Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

Author's Notes: Thank you for all the reviews and feedback.

Chapter Forty-Seven

Later in the week when Rhett told Scarlett he was going out to play some cards, she took the opportunity to set fire to the books. She put all the books in the firepit then doused them with a lot of kerosine. She struck the match and lit the entire mess on fire. As she was standing there watching the flames consume the books, Melly walked up and said, "What are you burning?"

"You know what I am burning."

"You need to think of something to tell Rhett because you are going to smell like smoke from standing so close to the firepit."

"Drat. What can I say I burned?"

"I don't know."

"I will get the maid to heat me up some water so I can take a bath."

"Good idea."

"Let me go tell her now."

"Alright let's go back in. What would you do without me?"

"Get caught a lot more often."

The women laughed as they hurried into the house.

Scarlett got her bath. She, in fact, was still sitting in the bathtub when Rhett returned home. As he walked in the room, he said, "That is a very lovely sight to come home to."

Rhett walked over to where Scarlett had laid her towel and he picked it up.

Scarlett said, "Hand me my towel."

"I don't think so."

"Rhett, I'm ready to get out. Hand me the towel."

"Go ahead and get out. You don't need a towel to get out." As Rhett began to take his clothes off, he continued, "I think I might just get in the bathtub with you."

Scarlett knew where this was going so, she stood up and said, "Help yourself. The water is tepid." She got out of the tub and picked up her dressing gown and put it on over her wet body.

Rhett just continued taking off his clothes. He didn't care where he and Scarlett got intimate just that they did.

Scarlett laid down on the bed and let her dressing gown fall open. Soon, Rhett was on the bed with her. Incredible, seeing her baby bump aroused him even more.

Just then there was a knock on the door. Scarlett called out, "Yes."

"Mrs. Butler, can we come in and get the tub?"

"Come get it in the morning."

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Butler, but I have to get it now. Your mother wants to take a bath."

"Just a minute."

Rhett and Scarlett quickly put their robes on. Finally, Scarlett said, "You can come in now." Rhett pretended to be staring out the window in order to hide his state of arousal.

The footman and one of the scullery maids came in the room. They carried the tub outside in the hallway. Scarlett followed them to the door and locked it. She turned to Rhett and said, "Now where were we."

Rhett took off his robe, and he said, "You were in the middle of that bed, and I was about to pounce on you."

Scarlett was pleased to see that Rhett was still extremely aroused. She laid down and her dressing gown spread open again. She said, "Pounce away."

"You don't need to tell me twice."

Scarlett giggled. The couple had a lovely time in their bed although as always Scarlett wished it could have lasted a little longer.

The next day Rhett started cleaning out his trunk. He and Scarlett were finding it difficult to fit all their belongings into one trunk each. Since they had arrived in New Orleans, they both had acquired a lot of items, especially clothes. There were a bunch of documents in his trunk. He had to decide what to keep and what to burn. He needed all the room in his trunk he could get. He wondered how he had acquired so much stuff. He had always made it a point to travel light because he didn't want to have to carry any extra weight in his trunk.

Rhett sorted through the papers and decided that he didn't need about a third of them. He put the rest of them back in his trunk. He picked up the rest of the papers and started walking towards the firepit. When Melly saw Rhett walking out of the house with a bunch of paper, she followed him. She just knew where he was going. She was going to have to be bold if she was going to save Scarlett's marriage. This situation reminded Melly of a plot from one of her romance novels, but she knew if Rhett saw any of the missing books in the firepit, there would not be a happy ending.

Melly joined him as Rhett walked out into the back yard, she said, "I had learned to live with the heat but living with humidity is going to be a whole other experience."

"True. It reminds me of my childhood when I was growing up in Charleston."

"Are you going to burn those papers?"

"Yes, I have to make room in my trunk."

"Let me have the papers while you go grab the kerosine."

When Melly got to the firepit she was relieved to find that every last bit of the books had been burned last night. She threw the papers in and scattered them about just in case.

Rhett came back and doused the papers with kerosine. He reached in his pocket and brought out a lighter. He said, "I don't ever plan to smoke again but it was a gift from my mother so I will treasure it always."

Rhett picked up one of the papers and stopped as something caught his eye. Melly frantically searched the area for anything that would give Scarlett's secret away. She didn't see anything, therefore, she said, "What has caught your eye?"

Rhett smiled and said, "Nothing."

Scarlett had been in the back yard with Wade, and she had seen Rhett walking out of the house with a handful of papers. She had known where he was going but she had not been near enough to get to him before he got to the firepit. Thank goodness, Melly had been. Scarlett didn't know what she had done to deserve such a wonderful best friend, but she was sure glad she had done it.

Later in the day, Rhett decided that Melly was an amazing friend. He knew that she was a better friend to Scarlett than he was. He loved Scarlett. He believed they loved each other more than any other couple had ever loved each other. Yet, he knew he was an egocentric, narcissistic, immature bastard who always wanted his own way no matter who it hurt. He smiled. He was getting better at not hurting other people in pursuit of his own desires.

Melly was a better friend to Scarlett than he would ever be simply because she would always put Scarlett's interest above her own. With chagrin he knew that Scarlett would put Melly's interest above her own also. That was why the group had walked five hundred miles to get to the land of safety because Scarlett believed that Melly would not survive war torn Georgia.

Yes, Scarlett was selfish, self-centered, and sometimes behaved like a child but never where Melly was concerned. When Melly entered the picture Scarlett was selfless, altruistic, and mature. Surprising to Rhett Melly was the same way when Scarlett was involved. Of course, it was easier for Melly to behave that way because she naturally was that way but nonetheless, Melly always put Scarlett's interest before her own.

In that moment Rhett accepted that Scarlett would always love Melly more than she loved him but that was kind of like comparing Mt. Everest to Mt. Kangchenjunga. In the end both mountains were extremely huge. In truth, how much Scarlett loved him was more love than he deserved.

Rhett smiled. He knew that Melly was an extremely good friend to Scarlett. He knew because she had hurried out to the fire pit to be sure he didn't see the book covers that Scarlett had burned.

Rhett had smelled the smoke in Scarlett's hair. His sense of smell was so much greater now that he had quit smoking. If he had still been smoking, he would not have smelled it but there just below the surface was the smell of smoke. He had not thought anything about it. He had not been the least little bit concerned about what she had burned last night.

No, not until Melly had come out of the house to stop Rhett from going to the firepit. That is when he knew what Scarlett had burned the night before. When Rhett had gotten to the firepit, he had noticed how Melly had spread his papers out like she was trying to cover something up. He had paused before lighting the papers as he had put all the pieces together.

Rhett now smiled to himself. That was very smart of Scarlett to burn the books so he would not accidentally find them in the trash.

Rhett would never have known that Scarlett had always been a reader except one day when he was moving her trunk, he heard a strange noise coming from her trunk. He opened it up. When Rhett saw the books, he had at first been confused. Why were the books in Scarlett's trunk? Why had she not given them to him? Why was she hiding them?

It was then that flashes of memories entered his head. Her amazing vocabulary. Why India Wilkes had referred to the books as Scarlett's books. Why Careen had looked at him when Scarlett had asked about the books. Why Scarlett had asked him to buy Melly books. Why Melly claimed to like to read a variety of genres, but he had only seen her reading romances. Why he had always thought Scarlett and Melly had a secret joke in regard to the books.

Rhett got mad. They had been laughing at him. Everyone had been laughing at him. They were laughing at him because he had been so proud of turning Scarlett into a reader. He remembered her making him lay beside her in their bed while she read that book Five Weeks in a Balloon which he now knew she had already read before. He got even madder when he thought about Scarlett tricking him and manipulating him.

Something deep inside Rhett's stopped his thoughts. He just knew what he had been thinking had been wrong. Scarlett would never trick him or manipulate him without a good reason. He swam up through the red haze. He had to figure out why she just hadn't told him that she was a reader.

Rhett smiled. He knew why Scarlett hadn't told him in the beginning. She hadn't told him because she didn't want him to think she was a blue stocking. She didn't want him to think she was a smart woman. He smiled after all smart women weren't good marriage material. She hadn't known him that well then therefore she was going by what was supposedly true. What she believed to be true.

That thought calmed Rhett down a lot. He then wondered why she had made such a production about him not turning her into a reader right after they had gotten married. That one was easy. She had to show resistance, or he would have gotten suspicious. It was plain to see that his wife never wanted him to think anything bad about her and despite his wife being a reader she still held being a blue stocking with contempt. Which was understandable that was what most people believed.

Rhett could give her grace on this issue. He never wanted her to think anything bad about him. He didn't want her to know about three fourths of his past especially all his sexual experiences before her. He didn't want her to know about the shady business deals that he had been involved in during his twenties. He just wanted her to think of him as good and decent. Someone she could admire.

The rest of that day, he had thought about how to confront her on this issue. He was no longer mad at her. He knew that she hadn't hid her secret to make a fool of him or to deceive him. She just wanted him to think of her as a beautiful, vibrant woman that he had been lucky enough to marry. A woman that he had been lucky enough that she had fallen in love with him.

In the end Rhett had decided to not confront Scarlett on the issue and now he was certainly glad he hadn't. Even today she still didn't want him to know she had been a reader before he had made her start reading books. He knew that was to save his pride. She knew he was proud of turning her into a reader but if she told him she had already been a reader. All that pride would have turned into shame. Shame that she had tricked him. Shame that she had fooled him. Shame that everyone was laughing at him behind his back. In his calm state he had known that Ashley had not known. He had known her mother and father not only weren't readers, but they couldn't understand how anyone could spend time reading a book. Neither could Suellen. No, Careen was the only one who knew that he hadn't known. Careen and Melly that is. Rhett laughed out loud. Careen would not think Scarlett had done anything wrong. All Careen would have thought was that Scarlett was keeping being a blue stocking a secret.

No, Rhett and Scarlett would never speak about it and certainly not in their first year of marriage. Maybe when they were old and gray but probably not then either. No this was a secret he would take to his grave. He couldn't even make snide comments about blue stockings for Scarlett might get suspicious. Highly unlikely but it could happen.