Tara

Katie Scarlett O'Hara awoke the next morning, in her own bed at Tara. Tara as it was before the war. She got up and donned on a regular dress, no party dress for her now that the war had ended. She remembered the last time, how she had been busy with hastily made wedding plans, despite her mother's objections, her father had sided with her and Charlie Hamilton. Well, this time even though she was engaged to Charlie she had made no such promises to marry him before the war that would come, had come, she corrected herself, although she wouldn't see the horrors of the war until after she returned from Atlanta. She heard Suellen's whiney voice. God, she thought, how had she ever stood that vapid sister of hers?

"And then Ashley Wilkes announced his marriage to Melanie Hamilton, I expect they will marry any day now," Suellen said to gall her.

"Well, I for one, hope they have a wonderful life together," Scarlett said, refusing to rise to the bait.

"Did I tell you Mrs. O'Hara that a Charles Hamilton from Atlanta approached me asking for me daughter's hand in marriage?"

"What did you say, Mr. O'Hara," Ellen's voice was merely curious.

"I said what I've always said before, that choice is left up to our Katie Scarlett. Do you wish to marry him my dear?" Gerald said in his Irish brogue.

"I think I would get along well with his family," Scarlett edged; she was not in a mood to lie to her parents, any more than she had to. She couldn't exactly announce to Gerald and Ellen O'Hara that she had already lived through the horrors of the War, and that the Yankees would lick them, that she had been married three times and suffered through four pregnancies, could she? Not to mention the fact that she had owned both a store and a lumber business and succeeded in both. And she and Rhett had set Atlanta on its ear with their combined disregard for the Old Guard. That she understood the loss of a child better than her mother could ever think to understand, the moment Bonnie had died, part of her had died with her beloved child. She knew this time she would not marry Frank Kennedy, Suellen could have him, she did not wish to have to deal with that old maid in britches and Suellen could have Ella as well, all she wanted was Rhett and Bonnie. Could she keep Bonnie alive this time? She had been such a willful, spoiled, sweet child, and Scarlett had loved her more than she had ever loved a child?

"Scarlett?" Ellen O'Hara asked her daughter, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Mother, just wool-gathering," she replied.

"Everyone knows you are only marrying Charlie so you can cover up for the fact that you were chasing Ashley," Suellen said spitefully.

"I think it's wonderful that your getting married, Sister," Careen added. Scarlett narrowed her eyes on her youngest sister; did she really carry a torch for Stuart? Was there a way to protect him from the horror of Gettysburg?

"Do you think, Mother that I could visit Aunt Pauline in Charleston?" she asked. "It's been so long since I've seen them, and with the War starting there will be positively nothing to do in the County," Scarlett complained.

"You wish to see them before you start your married life?" Ellen O'Hara asked.

"Yes, very much so, Mother," Scarlett said, standing up and hugging her mother. She melted in her mother's embrace, leaning down and listening to the beat of her mother's heart, her mother was alive, and for now that was enough. Scarlett fretted about the future, she would have to be with Melanie or Little Beau would be in trouble, and she would have to find out all she could about birthing children, then perhaps Melanie could have more without sacrificing her life for a child.

"Well, I will send Prissy with you, would you like that?" Ellen asked, drawing back and studying her daughter's face. "You seem different, Scarlett, is everything okay?"

"It will be, Mother," Scarlett said, releasing her hold on her mother. "It's just the war," Scarlett said, the lie falling easily from her lips. "The Cause, I'm worried about the boys in the County."

"And you could have any of the bucks you want," Gerald intoned, pride evident in his Irish brogue. Surely, Rhett would come home to Charleston to visit his mother before he became a blockader, and if she remembered correctly her aunts were friends with Rhett's mother. How to get Gerald and Ellen to agree to let her marry that blackguard was a bigger question, one that she would think about when the time came.

"Yes, Mother, and then I would like to visit Pittypat and Melanie in Atlanta, if I'm going to marry Charles I should get to know them better, shouldn't I?" Scarlett asked, and Ellen could find no fault in her daughter's logic.

"Of course, that's a wonderful idea, Scarlett, although I hate to see you go when you will soon become a wife, I can't disagree. I will write the nessasarry letters. You should rest, my dear." Scarlett nodded and watched the regal bearing her mother displayed. Oh, to be a Great Lady like her mother, like Melanie, she wondered if it was even possible for one such as her.

"What do you have planned, Scarlett?" Suellen asked her, tugging on one of her sausage curls. "You may have Mother and Pa fooled, but not me, I know why you want to be in Atlanta, so you can be there to wait on Ashley when he gets his leave, to steal him out from his wife," she smirked, and Scarlett had the notion to rake her nails over Suellen's smug expression, but resisted, she knew that she had done her sister wrong but that didn't stop her from tugging on Sue's hair.

"Oh, hush up. You don't know what you are talking about." Scarlett laughed, a hard, brittle laugh from her time at the mills. "Careful, Suellen or you will wind up losing old whisker faced Frank Kennedy." That shut Suellen up even if Scarlett did feel mildly bad about it. Scarlett found a mirror and looked at her form for the first time since coming back to the past.
She looked at her face, unmarred by the lines that had creased her face after the war, or the sharpness of her chin, that had disappeared, and her waist was the smallest it had ever been, her skin the whitest, and her dimples gleamed, and her hands were soft, ladies hands. It was strange for Scarlett to once again be under the care and guidance of her parents and part of her wished to escape if only to Charleston and Atlanta.