Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

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

I have always seen Charles Hamilton like Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln was a confident man except around women he fancied. The same will be true of Charlie in this story.

Chapter Two

There was a lot of discussion in the parlor about the war and how the South could easily defeat the North. Ashley said, "We must do everything we can to not go to war. Most of the misery in the world was cause by war."

"What are you saying Ashley?"

"I am saying this war is wrong. As Mr. Butler has said we are not prepared for war."

"What do you mean Mr. Butler that we are not prepared for war."

"I mean quite simply we have no army, no navy, no ammunition factories, nor cannon factories. We will have to import everything. The first thing the North is going to do is blockade our coast."

"How do you know that?"

"Because it is a sound logical move for the North especially considering we don't have a navy."

"When England comes to our aid, all of that will be water under the bridge."

"Why is England coming to our aid?"

"Because of their need for our cotton."

"Even if they do need our cotton that will not motivate them to come to our aid until the war has been raging for at least three years. Maybe four."

"Balderdash."

"Excuse me, gentlemen, I seem to be in the minority in this group. Let me leave you to enjoy your brandy and your dreams of glory."

With that Rhett walked out of the parlor. He heard someone call him a coward. He heard another man ssh the man by saying, "You don't want to insult him and have him call you out. He is one of the finest shots in the South."

Rhett continued walking down the hallway until he saw the open door to the library. He saw a couch. He decided to take a nap. He knew Mr. Kennedy would not be ready to leave any time soon.

Back in the parlor Ashley said, "Gentlemen, we are fools for going to war over slavery when President Lincoln has not even threatened our way of life yet. We should at least make him make the first attack."

"Ashley! How can you say that."

"It is just logical. If we go to war, we will destroy the very thing we are fighting to save. We must reach a compromise with the North over slavery."

"We will lick those Yankee devils in six months if not sooner."

"It seems I too am in the minority. Let me go entertain my guest. Excuse me."

As Ashley walked away, he heard someone say, "Who would have thought Ashley was a coward?"

"He has always been different."

Ashley was alright with people thinking he was a coward because he was. Now, he was going to be alright with everyone knowing he was a coward. He had a secret. They didn't know it. Melly didn't know it. He wouldn't tell her until they were married but he was going to sit the war out in New York.

As Ashley was walking down his hallway, he remembered what happened in the first timeline. As he had known Scarlett came up to him and said, "Ashley, let's go in the library where we can talk."

"Of course, my dear." After Ashley and Scarlett had entered the library, he closed the door which, of course, wasn't proper but he didn't want anyone else to hear what he was about to say to Scarlett.

Ashley had not wasted time on the social niceties that he wasn't sure were really social niceties. He said, "Scarlett, I am so happy to have a few minutes with you. I want you to know I am marrying Melanie."

"What?!"

"Yes, we are going to announce our engagement tonight. We have been promised to each other since we were small children."

"What?!"

"I have loved Melanie for so long. I have just been waiting for her to be old enough to marry."

"You love Melanie?"

"Yes, I do."

"But you can't love her. You love me."

"No, I don't."

"But I love you."

"No, you don't. That is just puppy love."

"God's nightgown. If you were promised to someone else, then why were you courting me."

"I wouldn't say I was courting you but then again, I can see how you would think that I was. What else would a silly, naïve sixteen-year-old think when a man visited her every week. Scarlett, I must confess. You are a delight to be around in short periods, but I could not spend the rest of my life with you. You would take too much energy to keep happy. And honestly, you are a boring person. All you want to talk about is yourself or the local gossip. Neither of which is very interesting."

"Certainly, more interesting than listening to hours and hours of boring poetry."

"Scarlett, let me be honest with you. Melanie is my soul mate. I could not imagine being married to anyone else."

"But she's not as pretty as I am."

"That shows how shallow you are. It is what is on the inside that counts. But to be perfectly clear, to me she is prettier than you for she is pretty on the inside also."

Ashley knew he was going to have to be brutal to shatter Scarlett's fantasy image of him. He was going to behave like General Sherman did when he marched through South Carolina. Although Sherman had been brutal in Georgia, he had been even more brutal in South Carolina. In South Carolina Sherman had punished the state for being the first state to secede. He had destroyed the infrastructure of the state. It was in South Carolina that he had broken the back of the Confederacy.

There would be nothing left of Scarlett's feelings for Ashley once he was finished. If he hadn't realized how much his cowardice had cost him, Melly, and Scarlett he would not be able to be this vicious. If he had not been telling Scarlett home truths for a while, he would not be able to now.

"You think Melly is prettier than me?!"

"Yes, I do. Furthermore, she is a lot smarter than you. On top of all of that she is a better person than you. She would never steal another girl's beau just to satisfy her vanity. You need to be worshipped and adored by every man around whether you care for them or not. You don't care for anyone's feelings but your own."

"Ashley, how can you be so ungentlemanly as to talk to me so cruelly."

"Because, Scarlett, you are so dense, vain, egotistical, shallow, and childlike that you will never truly understand what I am saying if I don't dummy it down to your level. Child, do you even know how to open a book?"

"What? Who cares if I can open a book?"

"I do. I would like my wife to be well-read."

With a flabbergasted expression on her face, Scarlett said, "You want a blue stocking as your wife."

"Yes, I certainly do."

"I thought you cared for me."

"I care for you as my friend and neighbor but nothing more. I care no more for you than you do for any of your beaus. I enjoyed you worshipping me."

"You used me to entertain you while you waited for your cousin to be able to marry you."

"Yes, I did. Scarlett, I could not be involved with you romantically after I watched what you did to India just because you wanted Stuart Tarleton's heart as your trophy. Do you even like Stuart? I doubt it."

"I like Stuart. You like Melly because she spiritless and is content to do what people tell her to do."

"Yes, Scarlett, I do. I am the same way. Let us leave the library. There is no future for us. I would never love you much less marry you." Ashley knew what he had to say. He knew it would be the coup de grace to any feelings Scarlett might have for him. He said, "Frankly, my dear, you aren't good enough for me."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You are too earthy."

Scarlett knew immediately what Ashley was implying by saying she was earthy. That she was fast. Scarlett slapped his face and said, "I will have you know that I am every bit the lady."

Scarlett stormed out of the library. Ashley walked over to where there was a decanter of brandy. When he did, he saw the man he knew as Rhett Butler lying on the couch.

Ashley smiled. He now knew why Scarlett never ran Rhett Butler off. He had heard the entire scene last time. Ashley supposed that after a while Mr. Butler had learned more of Scarlett's secrets. He also knew why in part Scarlett and Mr. Butler's marriage had failed. Mr. Butler had been jealous of Scarlett's feelings for him and Mr. Butler with all his pride wasn't going to play second fiddle to anyone, no matter what the girl herself believed. Furthermore, Scarlett had been so obtuse she had not realized that Mr. Butler was jealous.

Ashley said, "I suppose you heard all that."

Rhett stood up and said, "I most certainly did."

"I would appreciate you not telling anyone else about Scarlett's and my conversation. For Scarlett's sake and for Melly's sake. I don't want Melly knowing that Scarlett threw herself at me."

"Of course. You don't know how lucky you are. I usually don't do anything if there isn't something in it for me."

Ashley smiled and said, "I'm not asking you to do anything. I am asking you not to do something."

"I will not tell anyone."

"Brandy?"

"Yes."

As the men were drinking their brandy, Rhett said, "Why were you so brutal to the fair Miss O'Hara. I would have taken you for the type that would try to let the young lady down gently."

"Scarlett is far too dense, vain, self-centered, and selfish to accept defeat gracefully. It would never enter her head that she couldn't get any man she wanted. Part of it can be explain because she has gotten every man she wanted, and the other part is she is still so very young. I know her very well. She will only give up on a goal when she has no hope at all. When the brutal truth is forced in her face."

"I will take your word for it, but I have heard people speak kinder to their archenemy."

"Perhaps I was overly brutal. I like Scarlett but I know I am not the right man for her. Whoever her husband becomes she will want all of his time and attention. For me that would get old fast."

"She is a beautiful woman whom I will probably never see again. So let us dismiss her from our thoughts. I suppose despite the fact you are opposed to the war you will go off to fight like all the other gentlemen."

"No, Mr. Butler, I am not. Nobody knows what I am about to tell you, not even Melly. Melly and I will be married in two weeks then we will move to New York. I have a couple of friends that live there. We went to Yale together. One of my friends' father owns a bank. I am sure I can get him to give me a job. I will just sit the war out."

"I am amazed. You struck me as such a proper gentleman."

"Not so proper. I will come back after the war is over. Maybe. If Melly is happy, we will stay in New York."

"You know as well as I do that if you don't fight for the Confederacy, you will never be received back into proper society in the South again."

"True. Not that it really matters. After the war is over there will be nothing left of this life. Which is a shame. It was an idyllic life."

"I guess that depends on if one is a gentleman or not." Ashley laughed. Rhett continued, "By the way you are speaking I guess you don't think the war will be over in six months."

"No, I know how stubborn us Southerners can be. Much like Scarlett the Confederacy will not surrender until there is no other choice."

"That is good news for me. I will make a lot of money off the war."

"What are you going to do during the war?"

"Run the blockade."

"That should be very profitable."

"Indeed. It should be."

"You might even become a war hero."

"Perish the thought."

Both men laughed. They heard a bunch of noise and clamor outside and Ashley swallowed down the rest of his brandy. He said, "Let me go see what all that commotion is."

Rhett swallowed the rest of his brandy and said, "Let me go find Mr. Kennedy."

As the two men walked down the hallway towards the foyer, neither man noticed Scarlett hiding under the stairwell.