Chapter VIII

It was Gerald's headstrong and impetuous nature in her...

... That was all that kept Scarlett going through those next days as they awaited their passage to France. Introspection is a dangerous thing in those unprepared for it, and never had a person been more unprepared to have their faults exposed to them then Scarlett had been that day. Somehow, she had smiled her way through to the end of Eleanor Butler's visit, before retiring to bed immediately following her departure. Rhett had offered to accompany her, but she had demurred, claiming fatigue and spent the afternoon ensconced in the cool, calm bedroom, quite alone. She had emerged a determined woman.

The time alone had given her resolve time to strengthen. Rhett and Eleanor's words ran through her head until she was sure she could have recited them from memory and, with time had come understanding. Rhett's final words had heartened her, for he was not trying to change what she was, but instead enhancing that which made her unique.

When she emerged from their rooms, it was with the resolve to follow her husband's guidance and advice, while remaining as true to herself as could be. She found him in the sitting room, newspaper open, cigar in hand. Leaning down, she kissed him passionately, shrieking, as he pulled her down to seat her in his lap.

"Are you well?" He asked seriously, when he eventually pulled away.

"I am," she responded. "Next time, I'll let you rest with me."

"Not if you truly need to sleep," Rhett responded with a mocking smile. "Now... what shall we do this evening?"

Scarlett giggled, falling helplessly into his arms, for she knew exactly what he had in mind.

Two days later they were en route to France. To Scarlett, who had never been anywhere near a boat before, everything about life shipboard was exciting. In her husband she found a wealth of knowledge regarding all things seafaring and she listened attentively to all he shared with her. When she queried how he came by his knowledge, he had laughed.

"My darling, I forget how little time we have truly known one another," he chucked her chin affectionately. "I attended West Point with the intent of becoming a sea captain. I was expelled however, before I could realise that ambition."

"Expelled?" Scarlett gasped. "Whatever for?"

"Ungentlemanly conduct," Rhett laughed derisively. "Still, I learnt much in my time there, and I intend to put it to profitable use."

Like a child with a new plaything, Scarlett exhausted herself discovering the many nooks and crannies of the ship that first day, so much so, that as soon as dinner had finished, she had begged Rhett to retire to their chambers together, so that she might sleep. She was slumbering within moments of crawling in between the fine cotton covers, her mouth hanging open lightly, her breathing deep.

Rhett sat in the chair beside the bed, an open book in his lap, and a cigar lightly smoking in one hand. His attention however, was on his heavily sleeping wife.

In sleep, she looked younger, almost childlike. Her hair spilled down around her shoulders, her features smooth and relaxed, without any of the beguiling looks and coquettish airs that she normally wore during the day. Rhett had never been as aware as he was in that moment of the age disparity between them. Though, after the events of the last several days he had begin to think her more mature, and wiser, than he had previously given her credit for.

Rhett's brow furrowed in a rare frown, remembering the events of the day before. Scarlett's aunts had made their much anticipated visit and it had been the spectacle Rhett had been prepared for, and then some.

Eulalie and Pauline were exactly as Rhett remembered them from their past interactions. Haughty, judgmental women, who were more concerned with appearances and respectability than getting to know the nature of a person. He was sure that they must have some redeeming qualities, they were sisters to Mrs. O'Hara after all, of whom he had the highest of opinions and for his own mother's sake he was sure there must have been something in them to have managed to sustain such a relationship. Whatever that quality was, he had certainly not seen it upon their visit to the rooms he and Scarlett were sharing at the Charleston Hotel.

He had appeared every inch the besotted husband during their visit, dancing attendance on them and his wife, all the while they could barely make the merest overtures towards civility. Ill-mannered behaviour had never bothered him before, not when he was so easily able to outwit most he came across, but for Scarlett's sake, and their respective mothers, he was hard pressed to contain his anger.

Eventually, unable to maintain a civil tongue in his head, he excused himself to the balcony. Raising a fresh cigar to his lips he breathed deeply, enjoying the soothing and familiar scent of a genuine Cuban.

"What can you have been thinking?"

The exclamation from the sitting room surprised him, he hadn't been aware that the conversation between Scarlett and her aunt's would carry to his ears. Incensed, he made to re-enter the room, when his wife's cold reply stopped him in his tracks.

"I don't pretend to understand your meaning Aunt."

"Marrying that... that... man! Scarlett, how could you? How could our poor dear sister have allowed such a shame to come to the family? Don't you realize Niece, what this will do not only to your own social position, but to ours as well? But you can not possible realize, or you never should have. Dear niece, it pains me to be the one to acquaint you with it, but your husband, for all his blood being pure and as respectable as can be, he is a... a picaroon! His poor mother, what she has suffered! Niece you know not the match you have made!"

Usually Rhett would have laughed at such a description, for though it was exaggerated, it was, for the most part, a rather apt branding of him. For Scarlett's sake however, he was seething at the presumption of these two harridans. Resolved to interrupt, Rhett was once again pulled up short by the sound of his wife's voice.

"I should have believed better of my mother's sisters," her tones were arctic. "Then to believe such nonsense. To be more affected by idle gossip than by the word of a niece and a most beloved friend. My husband has treated you with every civility, which is more than I can say of your own behaviour this day! And surely you can see how well, how very well, he treats me. In short, Aunt's, in my marriage I have no cause to repine and that should be enough for you as my kinsfolk, to be more than satisfied with my situation."

From the balcony, Rhett's mouth had stretched to a large grin at being so championed by his own wife. To his surprise, Scarlett continued –

"I fully anticipate you writing to my mother with your own accounts of our meeting today but rest assured Aunt's, that my Mother will also hear from me on the subject! It pains me, to grieve her so, but the situation is not of my making." Her voice softened then. "Come Aunt Eulalie, Aunt Pauline, I am to leave tomorrow and do not know when we shall meet again, let us part as friends. I shall call my husband in now for us to make our farewells to you. I know you will behave as the example towards me you have always strived to be."

Rhett had burst into laughter at the last and had barely composed himself enough to respond to Scarlett's summons to rejoin them. As it was he had been unable to resist propping an arm about her waist and pressing a too-affectionate-for-company kiss upon her jaw line. Eulalie and Pauline had managed to keep their tongues civil as they made their goodbyes and as soon as the door had closed behind them, Rhett had spun his shrieking wife in a circle, kissing her soundly and affectionately, for he had thought her brilliant and her words in his defence had had a most profound impact on him.

Now, only two days later, as he sat watching his sleeping wife, he was no less impressed by her brilliant defence of him than he had been when it had first occurred. To his surprise, he began to wonder if perhaps he had underestimated the girl he'd married. She was naïve and untested, to be sure, but fiercely passionate and not just in matter's of the connubial variety, but in the protection of those she cared about. With a little education, a little exposure to the best of art and culture and society, he could not wait to see what would come out of her.

Rising from his chair, and stubbing out the very end of his cigar, Rhett knelt on the bed and lent across the form of his heavily sleeping wife.

"I am very glad I married you," he whispered to her sleeping form, brushing a kiss over her wild, dark hair.

Settling himself beside her and drawing her into his arms, Rhett smiled, surprised by just how satisfied he felt in that moment.

Paris awaited them.