Disclaimer: I own nothing in regard to GWTW

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

Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen.

The family was still giving away free soup every Saturday and Wednesday, but Ellen was in charge of it now. The only thing that Scarlett contributed was the chicken and soon not even that. The number of chickens she had kept getting smaller and smaller. It would be easy enough now to buy a chicken for supper at the market. They could buy eggs there also.

Dilcey and Prissy were in charge of making the hard tack. People still brought old vegetables. It always made people feel better to be able to contribute something. The lines were not as long as they were during the war, but it was clear to see that there was still a need for the free soup days.

Scarlett and Rhett announced at the Sunday dinner that they would be moving to Columbia so Rhett could help with the new Republican government. Rhett said, "We will probably live there for several years, but we are not selling the townhouse because we plan to return to Charleston."

Rosemary said, "What staff will you be taking?"

"Inez and Agnes for sure."

"Will you leave Benson and Nancy? It would be difficult for me to manage the house with all my clinic duties."

Scarlett said, "Yes, I don't think they would want to move with us anyway. We will take Mike, Molly, Delta, and Meg. Maybe one of them can cook."

Rhett said, "That would leave John, Clara, Jezebel, and Athaliah. Jezebel can take care of Percy and Athaliah can dust and clean."

"Nancy would kill us if we took Clara with us."

"Then she has to stay. We can't take the chance of being murdered in our beds."

Rhett smiled when he remembered that when he had briefly been afraid of one of their servants killing them. Or Jezebel poisoning Scarlett. No, he trusted them with his life. Well, maybe not completely, but he never locked his door at night.

Ellen said, "When are you going to be moving?"

Rhett said, "As soon as we can get a tutor hired. Harrison has to stay here with his wife, Percy, and his business. I shall start working on it tomorrow."

Rhett contacted the employment agency, Select Staff. Mara Wilson was still there and still in business, although just barely. When she saw the note from Mr. Butler wanting her to send a man to tutor his son, she wanted to groan. She would never forget Mr. Butler or the elder Mrs. Butler. Mara wondered if the younger Mrs. Butler would be like to work with. Mara decided she would be just as bad as the other two Butlers.

Incredible to Mara, Mr. Butler was even more demanding of the man that would be his children's tutor than he had been of the woman that would be his children's nursemaid. No one she sent over was educated enough to tutor his children.

Finally, Mara said, "I have no one left to send to you."

Rhett replied, "I will have to check with another employment agency."

Over supper Rhett shared his dilemma with the family. Harrison said, "I know someone. We used to teach together at the college. Let see if I can get in touch with him."

"Sure. What is his name?"

"Jensen Ackles. I fixed him up with an arm."

"Great. Tell him to come to the townhouse and I will interview him."

"I'll have to find him."

A couple of days later Jensen was sitting in Rhett's office. The men talked for about thirty minutes. At last Rhett said, "I have one final question that you have to answer yes to for me to give you the job."

"Alright."

"I am moving my family to Columbia for a little while, can you move with us?"

"Of course. I have no family anymore. They all died while I was away."

"How have you been surviving?"

"Working as a stable boy."

"How did you afford an artificial arm?"

Jensen smiled and said, "I used my last hundred dollars. I knew I had to have two arms to get and keep a job."

"True. Go quit your job, get your clothes, get yourself a bath, and return to the townhouse." Rhett flipped Jensen a quarter and said, "I can faintly smell your former job on you. It is ever so faint, but my wife would find it unpleasant."

Jensen blushed and muttered, "Yes, Sir."

"For your information, you will be taking your meals with the family, but you will be sleeping in the servants' quarters."

Jensen stood up and extended his hand. He said, "Thank you, Mr. Butler."

Rhett shook the man's hand then said, "Let me show you the way out."

Rhett went in search of Scarlett. She was going to have to find Jensen a room. When he found her, he said "We need a room for Mr. Ackles."

"Who?"

"The new tutor."

"He is lucky. We have one room left. It was once Benson's room, so it is fairly large."

"Let's give it to Delta, Meg, and Jack. They need a bigger room with there being three of them."

"Of course, Dear. Not that it matters with our move to Columbia."

"True."

Later Rhett visited Harrison in his workshop. Rhett said, "Why did you sell Mr. Ackles an arm for one hundred dollars. I told you that if they can't afford the price, then they don't get a Ford arm."

"I owed him. My first year at Charleston College, Jensen showed me the ropes and helped me get established there. There were a couple of times I was close to being fired, but he convinced the head of our department to give me one more chance. I also thought he needed a lucky break."

"Maybe this is his lucky break, but I warn you Harrison…"

"I know. No more discounts."

Rhett smiled and said, "I was going to say, if he can't teach at the level I expect, he will be fired."

"Fair enough."

Jensen established himself in the household. He was a tough but fair tutor. He had no problems with tutoring Grace either.

Soon the family was off to Columbia. They were staying in a hotel for now, but they would soon have to find a house. The suite had four bedrooms, but the family was used to there being a lot more room. Grace was sleeping in the same room as her sisters along with Agnes. Jude was sleeping in the same room as Tom along with Inez. Rhett and Scarlett had a room. The last room belonged to Jensen. While the family was living in a hotel, they left everyone but Inez and Agnes in Charleston.

Mr. Ackles was a much harder teacher than Uncle Harrison. When Tom had complained to his father about Mr. Ackles being too hard. Rhett had said, "Let me sit in on the tutoring sessions for a couple of days."

A week later Rhett told his eldest son, "It is not that Mr. Ackles is too hard, it is that Uncle Harrison was too easy."

Tom said, "Yes, sir." He went back to his studies. He thought, 'I should have gone to boarding school.' But he knew he would never be happy away from his family, so it was just as well.

Before Christmas, the family was back in Charleston. Yes, there was money to be made there, but it was in sleazy ways. Rhett wanted his wife and children to be proud of him. Besides, it meant spending far too much time in saloons and brothels. They were nice places to visit, but he didn't want to become part of the fixture. He thought of Hugh Hefner and decided he would make money slowly and safely. No quick rich schemes. As he had told Scarlett – safe investments. He meant it now. He wasn't a millionaire, but maybe he would be before he died. He wasn't going to worry about it. He wanted to spend time with his children. Time, he had lost because he had been trying to make a fortune from the war. He had. Now it was time to enjoy it. Also, Rhett had not been kidding when he said he needed to see the ocean and Columbia was a landlocked city.

Scarlett hadn't wanted to stay either. Charleston was her home now. She hadn't started her sawmill either. She had talked about it, but then she had talked about how Jude and the girls needed her. Or Grace needed her. Or Tom was soon going to be going away to college and she wanted to spend time with him before he left home.

Rhett said, "Tom might go to The University of Charleston and stay home."

"I would like that."

Agnes, and Inez, had gone with them to Columbia, but they hadn't been any happier than Rhett and Scarlett. Charleston was their home, and it always would be. Jensen had gone and he had been happy enough living in Columbia, but he returned to Charleston with the Butlers because that was who his job was with.

In April, with the help of chloroform Rosemary delivered a baby girl. Rosemary named her Elizabeth Rose. The little girl looked a lot like Harrison also. After Rosemary returned to work, she took the little girl to work with her, but soon had to stop. There were too many sick people at the clinic. Rosemary found a wet nurse and Liz moved into the nursery with Jude and Percy. Faith, Charity, and Hope still had their own room.

One night Harrison said to Rhett over whiskeys, "Do you want Rosemary and me to get our own place?"

Rhett stared at the man and said, "Not really. There is plenty of room in the townhouse. When we run out of rooms, we can talk about you and Rosemary moving out. Although if you keep having children, we might run out of rooms sooner rather than later."

"Thanks, Rhett."

"You do need to contribute to the food budget."

"Sure, Rhett."

The household arrangements worked. Rosemary was now a partner with Steven. She was gone eight hours a day every day but Sunday.

Harrison was busy designing new limbs and new buggies. He didn't mind selling to the Yankees. He couldn't be picky about who he sold his limbs to. He did have a limited pool of men who needed his product. It was a large pool, but still a limited pool. He had sold several of the one seat buggies to people in Charleston. He was developing that business because he didn't think the artificial limb business would be a long-term business. Although, he knew there would always be wars.

Scarlett was running the house and spending time with Rhett and her children. She was talking about buying a sawmill, but she never quite got around to it. She just couldn't run a business. It was so unladylike. Yes, she had during the war. They had no other choice but for her to run the business.

Rhett was making iffy deals, but in the light of day. He didn't want to spend time in shadows anymore. He wanted to live a mostly respectable life.

A year after Suellen and Frank's marriage, she said, "I would like to go see my family. I haven't seen them since they moved to Charleston. That was in fifty-nine."

Frank said, "I know how much you would like to see your family, Sugar, but it is not safe for you and George to go alone. You will have to wait until I can go with you. I don't know when that will be. I can't close the store yet. And Hugh isn't quite ready to run the store on his on."

Suellen didn't get mad because Frank wouldn't let her go, she felt loved. That night she said, "Do you love me?"

"Yes. I should have asked you to marry me before the war, but I was too scared you would say no. Then Mr. Wilkes compromised you and I lost my chance. I wasn't going to lose you again. Thank you for marrying me."

"I love you, too. I don't know how long. I just know I do. We are going to have a child."

"I hope our child looks just like you."

"I hope our child is as kind and nice as you are."