The sun shone brightly through the large wndows and tickled her cheek with a longer fingered ray of light. She groaned and stretched leisurely. How comfortable this bed was.

She smiled and slowly opened her eyes. She had had the best sleep in ages, and felt completely refreshed.

She was in Charleston and things had gone miles better than she had imagined.

After the never ending tea with Eulalie and Pauline, Rhett's mother had stopped by to ensure that Scarlett was transferred to her house, The Butler House.

Rhett's Mother, Eleanor as she had been encouraged to call her, was nothing like the tall stuck up woman Scarlett had made her out to be at Bonnie's funeral. That was the only time Scarlett had ever met Rhett's Mother and she had been sure that Mrs Butler had been greatly disapproving of her, she now discovered that that assumption had been unfounded.

Eleanor Butler was a true woman of her time, well breed, well educated, polite in manner and polished in demeanor by her Charleston upbringing. She reminded Scarlett of her own mother in so many ways, from her gentle speech to the Lemon Verbena sent that followed her every movement. This resemblance to Ellen made Scarlett comfortable at once, and she was able to relax and enjoy the opportunity to go to Rhett's childhood home. A thing that surprised Scarlett was that even if her mother in law did possess all the coveted qualities of a true lady, still in so many ways the elder Mrs Butler was not like the women of her time. Scarlett to her surprise found that Eleanor had a real sense of humour that transcended her very being. She was forthright and spoke her mind, though never in a careless way that set out to hurt people. Scarlett had only spent a few hours in the older woman's company before she had come to admire those qualities in her.

The only other woman that Scarlett had admired like that was her own mother, and in that admiration there had always been mixed a certain awe of her mother's perfection, and in addition felt that she too had to be perfect to be worthy of her mothers love. With Eleanor she instinctively felt that it was OK not to be flawless, she thought with a wicked sense of humour, that she of course had to be like that or she would have been driven mad by her eldest son. No Rhett's mother was definitely a pleasant surprised.

They had spent the evening talking in front of the fireplace in the cosy living room, a room decorated not for entertaining guests but for the sole enjoyment of the residents of the house.

Scarlett had dreaded the initial though of spending hours on end chatting mindless chit chat with a stuck up old woman, but all her fears had been brought to shame.

Scarlett had been very relieved to learn that Rhett was not in Charleston at the moment. He had gone of to Dunmore landing in order to prepare the final details for the New Years party.

"You do plan to attend the party, my dear" Eleanor had asked, to Scarlett's great relief. Now there would be no awkward scenes. At least not before they got to the ball…

Rosemary, Rhett's younger sister was not present either, she had begged and pleaded with her brother, Eleanor had told with a chuckle, until he could no longer refuse her.

"Poor Rosemary, she has had such a hard time, she deserves some fun" It turned out that Rosemary like Scarlett had several marriages under her belt, and had lost a daughter during the war under very sad circumstances. This of course made Scarlett immensely curious about Rhett's sister, she had always feared the unknown Rosemary a little bit and had sensed from her, though they had never met, a competition for her husband's feelings that had bothered her, even before she had realised her own feelings for him. But perhaps she wouldn't be too bad after all. Perhaps she could even be an ally, at least Rosemary did not sound like some faint hearted little girl, who would be prone to gossiping and malicious talk behind Scarlett's back, like most of the young women of Atlanta. Scarlett send a cold thought to India Wilkes and her company of sour faced gossips, that had sent Scarlett out in the cold in terms of being received. How good it felt to once again be included as a natural part of polite society.

Eleanor had gone on to tell tales of Rhett's childhood and early teenage years. Tales of a boy that Scarlett had not even known existed. She had of course realised that Rhett had been a child once, but he had always seemed so mature and self assured around her, so that was a part of him that had been formerly unknown to her. Mrs Butler was a gifted story teller, and her anecdote and stories from a time long past were very entertaining. She had woven a cosy atmosphere that had Scarlett spellbound, and the minutes and hours had passed by and it had been well past midnight before the older woman had ordered Scarlett up into bed. Chiding herself for having kept her guest up for so long, when she had had a long day of travelling, and was probably about to faint from fatigue. Scarlett had of course denied, and hoped that the night could be brought to last forever, but in the end she had relented and as she had lain down in the newly made bed she had realised just how tired she was.

Not just from the physical strain of the day, but the day has been filled with emotions as well.

But sleep didn't come at once as her mind kept her awake. Forcing her to mull over the events of the day.

With wonderment she realised that the stories that Eleanor had told tonight probably had brought her more knowledge of the man that she professed to know, than all their years of marriage put together.

How could one love a man that one did not know? That baffled her! And what baffled her even more was the question that followed directly afterwards, how could you love a man and not even know that you didn't know him?

It made her breathless for one long moment, what if she realised that she didn't love him as she had with Ashley. For a moment blind panic gripped her.

What if it was all an illusion?

What if she was destined to die alone?

But just as suddenly she calmed down. She loved him, she was sure of it. It was different. Different than with Ashley.

Even if she didn't know him she knew that she would always love him.

Rhett always made her fell secure, like nothing in the world could hurt her when he was around.

Rhett had in their good days been able to make her laugh like no one else had.

Rhett had never hidden the more unpleasant side of his personality around her, so it was not like she had some kind of illusion that he was an unblemished knight in shinning armour.

Rhett had always encouraged her to be herself around him, he had not tried to force her into something other than she was.

And all of a sudden realisation dawned on her; she loved him because she recognised herself in him.

She saw the qualities she possessed reflected in him.

Suddenly words from a past that seemed far away crept into her mind, and she could hear him speak them as though he was right next to her.

"We dear wife could have been perfectly happy, if you had as much as given us half a chance, we are so much alike you and I"

Yes she loved him, and for the very same reason he must still love her. For not loving her would be like not loving himself, and if there was one thing she was certain of it was that Rhett Butler was quite fond of himself.

It was on that comforting note that Scarlett had fallen asleep, and it was that thought that had caused her to sleep like a baby, and wake up as refreshed as she had not felt in a long time.

A/N I know it is only short but I felt it said all I wanted for now, please let me know what you think.