Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

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

Chapter Forty-Siven

A week later there were two letters in the mail tray from South Carolina. One was from Elizabeth Butler and the other from Eulalie Williams.

Both shared the same information. Langston Butler was dead. He had died of a heart attack on July fifth. He stood up from the breakfast table then dropped to the floor. He was already dead before he had started his descent. He had a massive heart attack.

Rhett's letter from his mother thanked him for everything he had authorized Mr. Mobbs to do for her and thanked him for his financial support. What made Rhett sad about the letter was that although very proper his mother never asked about Rhett's wife or son. Rhett looked across the parlor at his wife and son. She was playing some sort of game with Gerry, and he must have been having fun because he was laughing. In that moment Rhett was finally free from his past. To hell with his mother and all of Charleston, they mattered even less now than they had fifteen years ago.

Gerry, Wade, and Scarlett were what mattered. They were his future.

Scarlett's letter from her Aunt Eulalie was much the same as Rhett's letter from his mother. A very impersonal proper letter. She too had not bothered to ask Scarlett about her family. It didn't bother Scarlett she had already written her aunts out of her life. Only her love for her mother kept her supporting them. She wrote to her aunt back thanking her for the information. Now that Rhett can send his mother a check directly their monthly check would be reduced to fifteen dollars a month but that should cause no hardship on them for that was what they had been receiving prior to Mr. Butler's death. Mr. Mobbs would be sending them the check as usual.

Rhett shared more information than Scarlett. He informed his mother that she would receive at least a thirty dollar a month check. Mr. Mobbs had been authorized to find her a nice home in a safe part of town, but she would have to live on a budget and her lifestyle would not be as grand as her life had been before the war. He would not be setting up accounts for her. She would have to manage her money on her own.

Rhett wrote about what he and Scarlett were up to. He wrote about the progress Gerry was making and how proud he was of his son. He enclosed a picture of the family that was taken when Gerry turned six months old.

When Scarlett saw Rhett enclosing the photo in his envelope, she felt compassion for those two old people in Atlanta that had nothing in their lives but their past dreams. She took a copy of the family picture to Melly and asked her to mail it to her aunt.

Melly, upon seeing the picture, asked Ashley if they could take a picture of the family. He said, "Let's do it on Beau's second birthday."

"Thank you, Dear."

By August, Scarlett was back at the shop full-time. It was no longer an option that Rhett leave Gerry with Scarlett the boy was already taking some tentative steps. Yet the real problem was that he could crawl across the floor faster than a bolt of lightning. Therefore, Rhett had to bring him down and wait on him then take him back. These days, Rhett knew how long the whole process took. Now that the weather wasn't so bad, he would go sit in the park for thirty minutes instead of waiting at the dress shop. He always took his son straight back to Mammy. It seemed that Gerry had a fine internal clock. He nursed then thirty minutes later poop. Rhett wanted nothing to do with that.

One day Coco said to Scarlett, "August twenty-eighth will be Pierre and my twentieth anniversary."

"What are you going to do to celebrate?"

"Probably go to supper."

"Is that all? You two should go to Niagara Falls. Rhett says it is amazing to see. We are going to go as soon as I feel comfortable with traveling again. It is the supposedly the honeymoon capital of the world."

Coco laughed and said, "We are definitely not going to be on our honeymoon."

"But you could have a second honeymoon."

Coco smiled and said, "Let me talk to Pierre about it.

A week later, Coco said, "Pierre checked into us going to Niagara Falls. It is a sixteen-hour trip up there which would be one full day and one full day back. To make it worth our while we would want to stay three or four days. When Pierre asked his mother if she would watch the children alone for a week. She started yammering on about she wasn't our slave, and we couldn't boss her around. If Pierre tried, she would move out. Of course, both Pierre and I know she wouldn't move out. She has no other place to go but Pierre doesn't want to make her any madder than she already is. She is already difficult to live with, not just for me but for everyone. Her biggest problem is that she didn't want to emigrate to America, and she is still hoping we will move back to Calais. After ten years, you would think she would give up. She hasn't learned a word of English."

"How does she communicate with the help?"

"She makes the children translate for her."

"Coco, leave the children with me. I will be glad to watch them for a week. And when I say I – I mean Rhett and my staff."

"Really?! Scarlett, that would be so wonderful. Ask Mr. Butler about it and make sure but if he says yes, I will take you up on your offer. If for no other reason than to spite that… that… "

"Witch."

"Yes, that witch."

That night after supper, Scarlett talked to Rhett about watching the Chanel children for a week. He said, "How old are the children?"

"Gabrielle is fourteen, Antionette is twelve, and I think Claude is ten."

"Are they good children?"

"Gabrielle and Antionette are, and I imagine Claude is also, but I don't know for sure I have never really interacted with him. Please, Rhett. If we don't do this, then Coco and Mr. Chanel will not be able to have a second honeymoon. I can take the girls with me to the shop during the day so that just leaves Claude for you to deal with."

"Alright but I expect to be rewarded."

"You never do anything that doesn't benefit you in some way, do you?"

"Rarely ever." Which made him think of his not having told anyone what Ashley had said to Scarlett in the library. He guessed in the end that had benefited him. Rhett smiled and said, "In fact, you can thank me now."

"Thank you."

Rhett laughed and said, "Come along, my dear. I will instruct you on how you can thank me in our bedroom."

All Scarlett did then was giggle.

Later when Rhett and Scarlett were finished and she was asleep, he thought, 'She is getting quite good at that activity. Almost too good. She can get me almost to the point of no return then she backs off which makes it such sweet torture. And she now knows exactly what she is doing. I guess because I pull her off of me and am inside her in a matter of seconds.'

The next morning, Scarlett with a secret little smile said, "It has all been arranged. Gabrielle and Antoinette will come with me to work for the week and Claude can stay at the house with Rhett and the boys. Does he like to read?"

"Thank you, Scarlett. This will make the trip so much more wonderful knowing that I got around Mrs. Chanel. And yes, Claude loves to read."

"Rhett will probably take him to the bookstore. He is always looking for an excuse to go to the bookstore. After twenty years, she is still making you call her Mrs. Chanel?"

With a smile Coco said, "Can you believe it? I can't wait until she dies." Coco slammed both her hands over her mouth.

Scarlett burst out laughing. She said, "If I had to deal with my mother in-law, I probably would think the same thing, but I don't because Rhett isn't received in the South. Mrs. Butler is just a stuck-up proper Charleson lady."

"What do you mean?"

Scarlett told Coco about the buggy incident. After Scarlett was finished, Coco said, "Didn't he have the broken wheel as proof of what had happened?"

"Yes, but he got the girl home after dark and that was all that mattered. As I understand it the Crawfords were extremely poor, and Mr. Crawford saw a way to get his ugly daughter married into the rich Butler family. She would have a charming, handsome husband to boot."

"I can understand that I guess but why did Mr. Butler's father allow it to happen?"

"Coco to truly understand the situation you would have had to been raised in the South where social status is extremely important. At that point the Butlers, although rich and powerful, were just a second-tier family socially while the Crawfords who were poor and insignificant were a first-tier family socially. As strange as this is going to sound the Crawfords were more powerful socially than the Butlers. When Rhett refused to marry the girl, his family disowned him."

"Mr. Butler's father disowned him over a broken buggy wheel."

"Essentially that is correct. He kicked him out with the clothes on his back and the money in his pockets."

"How stupid can one get."

"You know what is funny, Coco, until I moved to the North, I thought what Mr. Butler had done was the right thing to do."

"Mr. Butler is quite rich now. How did he amass that fortune?"

"He did whatever he had to do to survive but most of it was his good luck of being in the right place at the right time."

"That is amazing."

"He is amazing."

"Nobody who has ever seen you together would think you feel otherwise."

Scarlett smiled and said, "He thinks I am amazing too."

"I know, Cherie. He certainly does."

"Let's get to work. You unlock the front door, and I will balance the books."

"On it."

A week later on August twenty-fourth, Coco and Pierre were on their way to Niagara Falls. They had wanted to see the falls ever since they had learned that Jerome Bonaparte, the younger brother of Napoleon, had traveled by stagecoach from New Orleans to spend his honeymoon in Niagara Falls in 1806.

The couple talked, ate good food, enjoyed being childless, really enjoyed being parentless, enjoyed each other physically and just had a great time.

A week later, Coco and Pierre returned to New York and their wonderful life. With the profits from Coco's store, they were able to enjoy many of the perks of living in New York.

The week for the Chanel children was fun also. They played cards, played musical instruments, sang songs, and Rhett took Claude, Wade, and Gerry to the bookstore three times. Claude was so extremely happy. Although his parents gave him a new book once a month, Mr. Butler had given him a new book every time they went to the bookstore. On their last trip Mr. Butler had let him get three books. The children had tried all types of different foods. The food in their household was good but it was more French than American. They had never had anything that could be qualified as Southern. Most of it they enjoyed.

Gabrielle, of course, went to work with Scarlett. Scarlett took Antoinette with her also because she thought the girl would have more fun at the shop than with Rhett and the boys. Furthermore, Scarlett knew that Antoinette was going to be happy that she was getting paid five dollars and fifty cents for her week's worth of labor. Both Scarlett and Coco knew that Antoinette was saving up to buy material for a new dress.

Antoinette was happy. With what she had made in December and while Mrs. Butler was out sick and now while Mere and Pere where away she almost had enough money to buy the material for a new dress and a new hat. Mere had even said that after Antoinette had bought the fabric she could come down to the shop and sew up her dress on the sewing machine.

When Pierre, Coco and the children were gone for a week, Marie Chanel was beside herself for having been left at the house by herself for a week. She had oscillated between loneliness and fear the family was never coming back. Furthermore, she was frustrated because she could not communicate with the help. She was never so glad to see anyone than when the family had walked back through the door of their home. She was even nice to Coco for a couple of days.

Melly had a second birthday party for her miracle child. Melly and Ashley didn't entertain very often so for Beau's birthday party they invited all their friends once again. Some of the people, Ashley invited where his fellow reporters. One of them, Bob Woodward, overheard Ashley telling one of his guests about the book he had coming out. It would be released in November, just in time for Christmas.