Disclaimer: I own nothing in regard to GWTW

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

Chapter Fifty-Five

Soon everything was cleaned up and Scarlett was eating her meal. Grace had been returned and was in Rhett's arms.

Scarlett heard a knock on the door, and she said to Rhett, "That is probably Faith. Would you take Grace to her?"

"Sure. Where is Faith going to sleep?"

"In the room across the hall. Your mother knows she needs to find Mammy a room in the servants' quarters."

"Alright."

Rhett opened the door and Faith was indeed on the other side. Scarlett said, "Faith, when you are finished nursing her, bring her back in here. Mr. Butler will be here. He wants to be the one to introduce Tommy to his sister."

Faith took the child and Rhett said, "Let me get the door for you."

"Thank you, Mr. Butler."

When Rhett was back in the room, he said, "You don't want to be there when the siblings meet."

"No, I don't want to make Tommy wait. I have to take a nap."

"Very well, my love."

"Put my tray out in the hallway. Come back in an hour and wake me up. If you don't, I won't be able to sleep tonight which means you won't get to go to sleep either. We can't play, so we would have to talk."

"I can play."

"You can play by yourself."

"I know. I do."

"Are all men as sexually active as you are?"

"How would I know? We don't sit around talking about it, but I would hazard to guess no. Of course, no other man is sleeping next to the incredible sexy Scarlett Butler. There may be a cause and effect there."

"Maybe." Scarlett yawned and laid down completely. She said, "One hour."

"Yes, Dear."

Rhett sat in the chair and watched his wife sleep. After about twenty minutes, Faith had returned with Grace. After Rhett took the baby from her, he looked at his daughter. She looked like a wrinkled old man also. Rhett went next door to introduce his children to each other. He entered the nursery and saw his son sitting on the floor. He said to Agnes, "Here is your latest charge."

"What is it?"

"Just a minute, I need to do this first. Tommy, come here. I want you to meet your sister." Tommy got up and walked to where his father was squatting down. He looked at his sister, but he didn't say anything. Rhett continued, "Her name is Grace."

"Grace."

"Yes."

"Alright."

Tommy turned around and went back to playing with his toys. Rhett shook his head and said to Agnes, "Is that normal?"

Agnes smiled and said, "Yes."

"Grace will be sleeping with Faith."

"Faith?"

"The wet nurse."

"Very good."

"Faith will help you with the children in the daytime."

"I don't need any help. I can handle two small children."

"Very well, but Faith will help you anyway. Does Tommy sleep through the night?"

"Mostly."

"I guess we need to wait until he is sleeping through the night before we move him into his own room."

"Mr. Butler, you need to wait until the new wears off around Grace. If you move Tommy out any time soon, he will think he is being replaced by Grace. He will start acting up."

"I hadn't thought about that. We will wait a while then." Rhett laid Grace down in the bassinet in the room. He continued, "I have to go wake my wife up or she will keep me awake all night long."

"Very good, Sir."

As Rhett was walking back to his room, he thought, 'And not in a good way.'

Over the next two weeks, everyone in the household interacted with Grace. Although everyone also made sure not to neglect Tommy. Everyone but Mammy. Mammy seemed to be perfectly happy to sit in her room and sew on clothes for Grace. The reason was that Mammy could not let herself get emotionally involved with Tommy and Grace. It hurt too much last time when she had to return to Tara and leave Tommy behind.

Ellen asked Mammy, "Do you want to stay and help take care of Grace?"

"No, Agnes is a fine nursemaid and Faith is pretty good now. I would just get in the way."

"That is true. You need to come back to Tara with me. I barely made it while you were living here taking care of Tommy."

Mammy smiled. Mammy knew that Miss Ellen had done just fine without her, but the words pleased her, nonetheless.

After two weeks, Ellen and Mammy were on the train to Jonesboro. Scarlett had prepared a box of food for their trip. She had even gotten up early to say goodbye in the foyer. Ellen said, "We will all be very excited to see the four of you this spring."

"Of course, Mother. Probably in April before it gets too hot."

"Of course. Now give me a hug."

Scarlett hugged her mother and her mammy, then took the box of food from Rhett. Rhett gave his mother-in-law a hug, but he didn't hug Mammy. Scarlett gave Mammy the box of food. She walked them to the door. They got into the carriage. Jimmy had already strapped the trunks to the top of the coach.

Scarlett turned to Rhett and said, "Let's go lay back down."

"Of course."

Scarlett and Rhett did lay back down. Rhett took care of his need while Scarlett kissed him the entire time. She absolutely refused to do anything else, and he was still afraid she would seriously hurt him if he tried to make her.

A little more than four weeks later on December twentieth, Scarlett got a telegram from her mother. Suellen was getting married as soon as it could be arranged. Did Scarlett and her family want to come to the wedding? If so, they would wait until Scarlett and her family got there.

Scarlett found Rhett and showed him the telegram. After he had read it, she said, "Mother didn't even say who she was marrying."

"No, she didn't."

"Why is she getting married so fast?"

"I would assume because she was compromised."

"Can we go?"

"You and I can."

"My family will want to see Tommy and Grace."

"Yes, and I would have to pay for not only Faith's ticket but a cabin. I don't want to spend that much money."

Scarlett whined, "Rhett."

"No, I also am pretty sure with everything else going on nobody will have time to pay attention to Tommy and Grace."

"Alright."

"Let me go down to the train station and check the schedule. Maybe there is a train leaving at night and we won't have to spend the night in Atlanta."

"But I wanted to see Melly's new baby."

"You will have to wait until April."

Scarlett had a frown on her face, but Rhett ignored it. He had a feeling the next several days would be like attending a three-ring circus. He kissed her even though she didn't kiss him back. He said, "You might as well start packing our trunk."

"Our trunk? We usually each take a trunk."

"We aren't staying any more than a week. We will leave the day after Christmas Day."

"We aren't going to spend Christmas Day with Tommy."

"He won't know any different. You want to spend Christmas with your parents, don't you?"

"Yes, can't we at least take Tommy?"

"No, it is going to be too hard of a trip for us, much less for a three-year-old."

"I'm not happy."

"I'm sorry you are unhappy, but this is the way it is going to be."

"Very well. Let me go find Simone to help me."

"Goodbye."

Scarlett didn't reply. She just left the room in search of her maid. Rhett followed her out the door.

Scarlett asked Benson, "Where is Simone?"

"I believe she is helping with the laundry."

"Thank you."

Scarlett didn't understand Rhett. He wanted all these children, but he was happy to leave them behind. It made no sense whatsoever.

By the time Rhett got back from the train station, most of his and Scarlett's clothing was packed. She had even packed his robe. Even though, he had yet to wear it. He found her in their room. He said, "There is a train leaving for Atlanta at nine o'clock. That will work out well. We can tell the children good night then board the train."

"Alright. Let us go send my mother a telegram."

The telegram said: Rhett and I on the train tonight STOP Arriving in Jonesboro by eleven STOP Who is she marrying STOP.

That afternoon Scarlett got a telegram from her mother. All it said was: Ashley STOP.

Rhett told his parents what was going on. He ended his explanation by saying, "Scarlett and I will have Christmas dinner with the O'Haras then return the next day.

Beth said, "You aren't taking your children?"

"No, it would be more trouble than it would be worth. I have a feeling nobody is going to have time to pay the children any attention."

Beth looked at Percy then said, "We will wait and have Christmas dinner after you two return."

"Thanks, Mother."

Percy said, "Be sure Scarlett brings some cranberries back with her."

Beth smiled at her husband and said, "Indeed, that is a nice addition to our meal." She turned back to her son and said, "Hopefully your sister-in-law's forced marriage will work out as well as yours did."

"I doubt it. Suellen is not a likeable person."

"That is sad."

"What is really sad, Mother, is how jealous she is of Scarlett. From what Scarlett says everyone was extremely excited when Suellen made it to her first birthday, and I have seen for myself how her parents adore her and dote on her. It just doesn't make any sense."

"I guess it is a mystery that will remain unsolved."

Gerald and Ellen were thinking much the same thing. They just knew that Suellen had compromised herself with Ashley just to get him to marry her when Scarlett couldn't get him to marry her. They had never understood why Suellen was so jealous of Scarlett. For reasons only known to God, Suellen was jealous of her older sister from the day she was born. They knew that Scarlett had not wanted a younger sister to steal their attention away from her, but she had been as happy as her parents when Suellen made it to her first birthday. In fact, until Suellen turned five Scarlett had been a great older sister. When Suellen had turned five was when she had started doing mean things to her older sister. At first mostly all Suellen had done was tattle tell on Scarlett then she had started destroying Scarlett's stuff. Scarlett had done what any person would have done. She started retaliating. Because Scarlett was five years older than Suellen her actions were much more painful than Suellen's.

There were many times that Ellen had to sit both girls down and give them a stern lecture. They knew that these last couple of years had been hard on Suellen with her not getting any gentlemen callers except Mr. Kennedy. They guessed Suellen turning sixteen had been the final straw. Fortunately, Ashley had done the right thing and asked her to marry him as soon as they were caught in that compromising situation.

As Rhett and Scarlett got into the sleeper, she said, "I have lost enough of my stomach to be able to wear my dresses without the additional panel."

"That is good. Do you think this is going to be a courthouse wedding or a big shindig?"

"I hope it is a courthouse wedding. I don't want anyone to see me in this shape. I don't know why I wanted to go. I don't even like either one of them."

Rhett smiled, "Two reasons. You are going to make your parents happy and so you can find out all the details from Cathy."

Scarlett smiled back at her husband. She said, "You are right. After the wedding, I will send Cathy a note asking her to call on me. I am certainly not going to Fair Hill where all the Tarletons can see me."

"Good idea."