Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

Author's Notes: Thank you for all the reviews and feedback.

Chapter Thirty

For Valentine's Day the couple was going to a fund raiser being held by the Monument Committee. Scarlett had gotten Rhett to purchase tickets for the Wilkeses. Scarlett had given them to Melly in front of India in order to snub India. When Melly had tried to refuse, Scarlett said, "You have to take them. The committee won't give us our money back."

"Scarlett…."

"If you don't want them, give them to someone else. How is Beau?"

Melanie spent the next ten minutes talking about Beau and what he was doing. Which wasn't much for the boy wasn't even three yet.

When Scarlett got up to leave, she said, "Please say you will come with us. In fact, I won't take no for an answer. We will pick you two up at six thirty. Goodbye"

Scarlett had invited Melanie and Ashley to go with them to the fund raiser so that Melly would get a night out. It would, of course, provide Scarlett with another opportunity to rub it in Ashley's face how wonderful Rhett was and how far Ashley had fallen.

Scarlett had gotten a new red dress that was the latest design made for the occasion. She had also made Rhett go get a new suit in a more fashionable style. He had drawn the line at it being red, though. His new suit was black. He had got a red waistcoat and red cravat though to make Scarlett happy. The couple both knew that the only time Rhett would ever wear the waistcoat and cravat was on Valentine's Day. Although Rhett was always well dressed, his clothes were not the latest style or design.

That Saturday night after picking up the Wilkeses in their cab, on the ride to the fund raiser, Scarlett said, "Ashley, Dear, are you still happy working at the store as a clerk? It just distresses me so to see someone as fine as you working as a clerk at a general store."

"Thank you for your concern but yes, I am happy working for Mr. Kennedy."

"If you aren't, Rhett can get you a job at his bank."

Rhett heard his cue and said, "Yes, of course, it would have to be an entry level position like a teller but I'm sure it wouldn't be long before you were promoted to Head teller then into management."

Melly said, "Ashley, wouldn't that be wonderful?"

Ashley smiled at his wife then turned and said to Scarlett, "I think I will stay at the store. I think Mr. Kennedy is going to promote me to manager soon."

"I thought Suellen was managing the store."

"Well, she is but soon she will have to stay home with her daughter. That will be my opportunity to show Mr. Kennedy that I am manager material."

In the most condescending way possible, Scarlett said, "Of course, it would be. It will be your moment to shine. You do have managing experience after all. You did run Twelve Oaks."

"No, Scarlett, my father ran Twelve Oaks."

"Surely he was training you on how to run the plantation."

"No, I wasn't ready to start learning all that."

Rhett had to bite his lip not to burst out laughing. Rhett and Scarlett both knew that neither Frank nor Suellen thought very highly of Ashley. In fact, to Scarlett it was amazing Ashley still had his job.

The evening was great fun for the Butlers. The only thing disappointing about the evening was the size of their meal but they went back to the hotel and split an entrée at the restaurant. They rehashed the evening and both of them spent a lot of time laughing at Mr. Wilkes.

The evening was delightful for Melanie for she rarely got an evening out of Hamilton House. Furthermore, she had been able to leave PittyPat and India at home. She was touched by how concerned for Ashley's future Scarlett still was. Scarlett was such a good person.

The evening was a great humiliation for Ashley. Every other sentence Scarlett said was another jab at his disgrace and how far he had fallen. She made all her statements like she was the most caring of people. His biggest regret was that he hadn't told that ignorant, Irish, twit what he had really thought of her that day in his library at Twelve Oaks.

Rhett really didn't like spending the evening with the Wilkes for they were very boring, proper people. He did enjoy listening to his wife subtly debase Mr. Wilkes. He knew that there was more to her hatred of Mr. Wilkes than him marrying another woman. He also enjoyed how very sexually aroused his wife was after she had spent time humiliating and demeaning Mr. Wilkes.

Scarlett had been so aroused; she had not even wanted to wait until they got in their bedroom. They had done it in the common room. First with him standing up then they had finished on the couch. The woman had even been able to arouse him enough to do it again that very evening. Not an easy task considering he had a thirty-nine-year-old body.

At the end of February, Scarlett and Rhett went down to Tara for a couple of days. On the way back she was thinking about the news Careen had shared with them. Careen was with child. Scarlett didn't understand how she could still be childless when both of her sisters had gotten with child so quickly. After all, she was half Irish too.

On March first while in the common room of their hotel suite, Rhett said to Scarlett, "Shall we go to Europe this summer and escape the heat?"

"Alright but let us just go ahead and go."

"I'm alright with going ahead and going but why?"

"Remember Pa telling us that Suellen was with child again?"

"Yes, so?"

"And Careen is with child."

"Yes, so?"

"I can hardly stand their happiness. I know it sounds petty of me but…"

"I don't think it is petty. We want a child, and it is frustrating when it seems that everyone is getting a child but us."

"Yes, it is."

"I know we will eventually create a child. We are just too lucky not to conceive a child."

Scarlett laughed and said, "Go ahead and make our plans. Let's ask your mother and Rosemary to go with us. It will be nice to get Rosemary away from Leslie Howard."

Rhett laughed at the scorn in Scarlett's voice as she said Mr. Howard's name just because she thought he had a weak first name. Rhett said, "I would invite Robert and his family but unfortunately, they can't go because of Daphne being with child."

Scarlett laughed again. Scarlett didn't know if that was true conviction in Rhett's words about them eventually creating a child or just bravado, nonetheless his words comforted her.

The next day Rhett went about arranging their trip. He had sent his mother a telegram asking her to join them on a trip to Europe. Elizabeth telegraphed back accepting. Rhett telegraph that he and Scarlett would be in Charleston within the week, and they would leave for Europe by April first.

By the end of the week, Rhett and Scarlett were on the train to Charleston. Scarlett said to Rhett, "It is nice not to have to travel with servants. We can always just get up and go."

"Rosemary and Mother will have to bring their maids and I suppose we should bring a footman to help me with the trunks and provide a little more protection."

"Why?"

"Just to be on the safe side. I can't protect you all."

"Yes, you could."

Rhett basked under Scarlett's admiring gaze.

The Butlers arrived in Charleston the next afternoon. Upon their arrival at the townhouse, Elizabeth said, "Supper tonight will be just our immediate family but get yourself prepared for all your Butler relatives to come over to see you tomorrow."

"I'm not sure it was such a good thing that Robert reinstated me as the head of the Butler family."

"Rhett, it was a great thing…. For Robert."

Everyone laughed.

"Come give me a hug. I have missed you all so much."

The Butlers were in Paris. The entire family was having a wonderful time. They had disembarked in Florence. They had toured the city then gone on to Milan and attended an opera. The group had just arrived in Paris.

Rhett and Scarlett had gone out alone that night to have supper in order to celebrate their second anniversary. They were talking about the sights they were going to see. They had a bottle of champagne. They were talking about going to Ireland and looking up their relatives.

Out of the blue for some strange reason, Rhett said, "Why did you fall out of love with Wilkes? When you left the library, you were singing his praises. Next thing I knew he was a pompous snob."

Scarlett didn't know why but she answered her love honestly. Maybe because he was her genuine love. Maybe because for two years he had made her feel safer and more secure than she had before the war started. She knew everything would be alright if Rhett was by her side. She said, "The day of the barbecue, I had accepted Charlie's offer of marriage. He had gone off to ask for Pa's permission to marry me. Then I decided I couldn't live the rest of my life with that mama's boy. He was so socially awkward. It would be for the rest of my life. I had gone after him to tell him I wanted to wait until after the war was over. I was about to go around a corner when I heard Charlie excitedly tell Ashley he was going to marry me. I heard Ashley call me Irish trash."

"It is a damn good thing I didn't hear him say that about you. I would have called him out."

That made Scarlett giggle. She went on, "I thought I loved him, and he thought I was nothing," She looked at her husband. He could see the tears in her eyes despite the years that had passed, the pain was new and raw. She went on, "He had called on me every week for two years. He read me romantic poetry. Yet, I was nothing more to him than an amusement. Something to do while he was waiting for Melanie to get old enough or well enough to marry."

"Do you want me to call him out now? I will be glad to put a bullet in him."

Scarlett smiled and said, "No, he isn't worth the cost of your reputation. Your wonderful reputation."

"Is he the reason you wouldn't tell me you loved me?" Scarlett solemnly nodded her head up and down. Rhett went on, "I wouldn't tell you because I was sure that if you didn't return my love, it would crush me. I would never have recovered from that blow. If you had not said you loved me at Rough and Ready, I was going to go to Europe never to return again. There I was a thirty-six-year-old man who was shaking in his boots because I was so scared of rejection from a nineteen-year-old girl."

"Oh Rhett."

"Honey, if I could take away the pain his words caused you, I would but remember he is the one that is wrong. He is the one that is a pretentious snob. It is our Irish blood that has made us survivors. Please, don't ever be ashamed of being Irish or French either for that matter," That made Scarlett laugh. Rhett went on, "Look at where he is today. He is a clerk in a general store. And he only keeps that job because Kennedy is too kind-hearted to fire him. He and Miss Melly are barely getting by. They have to live in the Hamilton House because the Wilkeses can't afford to live anywhere else."

"I am only able to live so well because you are providing me a good life."

"I am providing you with a good life, but I have no doubt if for some reason I was not here, you would triumph. Just as I know you had already figured out a plan on how you were going to get your hands on my money if I had died in the war."

Scarlett giggled. She said, "I was just going to claim we had been married on August thirtieth. I was sure Melly and Pa would have back my story up. I even believed if needed your mother would have backed my story."

Rhett smiled at his extremely clever, determined wife. He said, "Yes, she would have. She knew how much I loved you. Also, to be sure Langston Butler didn't get any part of my fortune."

"Baby, I love you so much, too."

"Shall we go back to the hotel room?"

Scarlett giggled and said, "Yes, Mr. Butler, but get me dessert to go."

"What do you want?"

A blushing Scarlett said, "Whatever will go nicely with your member?"

Rhett laughed and ordered and appropriate dessert.