Chapter 3: The Art of Connection
"We're here," Rhett said.
We had pulled up to the two-story white brick house on the cobblestoned street called The Battery. Once inside the foyer I just stood, listening, waiting for instruction.
From the street came sounds of horses clip-clopping by, the wheels of the fancy carriages brushing against the stately old stones. But the house itself seemed sealed off from all that. The quiet chime of a grandfather clock in the parlor welcomed me. My eyes took in the old fashioned wainscoted walls and the graceful staircase. A small table with a white marble top. A long dining table with straight backed cherry chairs. The carpet was Oriental in nature, which contrasted slightly with the graceful lines of the near white draperies. A silver firescreen shone in front of the ornate marble fireplace.
Something about the lines around Rhett's mouth seemed to be softening as he surveyed along with me.
"Nothing ever changes in my absence," he said offhandedly. "Nothing except for me."
"That's how Mother feels about Tara," I retorted, the spell of silence temporarily broken.
He seemed to ignore me. "This is my mother's house."
I felt sick to my stomach. "Does your mother know that you and Mother are…that you left us?"
His face seemed to darken. "Certainly not. Which is another reason I have decided to bring you here, do you understand?"
So Uncle Rhett had an ulterior motive for asking me to Charleston. A part of my heart unconsciously sank at that, although I really hadn't believed that he had actually wanted to see me. I had hoped…
I would have to do better. Heed his words. Be a man, Wade Hampton.
I would have to get to a place in my life when words could no longer hurt me.
But for now, my only mission was to get through the social expectations without inadvertently revealing his secret. I could not allow my head to get muddled.
It was then that I heard a voice, coming from an upstairs bedroom.
"Rhett? Is that you? Is he here?"
And there she was, at the top of the stairs. Her long coppery hair fell to the middle of her back, and I thought dumbly that it was the same color as the copper candlesticks.
Rhett grinned as she took the stairs two at a time before jumping into his waiting arms.
"Wade Hampton," he turned his head toward me. "Meet my sister, Rosemary."
She smiled sweetly at me and inquired about my trip.
I held back, hesitating to seem too forward. I knew that Charleston people were rigid, and known for holding tight to social mores. I wanted do Mother a credit, so I bowed slightly.
She seemed pleased, and kissed my cheek.
"I'm calling for some tea for Mother," she said to Rhett. "If you're not too terribly tired from your journey, I had hoped that you and Wade might join us. Mother and her circle are terribly fond of young voices."
If Rhett was surprised or put off by the request, he didn't express it at all.
"We would be delighted," he said on my behalf.
His mother and two other elderly ladies were already in the drawing room doing needlework, along with another lady whose age was probably in between his sister's and Mother's.
"The boy will be hungry," Mrs. Butler, a tiny woman with wispy white hair the color of starched linen proclaimed loudly as Uncle Rhett bent down to kiss her.
"Wade would be happy to read for you while you are about your tasks, ladies," he said with the sweetness of a silver tongued fox.
I blanched under the appraisal of the entire room.
"You read well, young man?" one of the older ladies wheezed.
"Yes ma'am," I managed.
Now Mrs. Butler furrowed her brow, seeming to pick her words carefully. "You've had schooling, of course. Does the boy have a tutor, Rhett?"
Rhett shook his head. "He goes to the public school in Atlanta, although his mother and I have discussed other options lately."
"Latin?"
"No Latin," I acknowledged, which seemed to embarrass Uncle Rhett. "But I have a good head for figures."
That sent the room into giggles. "Figures?" Mrs. Butler cackled. "The boy might yet have a career as a shopkeep."
It was Miss Rosemary who came to my rescue. "I believe that Wade's mother does manage a shop. With Rhett's help, of course. What a unique diversion that must be for a young man."
I nodded, wanting to express my pride in Mother's store but confident that such was not appropriate employment for a gentleman's wife. And Uncle Rhett was playing the part of a southern gentleman with to such great affect.
Miss Rosemary smiled and continued to stitch. "We are all born to education. Why, even we ladies are now allowed schooling. I wonder why the men are allowed their diversions and women are not? Or at the least, they are discouraged from such. It's good of you, Rhett, to allow Scarlett to have such independence. I think that's something to be much admired, not sneered at."
Mrs. Butler shook her head, "You do run on, Rosemary, dear. Scarlett is not ordinary, in that sense. But would my son ever have chosen an ordinary woman…? I think not."
Uncle Rhett's jaw seemed to flinch at that, but he said nothing, continuing to play his part to perfection.
The ladies continued to talk in whispers amongst themselves, and I was tasked with reading aloud the First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians.
At last, Uncle Rhett said that it was time to get me settled into my quarters and allow me to change for dinner.
As soon as we were out of earshot, I whispered furtively. "I only brought two suits."
"We'll get more."
"Why do you change for dinner?"
"Because it's Charleston and that is how it's done."
"Since when do you do what everybody else does?" I challenged him, which earned me a dirty look.
"Because I am attempting to give you some chance, however miniscule, of success in life."
He sounded bitter.
"Like you?" I said dismally.
"Would you have preferred for me to have left you at Tara to learn a trade from the peglegged Cracker?"
"Uncle Will is not a Cracker!" I huffed.
"He certainly is, young man, and your Mother, for all her Robillard connections is nothing more than imitation gentry."
I was so mad I was shaking. "I'm sorry my family is nothing more than Crackers and white trash."
He stared down at me, as if he was remembering something for the first time. "You have the Hamilton side, at least. Time to channel it, son."
"I didn't even know my father."
He looked at me gravely, and I turned red.
"But you knew his sister, and that surely counts for something."
He left me at the door to the room he said was mine for the summer. It was small but comfortable. I couldn't see the river, but he said I would be up early, since the call of the high whistle roused the dock workers in the morning.
I tried to steady myself, thinking about my mother and all her poise. She trusted me, needed me to succeed among these people for her. I had no right feeling sorry for myself over Uncle Rhett's harsh words.
All my life I had longed to open my heart to Mother. She was so bristly on any given day, but on certain occasions she would flash me a sweet smile and say that's mighty good, Wade Hampton. I wanted to tell her that I adored her, but I always held back the words, shamed by my inadequacies, sorry that Ella and I were the children she had left, not our sister Bonnie. If Bonnie had lived, Uncle Rhett would never have left.
It was Miss Rosemary who knocked on my door at half past five and offered to walk with me to the dinner table. She was wearing a blue dress of watered silk and her hair was pinned up.
"Where did you go to school, Miss Butler?" I attempted to make appropriate conversation as she offered me her arm.
"I didn't," she seemed to smirk. "My father allowed me the most basic of a ladies' education but sadly, the war started, so I wasn't able to complete much past the making of bandages, and reading psalms to the wounded men…not to complain, of course…other ladies my age were subjected to the same fate. The men our age were all killed in action of course. Your mother was smart to marry your father before he left, else you wouldn't have been here."
I pondered that concept, realizing not only that Miss Rosemary was very close to Mother's age, but that I was as well. She had been barely seventeen when I was born.
She spoke without bitterness and smiled, "But I shall never marry, young Wade. I am resigned to it and truthfully, am glad for it."
"You may yet," I offered earnestly, thinking any man alive would be fortunate to call her his wife.
"You're kind, but it isn't to be," she smiled sweetly. "And now, I can rejoice in spoiling my nephew who I have only met, and my niece… I long to meet little Ella, how I would adore to hug another little girl. I adored Bonnie, you know, when Rhett brought her here, I just…"
My face must have fallen, because she stopped speaking abruptly.
"I am so, so sorry, Wade. I know you must grieve for the little darling terribly. Rhett boasts about what a loving, protective brother you are to your sister. It reminds him very much of how he protected me. But Wade, dearest, I hope that we can be friends…"
Her brown eyes were wide and hopeful, and for a split second, she reminded me of Bonnie.
I nodded and she seemed gratified.
"Now that we are friends, perhaps you can tell me something."
I tensed.
"How are my brother and your mother doing? The pain of losing Bonnie, I'm sure is almost unbearable. But my brother seems different, strange. I can't put my finger on it. I wanted to set my mind and my mother's at ease, because we've heard some terrible talk from our friends in Atlanta."
She looked at me with grave seriousness. I remembered my promise to Uncle Rhett.
"We are well, Miss Rosemary. Nothing is amiss with us."
She nodded, seemingly accepting my story.
Relief flooded my veins.
"You must call me Aunt Rosemary, Wade. We are family, after all."
I nodded again.
"Thank you for reassuring me that there is no great trouble. Mother and I have thought it through at great length, and we have decided to invite your Mother and sister for our family sailing trip down the Ashley River. We won't discuss the matter with Rhett, and I am confident you won't say anything to him either."
She continued to muse, "I have to admit, I was glad of the idea of you and he spending time on the boat together, but there will be plenty of time for that in the next two weeks. What he and Scarlett need is an opportunity to be together, away from the home and pain and memories."
She looked for my approval, and her large brown eyes met mine.
"I want my brother to be happy, and he's terribly desolate. But I'm so very glad you're here, dear. And I am so grateful that you've confirmed that we had nothing to fear with that div—I mean, separation talk."
"Yes ma'am," I lied. I had to lie, much as I hated to do it to her.
"Open the windows, Honore," she said to a waiting maid as we made our way to the bottom of the staircase. "I'll be glad for the breeze. It'll make using the dining room pleasant." She turned back to me. "We normally eat in the parlor or our rooms, since it's just Mother and I here. I hope the cooking is to your liking."
I pondered and fretted internally as she ushered me to my seat.
I owed Uncle Rhett something, but I wasn't yet sure if I wanted to divulge the conversation with Miss Rosemary to him. I would see how the next few days played out. I was still smarting from his remarks about Mother and Uncle Will and the rest of my family.
He deserved whatever shame he brought on himself if Mother accepted the invitation and he sent her away. But at what cost to Mother?
Uncle Rhett sat at the head of the table and seemed to glow with pride at the meal, at his Mother's table. He was frankly beaming. I looked around, and thought that his gaze seemed to have fallen on me.
"Welcome to Charleston, Wade," he raised his glass.
I raised mine in return, helplessly.
