"Be careful, Katie Scarlett, that ye don't learn to value a thing until after it is lost."
She remembered laughing at her pa when he had said that to her, all those long years ago when the world was soft and full of the promise of spring. The winter of war had hardened everything - from her skin to her soul - and it had taken her too many years to realize it. Now she had lost everyone who had ever really loved her, and oh! How her mother would have cried to see her now! Two shameful marriages, a scandalous affair, and a third marriage strained beyond the breaking point, not to mention the strained nature of every familial relationship she still had left. Suellen couldn't stand the sight of her, Carreen had fled to a convent, and even her aunts in Charleston sent her regular letters full of the horrible gossip that clearly Rhett was spreading abroad and they were quite happy to believe.
Scarlett lasted a whole month in Atlanta after Melanie's funeral and Rhett's desertion. She would have run back to Tara by the end of the first week if she could have, as it became abundantly obvious that Rhett and Melly had been solely responsible for any respectability that she possessed in Atlanta. She could hardly walk down Peachtree Street without some old busybody turning up their nose at her. She was quite used to being given the cut direct by the likes of India Wilkes, but when even Mrs. Merriweather crossed to the other side of the street Scarlett realized there was a storm a-brewing. But she had never backed down to a fight before and she was hardly going to start now.
Rhett's sudden disappearance proved the hardest to explain, particularly since he had not even bothered to leave a forwarding address. Her one comfort was that he had not set up residence at Belle Watling's establishment even for a night after leaving her. Not only did it give her hope, but it made it much easier to pass off his absence as business-related. But as the days wore into weeks and it became less likely that Rhett would make a sudden reappearance, Scarlett decided that she would have to take matters into her own hands.
She gathered the books at the store and spent long hours at night putting the accounts in order. She visited Uncle Peter at the bank and made arrangements to have lines of credit available to her while she was down in the County, claiming, not untruthfully, that she intended to make an extended visit and oversee long overdue repairs to the old house. She had Dilcey begin closing up the house and set Prissy to packing the children's things. And when Wade came home from the last day of school, Scarlett walked down the street to the Wilkes' house for what she hoped was the last time for a long while.
Ashley had dwindled to a shadow of his former self after the war, but in the wake of Melly's death he became even more insubstantial. His black mourning suit hung loosely from his shoulders as though nothing but bones held it up, and his hair seemed to have greyed overnight. Watery blue eyes full of despair looked up at Scarlett from behind the wingback chair and she had to resist the urge to scream. Oh, why had it taken her this long to realize how utterly useless Ashley was in a crisis? Never at any moment in their long history had Ashley been a source of strength or provided her with any assistance in solving a problem - in fact, he often made things worse. But she had promised Melly she would look after Beau…and Ashley, too.
"I'm leaving Atlanta, Ashley," Scarlett said without much preamble. "I'm going home to Tara. But before I left, I wanted to talk to you about Beau's schooling."
"Melly always did want him to attend Harvard," Ashley murmured, picking absently at a frayed thread on the arm of the chair. He had hardly left that chair since Melanie died and often could not be roused from the dreamlike stupor he often sank into. Even now his voice was faint and rough with disuse.
"Yes," replied Scarlett. It had been one of Melanie's fondest and most oft-expressed wishes that her son would get the education he would have received had the war not stripped the Wilkes family of its wealth and position. Scarlett had scoffed at the thought of sending Beau, the golden child of all Atlanta, to Yankee territory. But it was what Melly had wanted, and though she had failed her sister-in-law many times in life, Scarlett would be damned if she didn't find a way to honor her wishes in death. "I think you should sell the mills, Ashley, and use the money to move up north. Find Beau a good school and a good job for yourself. Something that will make you happy, at least as happy as you can be. Melly would want that."
Ashley watched the fire for a long moment before finally rising from his chair. He crossed the room and gently took her hands in his. Once she would have thrilled at his touch, but now all she felt was relief at seeing some life kindling in his eyes. He leaned over to press his lips softly to the crown of her head, the most chaste of farewells it seemed to her. "Thank you, Scarlett," he whispered before walking out the door.
Scarlett could hear him speaking to India in the next room but she didn't care to stay and listen. She slipped out into the street and walked home with a spring in her step for the first time in months. It was as though a millstone she did not even know she had been carrying was lifted off her shoulders. She was even whistling when she arrived at her own front door, much to the surprise of Ella who had seen her coming from the nursery window and run down to meet her. That night she told the children of her plan to go to Tara. They were initially as skeptical as all city-born children would be at hearing they were to spend the summer in a place devoid of friends and known enjoyments, but soon warmed up to the idea as she told them stories of growing up at the old plantation. Wade was sold on the idea as soon as he learned he would be able to ride a real horse, and Ella's face lit up when she heard that she would have two cousins to play with who were just about her age. They were on the first train to Jonesboro in the morning and not a single one of them looked back.
The road to Tara was as long and winding as she remembered. Wade had only the vaguest of memories of that horrible night when they had fled Atlanta, and Scarlett reluctantly relived that night as her children demanded that she point out the places they had stopped to hide from the Yankees and Confederate soldiers alike. But she had to admit that she cherished seeing the admiration in her son's eyes as she recounted the tale of how Uncle Rhett had saved them from the fires of Sherman's army and how she had driven that hapless cart horse over perilous lands to get them all to safety. Wade was so often afraid of her - and afraid of everything, really - that she often didn't have the patience for him. But Melly and Rhett had seen something fine and lovable in him, and she had decided that they were much better judges of character than she was.
Finally, the old fence appeared around the bend, and then the house came into view. Scarlett could hardly contain the urge to jump out of the carriage and run up the drive. Never had Tara been lovelier, she thought, even though she could plainly see where the roof was starting to sag and the columns were missing paint. She could worry about all that tomorrow, though. Today, she was finally home.