Ch. 7- Sally

1 Month Later

Sally stared at Rhett over a half-drunk cup of cold tea. He did not look well; he looked even worse than when he'd returned to Charleston after leaving Scarlett and losing Bonnie. Rhett also drank from a cup of tea, but she could smell the alcohol in it from across the room. He'd given up drinking at Anne's request, but apparently, that no longer applied.

"You need to get away, Rhett." She said, finally breaking the hour-long silence.

"Where should I go, Sally? I have nothing left."

"It's not the first time you've had nothing left, and you rebuilt then, too."

"And look where that got me. A dead wife. Another dead child."

Sally didn't play the comforting role well, and she knew it. She was a take-action person and didn't believe coddling Rhett would help him.

"What's the other option, Rhett? You either get away, get a fresh start somewhere, or you waste away and join Anne and Little Rhett. Which will it be?"

"The latter. Maybe, just maybe, if God really does exist, before I'm cast into hell, "I'll get to have one last look at my children again."

Sally noticed he didn't mention Anne, and while most people would have had the tact to not remark on it, she was not that person. "Not Anne?"

"Anne would have been better off without me here. She's definitely better off without me wherever she is now."

Sally raised her eyebrows and took another sip of tea. "Well, you might as well not join her then."

"We both know I secured my spot in hell long ago, Sally."

"Hogwash."

"Shall I list out my sins for you, then?"

"Alright then, go ahead."

"I ruined a girl's reputation and chose to be disowned rather than marry her."

"She was trying to trap you into marriage, Rhett; she deserved her reputation."

Rhett made no effort to correct her and simply continued on. "I made most of my gains by investing in a whore-house, privateering, and taking some mislaid Confederate gold."

Sally smirked. "Most people with your type of money have made it in ill-gotten ways. You ensured all the women in that house were paid well and willing. A lot of men do a lot worse."

"I married a woman who loved another man and then was cruel to her because of it." This time, Sally wasn't allowed to respond because Rhett carried on. "I made her give me a child even though she didn't want one, and then I did everything I could to make that child love me more. Then, I forced myself on her, got her with child again, and left the next morning with our daughter. I was gone for months, and when I returned, I goaded her into anger and stood frozen as she fell down the stairs- losing the child and almost her life."

Sally opened her mouth but shut it as the rant continued. "Then, I put our child on a pony, taught her to jump, and all but handed her to the reaper himself."

"Her daughter and best friend died, and I left her." Rhett hooked his head in self-loathing as he spoke.

Sally looked at him for a moment, assessing. "You lost your daughter as well, Rhett. From what you've both told me, your marriage was ruined long before Bonnie died. Yes, you left, but would it have gone any better for either of you if you stayed?"

That was a question he'd asked himself over and over after he'd left Atlanta. It was one he continued to ask himself after he met and married Anne. "I'll never know, will I?"

"Hindsight is always clearer than foresight."

"Then, I married Anne. She was too good for me. Too sweet. I killed her, too."

"How on earth do you figure that?"

"She was too weak to have a child- I knew someone else just like her, and pregnancy killed her too.

Rhett didn't talk much about Melanie Wilkes, but when he did, it was with reverence and fondness, two things he rarely showed to anyone. Therefore, Sally didn't know much about her except that she'd died from pregnancy complications and that she was a very great lady, according to Rhett.

"Anne wanted a child, Rhett. She may have had a weaker constitution than some, but there was no sign that she wouldn't be able to have a healthy pregnancy and delivery. You're not God, much as you seem to think otherwise."

"And my son, Sally? What about him?"

Sally sighed. The loss of Baby Rhett was a devastating blow for everyone. Even to her, someone who had sworn off children and men, he'd been a sweet baby that she instantly loved. "Your train crashed into another train, Rhett. Fifty people were killed between the two trains. You had no control over that unless you drove the train yourself."

"He was too young to travel- I could have left him, but after Bonnie-I-Ironic, isn't it? I didn't want him to be out of my sight after losing Bonnie, and by taking him- I killed him too."

"The only thing you're guilty of, Rhett Butler, is loving that baby boy. Of course, you'll feel guilt over it; you're human, but you can't let it beat you down. Nothing beats Rhett Butler down."

Rhett's lip twitched beneath his mustache, but the movement was so minuscule; she wouldn't have known if Sally had not been looking for a reaction. "What do you suggest, Sally?"

"I already told you- get away, go somewhere. Anywhere that's not here. Hell, go back to Ireland and buy another damn horse."

When Sally finally left that day, she still wasn't sure what Rhett would choose to do, but she thought she'd gotten through to him at least. She spied a letter on a nearby table when she walked through the door of her empty house. She picked it up and smiled at the elegant scrawl across the envelope. Scarlett. She had been waiting to hear from Scarlett for several months, which was typical. The woman could definitely have been better at expedient correspondence. Sally walked to her sitting room and opened the paper, unfolding the letter to begin reading.

"Sally,

May this letter find you and all you hold dear, well."

Sally sucked in a breath- it was how Scarlett often began her letters, and she often thought it was her way of wishing Rhett well without ever mentioning him by name. The realization came, however, that Scarlett did not know about Anne and the baby, and Sally dreaded writing the news. Despite Rhett's thoughts, she knew Scarlett was not as unfeeling as people suspected her. Sally was confident that the word of Rhett losing a wife and another child would break Scarlett's heart, though she'd never admit it to him.

"I'm in Georgia, though I'd ask you not to share that information outside of this letter. I'm staying at my family's home, Tara. I plan to return to Ireland within the month, but I have some things to finish here.

Write back to me there, so I don't miss it. I hope all is well.

-Scarlett"

Sally folded the letter back up and sat it aside. Scarlett was back in America. She smiled to herself as a plan started to hatch in her mind. "I'll bring Rhett out of his stupor. Watch me."