Chapter 68

"Mother!" called out Ella, poking her head of her playroom and tapping the door with her left foot so that the door knocked against the wall with an annoying sound. Scarlett was just then coming up the stairs and she frowned at the noise.

"Ella, if you want something from me, you must come close to me and ask. You shouldn't stand so far away and yell- it isn't polite-"

"Sorry, Mother-" Ella two a few steps down the staircase and then for some reason leaped two steps at a time and landed on the hem of Scarlett's dress. She looked up and grinned and took her Mother's arm in her hands. "Mother, Wade keeps telling me that you liked his father the best- I know you liked mine the best. You should put him in his place!"

Scarlett stared at Ella ,startled that both her children had reached that age when they would be wondering all this. She decided to brush off Ella good-naturedly when she saw Wade standing outside the playroom door. Evidently they had been quietly arguing this for quite some time.

"Tell him that he's wrong!" yelled Ella, imperiously.

"You are the one who is wrong ,ninny!" cried Wade. "I showed you my Father's sword , didn't I? Mother saved that sword from the Yankees for me- She loved my Father the best!"

Ella stared from Scarlett to Wade and then burst into a tumult of tears. "Now you've don't it,Wade!" snapped Scarlett, angrily. "She'll never calm down once you've made her this upset! And over such a silly little thing like this- which father did I like best- Goodness sake! What does it matter to you? It all happened so long ago! Now go to the kitchen and fetch Louisa. Only she can calm down Ella when she bawls her heart out like this-"

Scarlett pulled up Ella by her arm but she refused to sit up. She then got a glass of water from the pitcher in her room but Ella angrily flung it away. Seeing Louisa climb up the stairs, Scarlett breathed a sigh of relief and walked into her room and shut the door.

When Scarlett found her children again, they were having their tea in the parlour.

"You both wanted to know which of your fathers I liked best?" asked Scarlett, sitting at the table with them. "Well, its a reasonable question, I suppose since you both have grown older. If you really must know, I liked both your fathers the same."

"But how?!" cried Wade, in protest. "You met Uncle Frank only when he came back from the war! And he was old by then!"

"He was not!" yelled Ella, sensing a mocking tone in Wade's voice. "Liar!"

"He was. He was an old man!"

"You stop telling lies. You are the old man!"

"Now, Ella!" said Scarlett, putting out her hand to stop Ella's nervous fidgeting. She was inadvertently clattering all the tea things on the table. "Don't you believe me when I tell you I loved your father just as much as I loved Wade's? They were both very different men. Wade's Pa was young and an officer in the Troop. And he went off to war just a few weeks after he married me. He wrote me letters and then he died at camp- I was young then. And at that time, Charles Hamilton seemed like the person I must marry. How would you like it, Ella- if all your friends had beaus and you didn't have one?"

"I'm too young to have a beau-" replied Ella, in sudden shyness.

"Yes, you are- but you know what it feels like to be left out of something- Your Aunt Melanie was getting married and I just didn't want to feel left out."

"But you loved my father, didn't you?" asked Wade, pointedly.

"Maybe I didn't know him well. But he had lovely eyes and golden hair- He was soft and kind just like your Aunt Melanie, a good marksman and soldier- A well-read and well-travelled gentleman through and through! There! Isn't that enough, for you?"

"That's enough!" said Wade, satisfied.

"And Ella, when I met Frank Kennedy, it was after the war and Wade was just a small boy and we had to live with no food, no new clothes or a proper home- And your Father had a shop that he set up himself- It didn't look like much but he allowed me to make it into something better and it was during this time that I bought my two saw mills- Yes, Frank Kennedy was much older but it didn't matter that the time. He provided for me and he loved you, Ella- You look just like him. He'd be proud of you if he could see how pretty you look just now-"

Ella blushed and in a flush of emotion, clung onto Scarlett's arm.

"What about Uncle Rhett?" asked Wade, excitedly.

"What about him?"

All three heads turned in surprise to see Rhett Butler standing at the doorway with a cigar in his mouth.