Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW
Author's Notes: Thank you for all the reviews and feedback.
Chapter Eighteen
Rhett saw his father come out of the townhouse. He pushed all his negative thoughts away. He had to almost come across as humble if he was going to get his father to talk to him, much less resolve their differences.
Rhett joined his father and matched his steps with the older man. Langston gave him a quick look then stared straight ahead. He neither spoke nor acknowledged Rhett in any way.
Rhett said, "You need to make peace with your maker. You will be dead before the end of the month."
Langston ignored him but continued to allow Rhett to walk beside him. The older man didn't walk any faster or any slower. His pace had remained the same.
Rhett said, "I would like to make peace with you before you die of a heart attack. I think the exact date is the twenty-fourth. You won't have to suffer in our world any longer."
While still facing forward Langston said, "What, are you Nostradamus now? You can now see into the future. If you can see into the future, when is your mother going to die?"
"I don't know. When I returned in time, she was still very much alive."
Of all the things that Langston Butler would have imagined his eldest son saying, that last statement was not one of them. It shocked Langston. He stopped and turned towards his son and said, "Are you crazy? A person can't return in time."
"I would have said the same thing six months ago, but I have."
"Why would anyone return you in time? It is not like you are a good person. In fact, you are a pretty immoral person. Did you really steal the Confederate gold?"
"I got part of it. I was supposed to purchase supplies with it. I had a challenging time getting out of the Confederacy, therefore before I bought the supplies, I checked with my fellow blockade runners, and we all agreed – There would be no getting back into the Confederacy. We all agreed to put the money in our savings accounts for safekeeping."
"Probably the truth is that you were afraid that one of those union cannon balls would take out your ship and you would die."
"I was concerned about that, of course. I do value my life. But if my ship had gone down all the goods would have been lost so all that money would have basically been thrown away."
"That is true. How much are you worth?"
"A million dollars but within four years I will have doubled that despite having spent a small fortune on an eyesore."
"What?"
"Never mind that. I know you believe in God. Therefore, you do not want to leave unresolved sins, do you?"
"I am not a sinner."
"Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
"Pray tell me what sin you think I have committed."
"The sin of not forgiving someone. Luke 6:37 Forgive and it shall be forgiven to you."
Langston burst out laughing. He said, "I think you are taking that out of context."
"It is part of the sermon on the plain. The verses before it are – judge not, and ye shall not be judged, condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned, forgive and ye shall be forgiven. It all fits together."
Langston smiled and said, "I should have sent you to law school. You would have earned a million in a legal manner. Say the words just to make me happy."
During Rhett's first timeline he would never have humbled himself and said the words, but things were different now. He could admit that he was wrong for not marrying Sarah Parker. As smart as he was, he could have figured a way to get out of staying married to the ninny.
Besides, Rhett had already humbled himself so much more just to be received by the Atlanta matrons. The Atlanta matrons that he had allowed to push the love of his life into the dirt. It doesn't get any lower than that. He said, "Father, please forgive me and take me back in."
Langston said, "Alright, Rhett. I don't know why I am saying this, but I will let you interact with your family until the end of the month. If I am not dead by then, you are out the door again."
"Alright."
"If I am dead, you will be here to take care of Elizabeth and Rosemary. Robert will be fine on his own, especially if he doesn't have the responsibility of his mother and sister. Let's go to the market and you can buy us at least dinner and supper."
"Very well, Sir."
As they walked along, Langston said, "How did you know all those bible verses?"
"I have an excellent memory. I can remember almost everything that I have ever read. My tutor made me read the bible."
"Yes, I remember that time in our lives. We did have some passionate discussions."
"Passionate discussions! You sent me to my room without the rest of my supper on more than one occasion."
"Yes, I did. And your mother would bring you your supper plate. She was so afraid you would starve." Langston's face took on a disgusted look. He continued, "How ridiculous that you would starve to death after having missed half of a meal."
"I was hungry."
Langston laughed and said, "I'm sure you were but you weren't starving."
"No, I wasn't. I now know what starvation is like. I served in the Confederate army for nine months at the end of the war."
"You are lucky you didn't get killed."
"Because of being a West Pointer, I was immediately moved to the artillery. That is what probably saved my life."
"Probably." Langston and Rhett had stopped walking. They were at the open market. Langston said, "Let's go buy some food. My prodigal son has come home. Luke 15:32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. I changed brother to son. We will rejoice. There has been enough suffering."
After Rhett and Langston had bought enough groceries for several days, they walked back to the townhouse. As Langston opened the door, he said, "I will allow you in my home, but I will still not speak to you in front of anyone from the gentry."
Rhett laughed. He said, "Of course not."
The next Sunday, Scarlett asked Frank to drive her down to Tara. She needed to talk to Sue about a few things. Frank didn't want to face Suellen, so he said no. Therefore, Scarlett had Big Sam drive her and Wade down to Tara.
After Scarlett, Wade, and Big Sam got to Tara, the man said, "Do you need me until it is time to go back to Atlanta?"
"No, go on and visit with the other freedman."
As Scarlett and Wade walked into the house, they were greeted by Melly. The women hugged. Melly hugged Wade while Scarlett took off her hat. She left the hat in the foyer. There in the parlor were her two aunts. Aunt Pauline said, "Scarlett, you need to talk to Suellen. We are having to sleep in the formal parlor in front of everyone."
Scarlett sat down on the sofa and pulled Wade up with her. She said, "All the bedrooms are taken. If someone moves out, then I will talk to Sue about changing your room."
"Nobody is using your room."
"And nobody else will. It is my room and always will be whether I am here or not."
The aunts showed their displeasure by leaving the room.
Melanie and Scarlett talked for a few minutes about their lives and Scarlett talked about what was happening in Atlanta. Melanie asked, "Have you seen Captain Butler?"
"Yes, he came by after he got out of the Fire House. He loaned me the money to buy my mill."
"Why didn't you ask him to loan you the money for the taxes?"
"I was going to but on the train, I realized that Rhett would not be able to leave the Fire House to go to the bank in order to access his money."
"That's true."
Because Scarlett didn't want to talk about Rhett anymore, she asked, "How is Ashley doing?"
"He is doing fine. Still recovering from having been in a prisoner of war camp."
"That would be something difficult to recover from. Do you know where Suellen is?"
"Probably in the kitchen supervising the preparation of dinner."
Scarlett almost laughed. Suellen wasn't supervising anything. She and Careen were probably the ones actually preparing dinner. Scarlett stood up and said, "Will you watch Wade while I go talk to her?"
"Alright." Melly said to Wade, "Let's go find Beau. I think he is in the nursery."
Melanie wasn't proud of what Scarlett had done to get the three hundred dollars to save Tara, but she had managed to save Tara. Them being able to stay at Tara where truly little was expected of Ashley was giving the man time to heal from the wounds the war had inflicted upon him. And she guessed the knowledge that he would never be able to have relations again. That was so important to men.
Scarlett walked into the kitchen. As she had expected, it was Careen and Suellen getting dinner together. There was another woman there. The woman was Liberty. Liberty and Big Sam had become husband and wife in the last timeline. She had not been around for most of their romance. Big Sam had only come to Tara after the raid. Some sixth sense that Scarlett was relying on during her time in this alternate world, told her that Liberty and Big Sam had been friends for a long time.
Scarlett said, "Hello."
Careen smiled and Suellen frowned.
Careen said, "Welcome home."
At the same time Suellen said, "Did you bring your husband with you?"
Scarlett said, "Thank you. It is good to be home if only for a little while. No, I left my husband in Atlanta. He is ashamed to face you because he betrayed you and married another woman. Suellen, you don't need to be concerned for my safety, though. Big Sam drove me down."
"He wouldn't have betrayed me if you hadn't tempted him. And I'm not concerned for your safety."
"Love you, too, Sister." When Suellen started to speak, Scarlett held up her hand. She said, "We will never know. He was a means to an end. Getting three hundred dollars to save Tara. Enough of that."
"How can you dismiss what you did without a care?"
"I did it. It is over. We need to move on. I want to talk to you." As Scarlett and Suellen had been talking, Liberty had snuck out of the kitchen. Scarlett thought, 'Indeed, there is a romance there.' She said to Suellen, "I have heard that you are trying to get Pa to sign the unionist oath."
"I am not."
"I know you are. I got it from an exceptionally reliable source."
"Melanie told you. How did she find out?"
"I will protect my source. Suellen, this is not going to end well. Once the other people in the county find out that Pa has signed that oath, they will shun us. I know what it is like to be shunned, it is not an easy road to walk by oneself."
"Scarlett, it is five thousand dollars. If we had that money last fall you would not have had to marry Frank for three hundred dollars."
"Sue, listen to me. This is not going to end well. You have never been ostracized. It is hard to live with."
"Thank you for your advice. I will take it under consideration. Now, go away. I need to finish fixing dinner."
"Just don't mention the Slatterys. Goodbye, Careen."
Scarlett went in search of her father. She knew that Suellen was going to try to talk Pa into signing the oath even stronger now. Now that Scarlett had told her not to do it. At last, Scarlett found her father. She said, "Let's walk to the bend in the road and look at Tara until dinner is ready."
Scarlett spent the next twenty minutes letting her father tell her about his life in Ireland. She said, "Let's go get dinner."
"Where is Mrs. O'Hara? I don't want her to miss dinner."
"She is nursing one of the Macintosh children. She will be home soon. Mammy will save her a plate of food."
Scarlett talked to everyone, even her aunts although all they did was complain to her about Suellen's treatment of them. She looked at Ashley and smiled. How could she not have seen he was a man barely standing. Maybe when he is in New York he can pretend that Twelve Oaks is still a fine plantation. That everything still has a perfection to it like a Grecian urn.
Scarlett looked at Ashley again. She did see it but she as a child didn't understand what Ashley's posture and demeanor meant. She thought he would get well. If she had been thinking like an adult, she would have realized that he wasn't going to get any better. He wasn't her problem. He was Melly's problem. Scarlett was sure that Melly could see Ashley was not doing well, but Melly would lie to herself and tell herself that he would someday get better.
