After they returned from breakfast the next morning, Scarlett and Ella found their hotel room covered in flowers. The child started running around the now crowded space with delight, marveling at how soft they felt under her touch, comparing their sizes and the intensity of their colors, putting her little nose between the petals to appreciate their sweet, discrete fragrance. She was already wondering how she could use some of them for a composition and how the light should be better placed to increase the contrast.
Ella mused about this matter out loud for a long time, in her high-pitched childish voice and in such excited tones that would have made the old Scarlett fear for a migraine, even if she had been remotely interested in the particulars of drawing a still life. But this time, her mother didn't mind; she was barely listening, busy trying to grasp the situation. She had learned from Ellen to only accept flowers and candy as presents from gentlemen, nothing else, so they wouldn't even think about any untoward advances. But Ellen had also taught her the language of flowers, and she could decode the message in front of her as easily as if it had been written with letters instead.
Lily of the valley, symbolizing trustworthiness and the return of happiness. Hyacinth representing the constancy of love. And Myrtle, love and marriage.
Ellen would have understood that a gift like that couldn't be accepted without careful consideration. Scarlett appreciated the Duke, and had tacitly accepted his courting by kissing him. She didn't regret it, and the more she met him, the more she felt possible to eventually love him, but this kind of display coming from Albert was a bit puzzling. Scarlett guessed that due to her encouragement he was becoming more daring, which didn't exactly displease her, but there were also other considerations.
What would happen with Tara, where would the children be happier, what would be her exact obligations if she finally consented to marrying him, were just some of the most pressing questions she hoped would be resolved during a period of courtship of no less than one year, as her mother had also taught her. She decided to write him a note, thanking him for the delicate attention but explaining that it was still not in her power to acknowledge his intentions. She quickly sent it, pretty pleased with herself. Both in style and content, even Ellen wouldn't have found anything to reproach in her handwriting.
Scarlett smiled watching Ella still dancing around the flowers like a little fairy. She knew her daughter would be happy if they remained in Paris, but she wasn't sure about her son's reaction. It was a matter that deeply troubled her, especially after noticing Wade's paleness that last evening. She wondered if he could react too strongly to thrills and excitement, due to his memories of the war, and that didn't seem to bode well for the moment she would have to explain to him their future arrangements. But she would cross that bridge when she came to it.
Someone knocked on the door. The energy was a bit too frantic for a groom, and Scarlett started fearing that the Duke himself had come in support of his message. She didn't think he could sway her, but she feared there was still more intensity to his character than what she had the opportunity to witness in their short acquaintance. And in any case, it would be complicated to discuss such matters in front of Ella.
To her relief, it was just Rhett with Wade. They didn't seem surprised by the flowers; they probably had seen the grooms carrying them through the corridor.
"Are you coming to the Zoo, Ella?" Wade asked. He was as impatient as usual with his sister, but he didn't seem in low spirits that morning. Scarlett wondered if he had been nursing a cold.
Ella nodded and smiled the biggest of smiles while marching towards the door.
"I thought you didn't like animals, Ella," her mother said, amused and temporarily forgetting Wade's well-being. Her daughter had always feared animals, to the point she had refused to ride the pony Rhett had gifted her when they had gotten married. Such a radical change was an agreeable surprise.
"Henri is in the lobby; go meet him. I'll catch you later," Rhett told the children.
They soon disappeared into the long corridor.
"Is there any miracle Henri isn't capable of?" Scarlett asked.
She wasn't waiting for an answer, but Rhett replied while closing the door behind him:
"None if you ask Ella, I suppose."
For a strange reason, Scarlett felt nervous and uncomfortable now, with all those flowers in sight. She hadn't expected Rhett to stay behind.
"Would you care for something to drink?" she said, turning her back to him and serving herself some liquor from one elaborated bottle on her desk. She rarely drank in the daytime now; it reminded her of some very dark periods of her life, but she thought she needed some reassurance.
Rhett laughed.
"You are always such a gracious hostess, Scarlett. But no, thanks, I have been drinking too much lately. It numbed the pain but didn't let me see things clearly."
She was afraid to meet his gaze. There was something in his voice that was so much like Rhett. So much like the Rhett she had missed.
"Are you afraid of me, Scarlett?" his voice sounded closer. She feared him, but she turned to face him all the same.
"Of course, not," she said.
Rhett took her hand and knelt in front of her.
"Forgive me for startling you with the impetuosity of my sentiments, my dear Scarlett."
She couldn't believe his audacity. And his perversity. He had noticed how close she was to freeing herself from his tyranny and wanted to lure her back to him. Yes, that was exactly the Rhett she had known for so many years. Incorrigible, ruthless, not an ounce of honor in his acts or of gentleness in his words.
Scarlett freed her hand and signaled frantically toward the door, as if admonishing a mischievous boy.
"Rhett, of all the things...! Go, you are embarrassing yourself. And me."
He didn't move an inch.
"I presume you didn't like my flowers?"
"Your flowers? Oh!"
Scarlett blushed, furious. Rhett knew she would thank Albert; of course, he knew. No sane person would have thought Rhett would send her those flowers.
"You already thanked your Duke?" he chuckled.
Scarlett walked in a big circle around him, as if fearing some kind of contamination, and let herself fall down on the ottoman, burying her face in her hands.
"You are impossible," she sighed.
"I'm just expressing my most honest feelings."
Scarlett opened her hands to take a look at him. He was still kneeling and was no longer laughing. It was very unnerving.
"Are you going to propose to remarry me for fun?"
"No. I love you, Scarlett."
She couldn't believe him. She couldn't trust that smile. It was the smile of a pirate that would take her heart hostage until he could carelessly lose it in a game of cards. But in a stupidly sentimental way, she was so happy listening to him talking outrageously again. Lately, he had started looking tired. It hadn't suited him.
She changed posture to appear more dignified, sitting on the ottoman.
"Why didn't you put a note in the flowers?"
"Scarlett, I would never believe Ellen would be so remiss..."
"Nonsense."
Rhett sighed and stood up, he walked toward her, but luckily, he didn't mean anything worse than sitting next to her on the ottoman.
It had been a long time since they had been so physically close. Scarlett felt the impulse to stand up but didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing she was flustered by his proximity.
"I didn't want to confuse the children. Things are already so complicated between us... They don't deserve to suffer more."
"But you didn't mind confusing me!" Scarlett thought.
Rhett took off a little black box from one of his pockets.
"Bought it first thing this morning. Had to hurry them to open the store. I didn't have a blink of sleep last night..."
Scarlett knew what it was. It must be what she was thinking, but she didn't dare even breathe.
Rhett opened the box. It was a diamond ring, but nothing like that horrible ostentatious thing he had bought to humiliate her when they had gotten married. It was beautiful and simple; it wouldn't have clashed with the white dress covered in tiny green flowers and the white lace shawl that Scarlett had worn the first time they had met.
"I'm sorry for your old ring; I'm so sorry for so many things. I knew what you wished for, but I delighted in torturing you. If it's of any help, I was also torturing myself."
Scarlett stood up. His presence next to her was becoming unbearably painful. She advanced toward the door, ready to open it and force him to leave.
"It doesn't help, Rhett. Why? I was young and very stupid, but you should have known better."
Rhett closed his eyes; he was still holding the box with the ring between his hands, nursing it.
"I was jealous, Scarlett. So jealous of Ashley, all the time. So much that I can't even understand how I could breathe. I didn't want to marry you; I knew exactly how it would be. But I did because I loved you. I have loved you since the first time I rested my eyes on you, and I'll always will."
Scarlett was holding the knob; she released her grasp on it, still facing the door.
"As you are jealous now, Rhett. Why are you telling me this? Why not telling me when I spent months begging you to come back home? Why not telling me when you first arrived in Paris? Why do you understand yourself so much better precisely now?"
It didn't help his cause, but Rhett couldn't help laughing.
"Scarlett, I think you haven't noticed. You never noticed how wonderfully strong and resourceful you already were at sixteen; you had so many people telling you all the things they thought wrong with you since you were born. But you have become even more fearless... sometimes it's so difficult for me to reconcile what it's in front of me with the image I have always carried of you in my heart." Scarlett raised an eyebrow, barely appeased. "It doesn't mean that the change is for the worse, believe me. The Scarlett I knew would have already slapped me, at best."
Scarlett sighed and turned around. She rested her head and shoulders on the closed door. Why was each conversation with Rhett so exhausting?
He stood up.
"I wish things could be easier between us. But even before you changed, it was difficult for me to see or to accept the truth. Belle said..."
Scarlett took one of the vases full of flowers in a gesture as fast as menacing. "Rhett Butler, if you dare mentioning Belle Watling while making love to me!"
Rhett whistled and put the little black box safely back in his pocket.
"Scarlett O'Hara," he said.
Nobody had ever pronounced her maiden name like him. Nobody would ever will. But there was a reason he was using it now. They were divorced, and they had had very good reasons to go their separate ways. To come back to their old habits, no matter how weirdly comfortable they were, would make them only suffer again. Perhaps even more in the long run. Scarlett put the vase back on the floor, carefully.
She advanced toward Rhett and extended her hand. He kissed it and kept it between his hands, as gently as he had held the black box before.
"Maybe we have changed a bit, but I think we both know that we are what we are. You can mock me; I probably deserve it, but although I chose all the wrong reasons to think about Ashley, so many times you pushed me toward him with your sarcasm and your irony, and so many horrible things I couldn't even understand at the time. Looking back, I can barely understand them now, as much as I feel a lot older."
Rhett pressed her hand.
"Scarlett, I was acting out of spite. Always going out of my way to not be a gentleman, to pretend not to care. It started long before I ever met you, with my father. But with you, I recognize it became so much worse. I knew that in your head and in your heart, there was only place for one thing. Ashley. Ashley. I wanted to punish you. I wanted to be a completely different man and force you to accept that's what you preferred. I wanted to win. Can you understand it? Can you forgive me?"
Scarlett didn't retire her hand, but it became so cold and listless that Rhett let it go. She could listen again to Ashley telling her that Rhett and he were fundamentally alike.
"In that case, I'm not even sure I know you," Scarlett said.
