Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

Author's Notes: Thank you for all the reviews and feedback. This is the last chapter. Thank you for taking this trip with me.

The yellow suit will make one last appearance.

Your reviews make a difference. A couple of people wanted the Butlers to return to Atlanta periodically for a visit, so I added that to the epilogue.

Epilogue

The family had visited several cities in the North but both Rhett and Scarlett like the idea of living in London better than in the North. Probably because they were already established in London, and the entire family had a slew of friends. So, in the summer of seventy-three the Butlers left the United States. Mammy and Alice were with them, but Lulu had chosen to remain in Georgia. Rhett would hire another nursemaid when they got to London.

During the first year of Katie's life the Butlers had gone through a multitude of nursemaids. Either Rhett or Mammy found something wrong with all of them. After Katie's first birthday, Rhett asked, "When are you going to wean Katie from the breast?"

"Probably in a couple of months."

"What will happen to Alice then?"

"I suppose she will go work for someone else."

"We will keep her. She is a good employee. She can become a nursemaid."

"Good idea. Mammy likes her so I'm sure everyone will be happy with the idea."

Everyone was happy, especially Alice. She had not liked the thought of having to find another employer. The Butlers had treated her so well all these last five years.

Alice and Lulu had done most of the work, but Mammy would not stop working no matter how many times Scarlett told her that she could retire. Mammy would always say, "I'm doing what I want to do with the rest of my life."

In July of seventy-six Scarlett and Rhett were still living in London with their four children. It looked like Rhett had been right Katie was going to be their last child. Katie was six and Scarlett had not gotten with child again. and she knew Rhett wasn't using any preventatives. She had found that without the fear of getting with child looming over her, she enjoyed relations so much more. Rhett had often said, "You are too much for this old man."

She always replied, "You aren't old, Dear."

With Scarlett wanting to engage in relations so frequently, Rhett had started taking care of himself. He stopped smoking and cut back on his whiskey consumption. He and Scarlett had started taking a walk every evening after the children were asleep. He had even stopped frequenting saloons because being in a saloon always made him want a cigar and a glass of whiskey. It had been so long since he had played a game of poker that he probably had forgotten all the rules.

One of the casualties of Rhett no longer smoking or drinking was his waistline. He had gained several inches in his waist and nothing he did would rid him of those extra inches. Unfortunately, he could no longer fit into his yellow suit, not that he would wear it anywhere but in the South. Neither he nor Scarlett were willing to give it away though. Just looking at the suit could make both of them smile.

Often Rhett and Scarlett would talk about their relatives' reaction to the suit, and they would laugh and laugh but they would laugh even harder at the Atlanta gentries' reactions to it. After Rhett had worn it to the Valentine's Day fundraiser, he wore it to every fundraiser they attended until they left Atlanta.

The couple had not planned on visiting Atlanta, but Scarlett could not take Wade out of the Hamiltons' lives forever. Therefore, in December of seventy-five when Rhett had business in New York the family went along and made a trip to Atlanta. It was a nice visit. They stayed at the National Hotel and had Christmas dinner with the Hamiltons and Wilkeses. Melly had invited the Kennedys and the Benteens. The Benteens had come up on the train and would return to Jonesboro that afternoon.

As Scarlett had sat at the dining room table, in the tastefully decorated house that Ashley had built for Melly and thought, 'I bet Rhett likes the decoration in this home. It is old fashion proper and boring as all get out. I'm glad Rhett sent Ashley to New York. It really was the best thing for him. That and me no longer worshipping him.'

Scarlett turned and smiled at her husband. He smiled back like he knew just what she was thinking.

Suellen was so proud to show Scarlett her new house. After the couple got back to their hotel room Rhett said, "I didn't think anything could be uglier than the monstrosity, but Suellen has managed to decorate her house uglier than the monstrosity."

"I loved the décor of Suellen's home."

"I could tell by the way you were gushing over it when Suellen took us on a tour of it."

"Hush up, Rhett."

"Of course, my dear."

The family went to Tara for the day. Careen had four children now and with Scarlett's four there weren't enough bedrooms. The house was in good condition and all the fences had been fixed. Careen told them she had now gone to a practice called sharecropping. Everyone across the South was going to it. A tenant rented a lot of land from Careen and grew their own crops. When they sold the cotton, they would pay Careen for use of her land.

Careen said, "You would think it would make our lives easier, but we are now at the beck and call of all of our tenants all year long."

The couple had run into Mrs. Merriwether as they were leaving the National Hotel. Rhett said, "Where is my yellow suit when I need it."

Scarlett had laughed.

The couple decided that they could afford to come visit Atlanta every three to four years. At least until the children had lives of their own.

Rhett and Scarlett got into the bed one hot July night in seventy-six. Scarlett said, "I got a letter from Suellen. Frank has opened another store."

"How many does that make?"

"Four."

"Kennedy always was a good businessman."

"Suellen is happy living in Atlanta. She is happy being married to Frank Kennedy though only God knows how. She is even happy being part of Southern society. I wonder how she managed to only have two children?"

"As a man ages his sex drive diminishes, and it also gets more difficult to do what one has to do to be intimate. Do you understand?"

While blushing Scarlett said, "Yes," Scarlett smiled and said, "That certainly hasn't been true in your case."

"Of course not. No man's sex drive would diminish if he was sleeping next to Scarlett O'Hara."

"Butler."

Rhett smiled and said, "Indeed. Your sister is happy being part of Southern society because she doesn't have a spirited bone in her body. She will always do what she should do but unlike Miss Melly she is just doing it because those are the rules. Miss Melly believes in her heart in all that gentility and grace."

Scarlett laid there and listened to the awe and respect in Rhett's voice when he spoke of Melly. She wondered if that was how she had spoken of Ashley before she knew she loved Rhett. Probably. When Rhett spoke of Melly it was like he had her on a pedestal. She decided he did. She dismissed it from her mind. She had tried to figure out Rhett's feelings toward Melly for the last fourteen years with no success.

"Whatever happened to Prissy."

"Prissy and her husband chose to stay in New York. Melly said it was a hard decision for Prissy because she would like to be close to her mother, but she finally decided to stay in the North because she thought it was what was best for her children. Besides, her husband's family all lived in New York. Prissy was the Wilkeses' slave before Pa bought her and Dilcey. Dilcey and Pork were in love and wanted to live together. I talked Pa into it."

Rhett watched his wife. She had talked so happily about that time in her life. He said, "Do you still miss Tara?"

Scarlett said, "I miss the Tara of my youth but not what Tara has become. You were right. It will never be the Tara that it was before the war. Careen is making it profitable although not the large profits Pa was able to make."

"Do you think Careen is happy?

"I think so. I think it was a better choice for her than becoming a nun."

"Probably so."

"She certainly has some spirit in her."

"Yes, she does. I feel sorry for anyone who is fool enough to say Will is the boss of Tara."

"She is doing a great job of running Tara."

"Yes, she is."

"What is it, Baby?"

"I remember you telling me that we destroyed our own world by going to war."

"Yes, we did."

"I can't get past that. We did it to ourselves. We ruined our perfect world."

"It wasn't so perfect."

"I know, Baby, but it was perfect to me."

Rhett wrapped his arms around his incredibly tiny wife and said, "I know, Baby.

Rhett started kissing Scarlett. It would take all his sexual skills to coax her into having relations because it was so incredibly hot. He was up to the challenge. Being intimate with Scarlett was physically better now than it had been their first time because she now knew what she was doing. Emotionally it was the same. She still made him feel like Apollo.

The next morning when Scarlett needed to talk to Rhett, she knew where he was. In the playroom. He spent every morning with the children. She knew why he loved his children so much. Simply because they loved him with unconditional love. She knew why Rhett had a hard time saying no because he would never be able to stand them withdrawing their love from him. He supported her when she said no but he could never say the word.

Scarlett smiled. She had no problem saying no. Rhett was the loving and nurturing parent she couldn't be. She loved the parent he was. She needed her husband to be that kind of parent because she couldn't be that kind of parent. Rhett would often tell her to be kinder and more loving to the children. When he spoke to her about it, she knew that she had gotten too harsh and too strict.

Scarlett and Rhett made a great team and they always had since that night in August when she made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Yet even after she had given him what he wanted he had not left. No, he had gone through hell with her. She sometimes wondered if she would have made it if Rhett hadn't been there. She doubted it. He had always found a way around every boulder fate had put in their way.

As Scarlett walked into the playroom there on the floor where Ellen, Gerry, Katie, and Rhett. They were playing some sort of silly game that the three children loved. Wade was sitting in a chair reading a book. Mammy was dozing in a chair while Alice and Jenny were tidying up the room. Scarlett knew that Mammy's days would soon be over, but Scarlett would make her last days as comfortable as possible.

When Rhett and the children turned to look at her, she had to smile. There were her three children with her father's blue eyes. Her father who was rolling over in his grave that his grandchildren spoke with an English accent even Wade.

Rhett had to smile also for his wife was giving him that worshipping look just because he was breathing.

In the winter of seventy-six, Scarlett took Rhett's yellow suit, Wade's yellow shirt that Gerry had worn and Ellen's yellow dress that Katie had worn and made a quilt out of the fabric. She added some muted colors of brown, green, and blue. It did look quite nice. It was the quilt Rhett and Scarlett used on their bed. It never failed to make them smile when they saw it.

Rhett continued to have his Charleston attorney, Mr. Mobbs, administer the trust funds Rhett set up to support his mother, his sister, and Scarlett's aunts. Mr. Mobbs would write them a support check for the rest of their lives. Rhett never contacted his relatives again and sadly to Scarlett they never reached out to him either.

Scarlett stayed in touch with her sisters and Melanie but as the years went by the letters got to be less and less. The Butlers would visit Atlanta every three to four years until Wade went off to Oxford. Wade had told his mother that he was never going to Atlanta again after his Uncle Henry had written him a letter condemning his going to Oxford instead of Harvard. Ellen was about to come out, so it was a good time to stop the visits.

When Beau turned twenty-one, Wade wrote him and offered to sell his half of the Hamilton House to him for a dollar. Wade had stated in his letter that he had no plans to ever return to Atlanta even for a visit much less live there. Beau had accepted his offer. Uncle Henry had drawn up the papers and mailed them to Wade with a hurtful letter telling Wade how he was neglecting his duties to his family as the last male Hamilton, and he should be ashamed of himself. Henry also said he guess he shouldn't expect any better considering that dishonorable heathen Rhett Butler was his stepfather.

Wade had signed the papers and mailed them back with a terse letter. Wade had said, 'It is my life, and I am going to live it the way I see fit.'

After the Wilkeses had moved back to Atlanta and Melanie was back in Wade's life, Scarlett had known she was going to have to tell her son that Rhett was not his biological father.

One night in the family parlor after his siblings had gone to bed, Scarlett said to Wade, "We need to tell you something. Rhett is not your natural father."

"I know."

"How did you know?"

"It was obvious that you and the Hamiltons didn't get along but nonetheless you invited them to my birthday parties, Christmas dinner, and we had supper at their home once a month. I had often wondered why you did that. One evening when we were at their home for supper when I was eight. I saw a picture of you and a man at Aunt PittyPat's. I noticed it because the picture was behind some drapes. In the part I could see there was a man in a Confederate uniform. I looked just like that man. When I moved the drapes there was you in a wedding dress. So, I figured it was yours and Charlie Hamilton's wedding picture. I knew then why Uncle Henry and Aunt PittyPat were always telling me stories about Charlie Hamilton. I later realized that when they said your father they weren't talking about Dad.

"Yes, it was. I forgot all about that picture. I had left it in the Hamilton House when we left Atlanta. When we returned a year and a half later, I had forgotten all about it."

Rhett said, "After those horrible eighteen months, of course, you forgot all about it."

"When we had returned to Atlanta, things were so hectic, then you got falsely arrested, then we went to New Orleans, then I started building my mansion."

"Monstrosity."

Scarlett glared at Rhett then she said, "I wonder why Aunt PittyPat has never said anything to me about it?"

"Because, my dear, if she said something to you about it you might take the last picture of Charlie away from her."

"I will let her keep it."

Wade said, "Dad, you got arrested?"

"Wade, that is a story for another time."

"Alright, Dad."

"Melly was so proud of that picture. Aunt PittyPat must have moved it to behind the drapes. Except for Melly none of the Hamiltons thought I was good enough for Charlie."

"Tell me about Charles Hamilton. I can't say father because Dad is my father."

"I can't tell you very much because I didn't know him very well. I know this makes me sound shallow, but I only married him because everyone else was getting married and I didn't want to be left out. Two months later he had died of measles, so I never got the chance to know him. I think I would have made him a good wife and I know he would have made me a good husband. I'm sure Aunt PittyPat, Uncle Henry, or Aunt Melly would love to tell you more."

"I'm not going to call myself Wade Hamilton."

"You don't have to, but I wouldn't tell your Hamilton relatives that."

And Wade never did.