Hi everyone, and thanks for the thoughtful reviews. GWTW fans are the most intelligent, insightful (and of course the best-looking) of all people! Hi to the guest from Suriname, South America who commented – I love hearing where people are from. By popular demand, here is a) the younger kids (of course getting into trouble) and b) pillow talk. And of course, drama. But that's a given. Hope you enjoy!

By the time Rhett arrived back at the stables, the mists were starting to lift, slowly dissipated by the listless winter sun. He had decided to make good on his intent to spend the day away from the office. As he descended, he saw his animated womenfolk, attired in winter walking dresses, apparently waiting for the carriage to return.

"There you are," Scarlett said brightly, her face lightening up when she saw him, and walked towards him with outstretched hands. Since Rose had not been present to stop her, she was wearing a slightly ostentatious grey felt hat, much crinkled in front, with strips of black ostrich and silver galloon as trimming. Her camel hair cloak had a blue passementerie fringe, but was otherwise unadorned, and the cut was quite flattering to her elegant figure. "We were just deciding whether to take the open phaeton or to wait for you! James said you were out driving with Rose?"

"I'm not sure I was really out driving with Rose," he drawled, kissing her briefly. "I think I've been out driving with …. myself. I was turned upside down, shaken, and paddled like a carpet until I told her whatever she wanted to know. And I could tell something major was the matter, but she rarely betrayed herself by more than a flinch. And she's barely sixteen." He shook his head. "I never understood just how much you had to put up with being married to me, my love."

"Well, it's nice that you finally realize it," Scarlett said rather drily. "Where is she?"

"Left her with my mother. She'll take her carriage back."

"Well! I dare say it will do her good to see her grandmother." She turned to Ella and Phoebe, and then back to him. "We were invited to a bruncheon at Mrs. Jennings'. She invited Rose as well, but we will make her excuses. We'll be back by lunchtime."

He helped them courteously into the carriage, and saw them off. His expression was still thoughtful.

Rhett walked slowly into the house. An unusual air of stillness greeted him.

"Peregrine," he asked his oldest son, who he discovered hiding under the red cherry wood desk in the library. "What are you doing down there?"

Two bright green eyes looked up at him from under a mop of dark hair. "Hiding from Miss Addy."

"Of course you are," his father agreed, genially. "And where are your brothers? And everyone else?"

"Dan is hiding in the oak chest in our bedroom," Perry reported, counting off on one hand as he spoke. "Gerry and Chuck are in the playroom. They're, uhm, busy. Mother is out with Aunt Phoebe and Ella. Cousin Thad and Wade and Uncle Chase went to see Uncle Charles. And Rose …." he said, peering around his father's large frame "was supposed to be with you."

"Rose is at Grandmother's. " Rhett reached out his hand, and pulled the boy out, who was dressed in the Scottish kilt popularized by Queen Victoria. "Shall we go upstairs and rescue Dan? And I wish you two would stop worrying Miss Addy. She's the fourth governess we've had since we came here, and I'd rather not have to hire another one. At least not anytime soon."

The boy trotted comfortably beside him as they ascended the large, curved staircase. "But it's so hard not to, Dad. Fussy woman are too much fun to tease," he observed candidly. "And besides, it's your own fault if you keep hiring people who are 'fraid of toads."

His father laughed. "Indeed. But there's also that little matter of your education."

"Oh, I don't need to learn anything," his son assured him. "I'm going to be a pirate when I grow up. They don't have to bother with 'rithmetic."

Rhett gave this idea the due consideration it deserved. "Pirates need navigational abilities," he said. "And some skills at mathematics may be helpful when you're counting up all your …. loot."

Perry looked thoughtful. "Do you think so? But I'm sure they don't need to know French. Who's ever heard of French pirates?" Opening the door, he pointed to an elongated object on the floor, and cautioned, "don't step on the periscope. We need it to spy on people."

He advanced towards the toy chest at the back of the boy's room, and opened the lid. Another green-eyed copy of himself, with slightly more rumpled hair, emerged.

"Thanks Per," Daniel remarked. "Was getting kinda dark, and hard to breathe." He glanced at his father. "Hi Dad. We were hiding from Miss Addy."

"So I am told. Where is that worthy lady, by the way?"

"She was in the playroom," Daniel reported. "But come to think of it, I haven't heard her crying for the last ten minutes or so."

"She was crying?" Rhett inquired, with polite interest.

"We'd tied her up to a chair," Perry confided. "With the rope left over from the swing you installed in the back. Gerry and Chuck were supposed to guard her."

"I see," said their father urbanely. "Perhaps we shall go see if they have… let her escape."

Rhett strode purposefully to the playroom at the other end of the hall. Another copy of the twins, only smaller and brown-eyed, was standing next to a toddler in the middle of the room, staring at the corpus delicti. Both looked vaguely guilty.

"Gerry," Rhett said amiably to his youngest son. "What happed to Miss Addy?" The grey-haired woman on the high-backed chair was obviously still breathing, but had slumped sideways, with her eyes closed.

"She fainted," Gerry announced ominously. "I told Perry not to pull the ropes so tight. But," he added quickly, "there were no toads involved, Dad. I swear. Toads're hibernatin'. "

Rhett shook his head. Stepping forward, he undid the professional knots that tied the rope in the back. "Sailor's knots," Perry said proudly. "Just like you taught us this summer."

"I'm glad to see you're putting what I teach you to such good use." He shook the governess slightly on her shoulders. "Miss Addy. Are you alright?" When he got to response, he picked up her slight form and carried her over to the sofa by the window, which he opened wide. She coughed, and came to.

"Oh! Mr. Rhett!" She flustered with charming confusion after she took in her surroundings. "So sorry for all the trouble! These boys…." She shuddered. "This one," she said, pointing at Gerry, "distracted me while these" (pointing at the twins) "tied me up! In all my many years of teaching I have never…"

"I am devastated by the behavior of my unruly offspring," he said, with a smile that could have melted stones. "Boys? What have you to say to Miss Addy?"

"Sorry," the trio muttered in unison, heads downcast.

"And now perhaps you would like to come downstairs with me and have a nice cup of tea", he added smoothly. "And I will make sure the boys learn their lesson about how to treat a lady."

Like many a woman before her, she, too caved in to his charm. "Oh! Why thank you, Mr. Rhett." She rose, and patted her coiled grey locks. "I don't even want to know what I look like!"

"You look wonderfully," he smiled. With a smooth motion, he picked up Wade's drooping toddler, handing him to Miss Addy to take to his crib.

With a backward glance at the boys, he said congenially. "I am sensing that you poor boys must be terribly bored if you 're reduced to playing tricks on your governess. Perhaps the three of you would like to help Jim and the stable hands muck out the stalls. Burns off excess energy. And," he added, with a glance at Perry, "builds up muscles for future pirates."

"Yes, Dad", the trio chorused, glumly.

~~oo~~

Rose arrived back at the house shortly before two-thirty. She stepped off the carriage and waved to Gavin, her grandmother's driver, before slowly making her way to the stable to give instructions to have Shadow saddled for her ride with Ashley Wilkes.

She heard laughter, and stopped for a moment in the semi-darkness to watch. The black stable hands were in the process of putting new bedding into the clean stalls, one of them tossing bales of straw from the hayloft above through the large hole in the ceiling to the men below, forming a chain. To her surprise, she saw Thad amongst them, lifting and throwing bales with the others. He was dressed in riding garb, his black hair tousled and covered in dust. Affectionate ideoms flew back and forth in a dialect Rose could barely understand, and she watched Thad make noises she suspected came naturally. The young men caught the heavy bales and threw them to each other as if they were nothing, their firm muscles barely straining with the effort. When four bales were in front of each stall, they stopped, and the young man who'd been up in the hayloft hopped down to join them. The stable hands each grabbed pitchforks, and started to spread out the straw.

Thad grinned at them. "Leave y'all slackers ter yer fate, now." He stepped away, put his hand to his neck and ripped off his shirt in a smooth motion. He grabbed a pail of cold water, which he unceremoniously dumped over his head, rinsing off the worst of the straw dust. The water ran over his shoulders and down the matted chest, and he shook his hair like a wet puppy before grabbing a towel and vigorously rubbing himself dry. The easy grace of his powerful body, which could at times appear feral and dangerous, now appeared merely exuberant, and he seemed as relaxed and happy as Rose had ever seen him.

When he'd fished toweling off, he noticed her standing in the back of the stable. "Rose!" he called, his face lighting up even further. He dropped the towel and strode towards her, still shirtless. Speaking to her, he code-switched effortlessly from the boys' vernacular into Rhett's Charlestonian drawl. "I missed seeing you this morning. I apologize for the dust, and my unkempt appearance. I spent almost five hours with my father, and believe me - I needed a workout after that."

"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself," she said, rather coolly, her lips pressed into a thin line. A look of confusion washed over his face, mixed with concern. "What's wrong, Rosey?"

Her expression hardened further. "Nothing. I need someone to saddle up Shadow. Ashley Wilkes will come to take me riding in fifteen minutes."

At that, his face went completely blank, and he stepped back. "I see," he said softly. "You've had time to think, and remembered how much better you can do than the illegitimate son of the town whore. And you're quite right. You can do so much better. Please accept my regrets, and my best wishes for your future happiness."

Her eyes flashed. "I…."

He stepped towards her, very deliberately placing his large brown hand on her shoulder, pulling her closer. His grip hurt. "So Ashley Wilkes is next," he murmured softly. "Or is it Beau you've set your sights on? I hope you're enjoying this game you are playing. How heady it must be, to sink your claws into men's hearts and rip them out alive. And I'm a worse fool than most, allowing myself to believe you might come to think of me as an equal. But I thank you for disabusing me of my erroneous assumption so quickly, and so completely. " His rough voice faltered, and he looked away briefly. "I hope it amuses you that I was willing to do whatever it took to give you the life and the name I thought you deserved. Even make up with my father. I'm elated to learn that won't be necessary anymore."

The cruel hand contracted, and then pushed her away. She almost stumbled, and he instinctively put out a hand to steady her. Then he drew a deep breath, staring down into her blue eyes, his hand still resting on her shoulder. "Even now, all I can think about is how I missed my chance to kiss you, in that one moment where you thought you cared. So you see how much men are worth, Rosey – not all that much in the end. Good luck - and good-bye."

Thad had turned, and strode very deliberately back to the house.

Ashley Wilkes, who arrived a mere ten minutes later, only noted that Rose looked a bit out of spirits. "I hope it's because you're missing Beau," he said, in a friendly voice. "I will try to make up for his absence by telling you everything about him that you want to know."

~~oo~~

"What a topsy-turvy day," Scarlett exclaimed, sitting at her dresser and brushing her long dark hair with vigorous strokes. "First, I hear the boys have nearly suffocated Miss Addy, and now this! Why do you think Thad left so suddenly?"

"Something happened with Rose," said her husband, who was in the process of buttoning up his night-shirt. "Neither of them would talk about it. He just thanked me for our hospitality, and said it's time that he left. I wasn't able to get anything else out of him, and he was off to the depot within the hour. Rose went straight to her room after riding with Ashley, and learning that Thad had gone. She wasn't talking, either." He laughed, suddenly. "I'm afraid Thad went and gave Charles a piece of his mind before he left, because my brother came by earlier this evening, sounding as rattled as I've ever seen him."

He slipped underneath the covers, leaning his broad back against the pillows, cigar in hand, with a contemplative air.

"Did he?" Scarlett said. "Well. I'm sorry about that, to be sure. I wonder what's gotten into him? He seemed so eager to build a relationship with Charles at one point."

"The only reason Thad spoke to him at all is because he hoped to marry Rose, and didn't want his illegitimacy to be a stigma for her", Rhett said. "It's nothing he cared about on his own accord. In fact, I'm sure he still detests Charles, for having set him adrift in the world. He knows his mother and he would have had no support if it hadn't been for me."

"So he did what you did for Bonnie, with the Old Cats," Scarlett said, thoughtfully. "Catering to someone he didn't care for all that much, for Rose's sake."

"Yes, something like that. And when he and Rose fought – or whatever happened between them – he thought he no longer had to hold back. Imprudent, of course, because he didn't consider that their rift might be fixed, and then he might once more want Charles' good-will. But prudence is rarely a man's first object when he's heart-broken, and angry."

"Perhaps it's all for the best," Scarlett said. She put the brush down, and started climbing into the bed.

"Perhaps." Her husband said, pulling her next to him.

"It 's just a pity you wasted all that money you gave to the Jennings!"

"Don't worry," Rhett said, with a comfortable smile. "I will pass the word that Thad was called back to Texas because of an emergency. And then …..we will see if we don't need my investment at some point in the future, after all."

"Rhett Butler! If I didn't know better, I'd think you'd actually like to see a match between Rose and Thad," Scarlett exclaimed.

He laughed. "I admit I have my reservations as well – not because of his background, but because Thad is a physical creature, and Rose isn't, at least not yet. I suspect that's mostly my fault, surrounding her with shades instead of affection while she was growing up. If it's really who she is, she may do better with a Beau Wilkes, who will shower her with books and music and philosophy, and not demand too much of her with regards to intimacy. If it's there, but she's just keeping it suppressed ….." he continued thoughtfully, "she will be miserable if she one day wakes up to it, in a relationship where it's not wanted. And I'm afraid she might, because she's so much like me in every other way. "

"You mean she'd be unhappy like I would have been, had I married Ashley," Scarlett pronounced calmly.

"Yes, exactly." he said, softly but firmly. "We're both the opposite of ethereal, you and I. Which is why I knew all along we'd make such a fine match." He gave her a squeeze, and she giggled.

She snuggled next to him. "At least I now know for sure he isn't yours," she said.

"That who's not mine? Thad?"

"Yes. I don't believe you'd even be considering the match, if he and Rose were half-siblings, after all!"

He regarded at her thoughtfully. "Was there still doubt, my love?"

"Not really," she said, candidly. "But these sorts of things stick in your mind, and oh, periodically, you wonder!"

He pulled her to him. "You may stop wondering. He is Charles' son. In fact, I didn't even know Belle until after I learned through the rumor mill that he'd gotten a girl pregnant, and had washed his hands of the affair. You see, Charles and I weren't really speaking at that time." His hand was absent-mindedly stroking her hair. "I found out who they were, and looked them up, and did what I could to assist them, seeing that the baby was my nephew, and had been outcast by the Butlers just as I had been. But that's all."

"I know that," she said, "and I knew it all along. I don't know why I said what I did," she added, with a somewhat forced brightness. "But at any rate, what's done's done, and perhaps things can now get back to normal around here!"

"I doubt it," he chuckled, dousing the light, and unconsciously echoing Wade's pronouncement from not too long ago. "In fact, I have a feeling things are about to get even more interesting."