accept the carpetbaggers and Yankees, why anything had to be better than the old guard.

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"Did you find everything you needed at the bookstore?" he asked several minutes into his return to the suite at the National, they still had some time before they would have to leave for the train.

"I did," she nodded.

"What tempted Scarlett Butler into the bookstore? Did a Godey's or Harper's fail to find its way to Calverton?"

"I read more than that, but if you must know, I picked up a few cookbooks."

"Oh really, what else have you read recently my pet."

"Why I read Love's Queen in the Atlantic Monthly after you recited part of it to me."

"Did you really? Did you like it?"

"Not really. I can't understand why poets can't just be clearer in what they say. Why they talk like you when you're in a mood."

"When I'm in a mood?"

"Yes and you know exactly what I'm talking about, so don't you dare act offended."

"I'm not in the slightest. Perhaps I should take up poetry if I'm so naturally inclined."

"Don't you dare unless you'd like to find somewhere else to live aside Calverton."

He laughed, "So I shall bask in light's divine. That falls from my love's own guiding star."

"Whatever does that mean?"

"I suppose when I first read it I was thinking of how you insisted upon returning to Tara. Walking away from Atlanta and your businesses. You followed your guiding light and I bask in its light. We'll have to reread it together when we return home. I may have been influenced by how contented I was in the moment. Watching Wade and Ella on the floor with the dog, you were half asleep on my shoulder."

"I was resting my eyes."

"You rest your eyes nearly every time Estelle plays the piano."

"It's very soothing."

"It is. Should she ever leave us, I imagine we'll need to hire an orchestra as part of staff."

"Shall we set off for the train, I've had enough of Atlanta."

"We'll be on the platform for some time if we set out now."

"Good. Let them all see how marvelous our life is, they can eat their pride for all the judgment they've passed on us."

"While we eat Lady Cake upon our return?" he smirked.

"I got figs. Do you think we can plant fig trees this year? That awful clerk refused to tell me where they got the figs."

"I believe figs are still being grown not far from here. Not a lot. It's a temperamental thing like you. They have to be wrapped and coddled when cold weather strikes."

"Could you find some?"

"I recall a farm or two that had figs during the war. I'll start with them."

"Thank you," she kissed his cheek.

"Anything for you."

"Can we get out of this dreadful place now?"

"My dear, you are in the bridal suite of the finest hotel in town."

"This town is simply awful. I haven't the slightest idea why my father thought it was so grand."

"Whatever happened in that bookstore?"

"The bookstore was wonderful. Why the owner waited upon me himself despite there being other customers and he insisted his clerk carry my purchases back to the hotel."

Rhett imagined he'd find a stack of cookbooks nearly half of Scarlett's height. "Then whatever happened after we had such a lovely night? Did you see the Wilkes?"

"No that one interaction yesterday with Aunt Pitty was plenty. Why she acts as if I live on the moon and not a short ride from here."

He laughed.

"I ran into that dreadful old battle axe, Mrs. Merriwether."

"I imagine she continues to have numerous unkind thoughts towards me."

"She can stuff it."

He laughed again.

"Can we go?"

"Have you had our things sent down already?"

"I left your valise in the bedroom in case you needed anything."

"Then I will retrieve it and we can set out. What a shame you're not wearing that golden headdress from the other night."

"I thought I wasn't allowed to rub our wealth in our neighbors' faces."

"These people are not our neighbors, do as you wish."


Thanks for reading!

How Rhett is perceived...

Atlanta: Rhett has done nothing to change how the citizens of Atlanta perceive him.

Clayton County: He has hosted and charmed the folks out in the country, along with providing a lot of work and revenue in the town.

Scarlett's family: In this fic Scarlett stopped sending money to her aunts with Frank's death, so they will benefit financially from her marriage. They also would have gotten letters from Suellen regarding Rhett and how he was helping with Tara and the town. They also would have more discourse regarding him with his mother since Scarlett was mentioned in Rhett's letters to her.