A/N: This chapter's pretty short and I'm really sorry about that, but it's a short scene and that's the way it is in the movie, so I'm just going with it. But, if you think it's too short, don't worry. I'll try to have another chapter up later today. To be honest, I have no idea why they just didn't combine this scene and the last one and just call it "Twelve Oaks and Introducing Rhett." But, oh, well. That doesn't make the movie any less awesome.
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DaleJr.88-Thank you! I'm so happy to know you're enjoying this story. :)
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Part One, Chapter Five
Introducing Duncan
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Courtney walked up the stairs of the Wilkes' house with Dakota at her side. She turned her head and looked at the bottom of the stairs with wide eyes.
"Dakota, who's that?" Country asked, not taking her eyes off the bottom of the stairs.
"Who?" Dakota asked, looking where Courtney was looking.
"That man looking at us and smiling," Courtney clarified.
Dakota looked at the handsome, green-mohawked man at the bottom of the stairs.
"The nasty, dark one," Courtney added.
"My dear, don't you know?" Dakota asked shocked that Courtney didn't know who the man was. "That's Duncan Butler. He's from Charleston. He has the most terrible reputation."
Duncan leaned on the railing and continued to smile up at Courtney.
"He looks as if, as if he knows what I look like without my shimmy!" Courtney exclaimed quietly.
"Courtney!" Dakota scolded Courtney for being so improper. "My dear, he isn't received."
He spends a lot of his time up North all because his folks in Charleston won't even speak to him," said Dakota. "He was expelled from West Point, he's so fast. And then there's that business about that girl he wouldn't marry."
"Tell, tell!" Courtney begged as he reached the top of stairs.
"Well, he took her out buggy riding in the late afternoon without a chaperone!" Dakota exclaimed in a quiet voice that sounded quite shocked at the indecency of the situation. "And then, he refused to marry her!"
Dakota proceeded to whisper something into Courtney's ear. Courtney gasped, her mouth forming an "O" shape, and she whispered something into Dakota's ear.
"No," said Dakota, shaking her head, "but she was ruined just the same."
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Mike and Zoey were standing in a dark room in front of the doors leading to the back porch.
"Mike!" Zoey said cheerfully.
"Happy?" Mike asked.
"So happy!" Zoey confirmed.
Mike opened up the doors.
"You seem to belong here," said Mike, "as if it had all been imagined for you."
"I like to feel that I belong to the thing you love," said Zoey.
"You love Twelve Oaks as I do," said Mike.
"Yes, Mike," said Zoey looking out at the people who were mingling and having a good time. "I love it as, as more than a house. It's a whole world that wants only to be graceful and beautiful."
"It's so unaware that it may not last," said Mike, "forever."
"You're afraid of what may happen if the war comes, aren't you?" Zoey asked. "No war can come into our world, Mike. Whatever comes, I'll love you, just as I do now, until I die."
Mike brought Zoey's hand to his lips and kissed them.