Disclaimer: I own nothing in regard to GWTW

Author's Note: There are parts to this chapter that I have stretched reality a little bit. It is the only way I could see Scarlett getting the knowledge.

Chapter Two

One day she heard something amazing. She was having dinner in the dining room without anyone else because Rhett and the children were at Melly's house for the day. She overheard a conversation that gave her knowledge she never knew she needed. Two women were speaking when one said, "I wish Harold enjoyed relations as much as I do. He is amazing. He never fails to give me an orgasm. He just doesn't like to do it that often."

The other woman said, "Is that why you don't have any children?

The first woman said, "We use the sheath method. Best method out there. I have been using it for seven years and I haven't gotten pregnant once."

The second woman said, "Where do you buy them?

The first woman said, "In a brothel."

Both ladies laughed.

The second woman said, "I have only gotten pregnant once but I got rid of it."

The first woman said, "I'm glad we are not like these southern ladies who only do it because it's their duty. I don't think I could live without Harold kissing my nether regions. I have the best orgasms when he does that."

Scarlett then heard other people joining the women. Scarlett tried not to look at them. She didn't want them to know she had been listening. What was an orgasm? What was a sheath? Those ladies acted like relations could be a lot of fun. It was pleasant with Rhett but she would never call it a lot of fun. If relations could be a lot of fun then she deserved to have fun too. Maybe she would let him do some of the other things he wanted to do while they were having relations. She went to a bookstore and asked to see a dictionary.

She got the dictionary and went to the back of the store. She hoped it was spelled exactly the way it sounded. Or ga sm – There it was! It meant - a climax of sexual excitement, characterized by feelings of pleasure centered in the genitals area and (in men) experienced as an accompaniment to ejaculation. Scarlett was beet red when she finished reading that. She looked up climax. It meant - the most intense, exciting, or important point of something; a peak. She looked up sheath. It meant a cover for the blade of a knife or sword. Scarlett thought about that and grasped where and what the device did. Scarlett stood there for a while until her face was a normal color. The thought that kept going around in her head was …she could have intense pleasure from relations. One thing she knew was that if anyone could do it Rhett would be able to do it. She would find out tonight. She didn't have to wonder if they were going to have relations or not. They had relations every night and almost every morning and often when the children were taking their naps. Scarlett recognized that with all that activity she would be pregnant soon. If she was going through the pain of childbirth, she wanted some intense pleasure too. She knew without a doubt that Rhett knew all about sheaths. She would probably have to give him several children but hopefully one every three or four years not ever year. Of course, she could always hope that Rhett couldn't make a baby. That made her laugh for such a manly man to not be able to sire children.

That night at supper in the dining room Rhett asked, "How are the plans for the house coming along?"

Scarlett got a shocked look on her face. She said, "I forgot all about the building of a house. What do you want the house to look like?

Rhett said, "I thought your heart was set on a Swiss Chalet."

Scarlett remembered their conversation about the house now. She remembered that he had scoffed at the house looking like a Swiss Chalet but had told her to build it any way she wanted. He didn't care. Scarlett didn't believe he didn't care and said, "It's going to be your house too so I would like your input." Scarlett was stalling for time. She didn't want to move into a house with Rhett. She was still scared of him and what he might do if that murderous rage overtook him again and they were alone in the house.

Rhett said, "Why don't we drive around the city looking at houses to see what is available?"

Scarlett said, "That would be nice. I would like that."

That night Scarlett found out there was a whole world of pleasure she had never even knew existed. She had never felt better in her entire life. Rhett was thinking 'That was wonderful. She finally let me give her pleasure. I wonder what changed?'

The next morning was equally pleasurable for Scarlett and she was going to have a happy day. Rhett was very happy with the morning relations also. 'This was soon going to be the best sex he had ever had. I wonder what changed?' Rhett thought.

That afternoon Rhett and Scarlett started looking at houses. There were several that both of them like but none that they wanted to live in. They kept looking.

Six weeks after they had gotten back from New Orleans Scarlett asked Rhett if they could go to Tara. Rhett said, "I don't want to go but you go ahead and go."

Scarlett said, "Thank you Rhett."

Scarlett and the children left two days later. Scarlett was so happy to be at Tara. She loved everything about the plantation. The dirt, the sky, the cotton, the house, even her sister well maybe not her sister. She was having such a good time that Rhett had to send her a telegram telling her to come back to Atlanta. Ella and Wade asked if they could stay and Scarlett cleared it with Will, Suellen, and Mammy then said yes.

Scarlett returned to Atlanta and Rhett met her at the train station. She was happy to see him. She wanted more of those pleasurable relations. She was very attentive to Rhett. She picked up the ledgers from the mills and the store and worked on them in the morning while Rhett was out. When she had seen Ashley the day before she recognized that he wasn't doing well in the world he lived in. She wished she knew how to help him but she didn't. Scarlett and Rhett went dining and dancing or they played games in their suite or they read together for a week. Scarlett then asked to go back to Tara. Rhett let her go. He was thinking while she is at Tara, she is away from Mr. Wilkes.

Scarlett was riding around the county visiting people. She went to see Alex Fontaine. He had recently married his brother's widow and seemed happy enough about it. His longtime intended, Dimity Munroe, would probably become and old maid now.

After a while Alex asked, "How are Ashley and Melanie doing?"

Scarlett said, "Ashley is doing fine. It is taking him awhile to understand the lumber business that is to be expected he wasn't raised to work as a clerk. He was raised to listen to opera, read poetry and discuss philosophy. Alex looked at Scarlett and thought 'She is still infatuated with Ashley. She still idolizes him. Maybe a little truth will end that infatuation.

Alex said, "I still remember how everyone in the county was shocked that you were going to marry Charles Hamilton. Everyone was also shocked that Charles was marrying you."

Scarlett said, "Why were they shocked that Charlie was marrying me? I was the belle of three counties."

Alex said, "Because the Wilkes and Hamiltons always married their cousins because the rest of us aren't good enough for them. I heard that the entire week before the wedding Ashley and his father had tried to talk Charlie out of it. I heard that Ashley told him that if he married you, he would regret it the rest of his life because the two of y'all were too different. The fact that you were a Robillard was great but I heard that Mr. Wilkes called your father an Irish peasant who just got lucky twice. Charlie stood up to them through it all. He didn't care who your parents were. He loved you and if you would marry him then he would be proud to marry you. Now that's real love."

Scarlett was shocked. This couldn't be true. Mr. Wilkes thought of her Pa just as an Irish peasant. Her Pa who was one of the kindest men in the county. Her Pa who refused to take advantage of Mr. Wilkes while buying Dulcey and Prissy. No! No! Ashley couldn't have said that. But isn't that what he had said to her in the library that day. They were too different to be happy together. Stop! Scarlett said with a laugh, "That explains why Charlie always called me his beautiful Irish rose. What did Mr. Wilkes mean that my Pa had just gotten lucky twice?"

Alex said, "You know he won Tara in a poker game where he got the other man drunk?"

Scarlett nodded.

Alex said, "I don't know the details but something about asking your mother to marry him on the same day she found out her cousin Phillipe had passed away."

They kept the conversation going for thirty minutes more. After Scarlett left Alex thought 'Your welcome. You deserve better than to continue mooning over Ashley. He was never good enough for you.' Everything Alex had told Scarlett had been true and she needed to know exactly why Ashley hadn't married her. Ashley had done her wrong by visiting her so much those two years when he was pledged to Melanie Hamilton.

Scarlett rode back to Tara. Her mind was a buzz. Alex lied! No Alex never lied. He hadn't even lied to get out of trouble when they were children. Charlie stood up to his uncle and Ashley in order to marry her. That had taken courage. Ashley didn't want to marry her? He hadn't been forced into marrying Melanie? The truth was he hadn't wanted to marry her. Why didn't he tell her the truth? Scarlett conveniently forgot that every time he had told her the truth she hadn't listen. In her anger at him it was all his fault. He had led her on. What had Pa said about Ashley … that the Wilkes were odd. Yes. That was true. What was this about her mother and Phillipe? She groomed the horse and found Mammy. She browbeat the entire story out of Mammy. When she went to her room all the thoughts were buzzing in her head. Ashley thinks I'm nothing but an Irish peasant. Mother never loved Pa. Did she love us girls? Charles is a lot braver and a lot stronger willed than I thought. No wonder Mother was such a proper lady. She had no spirit she was already dead inside. She felt the same way about her children as I do mine. She didn't love them because they weren't Phillipe's children. I will love mine because they are mine. I can be a good mother. She began to look at her children differently especially Wade. She thought 'Yes. I can see it. Melanie is brave like Charlie was. Scarlett conveniently forgot that one week earlier she had thought of both of them as weak creatures. Now she was beginning to think of Ashley as a weak person who she was shackled with because she had been kind enough to offer him a job so Melly wouldn't have to move to New York. That's what I get for being nice. I'm stuck with incompetents like Hugh and Ashley.

Scarlett still didn't know what to do about her fear of Rhett. He could be so nice but he could become so nasty so quickly. Was she really afraid of him physically hurting her? No. The way he would hurt her would be with his words. His tongue was sharper than any knife. She was afraid of him running away from her and abandoning her. That's what he had done all throughout the war. When they were beginning to become close. When she thought he loved her. He would say something nasty and leave Atlanta. And just like in New Orleans he would return to her but never apologize. She was going to stay here until he told her to come home. The telegram came the next day. All it said was: Come back tomorrow Stop