Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of Margaret Mitchell, her heirs, and their assigns.
Philippe sat on the edge of Ellen's bed. Every so often he would pat her hand encouragingly. "Soon, my love." When he did that, her head didn't ache, and that pain in her side went away.
He was pushed out of the way by Mammy, who set down a basin of water and threadbare towels. "Miss Ellen, you won't believe what Miss Scarlett has gone and done," she said. A cool cloth was laid on Ellen's head, and another was used to wipe down her aching arms.
Ellen recalled the child. Dark hair, green eyes, Gerald's jaw. Born not long after Ellen's sixteenth birthday, and so much trouble. Grown up herself, now, with the sweet little boy. Such luscious brown eyes. "What about Scarlett?"
"She done married that no-account Captain Butler," answered Mammy. "She got home from Atlanta in the middle of the night, with Prissy and Master Wade, and Prissy told us all about her getting married, and a big fight on Miss Pittypat's front porch, and Miss Melly's baby done come early, so Miss Scarlett came home."
"It will be good to have Scarlett home," said Ellen. She had begged Scarlett to come home, and only this inconvenient child was in the way.
"Yes, ma'am."
So much to think through. "Did Melanie come here?"
"No, Miss Ellen, Mrs. Doctor Meade took her to Macon to the Burrs."
So much the better. It was so hard to find food for all the mouths they had to feed as it was. "Did you say Captain Butler came with Scarlett?"
"She said he's around somewhere, but he's not planning to stay. Now that the army left, she's going to see if any of the neighbors' gardens have food we can have."
Captain Butler. Something stuck in Ellen's head about him. She almost found the strength to sit up. "Not that horrible man, surely!"
"I'm sorry Miss Ellen, but it's that same one that had Miss 'Lalie and Miss Pauline all tore up two years ago. She done gone and married him."
"When? Have they... is she with child?"
"Prissy says early August, so three weeks or more, anyway. Mrs. Doctor just found out the other night. I couldn't say about the other."
Was there any reason to believe such a man wouldn't take what would be considered his due? "She took with Wade so quickly... she's probably with child now." Mammy was wiping her legs down, now. Philippe had moved to sit near her shoulder and Ellen looked into his eyes. "At least he married her, I suppose."
"Yes, ma'am," said Mammy disapprovingly.
Clearly the world had been badly managed, according to Ellen's childhood nurse and lifelong companion. Ellen would have to straighten it out. "I'm sorry," she said to Philippe as he blew her a kiss and climbed out the window.
It was a different time of day when she woke again. She didn't really care except to notice that the light was completely different. Scarlett herself came up to feed some vegetable broth to those in the sick room, starting with her mother. "We found a few things in the McIntoshs' kitchen garden, Mother. They were gone so we took them. There were things at Twelve Oaks, too, but the house is gone." The girl's face was wet.
Ellen took a spoonful when it was held to her mouth but then grimaced and refused the next mouthful.
"Please, Mother," said Scarlett in a surprisingly soft tone of voice. Working at the hospital must have done her good.
"Married?" she asked.
"Yes, mother."
"That awful man."
"He's nice enough to me, and what was I to do? I might have shamed myself."
"Definitely married?" Scarlett slipped another spoonful of broth in.
"Yes mother, by the priest at that little church... near downtown?"
"Father O'Shea, then? I know him."
"Yes, Mother."
"How could you?" More broth kept being swallowed. It made her stomach feel almost content.
"Mother! I just... did you never feel as though you just had to? He offered marriage, and I was afraid of what would become of me if I didn't accept."
Philippe was in the room again, and Ellen remembered what had become of her when well-meaning family interfered. "Where is he?"
"He's been hiding at Twelve Oaks. Some of the buildings didn't get burned down. When he's sure the Yankees are all gone, he says he'll come here and then go back to Atlanta to enlist."
Curious, that. If he was planning to join, why not before now? "Why wait?"
"He always said he had no intention of helping the Confederacy beyond blockade running and that was at an immense profit. I don't know why he would leave me with everything so horrible."
A lot of questions to ponder there. Why would a blockade runner spend so much time so far inland? Why would such a reprobate fight at the eleventh hour? Ellen remembered how much her head hurt as she tried to figure it out.
"Look at that, Mother," said Scarlett in a soothing bedside voice. "You've finished all the broth Dilcey gave me for you. She'll be delighted."
Ellen felt proud of herself, as she was meant to, and forgot to stay awake as Scarlett moved over to Suellen's bed.
A couple of days later, Ellen had an additional pillow under her head. She still ached everywhere, but her caretakers assessed that she had turned the corner. Her fever was not as bad as before, and she could say a few more words in a sentence.
"Mrs. O'Hara." Gerald's voice didn't boom as it usually did, this was closer to his lovemaking voice, when he was trying to soothe or please her. There had been moments in their over twenty-year marriage where the lilting Irish timbre of that voice had done something to her. Odd to think of that now when she was so sick. Her mind must be looking for something to work on.
"Yes, Mister O'Hara."
"They tell me you're better."
"I believe so, yes, although better than what, I do not know." Her mind tossed around. Perhaps if she had some concern to mull over. "Where do things stand, Mister O'Hara?"
"Well, 'tis a shameful situation, to see it all go down after working a lifetime-"
"The house stands?"
"Aye, it does, but in sad condition after the Yankees used it for their quarters."
"The cotton?"
"Two years' worth in storage with this year's on the verge of blooming."
"Our darkies?"
"Just Pork and Dilcey and their new baby, with Prissy and Mammy."
"And the girls?"
"Doing better every day, according to Mammy."
"Thank God for that."
"You're right, Mrs. O'Hara. If you're feeling well enough, we could say family prayers up here tonight."
"Not quite ready, Mr. O'Hara. Have we enough to feed everyone?"
"That's the rub, Mrs. O'Hara. The Yankees have eaten all ours. Scarlett's been going around the neighborhood. She's found a couple of kitchen gardens belonging to our evacuated neighbors that have vegetables yet, and the kind folk of Mimosa and Fairhill have offered us some of their extra. They're so far off the road they haven't been troubled. If we're careful, we'll have plenty for quite some time."
That was good to know. "Scarlett is married?"
Gerald puffed up. "The laddybuck had the nerve to ride up here and tell me he'd taken our daughter, Mrs. O'Hara."
"Is it real?"
"He had several copies of their marriage lines written out. It's real enough."
"There's nothing to be done, then."
"He's leaving for Atlanta tomorrow."
"What day is it?"
"The third of September, as far as we can tell."
"And the war?"
"Keeps going, as far as we can tell."
Rhett waited in Scarlett's room until she was done caring for her mother and sisters. "Tell me I have you to myself for a few hours," he said, his lips already on her throat below her chin.
"Rhett! I'm not sure we should..." It was a little awkward with her family in the house. Sure, she'd spent a couple of nights with Charlie in the same bed, but with Rhett it would be...
"Scarlett, I'm a man going to war tomorrow, perhaps to my death. I'd like a beautiful memory of my beautiful wife."
"But, my family..."
"Please, my dear."
There was something a little sad, even winsome in his voice. She couldn't have possibly described it, but something in her heart responded to it. Or maybe she responded to the feeling of his hand unbuttoning her basque. In any case, he soon had her undressed, and his hands were doing things to which she couldn't say no if she wanted to.
Afterwards, he dozed with his head resting on her breasts, and she lost her breath thinking of what he'd said. What if he did die? What if she never knew this again? A few minutes later his hand ran back down her hip and she realized that she would not tell him no until daylight.
The next morning saw Scarlett seeing her soldier off to war. She walked him up between the cypress trees of the drive to the main road, where once he saddled his horse and was on his way, she buried her knuckles in her mouth to keep from crying out. That afternoon saw her tending her mother and sisters, who were definitely feeling better but still weak as newborn kittens.
The next week saw Scarlett going out in the neighborhood, going further and further from Tara to find vegetables or fruit in byways or kitchen gardens of abandoned farms and plantations. She hid the money belt she got from Rhett, not even stopping to count it. There was also a wallet of money in various denominations. She and Pork would go into town with a few dollars to find what food was available there to extend their meager pantry.
The following month came, and Scarlett started to help picking cotton. Her sisters helped somewhat, as well as Pork, Dilcey, and Prissy. By the end of that month, it was all taking too much of a toll upon Scarlett, who worked between exhaustion, sickness, and hunger by turns during the day. Mammy and Ellen finally took her aside one afternoon and discussed her symptoms. Scarlett was pregnant.
Christmas eventually came, and with it Frank Kennedy and the commissary, looking for provisions. Tara was much changed since Frank had last come courting Suellen. The house was not in the condition it once was. Ellen and Gerald were much changed as well. Ellen's will was just as strong as ever. She could still calculate over the ledgers and make decisions for the farm, but she had no stamina any more. She could barely make it downstairs to spend a few hours per day in her study before going back up. Gerald contained as much bravado as he ever did, but his property was not what he had built it up to be, and something within him was broken as well.
Yet it was Christmas, and the family were recovering from the typhoid that had nearly taken their loved ones. The cotton was in, there was enough to eat although barely enough, and there was company to enjoy their holiday with. Then Suellen and Frank were engaged, and suddenly Ellen and Gerald O'Hara were just as they were in the old days, smiling and making plans for the future. If she closed her eyes, Scarlett could reclaim the feel of holidays before the war.
Scarlett even got a gift in the form of a letter from Rhett. He was in the artillery, under the command of a Henry Hull Carlton, due to his partial West Point education. The artillery! Surely that was safer than infantry! She tucked the letter in her basque and put her hand over her growing middle. She had hope of seeing him again.
A/N: Did you despair of ever seeing another chapter of this? I have to admit that I did. As you may recall, this story was supposed to be a one-shot, a two-shot at most. Then your requests and my mind kept thinking of new things. I've run hard against the war and the book and couldn't get into this chapter. The only thing I knew for sure was that Prissy, who knew all, would tell all. So I skipped over the first eight hours of it.
Thank you for the patience and prodding of the readers and reviewers, including samandfreddie, kanga85, Truckee Gal, COCO B, Phantom710, gabyhyatt, Wiolka, Guest 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5, romabeachgirl, MissTricey, Sushibear144, whoknows3, 1life2ROCK, and I Dream of Spring.