Chapter Nine

RHETT

As I rise in the morning, it takes me a moment to realize that it is Scarlett who I am sharing the bed with and not just that it's Scarlett, that Scarlett is happily asleep with her beautiful brown hair trailing across her cheek. She is so young at this point, so much younger than an old dog like me. I don't want to wake her. I just want to admire her as one would admire a gem from their collection or a brandy bottle from a fine year. She is here and she is beautiful and if I tell her that what would she do with it.

Yes, the fear is still there. I do fear that all of this is simply a dream and before I know it, she will stop being in love with me and the painful yearning which I am too proud to admit to will reignite. Oh, Scarlett, my darling, don't tease me like this. I take deep breaths as she opens her eyes and looks at me. She blinks again and smiles.

"Good morning, Captain Butler," she smiles to me as she reaches up to my cheek and spreads her fingers. I chuckle and press my lips down to her forehead. "I do hope you had a good sleep."

"Well, that quite depends on you," I tell her as I study her and am surprised by the deep red color of her cheeks. Did I truly make that much of an impression upon her? "Did you have a good sleep."

"Best sleep since I was a baby in my mother's arms," she says and I chuckle. I've waited for such a long time to hear words like those.

"Well, that's quite the same for me," I tell her and take a deep breath in before standing up but she reaches after me and puts her hand on my wrist. "You don't suppose that I want to get back into bed, do you?" I tease her with a lift of my eyebrow. "Why an unmarried pair in bed together, quite a scandal."

"Hush, Rhett," she says before looking down awkwardly and I have to remind myself not to be quite as cruel to her with my teasing, she is trying to soften herself and I want for that but gentle teasing should be allowed, it is for us, a passionate experience nonetheless. "We will though….at some point…be married, won't we?"

"At some point, Scarlett, yes," I promise her and I mean it. As long as things continue in this manner, we will be getting married and having children and hopefully grandchildren and holding possession over Tara which I hold dear due to how important it is to her.

"You don't mind me wearing pretty dresses, do you?" she asks with such innocence in those eyes despite the way both her soul and mine are covered in grit.

"How could I deny you especially when I get to be the man who accompanies you, the man who is able to see what is underneath those dresses. Dresses are like doll clothes to a man, they enjoy buying them to put on the beautiful women who wear them and it's an unspoken promise that the woman is wearing the clothes that man dressed her in," I tell her playfully and she smiles to that. Yes, Scarlett's mature enough to take this as teasing. If it had been Melanie, well she would have thought it obscene and crude, but Scarlett likes the real and though I don't want her to strive away from her heart, her morals, I want her to build those morals up around herself.

"You have a scoundrel's heart," she says before closing her eyes. "I guess I must count as a scoundrel myself for I do love that same heart."

SCARLETT

I only get a short time with Rhett and although he has asked me numerous times about how my parents feel with me being in Atlanta, I can't tell him the truth that I stretched my lies as far as they could go so I could see him. I'm no better than my sister with all of her fanciful half truths which anyone could see right through even if they weren't a skilled detective.

However, as joyous as our time together is, it does have to come to an end at some point. I turn to Rhett nervously as I turn a vase I found. I'll put some beautiful flowers in it the next time that I come. I clear my throat and he looks up at me.

"I have to go back, Melly….Melly's getting married," I tell him.

"Well, the natural progression of things," he tells me before nodding. "I expect the wedding is soon since those who are able to fight will be going off to that pointless war," he tells me and I sigh. It is pointless. Even before I knew how the war would end, I found it to be pointless. I don't want Rhett to go but I also don't want people to hold it against him if he doesn't. "Suppose I should join the cause too."

"Please don't," I tell him as I turn to him with a flustered expression on my face and he raises an eyebrow. "I mean, nearer the end, please. Maybe it's selfish of me but please make those investments and profit from the war as you did before. I don't need to put money and finance before everything else, before how much I do love you, Rhett, but I don't want to see you in pain or to think of you as being captured. I think my heart would break."

"And I find it very important to keep your heart safe, my future Mrs. Butler," he smiles and I can feel my cheeks redden again. "I suppose that you're not going to let Mr. Wilkes,"

"Ashley will go. He has to go. I won't change his mind on that despite how it hurts," I admit but then feel my heart beat quicken. "No, I don't think of him that way but he is still a friend, he will still be Melly's husband. I don't love him, well not in that way but…but we have shared childhood memories together."

"So, I take it that you understand you are not in love with him," Rhett says and I can sense a bit of jealousy.

I nod quickly, "Yes. Very very much so but you have to understand that even if he is only my friend, as he is now, to see a friend go off to a losing war is a very difficult thing to face. Of course it would be worse if I lost you but people have all different types of love." I hope he understands. I hope he knows what I'm saying. Please don't get the wrong opinion of me again, Rhett. I want to be loyal and faithful to you and you alone.

"Like a puppy," Rhett says and I know he holds an ill opinion of Ashley. Although I wouldn't call him a mutt, I can understand Rhett's feelings.

"Exactly, like an old beloved dog who feels like a part of the family but Rhett, you're much more to me than an animal especially a puppy dog but I'm not that liked by other women yet," I tell him and he wraps me up in his arms. "I just need to be there for Melly," I tell him and Rhett takes a deep and steady breath.

"And you know that if, after the war ends, he is offered a position in New York that is better suited for his character and his talents," Rhett says slowly. "What would you do?"

"I would tell him to go and tell him to be careful of Melly and to have her find a doctor and not push her to have more children. I would miss both of them dearly but Melly more so. I would want to write to both of them but I would be happy with you and our children and our grandchildren," I tell him shyly. I look up at him and see him smile to me.

"I do have to return to support them and their wedding. I want to be there, especially since Melly remembers such a friendship with me that I want to make true and I want to honor." I look at him and he takes my chin before kissing me again and I let my head rest on his chest. I feel as if I'm one of those maidens that they often talk about in books when he's rough with me like this. I know he is more of those muscular men who lead and take chance and change the world and I want to be a woman who one way or another changes the world.

"Do you think I should come too," he says and I pause before looking away.

"If you can find a reason to tell people why you're there," I tell him earnestly. "I know that Melly values you highly and she'd love you to be there but she'd understand if it would lead to uncomfortable questions why you might choose not to come."

Rhett smiles to me, "I'm sure that I can find a reason."

MELANIE

I feel so scared about Ashley going away again. Yes, he lived through the war but he was changed by it, everyone was changed by it. Even myself and definitely Scarlett were changed by it. But I have no voice to tell him not to go and so I need to appreciate the small things in the world such as the fact that before he leaves, we will be married and we will be joined in much more than marriage, this time India will be married to Charles and we will be joined even more but I wish that Scarlett would be there by my side.

The two women dislike each other so much and I want to stay on Scarlett's side but when it comes to my brother, I want for him to be happy and I have the feeling that he is going to die. Hopefully India will provide him happiness when she can but I have the belief that Rhett and Scarlett were meant tor each other just like Ashley and I are meant for each other.

I hear a knock on the door of my bedroom and I rise as I see Ashely there. "Ashley, did you need to speak with me?"

"I feel you might be a little sad. I didn't know that you were close to Scarlett, I didn't think Scarlett was close to any woman," he says and I frown before shaking my head.

"Scarlett has her own reasons for keeping information private but I can't speak to that and I don't blame you for your thoughts, I know she thinks highly of you but I was hoping," I take a deep breath in. "Do you have any weapons you could give to me for if the Union soldiers succeed."

Ashley takes a step back and stares at me as if I'm some kind of strange sci-fi creature. "What?" he asks horrified. My heart quickens. I shouldn't have scared him like this. Is he going to still marry me?

End of Chapter Nine

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