The last of the completely new chapters for now, and the perfect platform for me to explore my new Scarlett/Will obsession. Thanks for reading.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Scarlett groaned, rolling over onto her front and shoving a pillow over her head. Maybe if she pretended to be asleep, whomever was pounding on her door would go away and leave her in peace.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Or maybe not.

'Ten more minutes!' she yelled, just as the pillow was snatched rudely from atop her head and Mammy's stern profile fell across her bed like a shadow in front of the sun.

'Your breakfast has been waiting for you on the table for an hour. You'll fade away to nothing if you don't eat!'

Wisely deciding there was little point in arguing, Scarlett dragged herself out of bed and stalked across to her wardrobe. She rifled through her slim selection of dresses before stopping short.

'When did you unpack my bags?' she accused, turning back to Mammy.

'While you were snoring.'

'I don't snore!' Scarlett cried, affronted.

'Mammy's ears may be old, but they don't lie.'

Huffing, Scarlett turned back to her dresses and picked out the least ostentatious. It wouldn't do well to flaunt her finer gowns in front of Suellen. Her sister was jealous enough of her as it was. Pulling out a light blue dress, Scarlett handed it to Mammy. The older woman set about getting her ready for the long day ahead. Once she'd laced her corset and drawn the blue dress down over it, Mammy pointed to a glass bottle sitting on top of the vanity.

'What is it?'

Mammy smiled. 'Put it on and see.'

Curious, Scarlett reached over and picked up the bottle, realising as she did that it was half full of some sort of perfume. Spraying it onto her neck, Scarlett's heart skipped a beat when the familiar, floral scent of lemon verbena drifted down to settle on her skin like dew drops on dawn grass.

'This bottle,' she breathed, 'is it...'

'Miss Ellen's. When she passed Mister Gerald let me keep one thing from her room and I chose this.'

Scarlett turned to face her. 'Then you should keep it.'

Mammy shook her head. 'It belongs to the Mistress of Tara.'

Scarlett frowned, torn. As much as she wanted to cling to every last piece of her mother she could lay her hands on, she didn't want to draw up yet more battle lines with her sister.

'I'm just visiting, Mammy. It's Suellen who lives here. You should give this to her.'

Mammy pushed the bottle back at Scarlett. 'Miss Suellen may have lived here longer, but Tara is your home.'

Unwilling to deny the truth of Mammy's words, Scarlett relented and sprayed more of the perfume onto her body. She felt her spine straighten as it fell around her, something of her mother's quiet resilience seeping into her own aching bones.

'This means everything to me; I'll treasure it forever.'

Buoyed by the priceless gift, she felt ready to face the barrage of uncomfortable questions coming her way.

'Is Suellen still eating?' she asked, knowing that her sister despised early mornings every bit as much as she did.

'Should be. I only just finished lacing her.'

'And the children? Are they up yet?'

Mammy shook her head. 'They need their sleep after such a long journey.'

'And I don't?' Scarlett protested hotly.

Mammy shrugged, utterly unrepentant. 'What you need is feeding!'

'Don't start that again, I can't take any more telling!'

Hurrying from the room before Mammy could lecture her further, Scarlett headed down to the dining room. She lingered in the hallway, peeking round the half open door to see if her sister was inside. She spotted her in the seat over by the far window, attacking a sausage with such ferocity Scarlett wondered if the pig it came from had offended her personally. Squaring her shoulders, Scarlett pushed against the door and walked inside.

'Good morning, Susie.'

'Is it?' her sister muttered. 'And don't call me Susie.'

Barely refraining from rolling her eyes at Suellen's miserable demeanour, Scarlett piled her plate with food and took a seat opposite her sister.

'Still here then?'

'No, I left in the middle of the night. You're talking to yourself right now.'

Suellen scowled. Scarlett fought against the urge to throw a boiled egg at her.

'I wish I was,' came her lame retort.

'Look, Sue, I don't like this anymore than you do.'

'Then why don't you leave?'

'Because Tara is my home. I've got just as much right to be here as you have. More, even, seeing as I'm the one that saved this house from being ripped out from under us.'

Suellen's threw her cutlery down onto her plate. 'I knew it! I knew you wouldn't be able to go five minutes without holding that over my head. It was years ago, Scarlett! It's time you left it in the past!'

'And it's time you pulled your head out from your behind and accepted that I'm not going anywhere. Rhett's going to be away on business for at least six months-'

'Six months?'

'Yes, six months.'

'You can't possibly be thinking of staying here that long!'

'I can and I will. I know we've never be the best of friends, but surely we can rub along well enough for the sake of the children?'

'Don't pretend you care about those children,' Suellen huffed. 'You used to dump poor Wade on the rest of us the last time you lived under this roof and I'm betting that's half the reason you've come back now. Rhett's disappeared and you don't want to look after them on your own.'

'You're in no position to school me on mothering, you old peahen!' Scarlett hissed, the barb stinging all the greater because she could not deny it. 'You don't know the first thing about why I'm here!'

'I know it's not because your life in Atlanta is all blue skies and peonies, that's for sure! You're running from something, Scarlett. You don't fool me for a minute.'

'That's strange,' Scarlett snapped, abandoning the rest of her breakfast as she stalked from the room, 'because a fool is the only thing you'll ever be!'

Slamming the door behind her, she stood panting with rage in the hallway, her cheeks flushing crimson when she turned her head and caught sight of Will standing over by the front door.

'Morning, Miss Scarlett,' he greeted evenly, as if she hadn't just called his wife a fool for all the world to hear.

Shamefaced, Scarlett ducked her head and muttered, 'Morning, Will.'

'Fine day ahead.'

Knowing better than to question Will's uncanny ability to predict the weather, Scarlett merely nodded.

'I'm just off out to mend a broken slat in the stable wall. You got anything you need to be doing?'

'Not right now,' she said. Remembering Suellen's spiteful words, she added hastily, 'The children are still sleeping, so they don't need me just yet.'

Will regarded her steadily, then held out a hammer.

She took it gingerly. 'Aren't you afraid I might use it to kill Suellen?'

Will chuckled. 'My wife is even tougher than she looks, Miss Scarlett. She can take a fair few knocks. Just because she don't cry out though don't mean she ain't hurting.'

Chastised, Scarlett muttered, 'I'll apologise.'

Will nodded. 'I'd appreciate that. Best leave it a few hours, though. You can come help me fix the stable wall while she cools off.'

Unused to being ordered around, it was on the tip of Scarlett's tongue to protest. Something about Will's calm, no-nonsense manner settled the churning in her stomach, however, and she found herself following him out into the garden without a fight. They walked together under thick autumn clouds - Scarlett thought Will must be dreaming if he believed the sun was going to break through today - heading around the back of the house towards the stables.

'How many horses do you have here?' she asked.

'Five. Why, you thinking of adding to them?'

Scarlett shuddered. 'No. I don't like horses.'

Most people, realising why, would have stuttered out the sort of a red-faced apology that always left Scarlett cold. Will only nodded, lapsing back into silence as he considered the matter at his own sedate pace. Scarlett felt herself relax as she watched him. She suspected she could grow to rather like this quiet, self-contained man.

'Most folks would say you've got every right to hate them, but I don't much hold with that way of thinking.'

'No?' she asked, surprised to discover she was genuinely interested to hear his opinion.

'No, Ma'am. It ain't the creature's fault it didn't jump, and from what I hear it paid a high price for its mistake. Every horse is its own animal, just like every person. They've all got their quirks, it's up to the rider to learn how to work around them. Besides, a farmer can't get by without a horse, Miss Scarlett. And I've always thought you a first-rate farmer.'

'You have?' she asked, and for once she wasn't fishing for more compliments but trying to give herself time to take it everything he'd just said.

'Yes, Ma'am. And what's more, I think your children might appreciate the chance to try their hand at running this place too. My April is many wonderful things, Miss Scarlett, but a born farmer ain't one of them. And if you're hoping to keep the O'Hara's here at Tara long after mine and your race is run, you're going to have to let go of that big ball of hurt you've been carrying round inside you and buy them both a horse.'

'But what if they fall? I couldn't...not again.'

Will shrugged. 'Seems to me the best answer to that is to consider what'd happen if they don't fall. What if they find a way to fly?'

Scarlett considered this as they stepped into the cool gloom of the stables. It was the first time since she'd lost Bonnie that she'd consented to step inside one. It was the smell of the place that hit her first. That rich, sweet, earthy scent that wrapped around her senses like a blanket. It stung for so many reasons, not least because it reminded her sharply of her missing husband. Rhett had always smelt faintly of horses. Horses and liquor and cigars and an alluring masculine world that Scarlett had always stood on the fringes of, eager to be let inside.

Choking on nostalgia, she walked blindly past the first few stalls.

'It's just at the back here,' Will called from up ahead.

She moved to follow him when a whinny to her left brought her to a halt. Turning, she came face to face with a strikingly handsome stallion. With his ears pricked and his rowan coat gleaming, he would be the envy of any owner, and he knew it too. Prancing up on his toes, he swayed softly from side to side as he lifted his head over the stall door and dropped his chin straight into Scarlett's waiting hand.

'Hello, handsome,' she whispered, stroking the impossibly smooth velvet of his coat. 'What's your name?'

'That'd be Trix,' Will answered, walking back over.

'Is he yours?'

'He was supposed to be, only he's proven too much of a handful for me to manage with the one leg.'

'Spirited, is he?' she asked approvingly.

Will chuckled. 'That's the polite way of describing him.'

'What will you do with him?' Scarlett asked, running her hand down the warm, solid column of his neck as he dipped his head and started nibbling at her dress.

'Stop that!'

'Well, I was thinking of sending him back to Beatrice. She's the one that bred him and she was mighty sore when the time came to sell him on...only now...'

Scarlett paused in her attempts to pull the front of her dress out of Trix's mouth and turned to look at Will.

He glanced from her to the horse and back again. 'Only now I'm thinking that would be a wasted journey.'

Catching drift of his meaning, Scarlett dropped her hands and stepped away. 'I don't know, Will.'

'With all due respect, Miss Scarlett, I think that you do.'

She eyed Trix warily, as if he might leap over the stall door and trample her beneath his hooves. 'It's been such a long time.'

'All the more reason to jump back on. Can't win the race if you ain't even in it, Miss Scarlett.'

Reaching out, she traced a single fingertip over the white star that sat like a crown atop Trix's head. 'Do you have any horses Wade and Ella could ride? They'd need to be small and a lot older, with easy temperaments and no history of bucking.'

Will smile was slow and kind. 'No, but I'm sure Beatrice would be only too happy to set you up. She still talks about you, you know.'

Scarlett wrinkled up her nose. 'As the harridan who shamelessly led on two of her sons, no doubt.'

Will laughed. 'I might have heard something along those lines, I ain't going to lie. But more often that not, she only wants to sing your praises. A real strong woman, she calls you.'

'That's surprising.'

'Is it?' Will asked. 'Beatrice has always admired gumption above all else. Why else would she have given her life over to her sons and her horses? That woman ain't never had no time for weakness.'

Scarlett smiled. 'You know for a Cracker, you aren't half good at reading people, Will.'

Rather than looking offended, Will laughed easily at her judgement. 'All Crackers have a knack for it. Why do you think we like our own company so much?'

Grinning, Scarlett gave Trix one last, considering pat before she stepped away.

'You want to take him for a ride?' Will asked. 'I can fix the wall just fine on my own. I only asked for your help-'

'To take me out from under Suellen's feet. I know, Will. I don't blame you.'

'Actually, I asked because I thought you looked like you could use someone to talk to. Seems to me that whatever had you running here from Atlanta still has you in its grip.'

Scarlett floundered, unprepared for Will to turn his all-seeing eyes in her direction. 'I-'

'Ain't no need to tell me anything you ain't ready to, Miss Scarlett. It's enough that you know I'm around, should the need ever take hold of you. I'm a fair listener, and I can hold my tongue.'

'I already know that, Will,' she assured him, more touched by his offer than she could rightly say. Not since she'd ridden the back lanes with Rhett at her side and Frank's ring on her finger had she felt the warm comfort of having a trusted male confidante. 'How come you never told Suellen we were in contact about Tara? It's hardly a secret.'

He stared her squarely in the eye. 'Because I didn't want to hurt her.'

'Hurt her?' Scarlett repeated, confused. 'How could knowing I wrote to ask you about yields and profit margins possibly hurt her? It's not as though we were writing love letters to each other!'

'No, but the fact her only remaining family saw fit to write to me instead of her would have smarted something sore.'

Scarlett frowned. 'I don't think so, Will. She's never liked me. Not since we were kids here together.'

Will sighed. 'And to think you called her a fool.'

'What do you mean?'

Will shook his head. 'That question ain't for me to answer, Miss Scarlett. You should talk to your sister. Really talk, I mean, not just hissing at each other like a pair of farmyard cats. There's been enough bad blood spilt between you two for one lifetime. I'm thinking your time with us could help you both heal.'

Scarlett was surprised that a small part of her actually wanted to believe him. Suellen had never been her favourite person, but since Careen and now Melly had passed, she could not deny that there was a sister-shaped hole in her heart. But could Suellen - waspish, po-faced Suellen - really fill it?

'Go on, go take Trix out for a ride. I can tell you're itching to,' Will encouraged. Seeing the way Scarlett paled, he swiftly backtracked, 'Or why don't you go get him a carrot. He'd like that. There's plenty up at the house. Mammy doesn't like the rest of us using them for the horses, but she'd probably give you a whole bunch if you asked.'

'Not right now,' Scarlett resisted. After the heaviness of their conversation, she longed for fresh air and open fields. 'Maybe tomorrow.'

Will smiled, taking the hammer from her as he turned away. 'There's no rush, this patch of good weather should be with us for a long while yet. Way I see it, you've got plenty of time.'

Scarlett smiled back. She liked the sound of that.

Leaving Will to his wall, Scarlett ambled out of the stables and crossed the lawn towards the cotton fields. Her mind was blissfully blank as she strolled, content to let her feet take her where she needed to go. They guided her through the cotton fields and down a road that had once led from Tara to Twelve Oaks. It was here she found a patch of earth that - though perfectly indistinguishable from everything that lay around it - would remain forever separate to Scarlett.

As God is my witness, I'm never going to be hungry again.

In the years since, Scarlett was proud to say she'd never gone back on that promise. She'd single-handedly pulled herself and her family out of the jaws of poverty and into the soft belly of luxury. She'd saved herself from destitution and her children from starving.

But in another sense, Scarlett's actions after picking herself up from this patch of dirt had only made her hungrier. Whereas before her rally cry, she'd lived at Tara with her friends and family, surrounded by neighbours she'd known and liked all her life, after it, she'd cut herself off from this safe little world, isolating herself in Atlanta amongst a coven of Old Cats, disapproving townsfolk and a doddery husband she neither loved nor understood.

Secretly, she'd been wasting away from loneliness ever since. Only her friendship with Rhett had nourished her. But eventually even that had turned to nothing but bones and gristle in her mouth.

Overcome with despair, Scarlett lay down on the same earth she'd once stood upon so fiercely, and looked up at the sky. Dark grey clouds rolled overhead, buffeted by a stiff October breeze. Scarlet closed her eyes and breathed it all in. Digging her fingers down into the soil, she rubbed it into her skin like lotion, feeling Clayton County become part of her once again.

If he doesn't come back for me, I will stay here forever, she vowed. I'll work to the bone to bring Tara back to what it was. I'll do everything I can to keep Wade and Ella safe. I'll even try and make it up with Suellen. I'll live a good life and I won't let myself pine away for Rhett.

But though she meant every last word, in her heart she knew she'd always be waiting for him. Knew she'd forever be on the lookout for dust clouds coming up the driveway. Knew she'd never stop introducing herself to people as Mrs. Butler.

But she also knew her love would live on only as a secret thing inside the safety of her own head. She'd never let slip her feelings to anyone or write to Rhett urging him to return. Instead, it would flicker steadily away within her breast, like a candle left burning in a porch window: there to welcome him home should ever come back, but not so great that it would burn down her world if he didn't.

Having made a new vow, Scarlett rose up again, determined to live by it. As she stood up, her wedding ring slipped down over her knuckles and fell onto the dirt. Scarlett scrambled to retrieve it, cursing herself for not having had it tightened before she left Atlanta. She'd grown so thin recently that it was forever sliding off her finger.

Scarlett moved to put it back on, when some impulse stayed her hand. Hadn't she just this minute vowed not to waste her life pining over Rhett? If she truly meant to live by those words then she shouldn't go around wearing his ring. Suellen would no doubt have some choice words for her when she noticed it was missing, but Will and Mammy had already guessed at her predicament and Scarlett was more than used to her sister's sniping already.

Squeezing it in her hand until an angry red circle was branded into the skin of her palm, Scarlett pulled at the front of her dress and slotted the ring between her corset and her breast, letting it rest over her heart. There it would stay until that precious day when Rhett returned and placed it back on her finger where it belonged.

Feeling lighter, Scarlett cast one last look around her, staring at the blackened stones in the distance and remembering for one, shining moment all that this place had been and all that it had once meant to her. Remembered dances in high-ceilinged rooms and barbeques on finely-mowed lawns. Remembered, above all, the blond-haired man who'd once roamed these halls and the excruciating ecstasy of being sixteen and hopelessly in love.

Closing her eyes against the onslaught of emotion, Scarlett turned her back on the past and stepped towards her future. But winding her way slowly through the fields towards Tara, Scarlett knew there was one last thing she had to do before she could truly begin again. Changing her course, she headed away from the house, making for the stables. Will had finished up his job and left in the time she'd been away but Trix was still there, his head turned expectantly towards the open door as if he'd been waiting for her all along.

She stroked his nose, meaning to settle him, but one look at his calm eyes and her trembling hand revealed exactly who was in need of the reassurance. Scarlett shook herself. She was being ridiculous. She'd ridden horses all her life. Had come here in a carriage pulled by them only yesterday. But this would be the first time she'd sat astride a horse since Bonnie's fall. Something that used to come as naturally to her as breathing now felt like choking.

Fetching a halter, Scarlett slipped it over Trix's head and used it to tie him to the post at the back of his stall. After giving him a quick brush, she began the job of saddling him up. All the while she kept stopping to stroke his head and neck, making sure he was happy. She had a mad thought that he wouldn't throw her if only she could make him like her.

Fitting on his bridle, Scarlett looked deep into her horse's eyes and vowed, 'You look after me and I'll look after you.'

Ever the business woman, she knew just how to sweeten the deal. 'We both make it back here in one piece and I'll bring you a bag full of carrots for your supper, agreed?'

Taking the dip of his head for a nod, Scarlett took hold of the reins and led Trix out into the light. Breathing deep, she hoisted her foot up into the stirrup and leapt onto his back. For one terrifying moment, the ground seemed to rush away from her and she felt she was balancing on a narrow ledge miles above the earth.

Then Trix whinnied, impatient to be off, and the sound broke Scarlett out of her stupor. Clicking her tongue, she urged him into a walk which became a slow trot, until suddenly she found herself cantering through the fields, her long hair flying free and her heart lodged firmly in her throat.

Spying a white fence in the distance, Scarlett bent low over Trix's mane and steered him towards it. No more fear. Jumps may have taken her darling Bonnie and her beloved pa, but they wouldn't take her.

'Watch me, Bonnie! Look, Pa! Watch me take this one!' Scarlett cried, and she didn't have to look around to know that they were there, riding alongside her every step of the way.

A flash of terror ran through her as Trix's hooves left the ground, but the horse was strong and his aim was true. They flew through the air as one, landing back onto the ground unscathed and utterly exultant.

Scarlett whooped like a wild thing, every pore of her being on fire. Above their heads, the sun broke through the clouds and transformed the red fields of Tara into an ocean of glittering rubies.

Leaning forward to embrace her new horse, Scarlett laughed, because Will was right.

There were finer days ahead.