Second of the new chapters, because writing Suellen being grouchy, Will being unflappable and Mammy being the mum Scarlett so desperately needs will never get old for me. Hope you enjoy.

Dusk fell long before the coach bearing Scarlett and her children drove through the gates of Tara. Ella's head rested heavily against her mother's arm as she snored softly into the encroaching night.

Whispering so as not to wake her, Scarlett pointed out the miles of white fencing to Wade. 'See that?'

'Yes, Mother.'

'It marks Tara's boundaries. Once you catch sight of it, you know you're not far from home.'

Wade smiled at her, his eyes glinting with excitement. 'Can Tara be my home now?'

'Would you like it to be?' she asked, surprised.

The last time Wade had lived here, the war had still been raging. It had been a hellish time, filled with hunger and suffering and a terrible, underlying uncertainty about the future. Though he'd only been a child, she wouldn't have blamed him for never wanting to return.

Indeed, Scarlett had felt a rare flash of guilt in taking her children away from Atlanta that morning. The city had been the only true home they'd ever known. Wade especially had roots that ran deep there. Just yesterday, at poor Melly's wake, she'd caught him comforting a pale, hollow-eyed Beau on the stairs and wondered if her decision to leave for Tara wasn't just one more selfish mistake in a life already strewn with them.

'I'd like to live on a farm,' Wade said now, and Scarlett felt something tight and painful in her chest unfurl. 'I like animals.'

'Do you?' she asked, though the words should hardly have come as a shock. Wade positively doted on his St Bernard and had even taken over responsibility for Ella's cat after the animal had proved too vicious for anyone else to dare get near. Latching onto this tentative connection with her son, Scarlett asked, 'Which ones are you looking forward to seeing the most?'

The reply came instantly. 'The pigs!'

Scarlett laughed. 'Pigs? Oh, but they are such smelly creatures! Dirty, too!'

Folding in on himself, Wade said quietly. 'I like them.'

Not sure how she'd erred, but only knowing that she had, Scarlett struggled to put it right, 'Did I ever tell you that when I was a young girl, my pa gave me my very own piglet to look after?'

Wade's eyes rose from his lap to stare at her in wonder. 'He did?'

'Yes.'

'What did you call it?'

Smiling at the question, Scarlett broke the habit of a lifetime and found herself willingly dredging up the past. 'I called her Titch.'

'Was she small?'

'Very. So small that no one but Pa thought she could possibly survive. She was the runt of the litter, you see.'

'What's a runt?'

'It's what you call the baby of the family. In animals like pigs or dogs that give birth to lots of young at the same time, it's usually the one that's born last that's the smallest. Sometimes they need a bit of help to stay alive. It's sad, but not all runts get to grow up.'

'Like Bonnie?'

Scarlett flinched. 'Bonnie wasn't a runt.'

'But she was the smallest one,' Wade argued. 'And it was sad when she didn't get to grow up.'

'It was,' Scarlett choked out. 'Do you...do you miss her very much?'

Wade nodded. 'It was better when she was here.'

Scarlett felt as though he'd wrapped his fist around her heart and squeezed. How was it possible that they'd never spoken about this before? It had been a mistake to ban Bonnie's name from the house, she saw that now.

'It was,' she agreed. 'But it'll be better again, just you wait and see. You're going to love Tara, Wade. It's the most beautiful place in all the world.'

'Mama?'

'Yes, darling?'

'Did Titch live?'

Scarlett smiled, both at the memory and the undisguised hope in her son's voice. Seeing him like this, she was reminded of herself as young child. She hoped life didn't beat the innocence out of her son as thoroughly as it had her.

'She did. I stayed up late every night and got up early every morning to feed and watch over her. Sometimes I even snuck her into bed with me.'

'You did?' Wade gasped, delighted.

'I sure did. Only one night I fell asleep before I could put her back in the parlour. The next morning, Mammy came into my room to wake me up, pulled back the covers and starting screaming to high heaven!'

Wade's laughter filled the carriage, driving out the dark. The sound of it woke Ella and she grumbled and rubbed at her eyes with her fists.

'Hello, sleepyhead,' Scarlett welcomed her back. 'We're almost home.'

As the carriage rolled down the drive and emerged out of the trees, Tara rose up before them, proud and blessedly real. Scarlett's heart lifted to meet it as her children clambered over her to hang out of the window, their mouths agape.

'Come on, you two,' she urged, opening the door and ushering them out.

'I'll get the bags, Miss Scarlett,' Pork said, climbing down from his seat at the front. 'You go on in.'

'Thank you,' she said, heading for the porch.

Before climbing the painted steps, Scarlett took a moment to rub her shoes into the rust red soil, simply for the pleasure of feeling it beneath her feet once more.

The moment was spoilt when the front door flew open and Suellen appeared.

'So you're back then?'

Scarlett grimaced. She'd forgotten just how shrill her sister's voice could be. 'Did you not get my telegram? I sent it last week.'

'Oh, yes, we got it. Not a word from you in years and then you announce you're moving back in. Not a 'please?' or a 'can I?' in sight.'

Scarlett's hackles rose and she marched up the porch steps. 'Last time I checked, this was still my house. I pay towards the damn thing, don't I? You're lucky I don't turf you out on the street!'

'How dare you? My Will breaks his back toiling to keep this place going, and you'd force him out? Shame on you, Scarlett.'

'Not him, just you,' she clarified coldly. 'Will can stay. I may not have spoken to you, but I've kept in close contact with him over the years. He's been doing a fine job of looking after Tara.'

'You speak to him?' Suellen asked, her thin face pinching up like she'd tasted something sour.

Scarlett rolled her eyes, unimpressed. 'Of course I talk to him. How else am I supposed to keep an eye on Tara?'

'Well, I don't like it.'

'Calm your ruffled feathers. I'm not scheming to steal him away. You have a terrible taste in men, Suellen. I learnt that lesson the hard way.'

Suellen bristled like a cat preparing to unsheathe its claws. 'You-'

'Are you going to let me by, or are we going to stand outside arguing all night? It doesn't matter the slightest bit to me, but the children are tired and would appreciate being shown to their beds sometime before dawn.'

Before Suellen could come up with a suitably withering retort, the sound of footsteps rang out and Will's face appeared over his wife's shoulder.

'Miss Scarlett,' he said, nodding his head in greeting.

'Hello there, Will. How wonderful it is to see you again,' Scarlett simpered prettily, tossing her head and flashing her dimples.

Will, to Scarlett's considerable annoyance, didn't so much as blink at her display. Nonetheless, Suellen turned sharply on her heel and pushed him back into the house.

'Have you put April to bed yet?'

'It's a little early for that.'

'She's a growing girl, Will. She needs her rest.'

'As you say,' Will demurred smoothly, seeming not the least bit perturbed by Suellen's snappish behaviour. Not for the first time, Scarlett wondered how her sister had managed to get herself hitched to a saint. 'I'll be seeing you, Miss. Scarlett.'

'I look forward to it,' Scarlett trilled, just to see her sister scowl.

'I suppose you'd better follow me, children,' Suellen groused. 'I'll show you to your bedrooms. Ella, you'll be sharing with April. Wade, you can have the bedroom at the top of the stairs. It has a good view down towards the sties.'

It was Scarlett's turn to frown. 'How do you know he likes pigs?'

Suellen huffed like the answer should have been obvious. 'I used to take him to visit them when he was a boy.'

'When?'

'When you were out cotton-picking and he would get cranky for missing you. It was the only thing that stopped him from fretting. He especially liked it when I made the oinking noises.'

Scarlett could have made a cutting comment about Suellen's appearance being more than a little porcine then, but the revelation that her sister had known something about Wade that Scarlett had not was so unsettling it stayed her tongue. Instead, she watched on in silence as her sister held out her hands to the children and led them away up the stairs. Though neither child knew Suellen well, they seemed remarkably happy to be left alone with her. Scarlett couldn't decide whether she should find such a thing gladdening or galling.

Turning away, she ran her eyes along the corridor, drinking in every detail of her home. Much of the décor had changed - and not for the better, thanks to Suellen's appallingly ugly taste - but the bones of the old house were still the same. Standing there, Scarlett felt she could take her first deep breath in years.

She was wandering down the corridor, heading for the sitting room, when the door that led out into the kitchens opened and Mammy came striding through. She stopped short when she caught sight of Scarlett.

'You're home, my lamb.'

I am now, she thought.

Mammy frowned. 'But you is so thin! You've been wasting away in Atlanta. What have you been feeding yourself?'

Scarlett didn't know whether to laugh or groan. 'Don't you start! I've barely made it through the doorway and you're already henpecking me.'

Mammy ignored her. 'I done warned you not to let yourself turn to skin and bones. It ain't decent! It's a good thing you've come home. Mammy will fatten you up in no time. Is you hungry now?'

Scarlett batted away the hands which were reaching out to inspect her waistline. 'I ate plenty on the train, so you can stop your fussing. Wade and Ella did too.'

Mammy's eyebrows drew together. 'The children is here?'

Scarlett nodded. 'Suellen has only just put them to bed. They're mighty tired after their long journey, so don't even think about disturbing them. I promise you they're not so underfed that they won't survive until morning.'

'You mustn't joke about such things, Miss Scarlett,' Mammy chastised, looking worried. 'Mister Rhett ain't with you?'

Scarlett looked away. 'No, he's been called away on business. Some issue with his interests in Charleston that needs delicate handling. He's going to stay with his mother for a few months, so I thought I'd give the children a treat and bring them to Tara while he's away. You know Rhett's never been too fond of farming.'

It was a speech she'd practiced dozens of times during her journey, and it came out more than a little stilted now.

Mammy wasn't fooled for a second. 'What's he gone and done now?'

'Nothing,' Scarlett protested, refusing to meet her eye. 'Honestly, Mammy, he's just busy, that's all. In fact, he told me he might join us here towards the end of our stay.'

'Hmmph!'

'He did!'

Mammy stayed silent, the temperature in the hallway dipping until Scarlett could bear it no longer. Gathering her courage, she turned her head to look at the older woman. Mammy continued to say nothing. She simply stared, her eyes narrowed as though trying to make them thin enough to slip under Scarlett's defences and see directly into her soul.

A minute later, she nodded as if she'd found what she was searching for. Her stance softened as she drew Scarlett into the welcome haven of her arms.

'It is for the best,' she murmured, stroking a hand through Scarlett's hair.

'He's coming back,' Scarlett maintained, feeling tears prick at the corners of her eyes.

Mammy drew back to study her, scepticism carved into every line and furrow of her face.

'He is!'

'Then I hope Charleston teaches him how to treat you right.'

'He loves me, Mammy,' she whispered, the words leaking out despite her trying to keep them in. They just sounded so sweet on her tongue. She felt she had to share them with somebody or she'd go mad, and Mammy had never yet broken her trust. 'At least he did. All this time, and I never knew he loved me.'

'And do you think that's natural? That a wife don't know what's going on in her own husband's heart?'

'He shouldn't have hidden it all from me, he knows that now, but he was afraid of how I'd react.'

Mammy scoffed. 'I always knew that man was mighty scared of something. Men who rage against the world always are. I should have figured it was you making him tremble so.'

'Why?' Scarlett asked, affronted.

'Because all his life, he ain't never really cared about anything else.'

'That's not true! He worshiped Bonnie. I've never seen a man so devoted to his daughter.'

'Ain't you?' Mammy argued, and for a moment the spectre of Pa flickered in the hallway beside them.

'Only once,' Scarlett conceded. 'But you can't deny that he went just weak around her.'

'Hah! That child was more like you than your own reflection. It's no mystery why Mister Rhett loved her something stupid.'

Scarlett's stomach swooped. Rhett had admitted as much the day Melly died, but Scarlett had scarcely dared to believe it. For so long she'd been shamefully jealous of Bonnie's hold over Rhett. Had secretly despised her own daughter's ability to win a love denied to her. But Mammy had always known too much for her own good. Maybe she'd seen Rhett clearer than Scarlett ever had.

'I got your old room made up when they told me you were coming,' Mammy said, noticing how tired Scarlett had grown before she realised it herself.

Sure enough, Scarlett let loose a yawn as loud as a coyote's cry, too weary to cover it with her hand.

'Thank you,' she said, more grateful than she could express. It had been many years since someone had cared enough to look after her. 'I think I'll retire for the night, leave scrapping with Suellen until the morning.'

Mammy smiled. 'Miss Suellen is happier to have you here than she's letting on.'

Scarlett wrinkled up her nose. So much for Mammy's gift at reading people. She couldn't have gotten Suellen's feelings more back to front if she'd tried.

'Fiddle Dee Dee, she barely let me through the front door!'

'It's been far too long since the pair of you shared something. She's cautious, is all. She'll sweeten up in time.'

Scoffing at the idea of Suellen ever turning sweet, Scarlett stifled another yawn.

'Bed!' Mammy barked. 'You is dead on your feet.'

'I'm going, I'm going,' Scarlett grumbled, turning towards the stairs.

Her foot on the bottom step, she paused and looked back to where Mammy was stood in the hallway, watching her go.

'It's good to see you again. The house in Atlanta...well, it wasn't the same after you went.'

Mammy ducked her head. 'I shouldn't have gone like I did, but that house...all that sadness...I couldn't carry it with me any longer.'

Scarlett nodded, biting at her lip. 'I understand.'

Mammy stared at her; a fierce sort of love emblazoned in her aging eyes. 'I know you do, my lamb. It's what led you back home.'