Disclaimer: I own nothing in regard to GWTW
Author's Notes: Thank you for all the many reviews and the feedback. I don't normally title my chapters but this one I will.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.
Chapter Twenty-Six
In November at a tea Harriet Youngblood was giving, Mamie asked Scarlett when she was going to have an afternoon social in her home for Mamie wanted to see the inside of her home. Scarlett said, "You could have seen it when I had my open house, but you chose not to attend."
When Mamie looked away quickly Scarlett knew there was more to the story. After much badgering on Scarlett's part Mamie confessed that Bullock had told her husband for them not to attend the party. Scarlett was stunned. She wondered why. Then she knew why. Jackass had told Bullock and the others not to attend. Why would Rhett ruin her party? She went straight home to confront that jackass. All her anger at him was revitalized.
When she entered Rhett's office she was in full fury. When Rhett saw her, he had two thoughts. 'She is so incredibly beautiful when she is really mad' and 'Why is she mad at me?'
He didn't have to wait long to get an answer to his question.
Scarlett shouted, "Did you tell Bullock and all your Scallawag friends to not attend my open house?"
"Yes."
"How dare you? Is that why none of the Scallawags or Republicans attended?"
"Probably."
"Why?"
"I did it to protect you."
"You did it to protect me? You are who I need to be protected from."
With that she turned around to leave the room. Rhett jumped up and got between her and the door. He said, "Sit down and let me explain."
"So, you can lie to me again."
"I have never lie to you."
"You have lie by omission. You knew you had two hundred dollars of my money when I visited you at the Fire House but didn't say a word about that."
"No, I didn't but it wouldn't have been any easier to find one hundred dollars as to find three hundred dollars."
"I found the three hundred dollars, no thanks to you. I had to marry that old man to get it. Although that is more than you would have done. All you wanted from me was to be your mistress. You would never have married me if it weren't for Wade and Ella!"
"Please lower your voice. Let me explain about Bullock."
In a normal voice Scarlett said, "Get out of my way. I am going to go see Uncle Henry about a divorce."
Rhett moved out of the way and let her leave the room. She walked straight out the front door. She was going to see Melly. She would never divorce Rhett, but she could throw that word around.
As Rhett watched her retreating form, he hoped she wasn't serious. He could explain about Bullock, but he could never justify even to himself for having taken advantage of her. Twice. He wondered if there was, anyway, he could get her to accept that he was no longer that amoral bastard that did her wrong.
Scarlett was going to Melly for sympathy, which was a stroke of good luck for Rhett. Melly was one of the few people who could speak in a simplistic enough way that Scarlett understood while at the same time Scarlett never felt Melly was speaking down to her.
After Scarlett shared with Melly what Rhett had done, Scarlett said, "Rhett claimed he did it to protect me."
"He did."
"What?!"
"You were so excited about having the governor in your home. I tried to talk you out of it, but you said, 'It is too late now. The invitations have already been sent.' I was so happy when you told me Bullock was not going to be there."
"Melly how can it not be an honor to have the governor of the state in one's home?"
Melanie smiled at Scarlett. Her sister-in-law had so many wonderful traits, but she had a couple of not wonderful traits. One of those not wonderful traits was that if something didn't affect her or her loved ones, she didn't care about it. Melly took a deep breath and said, "Let me try to explain. To the matrons and everyone else in proper society the Yankees and Republicans are the enemy."
"I know that. They don't think we should even do business with them even though they are the only ones with the money."
"That's true. So, you're inviting the Republican governor into your home would be seen by them as an act of disloyalty. It's not that you invited the governor into your home. It's that you invited the Republican governor into your home. Do you understand?"
"Not really."
"Alright. Scarlett if Mr. Lincoln would have shown up at our door sometime during the war, would you have invited him inside?"
"No!"
"Why not? He was the president of the United States."
"Because everyone in the South hated him including me."
"Most Georgians hate Mr. Bullock. Captain Butler did the right thing. If your house had been full of Republicans and Scallawags and Mr. Bullock, the ladies and gentlemen would have thought you were a Scallawag also. Especially with you being married to one. At this point, the only way to stay received is to pretend that you only married Captain Butler to save your reputation and the only reason you attend their social events is because your husband is making you. Just as you have been doing since your marriage to the man."
Scarlett looked so sad. She said, "I understand. I guess Rhett was protecting me from myself."
"Besides, darling, we both know the only reason you wanted all those people in your house was so they would be envious of how fabulously decorated your house was."
"It is fabulously decorated, isn't it?" Scarlett laughed.
Melly nodded.
Scarlett said, "Melly, they are such fun people. They never talk about the war or how great things were before the war."
"That is because they didn't lose everything in the war. Truthfully, their lives are probably better than before the war."
Scarlett stared at Melanie, and she decided that Melly was right. They all were low class people. She wondered if Mamie really was a whore before the war like Rhett said. She giggled and decided that she probably was. When Scarlett giggled, Melanie smiled. She said, "Feel better?"
"Yeah. What hurt the most was that Rhett had gone out of his way to hurt me."
"But instead, he had gone out of his way to protect you. Such a nice man."
Scarlett was sure Rhett Butler was not a nice man, but she did believe that his goal was to protect her from herself. The ladies talked about other things. They talked about who was going to host Christmas dinner. Scarlett finally agreed to let Melanie host it although doing so always put a strain on their budget.
Scarlett returned home right before supper. That night in the parlor, Scarlett said, "Melly believes that you were trying to protect me from myself. She explained everything to me."
"And?"
"Thank you."
"And?"
"I have nothing more to say. I stand behind everything else I said."
Rhett mentally sighed. He hoped he hadn't returned back to square one. That night as they got in the bed and Scarlett kissed him, he decided, 'No, not back to square one. Hopefully further ahead than square two.' He turned himself over to the sensation and stopped thinking about his relationship with Scarlett
Wade who was almost five years older than Ella did so love to scare her. No matter how many times Mammy told him not to do it he still kept doing it. The residents of the house would often hear Ella's scream. One morning in late November, Ella accidently scared Wade. All through the house everyone could hear Ella's laughter. Wade tried to claim he hadn't been scared but had been playing along. Everyone knew he was lying including Ella. After that day it was on. Ella was trying to scare Wade as much as Wade was trying to scare her. Scarlett told Mammy, "Let them be. They are going to provoke each other just like Suellen and me."
Mammy knew that Miss Scarlett was right, and she also knew that the children had not gotten that trait from Miss Scarlett. All Mammy said was, "You are right. They can't help themselves."
Christmas was an enjoyable time. There were a lot of presents but significantly less than there had been the Christmas before. Slowly Scarlett was getting Rhett to cut back on his gift giving. Slowly she was getting Rhett to understand that giving his children everything they wanted was not what was best for them.
They were going to The Wilkes for Christmas dinner yet when Scarlett saw Rhett having a snack before they left their home, she didn't scold him. She too knew that the food was going to be sparse. In fact, she decided to join him in that snack. It was for that reason that Scarlett always tried to have the family celebrations at her home. Neither person was sorry they had a snack. In fact, both of them were grateful that they had.
As Scarlett watched Wade at his eighth birthday party, she could see Rhett's mannerisms in the boy. She hoped no one else saw them. At the party Scarlett said to Melly, "I think Wade gets more and more like Charlie every day."
Melly smiled and said, "Yes, he does."
Scarlett relaxed. If Melly still thought Wade was Charlie's son, then so would everyone else.
By Genie's first birthday Rhett knew that they would have to move soon. He would not stand for his children to be snubbed by those snotty, antiquated, pious old battleaxes. Admittedly Wade and Ella got invitations from the other Scallawag and Yankee children and a few from polite society, but Rhett wanted his children to belong to the cream of society.
That night in the parlor Rhett said to Scarlett, "We can move to either Paris, London, New York, San Francisco, or Sydney. Which one would you like to move to?"
"I don't want to move to any of them."
"In two maybe three years we will be moving. You will be moving with me. I don't think I could sleep without you in the bed," Scarlett knew that Rhett never gave her a compliment without a zinger behind it. Rhett smiled and continued, "Taking care of all my sexual needs. I am a very needy man. Luckily, I married a woman who was very sexually needy also."
Scarlett didn't answer. She got up and walked out of the room. There was no point in chastising Rhett. He was completely unrepentant. She also knew that he continued to talk about the intimate parts of their marriage because he knew that it embarrassed her. At least he never did it in front of other people or the children. She knew he was going to aggravate her about something so it might as well be that. After Scarlett left the parlor, Rhett decided to go have a drink at Belle's.
He went upstairs to their bedroom where he knew Scarlett was. He stuck his head in the room and said, "I'm going to go play some poker and have a few drinks. I shouldn't be too late."
"Alright, Rhett."
Rhett walked down the stairs whistling a tune. He didn't even realize that he had slowly started doing something he swore he would never do. He had become accountable to Scarlett for his comings and goings.
As Scarlett looked at the closed door, she was smiling. No matter what Rhett always told her where he was going and when she should expect him home. It was a genuinely nice change. When they were first married, he would come and go and never tell her what he was doing. Slowly, he had started giving her information of his movements. At first it had been just when they had been in a room together and he was leaving the room and the house. When she was in her ninth month, he started searching her out so she would know how to get in touch with him if she went into labor. Over the last year, he had started telling her all the time even when they were fighting. Which was good because they did fight a lot. She didn't even think he knew he was doing it. It was another way she knew he cared more for her than he was willing to admit.