Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

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

Chapter Forty-Four

Rhett read the last page of the diary then handed the book to Scarlett. He said, "I think Ella hid the diary in the desk because she didn't want anyone knowing the truth about her parents. If she was born in eighteen sixty-six, she probably had strict mores. She was ashamed of what her parents did."

"How sad."

"Yes."

"Why didn't she just destroy it?"

"She couldn't destroy her mother's diary, or she didn't think she was going to die any time soon and she wanted to read it again. The big question to me is: Was she Clark or Frank's daughter? If she was Clark's daughter, then yes, he murdered Frank."

"How can you so conclusively say that?"

Rhett said, "This is a man thing. Frank was standing in the way of Clark being with the woman he loved and his daughter. Furthermore, Vivian was having sex with Frank. Probably not very often, but it was her wifely duty. This is a fact. Clark would definitely be extremely unhappy about. It would be tearing him up inside to know that the woman he loved was being used by another man. Unfortunately, that was what it was to most men and women of that day and age. Something that men enjoyed, and women endured."

"She could have said no."

"No, she couldn't. She would have been brainwashed by society that she had to let her husband use her body. Furthermore, if she was having sex with Clark then she had to have sex with Frank just in case she came up pregnant again. Frank had to believe the child was his. It would have been quite the scandal if it had come out, she was an adulterous wife. She would have been ruined forever."

"Clark could have taken her away from the scandal."

"But he couldn't have taken her away from the condemnation she would have felt in her heart."

"That is sad. If we found Ella's grandchildren, could you determine who her father was?"

"Ella said in her note that she can't carry a child to term, therefore there are no offspring to test. Not that it would matter. There is DNA called mitochondrial DNA that is passed down from mother to child. So, we could determine who Vivian's great great grandchildren are but not who the father was. I think what happened was that Ella hid the diary in a secret compartment of her Victorian desk. Somehow Margaret Mitchell got the desk and found the diary. She used the diary as the basis of her great novel. I have read that she never planned to publish her novel. So, she probably saw no harm in borrowing from Vivian's real life. I have read that Ms. Mitchell showed the first couple of chapters to a publisher and he liked it. She then had to go home and finish the novel. She changed enough of it for her to feel it was her novel."

"Mitchell wrote that Ella looked just like Frank."

"Of course, she did. That was to make it clear to the reader that Ella was Frank's child."

"You are right. Why didn't she give them a happy ending?"

"I don't know."

"Why did she have Olivia die? Especially from a miscarriage."

"To make the tragedy that much greater."

"She used Olivia's death as the moment when Vivian finally sees the truth that Leslie doesn't love her and has always loved Olivia. He falls apart."

"When does Clark leave her?"

"At the end of the book right after Olivia's death. Why didn't she give them a happy ending."

"I do not have enough data to form a conclusion." Scarlett smiled at his statement. He went on, "All I can say is maybe she thought it was a better novel without a happy ending. Or she was in a hurry to get it to the publisher and decided to end the novel right there so she wouldn't have to write anymore."

"I guess we will never know."

"Probably not. She took her secrets to the grave also. Come to bed. I want to prove to you that I love you as much as Clark loved Vivian."

Scarlett forgot all about the diary and anyone else but Rhett Butler.

As Rhett was getting dressed the next morning, Scarlett said, "So, Ella's questions are never going to be answered."

"I think that her signing her entry as Ella Gable Mitchell tells me that she already knew she was Clark Gable's biological child."

"You are making a supposition based on psychology?"

Rhett smiled and said, "You have worn off on me and I was simply thinking out loud."

"I never knew you had thoughts that weren't logical."

"I occasionally do some free thinking. Of course, it mostly involves you and our bed, but that is neither here nor there." Scarlett giggled. Rhett smiled. He continued, "All we can do is guess what she thought. We have no data."

"Is that really a genetic trait to have a mole in the same spot as your parent?"

"I am not a geneticist…"

"But I play one on TV."

"What?!"

"Never mind. Go on. TV joke."

"You know I don't like it when you do that."

"I forget." When Rhett looked at Scarlett skeptically, she added, "I really do. I think of a joke, and it never goes through my filter. Go on."

Reluctantly Rhett continued. Scarlett knew he thought she was making fun of him, but she really wasn't. He wasn't the brunt of the joke, but she knew he thought he was. If he understood the joke, he wouldn't be so sensitive, but even when she explained it, he still didn't understand. He said, "I read in a two thousand nineteen study published in Pigment Cell and Melanoma Research that they found that genes have a greater influence than previously thought on the number and location of moles."

"So, it could be true."

"Yes, Clark could have gifted all of his children with moles on the side of their heads."

"The left side. All the moles were on the left side of their heads."

Rhett smiled. He said, "Because we will never know, let's say that Clark was Ella's biological father. That leaves the only question up in the air is whether Clark killed Frank and as I told you. I think he did."

"If the body was exhumed, could you tell?"

"The only way I could tell is if he used a distinct weapon to kill the man and as smart as he seems to be I would bet he would use a popular gun."

"He was supposedly killed by the Yankees soldiers."

"Then definitely no. Every soldier is issued the same type of gun. All Clark would have to do is acquire one of those guns and he was home free."

"He could have easily done that over the poker table. Someone doesn't have enough money to see the bet. He takes the gun as a sort of IOU."

Rhett smiled. He said, "What we don't know is whether Clark sought out the gun or it just fell in his lap."

"I imagine it fell in his lap. When he heard about the raid, he knew what he could do because he already had the gun. His plan came together."

"Then in a moment of supposed kindness he gave the gun back to the soldier. He could have done that if the soldier was a regular at whatever saloon he frequented."

"The Painted Lady."

"How do you know that?"

"Vivian mentioned it a couple of times. It was a rant about how much she hated Clark spending so much time at that establishment with someone named Ona. It was plain she didn't think anything was going on between her husband and the other woman, but she still disliked the woman intensely." Scarlett said the next part to stroke Rhett's ego. She said, "Kind of like the way I feel about Bridget O'Shaughnessy."

"Who?"

"The woman you had the encounter with. You know the one who had her breasts hanging out."

"Who?"

Scarlett smiled. Rhett wasn't playing dumb. He really didn't remember the woman's name, but he remembered the incident. She said, "The woman who was interested in the caves of Germany."

"Oh her." Rhett didn't want to talk about her, so he said, "Of course, they didn't have ballistics tests then or even fingerprints tests, but by giving the gun back to the soldier there was nothing to connect him to the crime. He really was a smart man."

"Almost as smart as you."

"Thank you, my love."

Scarlett said, "Back to Clark Gable and his possible crime. That was the real reason he went to Europe for six months. To get away from the investigation."

"Yes, that makes sense. They couldn't marry for what? A year, maybe two"

"A year. Until Vivian was out of deep mourning and even that was scandalous. Furthermore, she was pregnant when they got married."

"If what we are proposing is true, that is one smart, calculating man."

"I think the real Clark was a very smart, calculating man. Do you think he tried to kill Leslie Howard?"

"Maybe."

"I don't because he was supposed to be an excellent marksman so if he had wanted to kill Howard he would have succeeded. No. Wait. He did try to kill Howard and the gun pulled to the right or the left slightly. He adjusted for his shot at Frank."

"I will yield to better knowledge of guns and marksmanship. Go check out their mansion and report back what you find. Where was the mansion build?"

"207 Peach Tree Lane. What are we going to do about the diary, the necklace, the rings?"

"They are ours now. I'm pretty sure nobody else knew they were there. Besides, you can hardly return them. What can you say? These items accidentally fell into my backpack."

Scarlett giggled and said, "I guess not." She jumped up and got the rings. She showed them to Rhett. She said, "Can they be our wedding rings?"

Rhett smiled at her and said, "So you want to be shameless in your theft."

"Well…."

"Sure, but we are getting our names engraved in them."

"What will we tell the jeweler?"

"They were my grandparents and now we want to wear them."

"You are a great partner in crime."

Rhett smiled. He said, "I guess it is an omen. We haven't been able to find rings we both like and I think we both like these. I like the romance of it."

"I do too. Vivian wrote she wanted a couple to have the rings that loved each other as much as she and Clark loved each other.

"After going to the mansion, go to the History Center and see what you can find out about Ella Gable Mitchell. And any other children they had. When we get back to DC, I will get the diary authenticated."

"How can you do that? We don't have any samples of Vivian's handwriting."

"Right now, we can't authenticate the writing, but we can verify that the paper and ink are that old. I can get all that done at the Jeffersonian. After you finish reading it, I would like to read it, so I know what you are talking about."

"Alright. Have you read Gone with the Wind?"

"No, but I know the basic plot."

"We could watch the movie together."

"Isn't the movie four hours long?"

"Yes."

"No, thank you. I will not waste four hours of my life watching a movie."

Scarlett smiled and said, "Alright, Dear. Why can I not touch the diary with my hands?"

"You can contaminate the pages with skin oils, bacteria or sweat. Just wash your hands a lot. And don't eat while you are handling the book."

Scarlett scowled at Rhett. He knew of her habit of eating while she was studying her case files. She got up and got the diary. While she got the diary, their breakfast was delivered. Rhett had breakfast delivered to the room every morning. It was a perk of the hotel. If requested room service delivered breakfast to the room. One just had to order it the night before. Scarlett had coffee and a couple of scrambled eggs while Rhett had bacon, eggs, toast, pancakes, and coffee. The man certainly did eat a lot, but he had a large frame to fuel.