Disclaimer: I own nothing in regard to GWTW
Author's Notes: Thank you for all the reviews and feedback.
Chapter One Hundred and Twelve
One night after Scarlett heard a cannonball make contact with a building nearby as she and Rhett were sitting in the family parlor with Tom and Grace, she said, "Let us not redecorate your parents' room. The girls are too young to care, and this house might be destroyed by those cannonballs."
As Rhett looked at his children's stricken faces, he pointedly said, "Scarlett, what poppycock you speak. This house is not going to get hit. We are safe here."
With Rhett's use of the word poppycock Scarlett knew that her words had frightened her children. She had spoken without thinking. She smiled reassuringly at Tom and Grace. She said, "Of course, how foolish I am being."
Their parents' words had not fooled either child. They were old enough to realize the danger they were in. They just didn't want to hear it. Especially not from Mama and Dad.
Rhett said, "I agree though. Let's not decorate the girls' new room. Let's wait until they are old enough to give us their opinion."
Grace said, "Daddy, when am I going to get my own room."
Scarlett said, "I thought you like sleeping with Jude."
"I do, but I am almost ten, so it is time I slept alone."
Rhett burst out laughing and said, "You are not almost ten. You are nine and two months."
Scarlett smiled and said, "If you want a room of your own, you can have one, but the only rooms available are rooms down the hall."
Rhett said with a smile, "The room next door to what is going to be the girls' room is available."
"I will take that one."
"Alright. Now that we aren't going to redecorate that room. I will get Mike and John to move the furniture tomorrow."
"Inez and Agnes can sleep in the room with Jude."
"No, Agnes can be in with the girls and Inez can be with Jude."
Grace had a stunned look on her face. Rhett had been right. Grace had planned on sleeping with the triplets. She felt she had to protect them. Rhett said, "Grace, they are going to be alright. You don't have to watch over them day and night."
"But, Daddy, what if one of them cries out and nobody hears her."
"Agnes will hear her."
Scarlett said, "Baby, has Charity still been calling out to you in the night?"
"Not for a long time."
"Grace, I am proud of you for taking your role as a big sister so seriously, but they are healthy babies. They will be fine. You just need to sleep through the night, so you grow up to be big and strong."
"I don't want to be big. I want to look just like you."
"You will look like me in the face, but you will be taller than me. You take after your father in that regard."
"I will stay in the room with Jude."
"As you wish, Dear."
Tom said, "Who do I look like? Grace looks like Mama, Jude looks like Dad, the girls look like Mama and Dad, but I don't look like anybody else in the family."
Rhett said, "We don't know. Some distant relative. Now it is time for you two to retire. Give your mother and me hugs."
Tom and Grace hugged their parents and left the parlor. After Scarlett was sure they were gone she said, "Poppycock?"
Rhett smiled and said, "It got your attention didn't it."
Scarlett smiled back and said, "Indeed it did my love."
When Faith, Hope, and Charity were moved into a room of their own, Percy was moved into the room next to Rosemary and Harrison. The room that had once been Mabel's. Rhett moved Inez and Jude in that room also.
Grace got her own room. She was almost ten. It was time she slept alone. She got the room that was decorated with her in mind.
By the time Faith, Hope, and Charity were six months old their eyes had turned brown. Scarlett said, "I guess I will be the only person with green eyes in the household."
"Indeed, my love."
The girls were beginning to become individuals. They were showing different personalities. Faith was shy, Hope was bold, and Charity was somewhere in between. They loved spending time with their siblings, but especially Jude. Percy was in the mix and none of the adults knew if the triplets thought of Percy as a brother, a cousin, or another litter mate. All the adults did know was that Faith, Hope, Charity, Percy, and Jude loved being together.
Soon it was spring, and the fighting started again. The bombardment of Charleston never ended. In June the inhabitants read where union forces led by General Sherman were in Georgia and heading toward Atlanta. Everyone knew that Atlanta could not be taken. It was a major railroad junction.
The free soup days continued. There were more people showing up and less people bringing vegetables. Rhett kept having them anyway. He knew that Scarlett and Nancy were having to be creative about the meals because there was so little food to buy at the market.
As dire as the conditions were getting in Charleston and Rhett assumed everywhere in the South, he had started hoping the North would hurry up and win.
It was in July that Eulalie and Pauline showed up at the free soup. They had their bowls and their spoons. The old women had nothing. They had lost their husbands and their children. They had moved in together to save money. Their future was dim indeed. Even if the Confederacy somehow won the war. They had already lost everything.
Ellen greeted them like the fine lady she was. She went and got Bonnie so the older women could see how much the little girl had grown.
Scarlett and Rhett always attended the free soup giveaways. They took all of their children with them. Ever since Faith, Hope, and Charity had turned six-months they had gotten to go also. Agnes went with them also. Mainly to watch the triplets. Agnes' main job was to make sure nobody got too close to the girls. They did not dress them alike, but it was plain to see that they were identical triplets. Actually, Scarlett had dressed them in dresses made from the same pattern. She had even put ribbons in their hair although it wasn't long at all until all three girls had pulled the ribbon from their hair. She had patiently put the ribbon back in each little girl's hair time after time until, Rhett said, "They aren't going to leave them in. Forget it." With his words Scarlett had tied the ribbons around their ankles instead.
There was a lot of staring at the girls. Rhett so many times wanted to shout at the other people to stop staring at his daughters, but he had a feeling they were going to be stared at any time they went out in public.
While Rhett stood next to the girls' baby buggy, Scarlett would visit with all the people eating soup. Harrison had created a baby buggy for the triplets. It was not like most baby buggies, but instead more resembled a horse drawn buggy. It had three seats and straps to keep the girls in. It also had three wheels. Harrison had thought that was a nice touch. So did Scarlett. Rhett was more impressed about the possibilities of selling buggies like it after the war was over.
Despite it having been over fourteen years, Scarlett still didn't speak to Eulalie. Scarlett had not lied to her mother-in-law that day so long ago. She would never forgive her aunt for not keeping her mouth shut. Yes, Rhett was a wonderful man, but he very easily could have been a man as awful as Henry Potter.
Ellen pointed out all of Scarlett's children. When the older women came over to get a better look at Faith, Hope, and Charity. Rhett didn't say a word when Agnes told the women they were standing too close to the girls.
Pauline said, "We aren't going to hurt them."
Rhett said, "We don't know how diseases are transmitted therefore you might hurt them by getting them sick. They have already suffered through a cold. We don't need them getting sick again. Step back."
Although Eulalie and Pauline were offended, neither Rhett nor Ellen cared. Ellen had listened to Stephen talk about diseases at the supper table. Rhett was right. Nobody knew how diseases were transmitted.
Upon the bombardment of Atlanta, Sarah Jane Hamilton, Uncle Peter, and Cookie boarded the train to Macon. With her departure, Aunt PittyPat left Melanie, Matty, and Jon alone in Hamilton House. Melanie and Jon started going with Matty to the bookstore every day. Melanie knew she was needed at the hospital, but it was not safe. Besides, she had no one to leave her son with while she was at the hospital.
At the end of July, the mayor of Atlanta called out the Home Guard. Matty, although a member, didn't go out to fight. Henry Hamilton, Phil Meade, John Wilkes, and many more went out to fight. All they were was old men and young boys. They didn't stand a chance against war trained soldiers. Although Henry Hamilton survived the other two did not.
When Suellen, India, and Honey found out that John Wilkes had died, they abandoned the plantation and joined relatives in Macon. The slaves had already run off.
Suellen knew George's inheritance was gone, and she had to move on. She had to get to Charleston somehow. Once she got to Charleston, her parents would take care of everything.
While Rhett and Scarlett were concerned for the inhabitants of Atlanta, they were more excited that Faith, Hope, and Charity were about to turn one. They were all taking a few tentative steps, and everyone knew they would soon be running. The Butlers had a thirteenth birthday party for Tom with rabbit stew and a first birthday party for the triplets with ham and macaroni and cheese. While Tom got a few presents there just wasn't anything available to buy. The girls had not gotten any presents. They had everything they needed.
After a year, Tom had been pleased that his parents were still very much involved in his life. He suspected that his father loved his daughters more than his sons. Dad still loved his sons an awful lot, though.
On the first of August Scarlett had told Meg and Delta that the girls would be weaned on their birthday. Did they want Scarlett to try to find them jobs as wet nurses or did they want to remain in her employment, but just as maids. If they chose to remain, they would have to start living in the servants' quarters. Both women chose to become maids. Simply because they trusted Mrs. Butler to keep them fed.
On August thirty-first the Confederate army left Atlanta. On September first Sherman and his troops entered. Sherman did not want to deal with backlash from the townspeople therefore he evacuated the city.
Because of Sherman capturing the city of Atlanta morale was lifting in the North and people began to truly believe that they could win the war. With this belief, the men of the North re-elected Lincoln for a second term.
On November fifteenth General Sherman started his march to the sea. He said, "I am going to make Georgia howl." Sherman had destroyed anything of military value, not the least being the railroad lines leading in and out of the city. His troops had to live off the land. They took from the inhabitants anything they wanted. They burned all the cotton they found also. Sherman did something that had never been done before. He took the war to civilians.
Beth and Percy had returned to Plymouth and had started living their new life. They sold the house they had bought, but never lived in and bought a farm instead. It was not far from Plymouth. Robert and his family could visit every Sunday and they did.
Percy had enjoyed his time on the ocean, but he had increasingly been tired of the boredom of it all. He now wanted to go back to growing something. He was going to become a farmer. When he had made the suggestion to Beth, she had liked the idea of living in the country with weekly trips to a city.