Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

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

Chapter Fifty-One

Rhett said, "What brings you over here to inadvertently catch me in the act?"

Scarlett's face sobered and she said, "Really bad news."

"Go on."

"Ashley and Melly are moving back to Atlanta. They will be here before the end of the week."

"Why?"

"They said it was too expensive to live in New York."

"While it is more costly to live in New York, I don't think that is the reason."

"I don't either. They also claim they miss all their family and friends. Don't worry I'm not going to hire that incompetent doofus. My businesses are all making me a nice profit with little to no work on my part. Besides, I don't want to listen to him lecture me on the sins of using convict labor. Rhett, all the people who condemned me for using convict labor were former slave owners. What is the difference?"

"There is no difference. In fact, some people say it is slavery under another name."

Scarlett stared at Rhett while she absorbed his words, at last, she said, "Anyway, back to Ashley and Melly. I had to get your guidance. What are we going to do?"

Rhett smiled. It was not his guidance she wanted, but to reassure him that Wilkes was unimportant to her. He said, "My guidance on what?"

"On how we are going to handle Ashley."

"No, how we are going to handle Mr. and Mrs. Wilkes. She will try to pressure you into hiring him more than Wilkes will."

"True."

"You don't need to hire anyone because you have three fine managers."

"True."

"What do you need the profits from the sawmills for anyway?"

"Let me think. My aunts are living at Tara thus not a great expense. The Wilkeses are on their own. Aunt PittyPat could become on her own."

"You have no obligation to support Miss PittyPat."

"True. Tara. Although Will and Careen have Tara pretty well self-sufficient now. Probably the profits from the store would be enough to support Tara."

"True. You could sell the sawmills to Mr. Wilkes and be done with them."

"No, Ashley won't get his windfall for another three years. Remember, he didn't get it until after the miscarriage."

Scarlett stared at Rhett. Rhett utilized all his poker skills not to show anything. She couldn't ever know that he tricked her into selling her sawmills simply to separate her from Wilkes. She continued to stare at him. Finally, she said, "What was the point?"

Rhett for once showed a tell. He looked down then looked back up quickly. He said, "What was the point of what?"

"What was the point of tricking me into selling my sawmills?"

Rhett was going to employ rule #1 - Never admit a lie no matter how much evidence the person has against you.

"I didn't trick you into selling your sawmills."

"Stop it, Rhett! Do you want me to trust you? Then you can't revert back to the same tactics that failed you the first lifetime. I know you are lying. Why did you do that?"

Rhet sighed and stared over her shoulder. He wanted to hurl out a bunch of ugly, mocking comments to avoid actually having an honest conversation with her. He couldn't hurt her that way no matter how much she was hurting him. Yet, she wasn't trying to hurt him she was trying to get to the truth. She was trying to figure out why he had done the things he had done. She was trying to have a better relationship with him. He couldn't go back to the sorry relationship they had before. Not after he knew how truly good their relationship could be. Not when so much was on the line – a life of happiness with her.

Clarence materialized at the table. He said, "Don't worry she can't see me or hear me. I am here to help you squash down your pride. Your pride which is about to cause you to say something that will put you back to square one if not further behind than that. You don't want her to see you as weak, but if you truly love her then you will allow yourself to be seen as weak in front of her. Maybe only her but you have to be able to be weak in front of her to have a strong relationship. She's not asking you to do anything but be honest with her. Not really that much of your spouse to ask."

Rhett sighed, he said, "Thanks Buddy." Scarlett looked at him strangely. He continued, "The point of tricking you into selling your mills was to separate you from Mr. Wilkes."

"And?"

"That's it."

"I know there is more."

Rhett looked away. Clarence said, "Go on. Tell her whatever you are afraid to tell her."

Rhett turned back to her and said, "To make sure there were no more opportunities for you and Mr. Wilkes to ever be alone together."

"Rhett, nothing happened. He made me cry then he was comforting me."

Angrily Rhett said, "He made you cry! And he was the one that got to comfort you. I should have been comforting you."

"Would you have truly comforted me?! No, you would have mocked and made fun of me for crying over something that silly."

"What were you crying about?"

"It doesn't matter what I was crying about. No matter how serious it was you would have mocked me and made me feel lower than pond scum."

Rhett then said something that stunned Scarlett. At first, she had not understood what he was saying. He said, "I thought the sapphire cufflinks were beautiful. They were a perfect gift."

Once Scarlett thought she had heard him correctly she couldn't speak. Finally, she said, "Why did you mock them then?"

With a sad smile, Rhett said, "To hurt you. You had not shown any hurt because of my infidelity, so I had to hurt you for kicking me out of your bed." Rhett held up his hands. He said, "I know, Mr. Wilkes, influenced you, but you really just didn't want to have any more children."

"Rhett, remember I wanted to be that carefree belle that I was before the war. Belles don't have children.

With a chuckle, Rhett said, "I guess they don't."

Scarlett said, "The dead of Clayton County. He had been talking about the good old days. I hated talking about them. I still do. They were good days, but they are so sad now because we didn't know how good they truly were until after the war. Most of the boys he was talking about were dead. He was telling what he thought were funny memories, but they weren't happy or funny memories because almost all the people in the stories were dead or moved away. He was always looking back. I don't know how I tolerated that."

Sadly, Rhett said, "Because he saw you and treated you like the young, innocent belle you wanted to be. Not the hard, cold businesswoman who would use convict labor despite its awfulness because you made more money by using it."

"The woman who could look away from other people's suffering because of her need. Go on I know there is more."

"I think you can see too much now. This is pretty hypocritical of me," with a smile Rhett added, "but we both know I can be as hypocritical as everyone else. I didn't want to be the cuckolded husband."

"You are right that is pretty hypocritical of you after shaming me that way and making sure everyone in Atlanta knew about it."

Rhett opened his mouth to deny his actions then he just shut it. For once he was going to accept he was wrong.

After a few minutes of silence with Scarlett just staring at Rhett without expression, he said, "True. When I was blatantly whoring around the matrons knew you had done something to cause me to be unfaithful to you. They blamed you for my actions completely. They always did. Which in a way is insulting to me that they thought all of my actions were because of your actions. Like I didn't have a mind of my own." Scarlett stared at Rhett. He continued, "Remember, Belle told me all the gossip. Of course, now I don't know if what she had told me was true. As you said she could have been making it all up."

"We will never know, but it is believable that they would take anyone's side but mine. Why did you leave me and run away to Charleston?"

"Because I couldn't stand the looks of pity, I was getting from everyone."

"At least, you got them. Nobody gave me sympathy because of your activities even before you became the matrons' darling."

"As I have said before I don't understand why women hate you so much."

"I had all that free time, and I was still pretty sick, why didn't you try to spend time with me."

"I felt guilty every time I looked at you because I had almost killed you with my words. Also, because I no longer knew how to speak politely to you. The best I could do was not say anything. There was so much anger inside me at the situation that I was in. Most of the time anger was all that came out. I let Bonnie get away with disobeying you just to disrespect you."

"I know. We will have to do better this time."

"Yes, I will make sure Bonnie respects you."

Scarlett smiled. Rhett smiled back. Clarence said, "Good job."

As Scarlett and Rhett ate their sandwiches, she quizzed him about the political make-up of the land and the panic that would be coming in seventy-three. Rhett was a lot more knowledgeable about both, but Scarlett was not ignorant either. As they got up to leave the table, Scarlett said, "We just have to stay away from railroads and banks."

"I agree."

"Rhett, this was a major breakthrough for us."

"Yes, we actually talked about the issues. There was no name calling or mocking."

"True"

As Rhett walked Scarlett to her buggy several people saw them. He whispered in her ear, "It will be all over town that we were seen together at the National Hotel."

"I hope so."

The next evening when Rhett and Scarlett had been sitting on the porch avoiding PittyPat, Scarlett said, "Find me a buyer for the sawmills. Let's move to Boston."

"Are you sure you are ready to leave Atlanta? Are you sure you are ready to sell the sawmills?"

"Yes." Scarlett smiled and said, "I remember when we were in New Orleans you said I could use your money for anything, but to support my businesses because you didn't want to support Ashley."

"I did say that, but I don't think you can use what I said in another timeline against me."

"Yes, I can, and I will. Besides, you are happy to let me spend your money."

"I guess I am."

"We are moving to Boston."

Sourly, Rhett said, "Why Boston?"

"Because I liked the city, and my friend Cathy Calvert lives there."

"You have a friend."

"I did at one time. She was that girl on the staircase when you were ogling me at Twelve Oaks."

"If you are expecting me to remember what this woman looked like, you are sadly mistaken. Since the first day I met you, I have only had eyes for you."

Scarlett smiled at Rhett's statement, she said, "She married her Yankee overseer after the war was over."

"So as not to starve?"

"Yes, people of the county snubbed her for marrying a Yankee despite the fact she was starving."

"The silliness of Southerners."

"There are a lot of people who think that way. Once I get the sawmills sold, we can start making our plans to move."

"All right. Will you want to build a house in Boston?"

"No, we will buy my brownstone again."

"How can you live in that? It is so plain on the outside."

"Those are the rules. The owners can't change the outside. Every building has to look the same from the outside."

"You are going to be like everyone else?"

"While I was living in the brownstone, I was happy and content. I was part of the community. I want to share that with you."

Sourly, Rhett said, "Are you sure living in the same brownstone you shared with Mr. Green won't make you think of the man."

Scarlett looked at Rhett and in a very grave voice said, "Maybe. Those were happy times for me. At that time, I had so few happy memories except those from before the war. We are going to be even happier. I will have a lifetime of happy memories with you. You and the children."

"You didn't have happy memories of our time during the war?"

"A few and I had happy memories with you when I was married to Frank." Sadly, Scarlett added, "But thinking of you in anyway made me sad so I didn't think of you at all."

"I did the exact opposite. I spend all my time thinking about you and my mistakes."

"Luckily, we got this redo. Do you know how this happened?"

Rhett felt no guilt for lying to Scarlett at that moment. He could not let her know that he was so desperate to get her back that he had risked his soul in order to obtain that goal. He said, "Not a clue."

"I guess it will always remain a mystery."

"I guess. I am glad we got this chance though. Aren't you?"

"Yes."

The couple was quiet for a few minutes. Finally, Rhett said, "Can we just name her Bonnie Blue Butler?"

Scarlett laughed and said, "Why not that is what we are going to call her?"

Rhett left soon after that. He had to get away from Scarlett before she realized that he had lied to her. She was much better at reading him than she had been in their first timeline.