Ella had decided to have yet another gilded mirror installed near the front door and when Wade dryly remarked that she looked at herself enough as is, she had stuck her tongue out at him and replied that he was just jealous that she had a face that was worth looking at. Ella had also obtained what she insisted was a perfume from a rather seedy looking shop from a questionable part of town. The shopkeeper of said shop had promised her that it would enhance her charm. Whatever it was, the stench lingered in the air long after she left and seemed to permeate any surface she happened to brush against. Wade had emerged from his room with watering eyes and a handkerchief pressed to his nose, asking what in tarnation were they having for supper. The servants had sniffed the air and scratched their heads in puzzlement before several had made the wise decision to open the windows, and even Scarlett, who had ample experience dabbling in scents to aid in her pursuit of the male species, had gagged when Ella had given her an experimental spray but instead of being deterred by her reaction, Ella had nodded in satisfaction, proclaiming that she had finally found a scent that suited her.
For Scarlett, the odor reminded her only too much of another red haired woman but she determined that it would be best not to voice this particular opinion aloud. The only one who seemed unaffected by the musk was Rhett, who was now reclining in a chair, long legs crossed negligently with a slightly incredulous smile on his face as he watched and listened to the siblings bicker. For once, Scarlett was not annoyed by the hustle and bustle of the servants, the racket of Wade's now sneezing and wheezing dog, Ella's slightly out of tune warbling, and the sound of Wade muttering as he rifled through his collection of heavy wrought volumes, his exertions raising another unholy cloud of dust.
Ella's dress of silk-watered taffeta was a work of art: it was as green as the leaves of summer and possessed absurdly wide sleeves trimmed with lace the color of sea foam. It was embroidered with glimmering gold thread that crisscrossed into an intricate tapestry of frolicking fairies and dancing elves whose mischievous works of magic spilled onto the bodice in shimmering sparks of light. Swollen apples and other lush delicacies were picked out with the tiniest of spiraling rubies and sequins. She had run matching ribbons of green satin through her elaborately braided hair and wore a collar of pale green Irish lace. The dress fit her like a glove, like a second skin; the fabric had pulse on her and seemed to shimmer with every sashaying move. Humming a nostalgic tune, she smiled that dimpled smile as she pinched her cheeks and dabbed rouge onto the tip of her nose and the bow of the lips to give herself that just-bitten look.
Sipping a glass of what had been her favorite sour red wine, Scarlett watched as Ella tucked a long pin with an unusual cluster of pearls at one end into her thick curls. And in that moment, seated by her husband, surrounded by her children, enveloped in this air of domestic tranquility and the calm and self-assuredness of middle age, Scarlett thought that she could almost be satisfied with how she had fared in this life.
But as she continued to gaze at Ella, a delicate wraith-like figure endowed with all the fleeting vibrancy and tragic overconfidence of early youth, Scarlett saw another girl primping in the mirror alongside her, giggling coquettishly with a small, white hand pressed lightly to the pouty pink lips. She would be chattering about the latest gossip and debating who had the most handsome beaux. Her face would be slimmer now, the cheekbones more prominent…perhaps her eyes would have darkened, the curls straightened or perhaps they would have turned into the same jetty mass as her sister's, with glossy ringlets that would kiss her round, ruddy cheeks. She ought to be wearing her first corset, her first party dress… she ought to be weeping into her pillow as she experienced her first heartbreak...perhaps she would have given Beatrice's horsemanship a run for her money, and would someday have married a dashing young Southerner and had children of her own with the same high spirited defiance…
And if the world were fair and just, perhaps there would be another boy, a tall dark-haired handsome boy, with dancing black eyes and a cutting smile standing by Wade's side, admiring the leather bound book he was now reading on the sofa and returning Ella's double-edged compliments with sweet words coated in vinegar…but these things would never be, never be because…she turned to Rhett, whose fond smile had turned into a nostalgic, bittersweet smirk. Scarlett studied her husband's face: she couldn't remember the last time she had seen him smile, let alone smirk. He looked younger, much like a man she had known from a time that was lost forever. Her eyes hungrily searched his face and in that moment, she wanted nothing more than to engrave the sight into her mind before it became yet another memory.
But seeing his smirk widen, Scarlett cocked an eyebrow, the corner of her mouth pushed to one side, and looked to Ella. She was slipping a pair of diamond earbobs into her pierced ears and as she tossed her head back and forth, the sound of the earbobs delicate tinkling carried through the air. Scarlett suddenly felt the heat rise in her cheeks and her ears glow as flashes of memory and sensation held sway and looking again at that signature expression etched onto that blandly insolent face and the unholy amusement in those black eyes, she wasn't sure whether she wanted to laugh or to slap that smirk off.
This might sound blasphemous, but the more I think about things, the more I am starting to believe that it would have been out of character for the two of them to have taken advantage of the multiple missed opportunities they had throughout the relationship. This might sound hopeless because I am basically saying that their relationship was doomed to fail, but it could be hopeful as well because I think they could get it right the second time…if there even is a second time…
And to those who say it is out of character for Scarlett to take him back just like that…I don't know...loneliness does things to people, even the strongest.