Something was wrong.
Seriously wrong.
A rush of dread passed through Scarlett, settling overhead like a thick black cloud, promising rain.
Panicking, she pulled back the duvet and leapt out of an all-too empty bed.
Looking towards the window, she saw that all of Rhett's cases were missing. Were it not for the two hollow depressions on the mattress, she would have believed that last night had been nothing but a dream, conjured up to make the midnight hours a little less lonely.
Rhett must have left while she was still asleep, creeping from the room like the low-down coward he was, too ashamed to look her in the eye and tell her he was going.
Going despite all that she had told him last night, despite all that she had let him see and do under the comforting cover of darkness.
The morning sun seemed to mock her as it blazed into the room, exposing her pain and humiliation for all the world to see.
Follow him.
The thought flashed through her mind and took hold somewhere deep in her belly. It might not be too late. Scarlett ran from the room and hurtled down the wide staircase, her habitual fear of falling overridden by the pressing need to get to Rhett.
Flinging the front door open, she emerged into the bustling street. Hurrying down the path onto the sidewalk, she barged past neighbours out enjoying their morning stroll, desperate to reach the train before Rhett departed.
The station was packed when she arrived, hundreds upon hundreds of bodies pouring onto the platform and making it impossible for her to find him. Refusing to give up, Scarlett put her head down and her elbows out and ploughed through the crowd, deaf to the cries of shock and indignation she left in her wake.
Glancing up, she caught sight of someone familiar. A smile broke out across her cheeks as she recognised her errant husband, looking impossibly handsome in his dark suit and Panama hat.
'Rhett! Wait, Rhett!' she called, pushing through the unrelenting wall of passengers.
Rhett looked up at her cry, and for one shining moment their eyes met and held through the crowd. The cloud of dread that had gripped her all morning drifted away, sunshine pouring through.
She opened her mouth to shout out her love for him when a woman stepped up to Rhett and took hold of his arm. A woman with a painted face and bright red hair.
Rhett dropped his eyes from Scarlett's, laughing at something Belle had just whispered in his ear. Scarlett's heart broke to witness such an intimate moment between her husband and his whore. Blind to her distress, Rhett slipped his hand into Belle's and led her towards the open door of the train.
'No!' Scarlett cried, but the word came out as a whisper.
She tried again, but her throat closed up and started to choke her.
The crowd was pressing in on her now, feet treading on hers, shoulders colliding with her back. Scarlett threw her arms out wide and tried to push her way over to Rhett, but they would not let her through.
It was at that moment that they morphed from a pack of faceless strangers into the very people had she lived alongside most of her adult life. There in front of her was Mrs. Elsing and Mrs. Meade, to her left stood Rene Picard and Maybelle Merriwether and to her right Aunt Pittypat and Uncle Henry. They all smirked malevolently as they hemmed her in, seemingly taking great pleasure in keeping her from Rhett.
From behind her she heard a cruel chuckle and, spinning round, found Melanie before her.
'Now you know how it feels to watch another woman throw themselves at your husband, Scarlett,' Melanie snarled. 'Hurts, doesn't it?'
Melanie started to laugh then, a cold, cruel sound. The rest of the crowd joined in, sending up a chorus of cackling that rang in her ears and pierced at her heart.
Tears poured from her eyes as Scarlett pleaded with them to stop, her small, distressed voice easily lost amongst the tumult. The maddening laughter continued on, unchecked, until it too was drowned out by the whistle of a steam train ready to depart.
Craning her neck above the heads of her captors, she watched the train pull out of the station. Her heart seized at the sight of Rhett leaning casually out of an open window, Belle draped across his back as he waved his goodbyes.
His eyes widened as he spotted Scarlett amongst the fray. He cupped his hands to his mouth and called out. His words, perhaps the last he would ever speak to her, were lost on the wind, stolen from her by the relentless jeering of the crowd.
The train disappeared round a bend and Scarlett fell to her knees, darkness rushing up to meet her as her head cracked against the cobblestones.
Scarlett's eyes cracked open and she sprang up in bed. Placing a steading hand to her chest, she fought to regain her breath, sucking in the cool night air and forcing herself to repeat the words Rhett had taught her to say every time she suffered a nightmare.
It was a dream. Just a dream. It can't hurt me. I'm safe. Perfectly safe.
After five repetitions, the words worked their old, familiar magic, allowing her to break free of her terror. Her heartbeat slowing, Scarlett opened her eyes and took in the dull, greyish light of pre-dawn.
Scarlett twisted round to regard the space where Rhett should be, her stomach settling when she found him there. He was sleeping restlessly, his brow heavy with frown lines and one arm splayed out across the bed, his fingers outstretched, as if searching for her. Taking his hand, Scarlett lifted it to her lips and kissed each fingertip in turn.
His eyes flickered and calmed, his face smoothing out like a window wiped clean of rain. Careful not to wake Rhett, Scarlett lay back down, propping her head up on her palm to better take him in. She stared at him for the longest moment, storing him away in preparation for the time when memories would be all that she had left.
It was not the desiring gaze that she had levelled at him the previous night, yet neither did it contain any trace of the hostility that had dominated her glances over the last few years. Instead it was a look tinged with affection and perhaps a little nostalgia as she thought back on the happier times they'd shared, wishing only that they could have lingered a little longer.
She stared at him until murky grey lightened into the peachy pink of dawn. Until her eyes grew heavy and her thoughts grew quiet. She stared at him until the downstairs clock began to chime, each bell signalling another hour lost to sleep, another moment closer to Rhett's departure.
After the seventh chime the clock fell back into silence.
'What time are you leaving in the morning?'
'Before nine.'
The ghost of their earlier conversation came back to haunt Scarlett. She thought about closing up her eyes and pretending she'd never heard the clock. Rhett need never know she had woken before him. As long as she kept quiet, Scarlett might be able to trick him into missing his train.
Only hadn't there been enough deceit between them? Enough to fill several lifetimes. If they'd just been honest with each other from the start, they wouldn't be in this sorry mess now.
Besides, if Rhett was determined to leave her then nothing she did would deter him. If he missed the first train, he'd simply catch the next. Only then he'd leave with the bitter taste of her deception in his mouth, and it might poison him against her forever.
Drawing upon the last of her courage, Scarlett leant across and kissed Rhett's cheek.
'You'd better wake up now, Rhett. You'll be late if you don't start getting ready soon.'
'Scarlett?' Rhett groaned, running a hand down his face as he stretched.
'Ahh!' Scarlett's breath was knocked clean out of her when Rhett rolled on top of her and nuzzled into her neck. The coarse stumble of his chin lit her skin on fire and she squirmed under him, making Rhett grunt in approval.
He opened his mouth to lap at her neck, his hands grabbing hold of her legs and pulling them up round his hips. Scarlett moaned as her tender flesh met his growing hardness. The sound seemed to snap Rhett out of his stupor. His head shot up and he gazed down at her in confusion, no doubt wondering what she was doing in his bed after years of sleeping apart.
Scarlett shut up her eyes, unwilling to watch the fondness fade from his face to be replaced by blank indifference. Clearly shaken, Rhett coughed in agitation and moved away, taking his sleep-soft warmth with him. Scarlett shivered and pulled the sheets tight around her chin, keen to hide from him. She knew it hadn't meant anything, that Rhett would be sure to dismiss his actions as those of an unthinking, sleeping man. But even if that was true, Scarlett would go on believing the lie. It was kinder.
'What time is it?' Rhett asked, his voice low.
Scarlett looked down, playing idly with her wedding ring. She'd lost weight recently and the band was growing loose. She'd been meaning to take it to the jewellers to have it refitted. Perhaps she wouldn't need to now.
'It's just gone seven,' she said steadily, refusing to let her voice waver.
'Ah.'
Ah indeed.
Though silence settled once more across the room, Scarlett felt none of the peace she'd experienced while watching Rhett sleep. Having him beside her was no longer a comfort, for now he was awake he was surely itching to be gone. Her stomach winding itself into knots, Scarlett wished that, whatever he was going to do, he would just get on and do it. All this uncertainty was eating away at her like a tapeworm in her belly.
She so wanted to be strong, but her reserve was cracking. Soon she would have no choice but to abandon the last vestiges of her dignity and beg him to stay. Rhett, like Scarlett, had always despised weakness and would have no sympathy for her plight. Sure, he would hug her and pat her back and whisper nice things in her ear, but all the while the esteem in which he held her would be shrivelling up like fruit left out too long in the sun.
Refusing to let that happen, Scarlett reached down to collect her discarded wrapper. Slipping it round her bare shoulders, she rose from the bed.
'What are you doing?' Rhett asked, his face clouding over as he watched her make her way over to the door.
'I'm hungry,' she answered lamely, 'I'll go downstairs and oversee breakfast. You'll be needing a good meal before your journey, Rhett. I'll call you when it's ready.'
Rhett's brow darkened. 'It won't work, Scarlett. It's too late to roll out the doting wife routine now. If you mean to delay me, then you'll be disappointed. I'm going, and I'm going soon.'
'It's no routine, Rhett,' she retorted, stung. 'I've told you I love you. You don't have to believe me, but I do care about you and I won't have you leaving here hungry. As for you going, do you see me trying to stop you?'
'Well, good. As long as that's clear,' Rhett maintained stubbornly, clearly disconcerted by her frankness.
Something shifted in Scarlett's understanding then, a chink showing through in Rhett's armour. He liked her honest. Maybe she could use that to her advantage.
It might be too late to start playing the part of the doting spouse, Scarlett mused, her fighting spirit reappearing just when she needed it most, but it was better late than never.