Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

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

Chapter Five

After Hamilton House was sold the siblings took some of the profits from the sell and bought their aunt a little house of her own. It was a couple of blocks away from Uncle Henry's boarding house. Everyone helped PittyPat move into her new home on Acorn. It was plain to see that neither Uncle Peter nor Cookie was happy with the move.

The family ended up staying in Atlanta for ten days. Melanie and Charlie wanted to be sure PittyPat would be comfortable. They were grateful for her raising them. Melanie had asked PittyPat to join them in New York. The older woman stubbornly refused.

PittyPat said, "No, I will not live in the North. Once you come to your senses and return to Atlanta, I hope we can find another house as nice as our old home."

On the morning of their eleventh day, Ashley, Melanie, Scarlett, and Charlie were all on the train to New York. Ashley had not heard anymore from John, but everyone was still hopeful Ashley's friend could find a lawyer Charlie could work for in New York.

Although both men had a lot of money on them, they both knew the money would not last forever.

Whenever Scarlett was in Ashley's company, she was barely civil to him. It was what he had expected. He hoped she would get over her anger soon, but he doubted it because he knew he had wounded her pride.

Scarlett being barely civil to Ashley made Melanie incredibly happy. India had told her all about Scarlett's crush on Ashley but judging by Scarlett's behavior she was not very fond of Ashley anymore. Melly decided that because Ashley had chosen her over Scarlett all of Scarlett's fondness had disappeared.

Melly wanted to like her sister-in-law, but she was beginning to realize that while Scarlett was pretty, vivacious, and outgoing, she was also vain, immature, and incredibly uneducated. The worst part to Melly was that it was clear that Scarlett didn't want to be better educated.

Two days later, the Wilkeses and the Hamiltons were in New York. John Robinson happily welcomed everyone into his home while his wife, Maureen, was not so happy. She had not wanted to open her home up to John's friend and his wife much less John's friend's cousin and his wife. Nonetheless she smiled and welcomed everyone into her home with poise and graciousness that would have made the Atlanta matrons proud.

Charlie had never spent much time around Scarlett before they married. What time he had spent with her had been at social events. He knew now that she always wanted to have her way and that she was not above trying to bully him into giving in to her demands. He had also found out that most of her statements were practiced sentences to ensnare a man into worshipping her. He had also found out that she expected him, well, any male to worship her.

It hadn't taken much time to realize that Charlie had fallen in love with how pretty she was and the sweet personality she had shown the world, not the real woman. Much to his chagrin, the real woman was a spoilt, selfish, child who he was going to have to put up with the rest of his life.

In Charlie's defense, she had never showed him her true personality. Charlie knew he was stuck with Scarlett now and he would make the best of it. He hoped that now his wife was not being spoiled by her parents and her suitors she would finally grow up. Or at the very least, learn that he was the boss in the family, not her.

Scarlett was so unhappy. She was barely civil towards Ashley. She tried to be polite towards Melly. She was good-mannered and respectful towards their hosts. She tried to be courteous and dutiful towards Charlie, but she couldn't believe how strong and forceful the man was. What she really couldn't believe was how little he cared if she was mad at him. He didn't care if she was happy or not. And he wanted to have relations every night. When she had tried to tell him, she wasn't in the mood, he had just laughed and said, "I will get you in the mood." Charlie hadn't but he also hadn't taken no for an answer.

In truth, Charlie had cared very much about whether Scarlett was mad at him or not, but he was determined to wear the pants in the family therefore, he had ignored all her bad temperament. Also, one of the perks to being married was being able to have relations therefore he was going to take advantage of that perk.

After the group had been in New York for a month several things had happened. John's father had a friend who was a lawyer. The friend knew of another lawyer, Will Truman, who was willing to hire Charlie. Ashley had started working at the bank the next day after their arrival as a teller. The group had rented a house together. The men were trying to save money. Ashley had not wanted to share a house with Scarlett but when Charlie had proposed the idea, Ashley could not think of a reason why not. Besides, Ashley had already known that he and Melly could not afford to live alone on his salary.

The only servant the men hired was a cook because neither Scarlett nor Melanie knew how to cook. After a couple of weeks, the women had gotten the men to hire a washer woman. She only came to the house once a week and Scarlett and Melanie had to help her.

Neither Melanie nor Scarlett was happy about having to do all the cleaning and other chores around the house. Melanie made a few comments to Ashley. He had assured her that when he began to make some real money, they could hire a few servants. Scarlett had complained to Charlie daily about her having to do manual labor. Charlie had replied, "What else do you have to do?"

Scarlett couldn't think of anything to answer that question. It had made her realize how shallow her life had been prior to getting married. All she had done was receive gentlemen callers and go to social events.

By this time, Scarlett was a lot friendlier with Melanie. Scarlett was civil to Ashley, but she never engaged him in conversation. Ashley never voluntarily spoke with her either. Scarlett was learning to respect her husband. Charlie would not let her bully him. Charlie did nice things for her like buy her candy or buy her flowers. He had even bought her a book titled Pride and Prejudice.

Scarlett was so bored that she started reading the book. At night everyone was reading a book. There was conversation over the supper table and some talking when everyone retired to the parlor but soon everyone was reading their books.

The main character in Pride and Prejudice was Elizabeth Bennett. She was learning the hazards of making hasty judgments. Scarlett could relate to the character.

John had invited everyone to his home for supper and the couples met a lot of other married couples. Scarlett didn't know how to act at this event. Every social event she had ever been to before she had been single. Scarlett did talk with the other ladies, and they seemed nice enough, but neither she nor Melly had time to socialize.

It had been two and a half months since the Confederacy had fired on Ft. Sumter, thus starting the civil war. Rhett had not made as much money on the war supplies, he had gotten into the Confederacy as he had hoped, but he was optimistic he would make a lot of money on the cotton he was getting out of the South. The longer the war went on the more money he would make. His friend George Trenholm had let Rhett know who to contact to sell his war supplies to. This first year all he would do is bring war supplies in and take cotton out.

As Rhett docked in Le Havre, he thought about Scarlett O'Hara. He wondered what she was doing. He had wondered that a lot since he had left the barbecue. No other woman had gotten under his skin as much as that woman had. Every time he had a sexual fantasy, she had a starring role. Every time he used a whore, he imagined the woman was Scarlett. Yes, he would definitely have to establish a relationship with the good woman.

After three months in New York, Scarlett admitted to herself she was with child. She had not gone to a doctor, but she had missed her flow three times and she had been sick every morning. It made her want to go home to be with her mother and Mammy. She knew she couldn't. First, she would have to ask Charlie for money for the train ticket and second her parents would make her return to Charlie. She wasn't happy to be with child, but she didn't yell at Charlie about him getting her with child. He would not understand why she was unhappy because he wanted children. Besides, she had been expecting to get with child because of the frequency that Charlie wanted to have relations.

That night as Charlie and Scarlett got into the bed, she said, "We are going to have a child."

A grin broke out across Charlie's face. He said, "That is wonderful."

"If it is a boy, I would like to name him after Pa. If it is a girl, I would like to name her after Mother."

"No, if it is a boy, we will name him after Wade Hampton. Even though I chose not to serve I still admire the man. We can name the next boy after your father."

That statement depressed Scarlett so much that all she said was, "Alright."

After Charlie and Scarlett finished having relations, she got up and went to the privy. When she got there, she cried. She was not a woman who cried very often but she couldn't help herself. Her life was so horrible. They were poor, they were living in the North away from all of her family. She had to let Charlie use her body and now she was with child. She would probably end up having a child every year. She would have to do something about that. She didn't know how but she wasn't going to have a baby every year.

When Charlie got home the next night, he said, "I bought a life insurance policy. I will put it with our important papers. It is for ten thousand dollars."

"You have money to buy insurance, but you don't have money for us to get a servant?"

"This is a one-time buy. A servant would be a continual drain on our resources. When I get established and start making big money, we will get some servants. Right now, money is tight."

"I am going to have to find a midwife and we will pay her for her services. I am not having this baby without help."

"Melly can help you."

"Melly doesn't know any more than I do. I at least have seen animals give birth. It doesn't look easy."

For once Charlie gave into Scarlett's demands. Mainly because he didn't want anything to happen to his wife and child.

About the same time Charlie and Scarlett found out they were having a baby, Ashley got another job.

After Ashley had been working in John's father's bank for three months, John came up to Ashley and said, "Let us go for a walk."

"Sure. Let me get my hat."

As the men walked along, nobody spoke. John because what he was going to say would hurt his friend's feelings. Ashley because he knew John was going to fire him. More days than not, Ashley had trouble getting his till to balance. He had never been good at adding up a column of numbers. Scarlett had to straighten it out every week, then Melly after he bought the sawmills.

Finally, John said, "Ashley, go get a job at a newspaper. While we were at Yale, you practically wrote the school paper every week. That is your forte – writing, not adding up numbers. If you don't want to do that, fine. I won't fire you, but you are never going to be anything more than a Teller at the bank. And not even Head Teller."

Ashley stared at John. The man was so right. He loved to write. He remembered how much fun it was to publish the Yale Weekly Newsletter. Ashley knew that anything involving numbers was something he should avoid. In fact, he was going to make Melly start maintaining their budget sheets. He thought, 'I need to do what John is suggesting. I will muster up some courage and go find me a job in the newspaper business. Maybe I will write a book.'

Ashley stuck out his hand to John and said, "My friend, you are so smart. That is exactly what I am going to do. In fact, I'm taking the rest of the day off. Goodbye."

"Go to Newspaper Row across from City Hall. Let me know how it works out."

"You bet. Can you get someone to balance my till?"

"Yes, I can."

John balanced Ashley's till himself. After he was finished, he thought, 'I hope Ashley gets a job at a newspaper. He is not cut out to be in the banking industry.'

As Ashley walked to the newspapers, he thought, 'Why didn't I think of this in my first timeline. Because I had given up on life and Scarlett was willing to carry me. Besides Scarlett would never have allowed me to be a reporter. It would not be glamorous enough for her knight in shining armor. She and Melly would have ganged up against me once again and I would have caved. At that time, I couldn't stand up to both of them. Who am I kidding? I couldn't stand up to anyone not even Beau.'