The first rays of dawn were just beginning to pour in through the curtains when Rhett woke the following morning. He opened his eyes slowly, still tired from the exertions of the previous night. He blinked once, and then again, confused by the sight that greeted him. At first he thought he was still sleeping. After all, this wouldn't be the first time that he'd dreamt Scarlett had come back to him. Almost every night found him plagued by visions of the two of them acting out scenes of reconciliation and speaking words of love to each other, only for the morning to come and rob him of his newfound joy once again.
Rhett blinked hard and felt his weary heart lift when he opened his eyes to find that this was no dream and that Scarlett really was lying beside him, her long black locks tickling his face and her supple body wrapped up tightly in his arms. He longed to reach out and caress her face, to pepper her flawless magnolia skin with his kisses, each touch wiping away a little more of the hurt festering between them until nothing was left. But as he moved to do so he caught sight of Bonnie, sleeping soundlessly a foot or so away from Scarlett's side and felt his more amorous intentions subside and wither with this sudden knowledge of his daughter's proximity. He contented himself with pulling his wife tighter against his body, revelling in the feel of their intertwined fingers and internally cursing the quilt that lay like a barrier between them.
He studied her face in the first golden rays of the new day and was relieved to see that she looked peaceful, her rosy lips curled up slightly at the edges as if she were dreaming of pleasant things. Just for a few moments, Rhett allowed himself to believe that it was him Scarlett was thinking of; that she dreamt of him the way he did of her. He wished that they could stay exactly like this, curled up together in the safety of this room which kept the real world and everybody in it at bay. But as the rising sun crept through the curtains and up the bed, gradually illuminating her sleeping form, Rhett felt the closeness and certainty that he had felt during the hours of darkness break apart when exposed to the harsh light of day.
She did not love him. He knew it, had always known it, and to allow himself to believe otherwise even for a moment would only serve to leave him vulnerable to her scorn and rejection. The only reason Scarlett had even shared his bed last night was because of Bonnie and, while he was curious as to why she had suddenly decided to act like a mother to their little girl, he was certain her miraculous turnaround had nothing to do with him. Rhett baulked at the remembrance of how he had come close to exposing his feelings last night, how he'd spoken out to stop her returning to her own bed when Bonnie had complained of being too hot lying between them. He knew he should have kept quiet and let her go, suffocated his emotions as he'd so painstakingly learnt to do over the years, but in that moment, having only just got her back, he simply could not bear to watch her leave again.
Scarlett stirred slightly in her sleep, rolling away from him onto her front. The movement served to harden Rhett's heart, appearing to him as it did to convey her desire to leave his embrace. Scared that she would wake and read in his eyes the overriding pain of crushed hope that was too large for him to successfully conceal, Rhett did what he always did when he feared his love was close to being revealed: he ran.
Carefully detangling his hand from hers, he eased himself slowly towards the edge of the bed, stopping every few seconds to listen for any change in the sound of her breathing that would alert him to her awakening. Gently, he lifted himself off the mattress and picked up his discarded clothes from the night before, forgoing his usual pristine image in favour of beating a hasty retreat.
Moments later, dressed in yesterday's crumpled ensemble, Rhett Butler dejectedly descended the same stairs that only a few hours ago he had climbed with renewed hope. Leaving the house, he looked up and down the street, momentarily at a loss as to where he should go. The town was all but deserted at this early hour of the morning, the air cool and refreshing as it brushed up against his grimy skin. He briefly considered heading back to Belle's, but after last night's humiliating defeat he did not feel like showing his face there again quite so soon. Belle, unlike Scarlett, had always been able to read him like a book, and she would be sure to pick up on his present unhappiness and ask him questions that he was nowhere near ready to answer.
After an hour of aimless wandering, he decided to go to the bank, feeling that a day spent devoting himself to business matters would be the perfect tonic to a night spent examining the inner turmoil of his heart. Arriving in the lobby, he saw to his relief that he was one of only a few people there at this early hour. Pleased he would not have to make small talk with his colleagues, he wasted no time in marching over to his desk and busying himself with the first file that came to hand.
Since he had fixed it for Mrs . Merriweather to expand her bakery, many of Atlanta's Old Guard had taken to coming to him with their financial problems and requests, hoping to take advantage of his sudden pursuit of respectability in order to further their own ends. Rhett sighed. Sometimes he missed his old life of decadence, the knowledge that he need rely on nothing and no one but himself. He wondered idly what his younger self would make of him now, going out of his way to flatter and court the very people he had once derided and detested. Not much, was his guess.
He remembered how he'd once told Scarlett that with enough courage you could do without a reputation, but that was back in the days when he was young and fearless, convinced that it would only be a matter of time before she opened up her heart to him. And, that once he had her, he would need nothing else, least of all a reputation. But the years had dragged on and Scarlett had stubbornly held out against his love until his own courage and self-confidence had slowly begun to fade. Until he had lost all hope for his own happiness and now only thought to ensure Bonnie's by clawing back the credibility he had once so carelessly flung away.
No matter how hard he tried to keep up this charade of respectability throughout the day though, his traitorous mind kept assaulting him with images of the night before. For every minute that he spent thinking about loans and mortgages he spent an hour thinking about Scarlett. He remembered how silky her skin had felt, how soft her breathing had been, how her body had gradually melted into his during the course of the night. But more than all of that, he remembered the moment just before dawn when he had been woken from his slumber by the feel of Bonnie pulling away from him and Scarlett as she rolled over to lie at the edge of the bed.
He remembered how he had lain paralysed, afraid of making the slightest movement in case it woke Scarlett and she realized that it was now just the two of them wrapped up in an embrace. His head had shouted at him to withdraw his arm from where it now hung limp and useless around her waist, to turn away from her towards his own side of the bed. But his heart, stubborn and reckless as ever, had prevented him from moving so much as a muscle. And so he had lain there, silent and still, luxuriating in the feel of the first truly intimate moment he had shared with his wife in years.
A few minutes later, he'd felt Scarlett stir and was just about to pull back when she surprised him by reaching out for his hand in her sleep and intertwining it with her own. The gesture, though unconsciously made, had sent trills of desire and heat shooting through Rhett's body, breaking down the walls he had built up around his heart and flooding his soul with such a tide of love he feared he might never be able to stem the flow again.
It was with this image in his head that Rhett rose from his desk at five o'clock and began his journey back home, cursing himself for his earlier weakness in running away. He should have stayed. He should have stayed and built on the shaky foundations they had laid down last night, not let his fear tear them all down. He knew that it would not be an easy task to get their marriage back on track, that he'd have to fight his own cowardice every bit as much as Scarlett's stubbornness if he was to stand any chance of success, but buoyed up by the night's events he felt that he was finally willing to try.
As he opened the door to their Peachtree Mansion, however, and saw Scarlett standing in the hallway with Mammy looking more stunning and out of reach than ever in her emerald green gown, her glossy raven locks cascading down from her head and framing her subtly made-up face to perfection, his courage deserted him and he knew that he was not strong enough to confess his feelings to her.
Not yet. What he needed now was time, time to reconnect with her so that when he finally did let down his defenses and open up his heart he would have no fear of rejection, already being assured of her love. What he needed was a way to ensure that Scarlett would share his bed again tonight and, if he had his way, every other night for the rest of their lives. Rhett squared his shoulders as a plan took form in his mind. It was risky and morally dubious and there was a good chance that she would see though his ploy, but this was one gamble that Rhett Butler was determined to win. One gamble that he truly could not afford to lose.
Scarlett had also spent the majority of the day trying to devise a way of fixing it so that she wouldn't have to return to her own bed that night. Not that she had felt so kindly towards Rhett when she first woke up of course, the realization that he had upped and left her while she was still asleep having put her in an extremely sour mood at first.
His absence from the bed that they had shared together initially confirmed her earlier assumptions that he had not really wanted her there, but had merely permitted her presence as a means of pacifying Bonnie. As she stalked downstairs and vented her frustration by shouting unnecessarily at the servants, Scarlett was fully determined to erase the events of the previous night from her memory and smother the small flame of hope that had caught light inside her as Rhett had held her in his arms. He could never know how his presence had affected her, she swore fiercely to herself, never know how she had longed to remain in his bed forever. For, if he did, he would only laugh at her for her foolishness and the sound of his contempt would cut her deeper than any blade.
Scarlett ate her breakfast as quickly as she could and hurriedly set about preparing to leave the house. She was anxious to go as soon as possible so that Rhett wouldn't return to find her indoors, sitting round idly as if she had nothing better to do than passively wait for him to come back. As she got ready she tried to think of a place she could escape to where she wouldn't run the risk of bumping into her errant husband. Ashley's mill was the obvious answer. Rhett never went there if he could help it, and it wouldn't look suspicious as she'd been visiting him regularly for a while now in order to help him out with the utter mess he was making of the business.
But while she was sorely tempted to spend the day with Ashley simply because she knew it would anger Rhett, something held her back. Part of her could not bear the thought of sitting round listening to him drone on endlessly about the golden days of the past. Not after her own hopes for the future, only born a few short hours ago, had been so cruelly dashed this morning. Instead, she decided to take the children and go and visit Melanie. That way she could keep Bonnie by her side and hopefully build on the tentative connection they had forged last night.
Melanie was as delighted as ever when she opened the door to Scarlett and the children an hour later, her eternally serene face lighting up as it always did when she caught sight of her dearest friend. 'Why, Scarlett dear, how good of you to come visit.' she cooed happily, her voice filled with all the natural sweetness that Scarlett's so pointedly lacked.
Once they were settled in the parlour, Ella and Bonnie beside Scarlett, while Wade ran off excitedly to find Beau, Melanie began hastily apologising for the state of the room. 'It's just that I'm planning a surprise party for Ashley for his birthday, and I'm afraid that I haven't been able to concentrate on anything else these last couple of days, so things around the house have grown awfully lax.'
Scarlett forced a thin smile. Her head was still in a tumult from the previous night and the last thing she felt like talking about was the cleanliness of Melanie's parlour. 'What do you think, Scarlett?' Melanie asked expectantly, snapping her friend abruptly back into the present.
'About what?' she asked bluntly.
'Ashley's surprise birthday party, of course!' Melanie said, smiling indulgently at her. 'Do you think it's a good idea?'
Scarlett's smile slipped slightly. Truthfully, she thought that throwing a surprise party for a grown man was just about the stupidest thing she'd ever heard. It was a whole lot of fuss over nothing, if you asked her, but under Melanie's hopeful gaze she swallowed her less charitable opinions and replied that it sounded absolutely splendid and that she was sure Ashley would love it.
Melanie beamed contentedly at her remark, making Scarlett wonder why her opinion carried such weight with her friend. Surely Melanie's old enough to make her own decisions by now? she questioned a little contemptuously. It's a lucky job Melly doesn't have to run her own business or nothing would ever get decided upon.
Melanie was explaining the finer details of the party when Bonnie yawned loudly from her seat beside Scarlett, her mouth wide open and uncovered by her hand. Embarrassed by her daughter's rudeness and worried that it reflected badly on her parenting skills, Scarlett scolded Bonnie sharply for her unladylike behaviour.
'Oh, come now, Scarlett,' Melanie said. 'I'm sure Bonnie didn't mean to be rude, did you, dear? You're probably just a little overtired, aren't you?'
Bonnie nodded her head vigorously in Melanie's direction, pouting slightly at her mother as she did so. 'I had a nightmare last night,' she murmured softly. So softly, in fact, that Scarlett was convinced she was playing up her distress in order to draw out Melanie's sympathy. Cunning little madam, she thought proudly.
Sure enough, Melly's eyes clouded over in concern. 'Oh, you poor thing. How terrifying that must have been for you! Was the light on when you woke up?' she asked, well aware of Bonnie's fear of the dark.
'No,' Bonnie said, 'but Mama and Daddy slept with me and I wasn't so afraid anymore.'
Scarlett felt her cheeks flush bright red at Bonnie's declaration. From her seat opposite, Melanie choked a little on her tea and hurriedly turned her face away as if she wasn't entirely sure where to look. It was well known in Atlanta that Rhett and Scarlett no longer shared a bed. Yet, while the subject was no doubt whispered about behind firmly closed doors, it was never mentioned outright and Scarlett knew that Melanie was far too loyal a friend to ever listen to such malicious, mean-spirited gossip. Even so, the sleeping arrangements between man and wife just weren't discussed in polite company, even between friends, and both women now found themselves awash in a sea of embarrassment, neither certain of what to they should say to guard them back to safer, shallower waters.
Thankfully for both, Wade and Beau chose that exact moment to reappear. The tense atmosphere of the sitting room broke apart as the two boys came bounding down the stairs and crashed loudly through the open door. 'Aunty Melly, can we go play outside?' Wade asked, irritating Scarlett by seeking Melanie's permission rather than her own.
'Of course, dear,' she replied, 'just make sure you stick close to the house and remember to hold hands if you go near the road.'
As the two boys raced each other out of the room in their eagerness to get outside, Scarlett felt herself blush as Melanie's words brought back a half-forgotten memory from the previous night. She had been awoken by a movement in the bed and, opening her eyes, Scarlett had been surprised to find that Bonnie was no longer in her arms, but rather that she now lay some distance away, her legs poking out of the covers at the extreme edge of the bed. Scarlett's first thought had been to reach out and pull her daughter back to her. She did not want to leave the comfort of Rhett's embrace and feared that now Bonnie was no longer in need of them, Rhett would pull back and leave her to lie alone.
But the minutes passed and still he did not move. Slowly, Scarlett felt herself relax, thinking that Bonnie's escape must not have woken him as it had her. Comforted by this thought, Scarlett settled back down to sleep when the sight of Rhett's hand, strong, tanned and newly empty, caught her eye and almost without thinking she reached out to take it, the back of her hand sliding naturally against the calloused palm of his.
As soon as she touched him she realised her mistake. Rhett was not asleep. The moment their hands met she felt him stiffen behind her, his whole body going impossibly taut. Fear jolted through her as she realised that not only was he awake, but that he had just witnessed her open act of affection. Scarlett felt her blood freeze as the dread of having exposed herself in front of him so blatantly overtook her. She was just about to snatch her hand back from his when Rhett's fingers curved, causing her own, smaller ones to part. Slowly, and with infinite care, he slotted his fingers into the newly-made gaps between hers. Scarlett hardly dared to breathe as she felt him begin to draw tentative patterns into the soft palm of her hand with the tips of his fingers. This gentle, wholly-unexpected, lover-like gesture sent a small shudder of pleasure coursing through her veins, making her feel both deliciously cold and unbearably hot at the same time.
The moment had been small. Tiny, in fact, and yet it had seemed to signify so much. His acceptance of her action and the soothing nature of his response to it seemed to Scarlett to hold a silent promise. A promise that her newfound feelings for her husband were not only welcomed by Rhett, but reciprocated. In her anger at his abandonment this morning she had forgotten this earlier gesture, but now it came flooding back to her stronger and more potent than ever before. She frowned, wondering why on earth she was here, sat in Melanie's parlour drinking tea and talking of nothing when she could be at home winning back her husband.
Almost instantly she jerked up from her chair, shocking Melanie and the children with the unexpected force of her movement. 'Melly,' she rattled off thoughtlessly, 'would you mind looking after the children for me this afternoon? I've just remembered some urgent business I've got to see to before supper. You can bring them back when it's time for their tea.'
'Of course, Scarlett dear,' Melanie replied, slightly put out by her friend's sudden desire to be gone, but too far too selfless ever to mention it. Instead she smiled as showed Scarlett to the door, almost being knocked over for her troubles when Scarlett carelessly barrelled past her in her eagerness to get home.
Marching across the street, Scarlett realized that if she was going to stand any chance of winning Rhett back then she was going to have to look her best. Breathlessly, she flung open the front door to her house.
'Mammy!' she called out loudly, her voice echoing in the empty hallway. 'Mammy! I'm going upstairs to nap for an hour. Run me a bath for when I wake up!'
Passing through the hallway Scarlett stopped to inspect herself in the mirror, scowling at what she saw. Her eyes were baggy from lack of sleep and her face looked older than she remembered, more severe in some way that she couldn't quite place. Putting on her best dimple-inducing smile, Scarlett sighed in relief as she saw the ghost of her younger, more carefree self staring back at her, and thought that perhaps hope wasn't entirely lost, after all.
Still, she did not feel enough like her old self to be so bold as to lay all her cards out on the table in front of Rhett straight away. No, for once in her life she needed to take things slowly, to plan carefully so that she might break down his walls and win his heart without him ever suspecting a thing. Her mind quickly cast around for a way to worm her way back into her husband's bed without it looking like that was what she was trying to do. It took her a while, but her green eyes flashed with the thrill of triumph when she hit upon the perfect solution: Bonnie.
Rhett never refused his daughter anything, hadn't last night been proof of that? If Scarlett could engineer it so that Bonnie asked her to sleep with them again, then she'd be set. While Rhett's defences were lowered she could unleash the full force of her charms. Why, the poor man would be lost before he even knew what hit him!
Scarlett grinned mischievously at her image in the mirror. An image which was beginning to look evermore like the passionate, romantic girl she had once been before that damned war had come along and ruined everything.
Of course it was underhanded to use her daughter as bait in this way, but then Scarlett O'Hara had never been afraid to play dirty in order to get want she wanted. And, at this precise moment, she wanted Rhett more than she'd ever wanted anything in her entire life.