Notes back at bottom or a later date bc it is LATE.
I really appreciate all the reviews. Gemma I don't think I commented to you at all this fic, but your reviews have meant to much. You always dropped a line, which encouraged me to keep going. Thank you so much.
We made it to Xmas Eve and the start of the novel. I hope everyone...Well I hope no one does anything stupid and remembers not to force holiday cheer onto strangers bc 2020.
Disclaimer: Okay so this does involve a 32-year-old Rhett with a 16-year-old Scarlett. Yes this is gross nowadays just like a 26-year-old Ashley and a 16-year-old Scarlett would be, just like a 43-year-old Gerald and a 16-year-old Ellen would be. Oddly though, not as gross to me as a 16-year-old Scarlett being fawned over by a 40-year-old Frank. Please do not read this if you have an issue with that.
1. Rhett delayed going to take his nap
His feet slowed as he heard mention of Port-au-Prince, it wasn't often he heard of Haiti coming up in conversation, especially in the back country he'd found himself in. He hesitated, longing for a place to close his eyes in order to make the day more bearable, especially if he was to ride on to Jonesboro. There was no chance of an interesting conversation about the port city, at best it would have been a headline in a newspaper, they'd have to likely be taught about the country and have nothing to offer. Then again, perhaps even a five minute history lesson would be a welcome relief from all the talk of war.
o-o-o
He couldn't fight the grin on his face when he watched her entering the hallway, her eyes were aflame. She was doing his best to hide it, but that girl was furious.
It did such wonderful things to her appearance to be angry. Her skin had taken on a flush that made the dress more striking, she was breathing heavy, which made him wonder if she had a mother that she was allowed to leave the house in such a dress. Her eyes sparkled, the flush to her cheeks even more vibrant than youth.
He wanted to meet her again in five years, when the girlhood faded from her and she was a woman.
She was something else. Normally it was the girls who swooned, but he'd been quite certain he nearly saw a few fellows, young and old begin to go faint when she deigned to grace them with some attention. There were girls in the formal parlor showing off their skills playing instruments, but she was playing men or boys, who pretended that they were men.
How would these boys go off to war if they couldn't battle her?
And she wanted to be battled, he could see it in her eyes. She didn't want easy. She might say that she did, but she was a girl that wanted to win, she wanted it all. He imagined she wanted this very house, they kept saying it was the finest plantation in all of Clayton County.
"Miss O'Hara," he nodded.
"Captain Butler," she nodded back doing her best to compose herself further. "Shouldn't you be outside?"
"Shouldn't you be upstairs?"
"I was just heading there now," she nodded.
"You hardly look like you'd fall into an easy slumber. Would you do me the honor of keeping me company outside? Perhaps I'll bore you into a nap under a tree." He wanted to do a great many things to her under a tree. "I do believe I am the only gentleman here today who has not played the role of your suitor, a fact that I should remedy lest your-"
"I don't know what you're implying," her eyes bore into him.
"Come sit with me outside, I'll battle your suitors away for a half hour. It might amuse you to sit back and enjoy the show rather than always being a part."
Why did her lips want to lift into a smile? "I suppose you could tell me about Charleston. My father just promised me a trip."
He offered her his arm.
She took it.
o-o-o
"Not the damn war again," she muttered under her breath, not low enough because she saw Rhett Butler looking at her as they sat in the yard.
If the gentleman of the backyard hadn't already hated Rhett Butler they did after they watched him escort Scarlett O'Hara back outside, but now they had something new to focus on rather than Scarlett and the interloper.
It spread like wildfire. The rebel yells, the calls for horses, the backyard erupted.
It took a moment for her to realize that Rhett Butler had taken her hand, she looked over to see him watching her, not the scene around them. His eyes were sad, but they looked at her with caring and compassion.
"I should find my father," she gave a small nod. She couldn't imagine him being in a good state after this, they'd probably have to chain him to a post to prevent him from riding off.
"I'll accompany you."
o-o-o
He was like a wall, she thought as he blocked her from the chaos going around, all the boys trying to talk to her.
She noticed Charles in particular, it was like someone shot his dog right in front of him. "I'm taking Miss O'Hara to see her father, you can speak to her later," Captain Butler rebuffed the young man and continued moving her along.
o-o-o
Scarlett spent the night sitting on the floor pressed against her mother's legs as her mother occasionally dropped a gentle stroke to her hair. She could at least pretend she was upset about the war and not about Ashley.
She wondered if she should marry Charles. She'd never given him much thought, but he wasn't horrible to look at, he was rich, she could live in Atlanta far from Ashley.
She supposed tomorrow she would actually have to think about who she would marry if the boys were all going to ride off to war. No one seemed to know how long the war would take, Captain Butler had declared a month with their loss, others said three with their victory. Three months wouldn't be horrible, but what it were a year or two. She could be an old maid by the time the men returned. It would be an even bigger tragedy than Ashley Wilkes choosing Melanie over her.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"Are you reading my dear?" Her mother paused as she entered the room with a tilt of her head.
"Yes, Mother." Scarlett sat politely in her chair with Great Expectations in her hands. She at least had the book open and she was saying the words in her mind, not that they left any lasting impression.
"Do you feel alright?"
She regarded her mother with a scowl.
"Would you like to talk about it?"
She could hardly confess anything about Ashley Wilkes to her mother. "No. I'm fine. I figured I should get used to what life will be like during the war."
"What a horrible time in your life for a war," her mother viewed her with compassion.
"It is," Scarlett pouted.
"Growing up is so hard. One minute you're a child and then you're an adult. I'd hoped you'd have more time as a child than I did."
"I thought you wanted me to marry this summer," Scarlett looked at her mother in confusion.
"I want you to marry when you find someone you'll be happy with."
"Like you and Pa?"
"We have a good life with you girls."
"He adores you, you're his everything." She couldn't understand why Ashley had said that like it was a bad thing.
"Not his everything, he has you girls," Ellen smiled at her daughter.
"There's someone riding up," Careen said running to the doorway from the hallway.
Scarlett jumped to her feet, "Who is it?" Let it be Ashley, let it be Ashley.
"I couldn't see," Careen said taking off down the hall.
Scarlett ran to the doorway.
"It's that Butler fellow from the barbeque!" Careen yelled down the hallway as she peaked through a window.
"Get back here!" Scarlett's eyes were wide.
Careen came running down the hall and into the room.
"Do you know who she's talking about Scarlett?"
"Rhett Butler from Charleston."
"Another suitor?"
"No," she quickly responded, "no, I don't know."
Ellen's lips lifted up in a small smile. "Perhaps he knows your aunt."
"I asked, he didn't."
A few moments later, Scarlett with a book in her hand, Careen sitting politely next to her mother while she stitched were informed by Mammy that a Captain Rhett Butler was at the door asking to see Miss Scarlett.
"Please show him in Mammy," Ellen smiled, "and bring refreshments."
As Rhett Butler expressed greetings so perfectly done, her mother would have likely made him their tutor were they younger, it occurred to Scarlett that so many of her callers were boys, not men.
"I wanted to check on you Miss O'Hara after the trying events of last night."
"Oh-" she caught sigh of her mother giving her a look. "Thank you so much Captain Butler. We've certainly been anticipating a war, I suppose now that it's actually here we'll all have to adapt."
"Will you be joining up Captain Butler?" Ellen asked.
"No ma'am. I don't believe in fighting losing battles. I believe your daughter got my full opinion on it yesterday, I imagine that was quite enough for her."
"Thank you," Scarlett said with relief.
Ellen shot her another look.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
He wasn't sure why he had ridden five miles out to their plantation rather than head back to Atlanta. The girl had stuck in his head. There were so few true amusements in life and she was one. She was too young certainly. Certainly too young for what he wanted her for. She'd likely marry one of her many beaux before they rode out. Once she were a widow things would be different.
He expected to regret his decision the moment he arrived, but instead he'd had a lovely visit with Scarlett and her mother.
"I suspect I'll visit you again," he said abruptly as they took a walk around the outside of the house. Her little sister walking ahead and the old woman who met him at the door watching his every move.
"Do you mean to court me Captain Butler?"
"No, I have no need or interest in taking a wife."
"Then why would you visit?"
"Because there are so few amusements in life, especially now. I imagine that we could both do with a small reprieve from the world."
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
The ride on horseback from Atlanta to Jonesboro wasn't a tough one. His stallion could easily accomplish it in under and hour, but it was ungentlemanly to do so. He took it slower and made the twenty mile trip in an hour and a half, rented a room in town and wondered what he was doing.
She was young. Too young. While not a sweet virginal girl, she was most certainly a virgin and he was not in the habit of debauching those. She was charming though, engaging. Yesterday he'd finished a deal just outside of Atlanta, returned to his room and found sleep eluding him. He thought of going to Belle's, but it hadn't seemed particularly appealing.
He almost wondered if he needed something simpler, if his life had become too hectic, chaotic, one deal onto the other. However, she was far from simple.
Maybe that was the appeal. She was the first thing in a long time that he couldn't quite figure out immediately. A mystery. There was something about her, something about her that drew him in and he'd have to figure out what it was.
o-o-o
He was on the veranda with her through three beaux coming to call. The boy from the stairs seemed ready to call him out, Rhett spent that visit wondering if it would be fisticuffs or a duel at dawn.
o-o-o
"Should we picnic tomorrow with your sisters of course?" he said as their late morning to early afternoon visit was coming to a close. He'd need to leave well before the family was due to sit down to dinner.
"Tomorrow?"
"I took a room in town, I find myself in need of a country respite."
"You just assume I'm free to amuse you because you're bored in the city?"
"I imagine you're as bored in the country as I am in the city," he smirked at her.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
He kissed her on his third visit. She'd sent her sisters away to find flowers, he didn't claim to be such a gentleman that he'd overlook her blatant move. His lips teased over hers, but didn't go any further. Reminding himself of who she was and where they were.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
On his fourth visit he told her that he'd be returning to Atlanta that afternoon. They had hidden behind a tree as he kissed her deeply and let his lips trail down her neck.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
He lasted a week before he visited again. She greeted him with fury in her eyes and refused to go outside with him. They sat in the parlor with her mother and Scarlett had scowled when her mother invited him to stay for dinner.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
He was riding up the next day as he saw her coming down the lane on her own horse.
"I was coming to call on you."
"I know, I left the house so you couldn't."
"On the lane, you knew I'd travel on. Tell me Scarlett how many times have you ridden up and down waiting for me to appear."
"You're an egotistical cad, I have better things to do than wait around for you."
"Oh really, what better things?"
"I was going over to the creek."
"Going for a swim in April?"
"Hardly, I was going to put my toes in the water."
"I'll go with you."
"It's hardly appropriate for you to see my feet."
o-o-o
He saw more than her feet. He saw her foot, her ankle, her calves. He refrained from trying to go any further north. He also refrained from tugging down the front of her dress like he wanted to. She was responsive and demanding. She was untapped.
He started to wonder if it wouldn't be a kindness if he sent her off to some young fellow with experience.
She blushed three times as they took dinner with her parents and sisters.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
He'd missed the first round of weddings by leaving the country. Ellen had been the one to inquire if he'd be joining them for the ones that would take place that week.
Saturday would be Jean Monroe's wedding and Wednesday would be Ashley Wilkes.
He had seen her eyes tracking Ashley Wilkes as she sat nestled amongst seven other gentlemen and he saw the fire that flashed through them as his wedding was mentioned. Oh yes, he would most certainly be attending.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
As she writhed atop his lap with her legs along his sides, her head throw back as her dress was tugged down and he kissed and captured every glorious inch of what every man fantasized about at the barbeque.
He was starting to wonder if he'd be able to live with himself if he didn't 'ruin' her. He wondered if he'd ever be able to get her out of his head if he didn't get into her body.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"Captain Butler's mother is a dear friend of my sister, Mrs. Blanchet of Charleston," Ellen O'Hara said in the middle of her conversation with Mrs. Tarleton.
His lips lifted up in a small smile watching the woman manipulate the situation, he'd assumed Ellen O'Hara was where Scarlett got her ability to play the crowd, he now had proof.
"Mother's not fibbing," Scarlett whispered, "Aunt Lalie wrote her back. Your mother's one of her closest friends."
It felt as if he'd been punched in the gut as he realized he'd have to learn to live without ever getting into her body.
o-o-o
"What did your sister say to you regarding me?" Rhett questioned Ellen later on in the day.
"It doesn't matter. I imagine I hold my sister's opinion in the same regard you hold your father's."
He gave her a thoughtful look.
"I suspect you are more than the actions of a single incident. I see the man you are with my daughter."
o-o-o
The younger of the grooms, for Charlie Hamilton had impetuously proposed to Honey Wilkes at the Monroe wedding only days earlier and the Hamilton-Wilkes wedding became a double, continued to regard Rhett Butler with disdain. Rhett wondered several times if the younger man might still call him out, despite the fact that he had just married another. He thought it amusing that the young man thought he ever had a chance with Scarlett or should ever have a chance. She would have swallowed him alive.
It was a kindness that he had kept the younger man at bay with his presence. He was much more suited to the plain faced and middling Honey Wilkes. Like begets like.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Rhett lasted a week before returning to Jonesboro and the room that was starting to feel like his.
His hand nearly found its way up her skirts as she begged for more. As she shifted from sweet little mewing sounds to a tigress with claws.
He was failing miserably with all of his intentions regarding her.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Two days into his return to Atlanta, he found a house to rent. It was sparsely furnished, but more than serviceable. The original family deciding it would be safer to reside in the country until the war passed.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
On the second day after his latest trip to his room in Jonesboro and her company at Tara, they met just off the road. Just deep enough into the woods so they wouldn't be spotted. They would often meet before he came to visit because it was near impossible to do more than steal a kiss with all the eyes watching them at Tara.
He wanted to press her up against the tree, he wanted to lay her down on the carpet of grass, hell he wanted to sit himself upon the carpet of grass and her upon him, he was fairly certain she'd figure it out. She had an instinct for passion.
"I believe we've come to a crossroads?" he said breaking away from a kiss.
She looked up at him confused and annoyed.
Oh yes, she often looked at him with annoyance or fury whenever they separated.
"A crucial intersection."
"I do know what a crossroad is, whatever are you talking about Rhett?"
"You've let quite a few of your beaux go off to war without marrying them, will you take one of them as yours in the next few weeks? Or will we admit the finality between us."
"Rhett Butler, I'll not be your mistress," she pulled out his embrace, she'd heard all too much about how he'd never take a wife. They could have fun, but never that much fun.
He laughed at the ferocity in her eyes. The self-righteous haughty expression, as if she'd ever said anything more than 'please' or 'more,' even when she did find it within her to say no, she was generally physically pulling him closer.
"You'd one day be my mistress, I will give you it would not be any time in the near future, but I'd be willing to wait. No, my pet, what I'm offered you now is marriage. To a scoundrel, a degenerate, a riverboat gambler, cast out by his own family-"
"You're not even courting me Rhett," Scarlett pointed out.
"I certainly didn't intend to, but I am quite certain that is what I did."
"You don't need to sound so miserable about it!" Of all the proposals she'd had this was undoubtedly the worst.
"I was happily set in my ways. You can hardly expect me to feel joy that you destroyed my plans. One must adapt I suppose and if adapting is to become a husband, I suspect I'll manage."
"I hardly want to marry someone that views marriage to me as such a tedious task."
He smiled and leaned back against a tree, "Then we'll wait. You'll marry one of your fellows, I imagine you'll be a widow in a year or two. We'll revisit the idea of being my mistress then."
"I'll not be a widow or your mistress."
"Well you certainly won't be an old maid. The war will make many widows. I suppose if need be I can wait several years until you've had half a dozen children-"
"I'll not have half a dozen children," her eyes went wide. There was that awful thought she always avoided when thinking of marriage, the moment that she would become a matron.
"How many did your mother have? I believe I heard it mentioned she was your age when she married."
"You wouldn't even want me if I were old and fat, so I don't-"
He stepped closer, "I suspect I would Scarlett. There's more to you than your superficial beauty, I've certainly known women-"
"More beautiful than me!" She snapped.
"Superficially. There's something about you, something so similar to what lays within me. I'd imagine I'd want you regardless. Although I do admit the loss of your figure would likely be more bearable if I'd been the cause," he pulled her in close again.
"This is the worst marriage proposal ever," she vexed.
"Well you've had the experience of many, this is my only one and it will be my only one. I can't imagine ever meeting another that I would be forced-"
"Will you stop making it worse!" she hit him.
His lips lifted up in a tender smile, "Would you like to come to Atlanta with me?"
"Yes," she whispered.
"Then I imagine all the rest doesn't quite matter," he said dropping his head to kiss her.
o-o-o
"I have to marry Scarlett," Rhett spoke simply to Gerald after the man had asked why he wanted to marry his daughter.
The man nearly launched across the room.
"I've never met another like her and I imagine I never will. If I don't marry Scarlett, I'll never marry."
The old man gave a knowing smile and went to pour the whiskey.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
He took her from her parents house the day of the wedding in a borrowed carriage he had traveled from Atlanta in. Every single male that remained had looked at him with disdain and envy. The single women, including her middle sister looked on in relief and likely thinking she was making the greatest mistake of her life.
He spent the majority of his wedding night on a chair in their bedroom with his wife upon his lap. They kissed and touched for hours until she pleaded for more. He hadn't recalled how nice kisses and soft touches were until he met Scarlett, even when he'd kept a mistress, those steps passed far too quickly to take note.
He could spend ages kissing his wife, holding her in his lap as he read aloud. She enjoyed being pressed along him as much as he enjoyed the weight of her. She did so enjoy being the center of attention and she was when they were alone in their rooms. Shut away from Prissy and Big Sam. They were hardly the amount of staff required to maintain a house, but Rhett had refused to take more from Tara. Prissy to tend to Scarlett's needs and Big Sam to make sure Scarlett stayed safe in the house while he was out.
She took to Atlanta just as well as he'd known she would. With the start of the war the city bustled with a new energy. It seemed as if there was an event every night. She spent much of the day helping to plan events within the first week she seemed to ingratiate herself to everyone who held a major part of the nightly activities. She'd stitch and sew and socialize forming new connections in the off hours.
She was captivated by his business about how he'd obtain the goods and certainly by the goods themselves, she'd already added a new dress to her wardrobe by fabric she just couldn't let him part with. She was an excellent and subtle saleswoman as she'd socialize the days and nights away. She was fascinated by his books, she was constantly pouring over them, asking why he'd sold something for a particular price. There were lists in her head and lists in a notepad, comparing and compiling all the reasons why, she'd soon started to add in her own opinion, when something should be lower or higher and the reason. She'd also started to add in items that she'd heard talked about going scarce in the stores.
He knew for certain that in all the years he'd avoided a wife he'd never imagined there could be one, quite like Scarlett.
He was smiling as she talked about them being married for a month asking if he thought it would be crass if she invited people over for a dinner party to celebrate the occasion, he did. She didn't pay any mind to that. She talked of how Melanie Wilkes would certainly help her prepare the meal and event and would certainly lend her staff to serve. She had found a biddable friend in Melanie Wilkes, she was simply so agreeable and nice and he knew her wealth and standing in the town made her even more appealing to Scarlett. He knew the only downside Scarlett found to the friendship was her sister-in-law, Honey Hamilton. Scarlett seemed to prefer Melanie's aunt, the excitable Miss Pitty, to the devoid of personality, Miss Honey and he had to hear about it every time she saw her.
It was as she planned and plotted, seldomly pausing for his opinion that he started to realize that they had been married a month. Married a month and he'd made love to his wife every single day for a month because he hadn't quite found the strength to leave town without her. There was something absent, he wondered if it were just the timing of it, had he just been lucky enough to marry her just after her time of the month. He shook it off and put it out of his mind , she was so fastidious with details that was surely not something he needed to worry about until she did.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"Are you expecting?" He asked weeks later as she prepared for bed. It was early still, hours before they would actually sleep, but she would always change and brush out her hair before they retired to the sitting area in their bedroom, knowing that would always lead directly to the bed.
"What?" She looked at him in confusion as she brushed her hair.
"A child, dear wife, are you expecting a child?"
"Of course not, don't be silly, why would you think that?" she regarded herself in the mirror as if expecting to find some flaw in her appearance.
"We have been married six weeks and you have never pleaded off from the marital bed due to-"
"Rhett!" Scarlett's eyes went wide as he was about to mention that.
"So when exactly should we be expecting that?"
"I don't know," she said with a shrug, "Mammy normally tells me or I just tell the maid when-" she frowned realized she was about to mention rags to her husband. She shook her head, "It'll be any day. It's felt like it's been coming for weeks," she shifted her chest and the achingly tender breasts that had been such an inconvenience as of late.
He laughed lightly, "My sweet, I imagine it'll be more like 9 months, or I suppose 8 at this point."
"Rhett, I can't be pregnant. We're barely married and there's so much to do in Atlanta."
He laughed again, "I imagine there will be even more to do once there's a baby in the house."
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
1862
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
The early March afternoon proved his words correct; she'd certainly never done as much as bringing their daughter into the world. She didn't quite see the baby as perfect at first as her husband, mother and mammy, but as the months wore on she could certainly admit that her daughter was a beauty as she resembled Scarlett so much as her eyes turned to green.
The first few weeks had been so nice with her husband, mother and mammy doting on her every move, babying her as much as the baby. Then her husband had said there'd be no additional expense of a wet nurse and her mother refused to leave Mammy with her. Scarlett was filled with dread as the days counted down to her mother and Mammy leaving her, leaving only her and Prissy to care for little Lydia with only the most minimal extra help in the house. Of course, the baby was fine now, Scarlett knew that from experience. It was small, it couldn't move and it slept a lot, she was well aware of how quickly that would change. It was only after her mother had issued her warning that Scarlett started to notice how Melanie Wilkes doted over the baby, recalling how fascinated Melly had even been by the pregnancy itself, which Scarlett had most often ignored. She was quick to start inviting Melanie over more frequently upon her realization.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Christmas 1863
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"I am forgiven, am I not?" Ashley asked in the midst of the gathering at Miss Pitty's.
"Forgiven for what?" Scarlett asked in confusion.
"Marrying Melly and not you."
She laughed, "Like I would have had you."
He gave a small smile.
"I suppose you are forgiven for being the only one of my beaux who did not ask," she gave him a charming smile.
"I wouldn't have thought it possible, but your husband does truly want all of you and you have all of him," he let out an unexpected laugh, "even your daughter is very nearly all you. I imagine you don't mind sharing a part of him with something that is so entirely you."
She unexpectedly thought how she wouldn't mind if the baby just starting to grow within her was as much Rhett as Lydia was her.
"You two are a match just like myself and Melanie," he smiled.
Her head tilted and her lips pursed, no that didn't seem quite right. She shrugged off the thought as she caught sight of the dour faced Honey Wilkes near her husband and child. She hadn't thought that woman could get more unbearable, but she certainly had after Charlie died. Scarlett imagined the woman still blamed her for the two weeks Charles pursued her before the war, like she'd ever encouraged it, it wasn't her fault that he'd responded so readily to a few words of flattery on the staircase. Honey aught to blame herself that Charlie had been so starved for affection.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
July 1865
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
The shelling began when Oliver was 5 days old. The tension in their house had been so thick for the last month as her mother and Mammy arrived for the birth of her baby. It was as the shelling began that Scarlett knew she'd been an utter fool to not listen to her husband months prior and agree to flee the city. The last month, she'd been too far gone to travel far, she'd have likely delivered their son on the side of the road if they'd tried.
When the shelling began she knew she needed to go home, she knew her mother needed to go home, she knew Mammy needed to go home. She got it in her mind that they could only be safe at Tara.
"Are you sure?" Rhett had asked, signaling that he'd been waiting for her to say the words.
She knew it was still too close to the fighting, but it was at least further than being directly in the middle of it.
Scarlett watched with horror as Rhett, Big Sam, Prissy and even her mother rushed to pack a wagon with supplies she hadn't even realized they had. She shook as the hours passed, as her husband, her wonderful blockade runner husband, took them on a winding journey from Atlanta to Tara, scouting ahead on horseback while Big Sam drove the wagon. They likely covered 50 or 60 miles instead of the 30 the trip had once been.
She cried against her mother, while Lydia cried against Mammy, while Prissy also cried against Mammy.
She had cried again seeing Tara, but she cried far worse when her father came out yelling for them to stay away. Careen had typhoid.
Mammy kissed Scarlett and both of her little babies before marching into the house after exchanging a look with Ellen. Mammy wouldn't send her oldest baby in to tend to the illness, she would care for their babies just as she always had.
Gerald cried seeing his grandson from afar, Oliver O'Hara Butler. Scarlett sobbed in her husband's strong arms as her mother held her youngest as she realized she was seeing relief in her father's face that their family would live on.
Scarlett screamed hours later as Rhett deposited them at the Tarleton's at Fair Hill, seemingly still so untouched by the war, but the boys were all gone and it was there that Rhett told her that he would join them.
That was what she heard, not that he had to join the cause so he could live with himself. No she heard that he had to die just like Stuart and Brent and Boyd and Thomas, his honor demanded he die. That he leave her a widow and their children fatherless.
She screamed and clung to him until she fell asleep in Brent's old room, she was alone in the room when she awoke.
Alone aside from the little boy who in the months to come would have his hair come in dark and his eyes change to hazel, a perfect mix of his parents' light and dark.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
She was in the hallway of Tara when he finally returned to Clayton County 10 months later, a baby in her arms, far too small to be any of theirs.
"I don't recall us partaking in anything to create another one of those," he gave a teasing look down at the baby as he paused several feet away from his wife. The baby was small, but thankfully not small enough that it could be hers.
"My little brother, Gerald," she didn't add that he was the fourth of her little brothers named Gerald. She wasn't sure how her mother had borne all of their losses and certainly not how she kept allowing her father to give them the same name.
"And our own?" He questioned with his heart in his throat, so fearful of the losses he could have suffered while so far away.
"Still here," she nodded slowly. "Everyone's still here," it hit her in that moment that it was true as her husband stood before her. "Oh Rhett, is it really over?" She asked with tears in her eyes. All of the exhausting, impossible and frightening moments of the last year.
"It's over my sweet," he said walking towards her. Doubtful that were actually true, he imagined there was still quite a lot that they would have to do in order to survive, but he was here with her, with their children. The rest seemed small when they had that.
."
October 25th 1873
"Gerry," Scarlett said hurrying down the stairs, "have you seen Mother?"
"Not since supper," the 8-year-old said as he went to take the steps upstairs.
"If you see her can you tell her I'm looking for her and it's an emergency?"
"What's the emergency?" Gerald Butler questioned his oldest sister.
"I tore the lace on my dress," she pointed at a scrap of fabric on the shoulder of her emerald green dress.
"Mother will be angry if I call that an emergency."
"Just tell her I need her!" Scarlett snapped at her little brother and then began to hurry down the hallway looking for her.
She headed towards the family parlor and the sound of the piano. She smiled seeing the two girls at the piano, eleven year old, Lydia with her mother's emerald eyes and little Eugenia nearly five with her grandfather's sapphire blue. They both had her dark hair, but were already showing signs that they would grow taller than her, have the stature that she'd always wanted. They often took their mother's breath away with their perfection, however they would be significantly better if either were skilled with a needle. "Have you seen your grandmother?"
"Not since supper," Lydia shook her head.
"Mother, you look beautiful," Genie's eyes were wide.
"You really do Mother," Lydia nodded.
"I tore my dress," she turned with a pout and pointed at the tiny tear.
"Oh no!" Lydia leapt up from the bench.
"I know! It's an emergency and your grandmother is nowhere to be found," Scarlett confirmed the horror of such a thing.
"Genie and I will find Grandmother for you, stay here."
"Thank you, girls," she said following them out into the hall. She sighed and looked around, spotting the light on in the dining room, wondering if maybe her mother was working on something in there."
"Oh, it's you," she said pushing open the door to see her husband sitting at the table with a glass of brandy.
"I love you too, my dear."
"Of course, I love you, Rhett. I'm just looking for my mother."
"I haven't seen her since supper."
"Yes, that seems to be the reoccurring theme. She seems to have vanished from the house after that meal."
"What do you need her for? We should be going soon."
"You mean to the house; we'll be having supper at?"
"Should I sit alone in the study instead of with our family when we are going out in the evenings?"
"No," she shook her head, "of course not."
"You look exquisite my love," he said standing to greet her properly for the first time in hours.
"I tore my sleeve," she pointed at the minor tear on her shoulder.
"You can barely even see it," he said dropping his head to look at where the lace had lost a few stitches from the silk.
"Of course, you can see it and it will only get worse as the night goes on."
"So change your dress."
She laid a hand over her stomach, "The dress just barely fits now. If I don't wear it tonight, I won't be able to wear it until next fall.
His hand covered hers and their growing child, "That would certainly be a tragedy."
"Don't laugh, it would be," she was ready a breath away from crying or throwing things, she didn't know which.
"I'm sorry, my sweet," he said with a hand on her jaw, holding her as he dropped a tender kiss on her lips.
Ellen O'Hara cleared her throat just as her son-in-law was about to deepen the kiss he shared with his wife. "I shall assume your emergency doesn't involve the baby?"
Scarlett quickly tore away from her husband, "Oh no Mother, it's my dress, the lace is coming loose."
"Well come to the parlor and I'll repair it," she sighed at her daughter.
"Where were you, I looked everywhere? No one had seen you?" Scarlett followed after her mother.
"I was in the playroom with Oliver and Thomas."
"Oh," Scarlett said with her lips falling. She had seen everyone, but them. Her 9 and 4 year old sons. "But you're normally downstairs after supper or in your office."
"Lydia was giving Genie piano lessons, we made a tactical escape."
Rhett laughed as he followed after the women.
"Miss Ellen," Mammy said hurrying into the parlor, "is it the babe?"
"It's her sleeve," Ellen gave Mammy a knowing look and set about repairing the damage.
Mammy let out a sigh and then gave Scarlett a scolding look.
"All done," she smiled at her daughter, "now let me see you."
Scarlett stepped back and smiled giving her mother a slow twirl in her dress.
"You aren't wearing stays are you?" Ellen regarded her daughter with a frown and then shot Mammy a look.
"No Mother."
"It's not good for the baby. You could hurt yourself-"
Scarlett frowned at her mother for bringing up the event nearly six years in the past when she had been unable to catch her breath and fainted, saved from any actual damage by her husband catching her. "I am in a normal corset, I can hardly believe you'd think my waist is cinched when I look like this."
"You look breathtaking," her husband supplied.
"You'd does look beautiful Miss Scarlett, a true Southern Belle."
"Thank you, Mammy."
"We should be going," Rhett reminded her.
"Where's your shawl?" Mammy asked.
"Oh I don't need one," Scarlett smiled, "we're only going two houses over."
"It is nearly November and you's with chil'" Mammy gave her a look.
"It's not that cold," Scarlett shook her head.
Mammy bellowed for Prissy.
"I will fetch Scarlett a shawl," Rhett said knowing when to make his escape.
"Thank you, son," Ellen nodded at the man, months older than her.
"Maybe you should take a cape," Mammy said looking at her.
"I certainly don't need a cape," Scarlett shook her head.
"She'll need the umbrella," Ellen nodded at Mammy.
"Mother there's only a little fog, I don't even think it's raining."
o-o-o
"I am twenty-eight, a mother of four, nearly five children. She treats me like I'm a child. She lives in our house Rhett."
Rhett was not entirely sure it was their house and not Ellen and Mammy's as he held the umbrella over his wife, who was also wrapped in her shawl. Scarlett's mother, brother and several of her staff had moved in when the house was completed after Gerald had passed away suddenly. He and Scarlett often hid when his own mother and her aunts visited, but he generally enjoyed having Ellen O'Hara in the house. The children and his wife certainly benefitted.
"As if I can't take care of myself while I am pregnant," she sighed.
"Well you did say you wanted it to be the last one, so in five months you won't have to worry about them babying you because of a baby."
"I don't know about that anymore," she said with a hand on her stomach, "it seems awfully unfair to give all the other children a sibling close in age and not this one. I mean what's the point in losing my waist and then having to get it back for just one." She turned and gave him a look, "And babies certainly occupy my mother and Mammy. What would they do?"
"Your mother is still quite young," he pointed out.
"You only call my mother young because then you'd be old," she smirked at him.
"Am I old Mrs. Butler?" He swept her into his arms and hid them behind a tree as he kissed her.
"Well my mother's certainly too old to be doing that."
October 25th 1874
"I hate him," Scarlett said fuming in their bedroom, storming around the room as Rhett checked on the sleeping infant.
He'd excused them from their dinner party to check on the 7 month old baby. The dinner party where they were hosting Ellen's suitor, a fifty year old gentleman from Virginia, who had recently moved to the area.
"You don't hate him."
"Don't you dare tell me what I'm feeling Rhett."
He certainly was not going to mention she might be feeling everything a bit more than usual because of the baby she carried. This would certainly be the last baby if Ellen ended up marrying the gentleman. He wasn't quite sure how the household would fair if Ellen and Mammy left. "Your mother is still young."
"Stop calling her young, the next thing you'll be telling me that she could still have another baby."
"Mrs. Biscoff did just have one last year, I believe she is 3 years older than your mother."
Scarlett's eyes widened in a new level of horror. She shook it away, "We should travel. Let's take Mother to France."
Ellen had no interest in travelling and she'd made that clear to them before and after all their trips to Europe. "We are not abducting your mother and you're certainly not travelling until this baby is born."
"Why does she want to take care of someone else's children when she has her own flesh and blood," she spun suddenly horrified, "did we have too many children, is it too much for Mother?"
"We're hardly absentee parents Scarlett. Your mother would have hired more staff if the children were too much." He was starting to feel a similar fear to Scarlett's with the thought of Ellen's possible departure.
"I shouldn't have told her about the baby," she laid a hand on her stomach, "I drove her away didn't I?"
He laughed, "You told your mother about the baby three days ago. Your mother has been spending time with Mr. Biscoff for at least two months."
"She what?!"
"Your mother always accompanies the children when they go to play." The widower had two children close in age to the menagerie of children that lived in the Butler household.
"She does that with several families."
"He is the only single male of those families, did you overlook that?"
"You know damn well I did Rhett, why didn't you tell me?!"
"Because your mother-"
"Don't say she's young again," she warned.
"Your father has been gone for years, Scarlett. I have no doubt she loved him, but we can hardly expect her to stop living because he's gone."
"I'd stop living if you were gone," she pouted and wrapped her arms around her husband.
"No you wouldn't."
"Yes, I would," she looked up at him, much like she looked at all of her suitors back in the days she was a belle.
"You would burn your windows garb the moment you could."
"Rhett, don't ever die. I don't even think I could handle that awful crepe when I'm 80."
He laughed and pulled her in tight, "I will do my best my dear."
Thanks for reading and all your great reviews this last week!
PS-Special thanks to this story for being able to stay on such a fluffy note (Yes bad things still happened at the end of the war and after). Phew…Guys these stories really did not do what I expected of them.
Moon Firestar: BECAUSE IT WAS THE NEVER ENDING STORY FROM HELL! I did not enjoy writing that. They were supposed to make out a bit longer, then he'd come get her at Tara, they would stay in Atlanta until it was time for him to go to England and then he would bring her to Charleston where she would end up having purchased a business by the time he returned! It was good, it was easy. This one was handing cramping, I think I lost a Saturday to it. Lol. I put a warning at the top of it for a reason.
Guest: Gerald was that broken/confused man in that fic, I feel like Rhett would have very easily adapted to handling him. Yea, as I stated before they made me research all BC two stories ago. Condoms were still rubber and not latex (but they were produced at a cheaper price than they had been previously in history), condoms were used for disease prevention, as in sleeping with whores, such as Belle's girls. So I actually don't doubt for a second that Rhett would be fine using them, especially considering he was opposed to his wife seeking out an abortion. I believe (thankfully the memories of my research are fading) we are at the cusp in history where the moral police start to take over (also the book is written by someone 50 years later in history). Rhett taking measures instead of Scarlett using a cervical cap or douching making more sense to me. I mean I don't know, all this takes place in an utterly foreign world to me.