Author's Note: Enjoy another chapter! I hope that you have a wonderful 4th of July Weekend, if you're in the US. (Well I hope that you have a good weekend, regardless of where you are...). Thank you for the reviews. I'm really enjoying writing this sassy, but controlled version of almost grown up Ella. I think she is often one of the least paid attention to characters, and she can be a fun one. She is after all the one of Scarlett's children that was basically never considered for the movie.

Disclaimer I own none of the characters and I am making no profit from this.

edited 6/22/23

Ella had arrived at breakfast to find Uncle Rhett already seated at the dining table nursing a cup of coffee and a plate full of food from the options spread on the buffet. Ella wondered how long he had been waiting for the residents of the house to join him.

"Good morning, Uncle Rhett" she said with a smile. "I hope that you slept well, and found everything to your liking.'

"Yes," it took the servants a while to ready my room, but it was nice being in my own bed again."

Ella was practiced at playing nicely and hostessing. It had taken time for mother to be accepted back into polite society, but eventually she slowly worked her way back in, and this of course allowed both Wade and Ella to associate with the proper people, The parties were much subdued to some of the ones she had been told about from when she was younger, but it didn't matter, as at least she was allowed to socialize. And there seemed to be a mostly favorable respect for mother when she took Beau in when Uncle Ashley was struggling. Beau really was like a brother to both herself and Wade.She had to wonder what Uncle Ashley had been before the war, because he was nothing like his son. There was something about him that made her uncomfortable, and so she was relieved when a few years before, when Beau headed to Boston to attend Harvard Uncle Ashley had moved to New York City to work with a distant cousin at a bank. She missed seeing Beau, but she didn't miss Uncle Ashley.

"Did you notice how quickly Atlanta has grown? There are so many more people than there were when you left. Did you know that Atlanta has surpassed Savannah in population?" She exposed as she made her plate. "Did you try one of these muffins? I just adore the ones with blueberries. They are such an indulgence, but sometimes I can get mother to actually eat one."

She sat down at the table and one of the maids brought her a tea sweetened with honey. She never had grown to like the bitterness of the coffee that mother seemed to rely on.

Rhett began telling her of his travels, and Ella eagerly asked about the places that she had only read about in books. She was enthralled to learn more about them. "You know, I really should take both you and Wade on a Grand Tour, perhaps not to the extent that they did before the war, but I want you to be a cultured young lady."

Of course this would be the moment mother would arrive to eat. It had been pleasant, if trivial conversation, but having entered only as Uncle Rhett mentioned taking her away with him, Mother's face turned red, in the way that she only got when she was furious. And clearly Ella understood that mother would be furious at this out of the blue offer to take Ella out of the country. Ella was impressed that mother only glared silently at her absentee husband instead of starting a screaming match. Ella wasn't going to hold her breath that it wouldn't eventually happen. Mother after all had her limits of patience, and even the mention of Uncle Rhett at times was enough to set her off. WIth his actual presence, the level of volatility was at an all time high. Ella just hoped that she would not be in the room when the explosion happened.

Something must have come over mother in the night, because when she sat down at the dining table, it was as though they were starting completely over. Her eyes were glinting, hard and cold, as she glared at Rhett across the table through her lashes. Even if she'd allowed him back, since after all it was still his home, she clearly did not believe that all was well.

"Good morning, Scarlett. You are looking lovely today." Rhett offered, though it was clearly false flattery, because there were dark circles under mother's eyes. She looked exhausted, and Ella wondered if she had slept at all.

She glanced at him, and then returned her focus to the roll she was buttering with a little too much aggressiveness. The roll was the solitary item on her plate, along with a cup of black coffee with no sugar or cream. That alone was enough to warn Ella that mother was not having a good morning.

"Has the roll offended you or wronged you?" he teased as she slashed at it with her knife, causing her to glance down at it.

"It's fine." she returned. She picked up a spoon and stirred at her coffee, which was pointless as Ella knew there was nothing in the cup that needed to be mixed into the ebony liquid. The room was silent as Scarlett continued to stir the cup, just the smallest clinking at the spoon met the china sides

Finally she looked up at Rhett. "I'll grant you the divorce. I should have given it to you years ago." She had gathered her courage and was facing him like a soldier at battle. "You can have the house, and I've deposited all of the money that you've sent since you left in a separate account at the bank. The children and I will move into Aunt PittyPat's old house, now that she's gone. This house is too large for just me anyway. Ella will be marrying soon, I'm certain, and Wade has already left for Harvard. He'll be home for a visit sometime soon, and we can pack up and leave. I can't revisit those years. I can't look back anymore." She clenched a fist around the handle of her cups and quickly bolted the contents. "I'll see you later, Ella."

She rose from the table leaving the mangled mess of a roll still on the plate, and slipping away before Rhett in his surprised state even had the time to react.

He seemed dumbfounded by the turn of mother's attitude towards him. "Ella, where do you think she is going?" he quizzed.

Ella glanced up from the plate in front of her. "I can't pretend to know. I cannot keep track of mother's whereabouts. And even if I did, I probably shouldn't tell you. I don't believe that mother wants you to find her. And if you corner mother, it only makes her angrier. It's best to leave her alone for a bit." She delicately pulled another bite to her lips, and took the moment to gather her thoughts.

"Has she gone to see your Uncle Ashley?" Rhett asked.

"I don't believe that she has, as she didn't pack a trunk for the trip." Ella offered, squirming slightly in her seat, suddenly petrified that she had let too much information slip out. Defensively she quizzed, "Do you really have no idea what has gone on since you left? I assumed that you at least had people watching out for us, but I was wrong, wasn't I. You really didn't care at all." she surmised with disgust curling at her lips.

"I asked Uncle Henry to watch over you, but he only gave me the briefest information. And I did care about you…"

She interrupted, something that she would never have dreamed of doing in a million years before. "Maybe you cared a little, but not like a father, nothing like a parent, at least not a fit parent. Mother stayed and you didn't even know anything that happened here. You didn't know that Aunt PittyPat died last year, did you? That was why you didn't bother sending your condolences or flowers or something, or did you just not care, after all, she was just a means to the ends of trying to capture mother's attention."

He was furious. She could see it. He was trying to rein it in, but his jaw was taut when he finally responded. "I did care about that silly old woman. She drove me crazy, but she was kind. I was traveling. I've traveled a great deal over the last few years, and your Uncle Henry stopped sending me updates. I received something telling me that his practice was being transitioned to someone else, but that person didn't know or didn't have any desire to update me on your lives."

"Then perhaps you should have taken the time to travel and see the children you once claimed as your own instead of going off God knows where." She snapped.

He was staring at her curiously, "you are so much like your mother at your age, but I think that you are more aware of the world outside of pretty frocks, beaus, and fashion. I'm a little shocked at how much you remind me of her."

"Uncle Rhett, why are you here?" Ella exclaimed in frustration. "Things were finally calm and peaceful, and then you had to come and butt in on things when you couldn't be bothered to be here when we actually needed you, when mother was ill, when money was short…"

"When was your mother ill?" Rhett quickly retorted. "Why was money short, I sent generous sums each month."

"Money doesn't fix things, and why does it matter? She's doing well now; we're all fine now, without you." she added pointedly. "And if you wanted to know about her illness, then perhaps you should have been here to take care of her instead of wherever on God's green earth you went off to… I even tried to contact you through your mother, but no one responded. We were scared that she wasn't going to make it, but mother is so strong, and she pulled through, and yet again, you failed to be there when we really needed you. Wade really has been more of a father to me than you have been, and that is rather sad, as he is only barely a man now." Then she uttered something that turned Rhett's stomach, " Uncle Ashley has been there more for me than you have." Ella sat her napkin down on a still full plate of food. "I'm terribly sorry, Uncle Rhett, but I think I've said too much, and I really don't want my temper to get the best of me. I've been raised better than to speak to my elders like this. I do apologize."

"Ella, i really did come to make amends. You are the only family that I have left. I need to settle things and make them right." Rhett offered contritely. Ella wondered if he'd assumed things would be easy to mend after a decade's absence.

"Perhaps, some things that are broken are best swept into the trash heap and burned." She said in an airy voice that was juxtaposed with those sinister words. "Unless you've just come to say your farewells, I don't know that you'll find what you're looking for here. It has been so long that I don't think you'd even have recognized us on the street, if you passed us. " she added. "If you'll excuse me, I have some errands to run for mother. She is too busy at the store, and sometimes, it is helpful for me to take care of something for her, before I go help at the store." She turned and started toward the door.

"Do you work for your mother at the store, Ella?" Rhett quickly tried to keep the conversation going.

"Well of course, it is my inheritance, after all. Wade will take over the things that his father left him, and I will take over what my father left for me. But Uncle Rhett, I really must be going. Please make yourself at home," she chuckled softly, "I guess I shouldn't have to tell you that, but it has been so many years after all." And with a wave she disappeared, leaving Rhett to ponder why it had taken him so long to return. And he began to doubt if he could ever mend the fences that he had once destroyed.