Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW
Author's Notes: Thank you for all the reviews and feedback.
Chapter Twelve
About fifteen minutes later, Rhett once again stopped the wagon to let the horse rest. When they did, he heard something in the bushes. Rhett drew one of his guns and gave Scarlett his other one. He said, "Do you know how to shoot a gun?"
"Yes, Pa taught me."
"I am going to check out what is in the bushes."
"No, just wait here and let it come to us."
"I think it is a cow. If it is, you will need that at Tara."
"No, stay here with me where it is safe."
"Scarlett, did you hear me. It is just a cow."
"There is no such thing as just a cow."
"Scarlett, are you afraid of cows."
"No!"
"Scarlett?"
"Yes."
"Give me some of your lace and I will make a noose for it."
"No, it is the last of my lace. The lace that you brought me."
"I will buy you some more. Now give it to me."
"Prissy, give Rhett your petticoat."
"Miss Scarlett, I haven't had a petticoat for over a year now."
"Come on, Scarlett. We don't have all day. I still have to catch up with the Confederate army."
Scarlett ripped the lace off her petticoat and shoved it at him. She said, "There."
Rhett left both guns with Scarlett and in a few minutes came back with a cow and her calf. There was only a noose on the cow for the calf was following her mother. As Rhett climbed into the wagon, he said, "That was a great find. After another year, you will be able to butcher the calf for meat."
"When you come back you better bring me some lace."
"Yes ma'am."
Rhett leaned forward and kissed Scarlett's pouting face. She said, "Not in front of the servants."
"In front of the servants and anyone else," Scarlett scowled at Rhett, and he kissed her again. Rhett said, "I am just going to keep kissing you until you smile at me."
Scarlett gave Rhett an amused smile and he smiled back. She slipped her arm in his and laid her head on his upper arm. He smiled down at her. He loosened the reins, and they were on their way to Tara once again.
After they got to Tara, Scarlett led the way into the house and up to the spare bedroom. Rhett was following behind while carrying Melly. Rhett laid Melly on the bed. He looked at the passed-out Miss Melly. He walked over and shut the door. Scarlett said, "Don't. You will compromise me."
"Trust me. Come here and let me kiss you goodbye," Rhett kissed her with his special kiss several times. He said, "I am making sure your father will let you marry me whether I am received or not."
Rhett took Scarlett's hand and led her out of the bedroom. He saw a middle-aged woman in the foyer and said, "Where is Mr. O'Hara?"
"In the family parlor."
"Take me to him, Scarlett."
After they had entered the parlor, Rhett said to Gerald, "I have compromised your daughter. I have been alone with her for the last couple of hours without a proper chaperon. Mrs. Wilkes was passed-out for most of the journey here from Atlanta. I will do the right thing and marry her if I survive the war. If I don't survive just don't tell anyone else. If you don't allow me to marry Scarlett, I will tell everyone that we had relations on the way here from Atlanta."
Gerald's face got red. He was instantly so mad. He said, "How dare you come in here and threaten me and my daughter on the worse day of my life? My wife died today."
"Oh no. Pa, no. Rhett."
Rhett hugged her close and held her for a minute then he pushed her away. He said, "I have to go if I am going to catch up with the Confederate army. I'm so sorry to leave you right now but me joining the Confederate army is for our future. Me threatening your father is so he won't stop us from marrying. Remember I love you. Now walk me out."
"I'll be back, Pa."
As Scarlett led Rhett to the foyer, he said, "Would you like to give me a precious memory to take into battle with me."
"Rhett!"
"You wouldn't want me to die a virgin."
"You are no more a virgin than I am."
"But we are virgins to each other."
"No, I'm afraid Pa would shoot you if you tried. I want a live husband, not a dead fiancé.
When Rhett and Scarlett got to the door, she wrapped her arms around his neck and said, "I love you. Be safe."
Rhett took out his wallet and took all the money out of it except twenty dollars. He handed it to Scarlett and when she refused to take it, he let it drop to the ground. With his wallet in his hand, he briefly kissed her. He turned and walked out the door without looking back. He stopped by the wagon and turned to Scarlett. He said, "You need to get someone to put the cow and the calf in the barn."
"Alright."
"I am getting my cigars and my matches."
Scarlett gave a little half smile. She watched him get the items out of his trunk. He didn't turn back to her but just started walking down the lane. Scarlett watched him until she could no longer see him.
Scarlett shut the door and bend down to pick up the money. She turned to Mammy. Mammy held out her arms and Scarlett ran into them. Mammy said, "He will be back, Child."
Scarlett didn't say anything she just cried. Finally, she said, "Is it true? Mother is dead?"
"Yes. She died today."
Scarlett cried some more. At last, she straightened up her shoulders, and wiped her eyes with the towel Mammy gave her. Scarlett said, "Go take care of Melly. She had a baby less than twelve hours ago. Prissy and I did the best we could," Scarlett sobbed then she continued, "but she isn't made for birthing babies. You can't let her die."
"Of course not, Miss Scarlett."
"Get Pork to put the cow and the calf in the barn." Scarlett briefly looked in the formal parlor where her mother would be laid out in death. She didn't go view her mother. She couldn't bear that right then, instead she walked to the parlor.
Nobody would ever know that Rhett's words had so shocked and angered Gerald O'Hara that they had brought him back from the edge of insanity. With Rhett's words Gerald felt that flight or fight feeling. He could not flee because of his daughters so that meant he had to stand and fight. And stand and fight he would. All his Irish peasant roots flared to the surface. Rhett's words had made him feel helpless just as he had when he was a young man in Ireland and some rich person forced him to do something he didn't want to do. Gerald had resolved that he and his family would survive the war, and the aftermath. He knew his family needed his leadership to make it through. Katie Scarlett wasn't hard enough to survive without his guidance.
After Scarlett entered the parlor, she saw two glasses of moonshine on the tea table. While shaking the bills, she said to her Pa, "Rhett gave me some money."
Gerald said, "Let us toast your mother. Then we will toast your devious fiancé. Then we will plan how we are going to survive until the war is over."
The next morning, there was a marked change in Gerald O'Hara. He was no longer pretending to be a gentleman. He and Pork had gone out at first light and dug a grave for Ellen O'Hara. When they came back, Gerald had carried the body to the grave.
Gerald told the servants to go to the family plot. He told Scarlett to get a sheet. The only people at the grave site were Gerald, Scarlett, and the servants. Careen, Suellen, and Melanie were too sick to get out of the bed. They could not wait any longer though for the heat would cause the body to start stinking pretty quickly.
The group had a small ceremony and Gerald had said some words over the body. Afterwards, Gerald sent everyone but Scarlett back to the house.
Gerald turned to Scarlett and said, "From now forward we have to be hard, and we have to be practical."
"Yes, sir."
"Strip the body of all of the clothing. She doesn't need it anymore and you and your sisters certainly will. Wrap the body up in the sheet then I will be back to lower the body into the grave. I will fill in the dirt."
Scarlett was horrified by what her father had said. She said, "Don't make me do this, Pa. Tell Mammy to do it."
"Child, Mammy could never do that to her Miss Ellen."
Scarlett knew that Pa was right. Mammy could never do that to Miss Ellen's body. Scarlett also saw the wisdom in her father's words. She knew he was right. If they were going to survive, they had to be hard and they had to be practical. Scarlett was able to do what her father had told her to do by repeatedly telling herself, 'It is just a body. Mother is in heaven.'
That was just the first of the awful things the family was going to have to do in the coming year.
Everyone had picked cotton that first fall after Ellen had died except Melanie. She had been too weak to get out of the bed for almost two weeks. Fortunately, for Beau she was able to nurse him for there was not a wet nurse to be found at Tara.
Scarlett had killed that deserter and Gerald had helped her clean up the mess. At the time he had said to her, "Don't second guess yourself. You did what you had to do to survive. He didn't deserve to live. He had come to take the last of what we had."
"Yes, Pa."
Gerald and Scarlett had stripped the man bare of everything but his underwear. Gerald had said, "You shouldn't see things like that."
Scarlett had laughed and said, "I've seen the slave boys running around with nothing on every summer. And some of the slave men too."
"Nonetheless, we will leave the man's underwear on him."
Scarlett had openly laughed when Pa had taken a switch to Suellen when she had refused to pick cotton. Gerald had said to her, "You need to accept right now that you are no longer the pampered, spoiled, daughter of a wealthy planter but the daughter of a man who has lost everything. Therefore, we will all have to work extremely hard in order for all of us to survive."
All fall, winter, and spring Pa had taken a switch to Suellen every time she refused to work and every time, she said she was hungry. Pa would say, "We are all hungry. Whining about it doesn't make it easier to endure."
Suellen didn't know it, but this was not the first time Gerald O'Hara had gone hungry. He had gone hungry many times when he was a child and a teenager. He had even gone hungry a few times as an adult. Every time he had gone hungry, he had resolved to never go hungry again.
To never go hungry again was what had driven him to succeed. It was what had driven him to get a man drunk and basically steal his plantation and his slave. It was what had driven him to take advantage of a scandal in order to get to marry into one of the finest families in Savannah. It was what was going to allow him and his family to survive through this crisis.
A couple of the former slaves had returned to the plantation just looking for some place to stay and something to eat. Some of them had needed skills like Old Gus who knew how to butcher livestock and how to milk a cow. All skills that no one else possessed.
If the former slaves were willing to work for food, Gerald let them stay but if they didn't work hard then the tough, cold Irishman would run them off. Nobody got a free ride anymore around Gerald O'Hara. There was no charity in the man at that moment. Charity was a luxury the Tara residents couldn't afford.