Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

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

Chapter Fifty

A few days after the Charleston Butlers had arrived in Galveston, all the men had gone out to have a drink at the local saloon. Rhett was playing poker while the other four men were just sitting around talking. A man at another table said to the group, "None of you are from around here."

Ashley had said while pointing at Gerald, "We are from Georgia."

"He isn't from Georgia. He sounds like he is from Ireland."

"That I am, lad. Gerald O'Hara and proud of it."

"Carl Clemmer. I was born here but my parents were from Germany."

"How long have they been here?"

"They are dead now, but I am almost twenty-five so at least that long."

"I've been here over forty years."

Carl looked at Robert and Marshall and said, "South Carolina?"

Robert said, "I suppose the drawl gave us away. Charleston to be exact. Robert Butler and this is my father, Marshall."

"What brings you to Galveston?"

"We are all here looking for a new life. All of us owned plantations but we cannot manage them without the slave labor."

"Yeah, I hear that is illegal now."

"Yes, I heard that too."

"What are you going to do for a living?"

Robert said, "I'm thinking of running a sawmill. With all this new construction that should be a gold mine."

"If you have the money to buy stock."

"I don't but my brother does."

"How about you become a brewer. You could make beer. There is always a market for beer."

"True."

"My father started the brewery with the knowledge he had learned in Munich. I don't want to run a brewery. I am wanting to leave Galveston. Actually, I would like to leave Texas. My wife has family in Colorado. She and I would like to move up there. I have a brewery that I would be willing to sell. Come by tomorrow if you are interested. I'm at 281 Ferry Road."

"Where is that?"

"It is on the North side of the island. Not on the Gulf of Mexico side but the other side. Ask anyone and they will tell you how to get there. Bye now."

As the man walked away, Robert said, "I have never wanted to be a brewer, but I bet I could make a fine living doing it."

Marshall said, "It would benefit me also. I'm going to buy a saloon."

"What?!"

"I have been sitting here all evening watching men buy beer and whiskey. The bartender has never stopped once since I have been sitting here."

Ashley said, "It looks like we all have our immediate future planned out."

Robert said, "And it looks like none of us are going to be gentlemen."

Marshall said, "To hell with all those rules and regulations from a lost civilization."

The rest of the men raised their glasses and said, "Amen."

The next day over breakfast, Robert said to Rhett, "Will you go with me to inspect a brewery? I think that is how I would like to earn my living. Brewing beer."

"I thought you were going to manage my shipping business."

"No, although I have lived all my life next to the water, I couldn't care less about sailing and shipping. That just doesn't sound like fun to me."

"Alright. Yes, I will go with you to inspect the brewery. Did you talk about a price?"

"Not yet."

"I guess you can run the shipping line, Father."

"No, I am going to buy a saloon if you will lend me the money."

Rhett looked at his father in stunned silence. Rhett was not alone in his state of shock. All the women at the table but Elizabeth were looking at Marshall in stunned silence.

Finally, Rhett said, "A gentleman would not own or run a saloon."

"I have decided to stop being a gentleman. All being a gentleman is about is a lot of people pretending to be something that they aren't. A bunch of hypocrites. I am no longer rich or successful. I will never understand why my father decided to become respectable. I am glad he did, or I would not have been born but all of that is behind us. I will not cling to a lost civilization. I am tired of the restrictions of that life. I am tired of having to do things because that is what a gentleman would do or not doing things because a gentleman would never behave that way. These last couple of years, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the buggy incident. How because of what other people believed I almost lost my eldest son. I almost lost my son over a broken buggy wheel. That same son that is doing everything he can to make my life easier. Also, I was wealthy but most of my wealth was in land and slaves. I now want my money to be in cash."

"But a saloon."

"All of us are going to have to work damn hard to survive. I'm sure there is a lot more to running a saloon than I know of but with Elizabeth's help I can do it. It can't be any harder than managing a plantation. Your mother and I talked about it last night and we both think it is a good idea."

Inanely Rhett said, "Who is going to run my shipping line?"

Rosemary had been worrying about who was going to provide for her and Meg in the coming years. She didn't want to marry again for she had loved Luther too much for that besides there weren't any men available to marry. She made a decision. She dug deep into her inner core and said, "I will run it for you. I do like ships and sailing."

Scarlett said, "But you are a woman."

Rosemary smiled and said, "A woman with a child to support."

"Rhett will support you."

Rosemary squared her shoulders. She knew this would not be the last time she had this conversation. She was tired of the restrictions of her station in life, also. She was tired of the endless sewing bees. She was tired of people looking down on her because her grandfather was a pirate despite the fact that she was a member of the well-regarded Butler family of Charleston. Her mother-in-law repeatedly calling her nothing more than a pirate's granddaughter had hurt her more than anyone could have imagined. The worst part was that she had always had to pretend that the insult had not hurt her feelings. She was certainly glad Mr. and Mrs. Bradberry were dead. She wouldn't have to listen to their censure on her holding down a job like a man.

Rosemary said, "I don't want to be a poor relation. I want to support myself. Give me a chance, Rhett."

Rhett looked around the table. He looked at the Wilkeses. They had not given up their proper ways, but they were certainly less gentile than they had been at that barbecue. He looked at the O'Haras. He could see the Irish peasant in Gerald. He could see the steel core in Ellen. His sisters-in-law were still thinking of themselves as ladies but not nearly as much as they had before they had left Tara. He looked at his family. Marshall was already losing his proper ways. He was no longer sitting with his back ramrod straight. He looked at Robert. His brother had seen too much ugliness during his time in the army to ever be naïve or innocent again. He looked at his mother and Daphne. They were no longer innocents either. Their time starving during the war had left them scarred. Finally, he looked at Rosemary. She had a maturity about her. Like everyone else at the table she had seen the ugly side of life. One cannot unsee that. He said, "Yes, I will take a chance on you but if you don't workout I will fire you, even if you are my sister. How are your math skills?"

"I have always been very good in adding up my sums."

"Very well. It looks like everyone's future is set. Robert, we shall go out to inspect the brewery right after breakfast. We can take my new buggy."

Robert and Rhett did go out and inspect the brewery as soon as breakfast was over. Carl had come out of a large building which the men would learn was where the beer was brewed. Robert had bought it, with a loan from Rhett, as long as Carl Clemmer had agreed to stay on for at least a month to train Robert.

On the way home Rhett and Robert bought him a horse. It was not a fine horse. In fact, it was a nag, but Robert knew it would get him to the brewery and back every day. That was as long as he wasn't in a hurry to get home.

The next day Rhett and Scarlett went to a jewelry store to finally buy their wedding rings. They found a pair of gold rings with a bevel edge. Scarlett didn't like them because they were so plain. Rhett told her, "That is why you will need to wear your engagement ring next to your wedding band. Are you still happy with the sapphire being your engagement ring?"

"Yes, it doesn't matter anymore though."

"Why?"

"Don't you remember that one of the first things your mother said to me when you introduced them to me was 'That makes me happy to see you wearing my mother's engagement ring."

Rhett smiled. He said, "I don't think you were what they were expecting."

"Your family certainly wasn't what I was expecting. I expected them all to be stiff necked Charlestonians. I expected them to be like my aunts."

"If you had met them before the war, they would have been. I think suffering through the war and almost starving to death took a lot out of them."

"Isn't that what your father said yesterday."

"Yes, he did. Do you like my family?"

Scarlett smiled and said, "I like your family as much as you like mine."

"Good then we will all have a workable relationship. If you want another ring as your engagement ring, I will buy you another ring."

"No, Rhett, this one is fine."

"How about if I just randomly buy you an emerald that you can wear on your other hand."

Scarlett coquettishly smiled up at him and said, "If you want to buy me an emerald ring, I won't try to stop you."

Rhett burst out laughing. As he and Scarlett left the jewelry store, they had bought two wedding rings and an emerald ring. All the rings had to be sized along with the sapphire ring.

Later that week, Rhett and Marshall went to find a saloon to buy. On the way to the saloon, Marshall said, "I am awfully glad that you married Caroline."

"I'm glad I did too. I wouldn't be married to Scarlett right now if I had been disowned."

"I wouldn't be living as well as I am if you hadn't been part of our lives. It seems you did make the right choice to not be part of the planter class."

"I could never understand why Grandpa wanted to become respectable."

"Maybe because to most people it is the pinnacle of success. I made it to the top of society with your marriage to Caroline then Robert's and Rosemary's marriages just ensured we would remain there. Now there is no society to be the top of."

"Father, you know there will always be those people."

Marshall laughed and said, "Yes, there will be but I'm not going to be part of it. I never will be again. I am going to have fun with the rest of my life."

With a sigh, Rhett said, "I will be because I think it is what Scarlett wants."

"Yes, she does."

The men pulled up in front of a saloon. Rhett set the reins and said, "Let's get a whiskey."

"I think I am going to have a beer."

Rhett laughed.

The men had visited almost ten saloons before they found one for sale that Marshall would consider buying. He wouldn't buy a saloon that had a brothel attached to it. As he said to Rhett, "Running a brothel is just a nasty business. Not that there isn't a need for those kinds of establishments. I just don't want to be a part of it."

Rhett, Marshall, and the owner, Jim Bean, came to an agreement. The man was a widower and had lived above the saloon. Marshall smiled and said, "I certainly won't be doing that. I'm quite sure my wife would draw the line at that."

Rhett had laughed. He said, "Yes, she would."

Rhett had loaned Marshall the money to buy the saloon. Marshall had immediately renamed the saloon The Smuggler's Cove which had shocked Rhett. Marshall had laughed and said, "I am going to be a saloon owner. I am going to embrace my pirate ancestry."

Unbeknownst to Marshall or Rhett, once Carl left Galveston, Robert was going to rename the brewery, Pirates' Brewery. It seems all the Butlers were embracing their ancestry.