Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

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

Chapter Forty-Five

March seventeenth was a cold day, but Scarlett was happy, nonetheless. It was her birthday. She kept wondering what Rhett was going to give to her as a present. He always gave the best gifts. She had to sit down to figure out how old she was with all the time leaping. She was just twenty-three years old, and she had already lived at least one lifetime, maybe two.

It was evening and Scarlett was waiting for Rhett to come by. He had not come to the store today, so she knew he would stop by the house tonight. She just knew it.

Around seven-thirty, Scarlett was beginning to give up hope when she saw Rhett ride up on a horse. He got off the horse and tied it to the hitching post. He took a package out of his saddle bag, and she smiled. When she knew he could hear her, she said, "When did you get a horse?"

"A couple of days ago. Since we are probably going to be living in Atlanta for another year, I decided to buy a horse. I was tired of walking."

Rhett handed her the present and said, "Happy Birthday."

"Thank you."

After Scarlett had opened the present, she was bewildered. It was a gold shawl similar to the gold shawl he had given her during the war. It had a beautiful parrot embroidered on the back. With a blush she remembered what happened to the first shawl. She had painstakingly picked all the embroidery out of it. She had cut it up as a gift for Ashley. She had made him a sash. A sash that she later learned he had lost within a month of him returning to his troops. She felt shame. Shame that she had so callously given his gift to another man. It was typical of her life then. She had been entirely focused on Ashley and had not spared Rhett or anyone else a thought. If she had thought about what she was doing at all she would have decided that Rhett would never know. He had known. She remembered him making comments about her gold shawl which she had ignored. Sadly, she had never wondered why he was making those comments. It had never occurred to her that he knew. That was her at that time. She had thought she was so clever he hadn't known what she had done.

"I'm sorry. That was pretty insensitive of me, but that was who I was then. How did you know?"

"I saw Mr. Wilkes on his way to the train station."

"You weren't in Atlanta then."

"Yes, I was."

"Ashley left for the train station early in the morning. Why were you out and about?

"I had just arrived in Atlanta. I had come to bring you a Christmas present."

"You never came to the house." With horror Scarlett said, "You got right back on the train to return to Charleston."

"Yes, after I saw Mr. Wilkes, I got back on the train swearing to never call on you again."

"I'm sorry, I did that. It was a beautiful shawl."

"Yes, it was. I had spent a lot of time picking it out."

"You never said anything. No, that's not right. You never confronted me about it. You couldn't. That would have revealed that your gifts were more important to you than just giving me pretty baubles."

"That is correct."

With a forced smile, Scarlett said, "I will certainly never give this shawl away to anyone or let anyone borrow it. If you see someone with it on, they took it without my permission."

Rhett smiled back with an equally forced smile and said, "Thank you. Let us change the subject."

"No, wait. How did you know what Ashley looked like? You had never met him."

"I had met him at the barbecue."

"That's right. And you remembered what he looked like all that time?"

"No. I drew some conclusions. There was a blond man who looked vaguely familiar with a confederate uniform on who was leaving Atlanta. This man had a brand-new gray jacket and a sash the same color as the shawl I had given to the woman I loved. The shawl I had spent a lot of time picking out."

Scarlett knew that it was hard for Rhett to ever admit that his feelings had been hurt therefore, he always pretended that they hadn't been. Because of him doing that he appeared to be hard and cold. She now knew he wasn't hard or cold. It was also why he pretended to be joking when he was revealing his inner feelings. She blushed and mumbled, "I'm sorry. Let's change the subject."

"Certainly. Did you not have a birthday supper?"

"We are going to have it Saturday. You are invited, of course."

"I will accept."

Rhett and Scarlett smiled at each other, and their smiles were much more relaxed and normal.

As the couple continued to sit on the porch, Scarlett decided to just ask. She said, "Tell me about your Scarlett substitute. Didn't you mention her before? Someone to pretend to be me."

"You just want be to tell you everything at one time, don't you?"

"I figure I have you talking I might find out all your secrets."

"It will take you a lifetime to learn all my secrets. Someone to pretend to be you? Yes, that was her role. She wasn't the first woman I had paid to play a role for me."

"Go on."

"After I left you the night Miss Melly died, I went to Charleston. I tried to get myself received back into Charleston society, but the gentry would have nothing to do with me. That is when I figured out that I had not been truly received back into Atlanta society. How could I be received after everything I had said and done during the war? No, they pretended to accept me for my money and to get to watch me humble myself day after day.

Those three years that I humbled myself to be received by Atlanta society were the hardest of my life. I didn't do all that for Bonnie. Hypocrite that I am I wanted to be received back into proper society. My attitude towards the gentry was a case of sour grapes."

At Scarlett's puzzled face, he said, "Sour grapes is a reference to an Aesop's fable. I will buy you the book so you will understand my off handed comments."

"That would be nice."

"Not all of them, of course."

"Any of them would be nice."

With a smile Rhett said, "I guess it would be."

With a puzzled look on Scarlett's face, she said, "You think that was why the matrons received you? To watch you humble yourself."

"Yes, sort of. That was the bonus. I have had ten years to think about everything. As much as Bonnie looked like you, her looks alone would have soured the matrons on her. I decided that they were waiting until Bonnie turned fourteen then she would not have gotten the coveted invitation to the debutante ball."

"That is almost automatic for any young girl of quality."

"Yes, after thirteen years of watching me humble myself the matrons would have gotten the final word. The final rejection of you and me."

"Rhett, that would have hurt Bonnie so much."

"And you and me also. Actually, they would have hurt us twice. The pain of our daughter being rejected and watching our daughter suffer through the pain."

"Yes."

Rhett and Scarlett were quiet for a while. Both of them were thinking of Rhett supposedly being received and the matrons' final rejection.

The mood had gotten extremely morose. Both people were thinking of how devastated their little girl would have been to be rejected like that. The really sad part was they weren't rejecting Bonnie Butler. They were rejecting Rhett and Scarlett Butler's daughter.

At last, Scarlett said, "If you knew you weren't going to be received in Charleston why did you go to the opera and the museums with a proper woman, no less. Who was that woman anyway? Neither Aunt Eulalie nor Aunt Pauline knew her."

Rhett smiled and said, "I like the opera and I like museums. I didn't want to go alone. She was an actress I hired to play a role for me. The role of my companion."

"What?"

"She was a smoke screen. Rest assured she was well compensated. At the time I wanted you to think I was truly over you. I knew one of your aunts would tell you all about my activities."

"It worked. I thought you no longer cared. It is one of the reasons I signed the divorce papers."

Rhett smiled and said, "Hoisted with my own petard." At Scarlett's blank face, he added, "It is from the play Hamlet. It means to be taken down by my own plan."

Scarlett still didn't understand what Rhett was talking about, but she was afraid he would tell her all about the play therefore she simply said, "All right. Patrick reminded me a lot of you. He wasn't as smart as you, or as good looking as you, or as rich as you, but he was witty and funny like you."

"And he made you feel safe."

"Yes, first time since that night in August that we escaped Atlanta."

"I definitely didn't make you feel safe, but I am working on that."

"You have come a long way since you helped me with Careen."

"What about extending your loan?"

"That was genuinely nice of you, but giving your money is easy for you. Although you being willing to sell your half of that brothel has gone a long way to making me trust you."

"I sold it to Belle."

"Did you give her a bargain?"

"No, but I did give her time to get the money together. I think she borrow some from one of her Yankee customers."

"As long as it wasn't you."

"You are the only person I make personal loans to."

Scarlett preened and said, "How is it going?"

"I don't know. I haven't been in the establishment since I told Belle I was selling my half of the saloon."

"Was she mad?"

"I don't think so. As I said I was just a source of money. Now Mr. Sawyer will be her source of money. I must go, it has already been thirty minutes. Thirty minutes seems to be the magic time that I can stay without your neighbors gossiping even more about us."

"If you don't see Belle anymore, how do you know the gossip?

Rhett stood up and pulled Scarlett up with him. He briefly kissed her then said, "Men are worse gossips than women. I learn everything. Either they out and out tell me, or they tease me about something. Either way I hear all."

Scarlett kissed Rhett briefly again and said, "Good. It is nice that one of us hears the gossip."

As Rhett walked down the steps, he said, "If I hear anything that affects you, I will tell you."

"Good night, my love."

"Good night, Sweetheart."

Rhett walked to his horse and rode away. He was thinking that things were going good for him and Scarlett.

That night in Rhett's hotel room, Clarence told him, "While you were talking to Scarlett, I saw Peggy there."

"Peggy?"

"Peggy, is Scarlett's demon."

"What was she doing there?"

"Her job is to make Scarlett's life miserable. Maybe she was checking to make sure Scarlett was still miserable."

"I'm sure Peggy saw that Scarlett isn't miserable."

"You have to be on the alert for what mischief Peggy brings about."

"Will she tell Marvin?"

"Probably not, she will think she can handle it herself. Besides, she doesn't like Marvin. Besides that, she doesn't care if you are miserable or not. Her assignment is Scarlett, so that is the only human about whom she is concerned. If she makes other humans miserable so much the better, but Scarlett is the main human about whom she is concerned.

"He doesn't like her either."

"One thing I need to make sure you know. Neither the demons nor us angels can make a human do anything."

"The whole free will thing."

"Yes, but both groups can make suggestions to a human. If the suggestion finds fertile soil, then the speaker has been successful. Like Marvin suggesting to you that the best way to hurt Scarlett would be to have relations with Belle. He didn't make you do it, but once the thought was in your head you did it."

"Was it Marvin's suggestion I let everyone know I had done that?"

"No, that was all you. Although it was Marvin's suggestion that you offer Scarlett a divorce right away. That was cruel."

Rhett sighed. He said, "Yes, it was. How do you know so much about them?"

"We have sources. They have sources. Our sources are better than theirs because their workers are easier to coerce into telling us something."

"Do you mean bribe?"

With an embarrassed expression, Clarence said, "Yes."

With Clarence's admission Rhett let the subject drop. For once Rhett cared about another being's discomfort.

Rhett said, "With that news, I am going to go to The Bluebird of Happiness and have a drink."

"What about your liver?"

"My liver is fine. I am not drinking a tenth of the alcohol I drank the first time."

"All right, let's go."