Wade Hamilton's Birthright
Book Two
Suellen O'Hara Benteen was helpless with laughter. Am I spiteful? she though, stuffing a buttermilk biscuit in her craw. Does it matter?
"T-tell me again, Wade, what happened..." Sue shook her head, trying not to choke on crumbs. "Please, slowly."
Wade frowned at his aunt. "You get the idea, Auntie. I really don't see why I must go through this again."
Suellen gave Wade a chubby smile. "You want us to put up Ashley Wilkes...in, in hiding..."Suellen collapsed, gasping. "I think you owe me the explanation. I just can't wait to tell your Uncle Will. Really, I can't."
She paused. "Rhett caught Ashley and Scarlett, dear sweet, honorable Scarlett in the bedroom." Fumbling for the elderberry wine, Sue supped greedily, before reaching for yet another buttermilk biscuit.
It was a beautiful September day at Tara, and Suellen was sitting, as she often was, on the grand old porch. Will didn't say much about the amount she ate anymore, but he had passed more than a few editorial comments concerning her consumption of elderberry wine.
Wade repeated the story for the fourth time. "Uncle Ashley showed up in town about a week ago, and he came to see Mother because he is without money and of course was a bit frightened concerning the circumstances in which he left town almost a decade ago."
"Right, right, he's a thief. An embezzler, and Scarlett must have been so thrilled to see him." What garbage my sister is, Suellen thought with an abundant joy. I always knew it, yes I did. Where's the damn wine?
"Well, Mother was concerned, because Uncle Ash apparently had been horsewhipped and tar and feathered in Macon, we're not sure why, and so Mother brought him up to the master suite.
And, after Ashley had had a bath, he was lying in the bed, and Oofus, their houseman, was rubbing liniment on some of the wounds from the whipping."
"Better than a penny dreadful, this is." Suellen poured the last of the elderberry wine into a small glass. It was all right to drink it up, as long as one didn't take it from the bottle, swigging, like white trash.
Suellen sometimes went to play euchre with Emmie Slattery, Jonas Wilkerson's widow. Emmie was surprisingly not such a bad sort, and wasn't always dressed in patches like some of their dowdier neighbors.
Everyone thought that after Tony Fontaine had killed Jonas, Emmie would have spent herself back into the poorhouse, as white trash generally do, but two of Emmie's nephews had invested in a roulette and whiskey parlor down by the river, and the girl was quite prosperous.
But, when Suellen and Emmie drank together, Emmie did have a tendency to sup from the bottle...and Suellen still had her pre-war manners.
"So Oofus went back downstairs to get more liniment, and Mother was sitting on the bed talking to Ashley...And I think Ashley was trying to make an indecent proposal to Mother." Wade said, cocking his head.
"How shocking," Suellen said calmly. "Dilcey! Bring us more wine!"
"And Mother tells me she was about to get up off where she was sitting at the bedside, but Uncle Ashley wouldn't let go of her arm, and that's when Uncle Rhett walked into the master suite."
"Goodness!" Suellen said, smiling. "DILCEY! The wine!" This was better than a birthday present, truly it was. "So Rhett caught them canoodling, did he?"
Wade shook his head, exasperated. "No, no. Mother was just being kind to Uncle Ashley, but Uncle Rhett got the wrong idea, and so he shot Uncle Ashley in the leg-"
"Yes, yes of course..." Suellen's eyes grazed Wade beadily.
"And then he threw Mother out of the house. It is his house."
The porch door opened, and Dilcey came out, pouting, with a fresh bottle of elderberry wine. She gave Suellen a venomous look, and set the decanter down on the table between Suellen and Wade.
"Does you want some ginger beer, Mist' Wade?" Dilcey asked. "Ah knows unlike some, you don't em-bibe dis early in de afternoon."
"Get back inside, you gorilla." Suellen said with a savage look. "We're having a family discussion."
"Miss Suellen, Mist' Ashley, he in the baid, but he pinch Marguerite's bottom."
"Well, isn't he the frisky one. Just tell her to stay out of range, and change his bandages."
"So that's the story, Aunt Sue." Wade finished. "I have to get back to Atlanta. Since Aunt Pittypat thinks she is ill with pleurisy, Mother is staying at my establishment, the Confirmed Bachelor's Hotel and Bathhouse."
"I'm surprised she didn't accompany you and your Uncle Ashley here." Suellen said, as she happily refreshed her elderberry wine. "Uncle Ashley could pinch her instead of that idiot Marguerite."
"No, Mother...you misunderstand. Mother was innocent in this. She's too proud to defend herself to Uncle Rhett, but-"
"Oh, Wade." Suellen said, rolling her eyes. "You aren't a bright boy, are you? Your mother is the Whore of Babylon, and I don't know if you're aware of this, but your precious establishment is known from Atlanta to Jonesboro as a refuge for sodomites."
"Aunt Sue-"
"Really, it is. No wonder you can't get married. The women of Atlanta must think you're a fairy!"