Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

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

Chapter Seven

That night over supper, Melanie said, "Ashley, Scarlett wants to buy a dress shop, so she has a way to support herself now that Charlie has passed away, but she doesn't know how to find a dress shop that is for sale."

"There is a section in the paper that advertises businesses for sell. Let me get it."

Ashley got up from the supper table and got his briefcase. He opened it up and took the Times out. He brought the paper home every night, so Melly could read his articles. Scarlett read them also. She had to begrudgingly admit that Ashley was a good writer. He might talk like an over educated egghead, but his writing was clear and easy to read. His mentor told him, "Simplify your words. Use one to two syllable words if at all possible. Most people can hardly read, or English is their second language."

Ashley took his advice. He reminded himself that he was no longer dealing with gentleman but barely educated swine. Ashley was proud of his success so far. In a couple of years, he would be able to support Melly right.

Ashley brought the paper back to the table and laid it down next to Scarlett. He said, "There is a section that contains businesses for sale. After supper you can check it out."

With more warmth than Ashley had heard since their conversation in the library, Scarlett said, "Thank you."

After supper, Scarlett had indeed looked through the section looking for a dress shop to buy. Scarlett saw ads for other businesses, but they were too masculine for her. She did see a couple of ads for dress shops and a couple of ads for hat shops. She even saw one for a shoe store, but she didn't want to sell shoes.

"Melanie, will you watch Wade while I go check out a few of these businesses?"

"Of course, Dear."

Melanie loved taking care of Wade. She and Ashley had been married for almost a year and she was still not with child. She was so jealous that Scarlett had a baby, and she didn't. Hopefully, she would get a baby soon. What annoyed Melly was that Scarlett was not that involved with her son, but maybe the boy reminded her too painfully of Charlie. The boy did look just like his father.

Melly would have been surprised to learn that Ashley was using a preventative method to prevent her from getting with child. Melly had known absolutely nothing about relations before she and Ashley had been intimate therefore, she didn't know that what her husband was doing at the end of their intimate time was not normal. She also would not think that Ashley would do something like that because it was improper to not want lots of children. Besides all that Ashley knew how much Melly wanted a child, therefore he would not deny her the pleasure of being a mother.

Every day for the next week, Scarlett checked out dress and hat shops. It was hard because every four hours she had to return to the house in order to feed Wade. It had to be though because she couldn't afford a wet nurse.

Scarlett finally found a dress shop that she wanted to buy. As the current owner, Coco Chanel was showing Scarlett the shop, she realized that she didn't know anything about running a business. Scarlett asked, "If we come to an agreement will you train me on how you run your business."

"If you pay me for my time, I will."

Scarlett noticed that while the front of the store, the part the customers saw, was tidy the back of the store and the office were extremely messy and disorganized. Scarlett asked Coco, "Why are you selling your shop?"

"Because I'm barely able to cover expenses."

"How much do you want?"

"Five hundred dollars."

"It isn't worth five hundred dollars."

"I think it is."

"Do you own the building?"

"No, I just rent it."

"I will give you three hundred and fifty dollars."

"I have more in stock than three hundred and fifty dollars."

"Do you have any employees?"

"No, I do all the work myself."

Scarlett walked over to where the ledger was laying and started leafing through it. She said, "You have made a couple addition mistakes. And why aren't they up to date?"

Ruefully, Coco said, "I haven't had time."

"I will give you four hundred dollars."

"I will not sell it for a penny less than five hundred dollars."

"I guess you really don't want to sell it then because as I said it isn't worth five hundred dollars."

Defensively, Coco said, "Yes, I do want to sell it."

Suddenly, Scarlett knew she was right. The woman didn't want to sell her shop that was why she had overpriced it. Scarlett had a brilliant idea. She said, "Mrs. Chanel, instead of selling me your business, let's become partners. I will give you two hundred dollars and I will own fifty-one percent of the business."

"I will sell you fifty percent of the dress shop for two hundred dollars."

Scarlett accepted Coco's offer. Scarlett knew it was the best deal she was going to get because Coco would not want to lose control of the business.

Scarlett said, "Do you have a lawyer to write the contract up?"

"Not really."

"I know of someone. I will be back as soon as the contract is ready to sign."

"Alright."

Coco was so happy. Maybe with Scarlett working at the dress shop also she could make enough of a profit to keep her husband happy. At the very least it would buy her some time.

Coco had only put the dress shop on the market because she wasn't making a big enough profit to keep her husband happy, but the dress shop was her baby. She had always dreamed of owning a dress shop.

Scarlett had realized that she needed a partner. She knew nothing about running a business or making clothing. Coco would know all that.

Scarlett had gone home and let Wade nurse then she had gone down to Charlie's old law office. When she got down there, she said, "May I see Mr. Truman?"

The secretary said, "Do you have an appointment?"

"No. It will just take a minute."

"Ma'am, Mr. Truman is very busy. You will have to make an appointment."

"Very well. What time does he have available?"

"He can see you next Wednesday at ten."

"Very well."

"Your name?"

"Mrs. Charles Hamilton."

The secretary's head shot up. He said, "Mr. Hamilton's widow." Scarlett nodded her head. The secretary continued speaking, "That is why you look so familiar. I remember you from the funeral."

"I don't remember anybody. I was in a state of shock and disbelief."

"Of course, you were. We all were. Go ahead and have a seat I will see if Mr. Truman can see you after he is finished with the client, he has in his office right now."

"Thank you."

Scarlett did walk over to the sofa and thought it looked rather nice. As she waited for Mr. Truman to see her, she thought about how she would like to decorate her home if she ever got one. One thing she knew it would be a lot more exciting than the way her mother had decorated the main house at Tara.

Soon a man walked out of Will's office and the secretary took his money then put it in a locked drawer. The man left and the secretary got up and went into the office. He came back out in and said, "Mrs. Hamilton, Mr. Truman said he would be happy to see you."

As Scarlett walked through the door Will stood up. She could tell that he was an older man with brown hair although there was some gray. He was wearing glasses. He said, "Mrs. Hamilton, I'm Will Truman. How can I help you? I hope you are not having any legal difficulties."

"No difficulties. I am buying half of a dress business and I need someone to draw up the contract."

"You are buying a business. Why?"

"I need to support myself and Wade."

"Wade?"

"My son."

"Congratulations. Charlie would have been proud."

"Yes, he would have been."

"What do you know about running a business?"

"Nothing but my partner will train me."

"Maybe you should wait to buy anything. As soon as the war is over you will probably want to return home to be with your family."

"I don't know how long the war is going to last. Wade and I need to eat now. If you don't want to draw up the contract, I will get someone else to do it for me."

"No, no, I will be happy to draw up the contract if you are determined to do it."

"Yes, I am."

"Let me write it up right now to save you from having to make another trip down here."

"Thank you."

Will got out some paper and began to write on the paper. Scarlett sat there and fumed. Someone was always trying to tell her what to do. Even this man that was a complete stranger to her.

Within ten minutes Will had the contract written up. He had made two copies. He said, "You sign both copies and the seller signs both copies. Then each one of you keeps a copy."

"Thank you, Mr. Truman. How much do I owe you?"

"It is at no charge. One last favor for Charlie."

"Thank you."

Scarlett had gone back to the dress shop and the ladies signed the contract. After the contract was signed Scarlett said, "I need some black dresses made. I only have this one and I borrowed it from my sister-in-law. We only have one black dress between us."

Coco smiled and said, "We can start working on that tomorrow."

"I don't know how to sew."

Coco smiled and said, "You are going to have to learn how. That is what we do here make dresses."

For the next two weeks there was a lot of arguing between the women. Coco soon learned that although Scarlett was at least fifteen years her junior she was not intimidated. Scarlett was going to speak her mind.

After a month both ladies were happy with the arrangement. Soon there was a division of labor. Although Scarlett did learn how to sew creating beautiful dresses was more Coco's purview. While Scarlett's was everything else.

Coco was a brilliant seamstress. Everything she sewed up was beautiful, but she had no business sense. Scarlett had not known it at the time, but she had excellent business sense.

Scarlett had taken over the office. She had to have somewhere to leave Wade and he had to be right there so she could nurse him. The first policy Scarlett had enacted was – NO CREDIT. A lot of customers had supposedly taken their business elsewhere. Coco was distressed but when Scarlett pointed out that the women each owed her over twenty dollars and one had actually owed her thirty dollars. Coco agreed with Scarlett's plan.

By the time Scarlett had been living in New York for over a year, she felt she had made a nice niche for herself in the city. The only thing she was missing was male companionship, but she couldn't worry about that right now. She had to ensure she and Wade had a good future.

After six months, the business was making a nice profit. A nice enough profit that Scarlett was thinking about buying a hat shop. After Scarlett had mentioned the idea to Coco, the other woman said, "No, we can just hire someone to make hats out of our shop."

"That's a good idea."

"I know just the person. We can give her a share of the profits to come to work for us."

"Twenty percent but just on hat sales."

In the end the ladies agreed to give Louise Sawyer twenty-five percent. Louise was happy with the arrangement. She had been working out of her home. She had wanted to open a shop, but she could not afford the overhead. In addition to that Scarlett ordered all of her supplies and kept track of them for her. What's more all her supplies were paid for by Scarlett and Coco. All Louise had to do was make the hats.

Business soared some more. The profits were so good that Scarlett thought about moving out of the little house she shared with Ashley and Melanie, but in the end decided not to. Ashley kept bad men away and Melanie ran the household. Besides, Ashley and Scarlett had a workable relationship. Scarlett still hated Ashley and Ashley still needed Scarlett's financial help. Besides, the less her living expenses were the more money she could stash away. She had a lot of money stashed away in her room.

Author's Notes: Of course, I am just using the name Coco Chanel and the character will not actually be like Ms. Chanel but if you get a chance, you should read her life story. Quite the rags to riches story.