Garden Party

Scarlett was so nervous! She couldn't ever remember being so nervous except for the surprise birthday party Melly had thrown for Ashley, but that was for a much different reason. Scarlett considered adding rouge to her cheeks, but she hadn't done that until she'd had to approach Rhett in the horse's jail. She wondered idly if he really had taken off with the Confederate gold, and if he would be arrested again. She looked at her red dress, glad that this time she wasn't in mourning.

Of course, Charlie was still alive, he had lived a month longer than she had expected. What would she do if he survived and came home expecting to marry her? She pinched her cheeks and watched as the blood rushed to them. The top she had on was white with red lace along the bodice and the full skirt was a deep red, almost the color of the carpet she had loved in the home she and Rhett had shared. She was beautiful, she thought, Rhett would have to admire her beauty. A date with Rhett! When was the last time they had gone out together? She knew that all of Charleston would be talking; she only hoped that her parents wouldn't request that she went home, but then again, Rhett had handled that before.

She sprayed on her perfume as she thought of how he held her in his arms. She shivered with desire at the memory. It had been Rhett who had taught her about desire, her mother had told her that a real lady didn't behave like that, and Scarlett couldn't understand why not. Or why a True Lady was supposed to suffer through something so delightful, taking no joy and only experiencing the pain of child-birth. She would not accept anything except for what she had experienced the night of Ashley's party. Even if she had to suffer his ire to get there. She hadn't been able to help herself from responding to Rhett, and she wondered if she had messed things up, she had certainly slapped him the first time he had kissed her last time, she thought absently. "Scarlett, dear, are you ready?" she heard her aunts voice.

"You look so much like Mother doesn't she Pauline?" her aunt asked her.

"Yes, indeed, she does. If only Ellen hadn't married that Irishman…"

Scarlett didn't like the topic of conversation at all. "I'm proud that Pa is my father," she told her aunt in no uncertain terms.

"Of course you are, my dear," they said humoring her.

"Is it true that the scandalous Butler man is your escort?"

"No, my escort is Captain Rhett Butler," Scarlett said, defending him. "A true gentleman, perhaps, a man that you can never understand, he may not adhere to the Code of the South, but he has honor in spades!" she said and heard his laugh, had he heard her?

"My dear," he asked, holding out his arm. She took it all the while glaring at her aunts. She knew they would write to her mother while she was gone. "Shall we shock Charleston society? I see that your aunts were telling you what a reprobate I am."

"Why should I care what they think?" she asked him.

"Yes, why indeed, my dear Scarlett? If you keep this up you will be committing social suicide," he told her, lazily entwining his fingers with hers.

"Oh, fiddle Dee Dee, who cares what those old biddies think. As long as my mother doesn't send me home," she added.

"Do you like Charleston, my dear?"

"It's a lot more stuck up than Atlanta," she said, "It seems I can't sneeze without my aunts telling me how I'm doing it wrong."

"Indeed. I was once part of Charleston society, but we were always on the outs."

"Tell me about it, Rhett," she said, listening to the cadence of his voice. She had never been interested in anything that didn't have to do with her before but now she found herself curious about the life of her husband, even if they hadn't married yet.

"You know my reputation, how I took out that silly, vapid girl, and how we didn't get home before dark, how Charleston and my father expected me to marry her. It's my own life, and I couldn't see spending it with her, just because that's what society dictates. I wasn't surprised when her brother called me out. My father had already prepared my funeral!" he said, with amusement. "He expected me to do the honorable thing and die."

"How horrible, Rhett," Scarlett said, trying not to think of the prospect of her Rhett, dead, just like Bonnie. Tears shined in her eyes, threatening to spill forth as she thought of Bonnie.

"Cheer up, now. I'm still here. I happened to be a better shot than the man, and I wasn't going to die when I was a better marksman. As you can guess, the heir of Langston Butler alive was the last straw. I might as well have died, as far as he was concerned. There I was penniless, uninherited, and I thrived, I survived, and I spend my ill-gotten gains in ways that would make most ladies swoon."

"You bought a saloon?" Scarlett asked, and Rhett narrowed his eyes, how had she known that? "I once thought about buying one, it is good income after all," she commented. "Steady income?"

"What would a lady like you know about the worth of a dollar bill?"

"Probably the same as you," she responded, her green eyes shooting sparks. "It was the easiest of my subjects at the Fayetteville Academy for girls," she revealed.

"A rarity," he said turning over her hands and kissing them. "A lady with a brain, and one who's not afraid to use it. You are truly unique, Scarlett. I haven't decided yet what I'm to do about you."

"What do you mean, Rhett?" she asked, looking at him sideways.

"I fear that we will meet again, that we aren't done with one another, not by a long shot. Don't marry, Charlie," he told her. She felt like she had the day he had proposed to her, all thoughts except for his command went out of her head.

"I won't," she said as his lips crashed down on hers. Scarlett thought to look around but that thought died almost as soon as it began. She would have held on to him to steady herself, but Rhett had led her to the side of a wall and she was trapped between him and the wall as he plundered her mouth and she responded eagerly, nipping his lips as he had her own. She heard her groan, and growl of frustration.

"Can Charlie make you feel like this?" he asked between kisses. Charlie…who was Charlie she wondered…Charlie….Hamilton. He had been just a boy. Rhett was a man, he was so masculine, and she wondered how it was that he seemed so much more masculine than any man she had ever met. "Will you become my mistress?" he asked her. She sputtered as she came to her senses. As much as she wanted Bonnie, this would never do. She slapped him, and watched as he smiled.

"Rhett Butler! You are a low-down cad if I ever saw one! What would I get out of that except a parcel of brats?"

"Give me another moment, and I'll show you, my dear. You are logical, if nothing else, it's refreshing!" he told her. "Most ladies would be citing moral reasons, not you, my dear Scarlett." She launched herself at him, seeking to hurt him as he had hurt her.

"Quiet, my dear," he said, holding her tiny fists. "I don't wish to ruin your reputation, and if the old guard hears you, it will be ruined. I only suggested that so that we could both be satisfied," he said, with a shrug.

"I would never lay with a man not my husband," she stated, and he nodded.

"Then we do have a problem, I'm not a marrying man."

"Then I will marry Charlie," she replied, "Good day, Captain Butler." Scarlett returned to the group and sat with his sister, Rosemary Butler, who she seemed to get along with more than most girls. "Your brother is impossible!" she told her new friend.