'How are the children?' Rhett asked as they wound their way through the woods towards the main dirt road.

If asked why they were riding along at a pace snails would have sniffed at, Scarlett would have said she didn't want to over-exert the horses after their mad dash down the driveway. Yet, in truth, their sluggishness was motivated more by her wish to prolong her time alone with Rhett than any real concern over the well-being of Trix and Ruby.

'They're well,' she answered, pleased she could talk about them with real authority now. 'Ella has found a best friend in Suellen's daughter. The two of them are as thick as thieves. And Wade just adores Tara, Rhett. He may be a Hamilton in name, but he's definitely an O'Hara at heart. I only wish Pa was here to see him. He would have trained him up so well.'

Rhett smiled to hear the new note of pride in Scarlett's voice as she spoke about her children, 'I'm sure you're teaching him just fine. This place is in your bones, Scarlett. You know it better than anyone.'

'Thank you. I always worried what would become of Tara once Will got too old to run it. I'd have hated to disappoint Pa by letting it fall into other people's hands.'

'You could never have disappointed him, my dear,' Rhett said softly. 'I remember the night he came to Atlanta to warn me off you. I've never heard a man sing his child's praises so enthusiastically in all my life.'

'Really?' Scarlett asked, surprised to find tears springing up. She loved to hear tales of her pa. To have been loved that completely was precious, but to have known it too - now that really was a rare and special thing. Scarlett had taken it for granted at the time, convinced it would last forever. Now that Gerald was gone, she felt the loss of it every single day.

'Really,' Rhett affirmed. 'There was a time when I'd have crawled over hot coals to hear my father speak so highly of me.'

Sensing a darkness creeping over him, Scarlett fought to bring back the light. 'I'm surprised Pa made any sense at all given how much you'd tricked him into drinking!'

'I tried my darndest to distract him with liquor, but it only made him wax more lyrically about your fine self.'

'You didn't like him praising me?' Scarlett asked, unable to disguise her hurt.

'Hardly, my dear. No man wants to hear someone list the charms of a woman they dearly want but cannot have.'

Scarlett smiled, mollified. 'Did you really want me so very much, Rhett?' she simpered, angling for more compliments.

Rhett's eyebrow quirked as he regarded her indulgently. 'Indeed, I did, my pet. I could expand upon the subject, but seeing as you want to return to Tara, I suggest we end this line of conversation before I'm forced to dismount and show you just how deep my hunger ran.'

Blushing profusely, Scarlett urged Trix to pick up the pace, worried Rhett would make good on his threat.

Watching her, Rhett chuckled, 'Should I be offended you don't want to experience my ardour, Mrs. Butler? Or perhaps you're afraid you won't be able to control yourself if you do?'

Not wanting to make him any vainer, Scarlett chose not to answer.

Turning her attention to the trees, Scarlett spotted a flash of dusty blue amid the greenery. She pointed it out to Rhett. 'Look, it's a nuthatch.'

Following the line of her arm, Rhett nodded.

'See the way it moves down the trunk head first? That's how you can tell it's a nuthatch.'

'You seem very knowledgeable on the subject, my dear. I didn't have you down for an avid bird watcher.'

'I'm not,' she explained, the words out of her mouth before she had time to think, 'Ashley used to teach me the names of all the trees and creatures when we went riding along here together.'

Her mind caught up with her mouth a few seconds later, her skin prickling as she felt the atmosphere cool. She didn't have to look across at Rhett to know that he had stiffened in his saddle, or that his expression would have darkened like a cloud shifting in front of the sun.

Cursing her stupidity, Scarlett awaited the unwelcome return of the clipped, dangerously smooth voice he always used when talking about Ashley.

'Did you come here often with him?'

There it was, right on time.

'Not that often,' she lied, scrambling to make the best of the situation. 'I came here with the twins far more regularly. But, from time to time, Ashley would call at Tara and ask me to come riding. There was nothing romantic about it, I think he just liked talking about the plants and animals while I listened.'

'Yes, I'm sure the thought of having you as his innocent young protégé was an exceedingly stimulating one,' Rhett sniped.

'So what if he enjoyed my company? Can you blame him? You seem to appreciate it well enough!' Scarlett argued, her temper flaring in response to the sarcasm dripping from Rhett's tongue.

'Undoubtedly,' he acquiesced, 'but did you never pause to consider why he sought you out for these impromptu biology lessons? I know you, Scarlett, you no more care about the differences between an ash and a dogwood than you do about the works of Austen or the art of Rossetti! You'd have made a terrible student, half bored out of your brain by his babbling!'

'He liked me,' Scarlett said defensively.

'Liked having you hang off his every word.'

'You're just jealous!' Scarlett cried, not caring to have some of her only remaining pure memories of Ashley tainted by Rhett's envy.

It was true he had encouraged her unfairly since his marriage to Melanie, but the years before that were still precious to Scarlett. She wanted to believe that Ashley's love for her had been genuine back then, that not every moment of their acquaintance had been a lie.

'Hardly, my pet. I don't envy the poor man for wasting his time and expertise on such an uninterested, closed-minded audience.'

Scarlett wasn't sure whether to scream or cry in response to his insult. Perhaps she had been fooling herself to think that this marriage could work, that their time apart had shaped them into better people. If Rhett was already falling back into old, vicious patterns, maybe they were better off cutting their losses while they were still young enough to try again.

The thought of sharing her life with another man was so disconcerting that it brought Scarlett up short. Tugging on Trix's reins, she slowed the horse to a stop. Realising she was no longer beside him, Rhett turned Ruby around to face her.

'Scarlett?' he asked tentatively, remorse already staining his cheeks.

'No.'

'Excuse me?'

'No, you don't get to do this again. You don't get to lash out at me when you feel threatened, you don't get to tell me you're not jealous when you so clearly are, and you definitely don't get to woo me with a speech about how you want us to let the past go only to start reliving it two minutes later.'

'Scarlett-'

'If this is going to work, Rhett, then you have to stop reacting so badly every time Ashley's name is mentioned! He's a childhood friend, and Beau and Wade still write to each other every week, so I'm going to have to talk about him sometimes. I shouldn't have to endure an earful every time I do, either. I know it must have been awful for you in the past, I know that, but I'm not in love with him anymore. Even when I was, we never acted on it, not like you and Belle-'

'That's not the same,' Rhett cut in.

'No, it's worse!'

'It's really not. While I may have been unfaithful with my body, I was never unfaithful in my heart. Not one single time.'

Scarlett shrugged, sulking. 'I don't see the difference.'

'You wouldn't,' Rhett grinned, his smile fading when he took in her wounded expression. He sighed, running his hand down over his face. 'I never would have gone near Belle if you hadn't thrown me out of our marital bed. I would not have looked at another woman, much less touched one, if you had not scorned me.'

Scarlett scowled, refusing to be swayed. Sweet, honeyed words had always come easily to Rhett. Sincerity, less so.

'That's not true and you know it! If you did not care for her then why did you keep on visiting her? And I know for a fact it started long before I asked you for separate bedrooms, so don't try and pretend otherwise. Years before our marriage, she gave Melanie donation money wrapped up in one of your handkerchiefs!'

Rhett whistled through his teeth. 'You've never told me that before.'

'Because it isn't decent to talk about! I didn't know what to do when I saw your initials on that handkerchief. I had to burn it to stop poor Melanie from having palpitations!'

'And perhaps also because you did not like to think of me consorting with her?' Rhett asked hopefully.

'So what if I didn't?' Scarlett raged. 'No man should go near those women!'

'And yet I could name dozens of Atlanta men who do. Shall I relay them to you now, Scarlett? I think you'd be shocked by some of the names. It's incredible what people who play gentlemen in the day are apt to get up to at night.'

'I don't care to hear such things,' Scarlett huffed, revulsion winning out over curiosity. Men were such ugly beasts, lording it over their wives while betraying them with whores. 'I don't know why anyone visits them.'

Rhett's face softened when confronted with her honest bewilderment. 'I know you don't, Scarlett. I don't rightly know myself. All I can say is that men are built differently to women. We crave physical connection the way you dream of romantic love.'

Scarlett froze, an awful suspicion creeping over her. 'Is that all you want for me, too?'

'How I wished that was all I wanted from you, Scarlett. Do you know how much easier my life might have been if I'd only desired your body and not your heart? I'd have taken you as my mistress that day in the jailhouse, put aside a few sweet months to get you out of my system, and then been free. Instead, I could not bear to disrespect you in that manner, not when I still hoped to win your love.'

Scarlett cast him a suspicious glance from the corner of her eye, still unwilling to face him. 'But that's not how it was between you and Belle?'

'No. I needed what she was selling to stem the loneliness of an empty bed, that's all. I won't lie to you, Scarlett, I liked and admired her - difficult though that may be for you to comprehend given the nature of her profession - but I never loved her.'

'And I loved Ashley without ever touching him. So where does that leave us, Rhett?'

'At opposite sides of the same coin, my pet,' Rhett sighed, smiling wanly. 'I apologise for my outburst, Scarlett. I have no business berating you for bringing up Ashley's name. I meant it when I said I want us to move on from the past. It just seems that the break isn't going to be as clean as I'd originally hoped.'

'I forgive you,' she said, proud that Rhett had grown enough in the last six months to admit his mistakes instead of doubling down on them. 'I suppose it wouldn't really be us if there wasn't a little arguing involved.'

Rhett grinned, 'It's far more exciting this way, don't you agree?'

Scarlett snorted as she nudged Trix into a trot. 'Yes, but can we also agree that we've had enough excitement for one day, please?'

'We can,' Rhett said amicably, turning Ruby around and falling back into step beside Scarlett. 'When did you last see Ashley?'

Sensing her hesitation, Rhett encouraged her, 'I'm not asking to antagonise you, Scarlett. I genuinely want to know.'

'When I attended Melly's funeral.'

Rhett reached across and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. 'That must have been a harrowing day. I'm sorry I couldn't be there to share it with you. I just couldn't bring myself to stand at the graveside of another good woman taken far too young. Not after Bonnie.'

'I understand, Rhett. It was very difficult,' she said quickly, determined not to dwell on painful things that could not be undone, 'but I managed to get through it.'

'You always do. You're a born survivor, Scarlett. I've always admired that about you.'

Accepting the compliment with a small smile, Scarlett was glad when Rhett steered the conversation towards happier topics.

'What reason did you give Wade and Ella for my sudden disappearance?'

'Oh, I just told them you'd gone on another trip abroad. You know I've never been very good at making up excuses, Rhett. Besides, it's not like they weren't used to you taking off for months on end without any notice.'

Hearing the bitterness in her voice, Rhett commented dryly, 'See, my dear, despite all of our best intentions, it's not always so easy to leave past resentments behind, is it?'

Rolling her eyes at him, Scarlett bit back, 'Maybe not, but at least I kept myself from starting an argument.'

'Granted, but then you've always been a much better person than I,' Rhett parried smoothly.

'Isn't that the truth!' Scarlett giggled, the sound of Rhett's answering laughter letting her know that they had made it through their first fight relatively unscathed. She only hoped that the next one - which, knowing them, was bound to be just around the corner - would prove as easy to navigate.

She felt lighter in the aftermath of their confrontation, secure now that Rhett wouldn't run away the moment things got tough. The ghosts of Ashley and Belle had been put to rest too, their pallid spectres no match for the spring sunshine.

'Mother!'

Glancing up, Scarlett saw Wade waving to her from the bottom of Tara's long driveway. Beneath the imposing avenue of cedars ran a fence which marked out the plantation's boundaries. Alongside it, sledgehammer in hand, stood Will, shadowed as always by her ever-eager son.

Waving back, Scarlett leant closer to Rhett and whispered, 'I think we've been spotted.'

He grinned wistfully. 'Do you think it's too late for us to ride off?'

'We could try,' she laughed, only half joking.

A yelp from Wade put paid to their escape plans.

'Damn, I think he's seen me,' Rhett said, flashing Scarlett a smirk before swinging down to greet the young man running full-pelt towards him.

'Uncle Rhett!' Wade cried as he reached him, his face splitting open into a guileless smile. 'You're back!'

Reaching up, he threw his arms around Rhett's middle and squeezed him tight.

'I am, and to such a warm welcome! I take it you're pleased to see me?'

'Yes, sir,' Wade said, extracting himself from the hug and casting a nervous look back at Will to see if he'd noticed.

Rhett's lips thinned as he took in the depth of their bond with one penetrating glance. 'Good, because I intend to be around for a long time to come,' he stated, looking over Wade's head to stare straight at Will.

Oblivious to his stepfather's insecurity, Wade smiled. 'I'm glad. I know Ella will be too. Uncle Will and I are making sure the fence is secure before the storm hits tonight. Do you want to help us?'

'Not right now, son,' Rhett said. 'I'm afraid I'm not dressed for manual labour. Perhaps tomorrow you could show me round Tara? Your mother's just been telling me how very proud she is of all the hard work you've put into the farm.'

Glowing under the praise, Wade looked to Scarlett for confirmation. She smiled and nodded her head. 'Just wait until you see the size of his piglet, Rhett!'

'Piglet?'

'Yes, sir. One of our sows died while giving birth a month ago and mother had us all choose a piglet to rear. She said the one who manages to raise the heaviest piglet gets a prize, and mine is the biggest so far. It's fatter than Mammy's and Aunty Sue's combined!'

Ruffling Wade's hair, Rhett looked back over his shoulder at Scarlett. 'Did she now?'

Flushing under the warmth of his gaze, Scarlett shrugged. 'I got the idea from something Pa did for me once. I thought the children might enjoy it. Anything to stop Ella from bawling over the poor sow.'

'How thoughtful of you,' he said. It was a marker of how far they had come that his words contained not a single jot of sarcasm. 'Tell me, when is this competition to be decided?'

'Tonight.'

'Then it seems I arrived back right on time.'

Scarlett rolled her eyes. 'If you'd come back two days ago you could have helped me feed mine. I swear Will gave me the runt on purpose.'

'Did he now?' Rhett asked, turning away to regard Suellen's husband coldly.

To his credit, Will didn't flinch under Rhett's scrutiny. He hadn't so much as raised an eyebrow since he'd first spotted Scarlett and her errant husband riding towards him. She was grateful for his tact, once again overcome with a rush of affection for the silent, self-contained man who had become a cornerstone of her family.

Will approached Rhett and held out his hand in greeting. 'Will Benteen, Suellen's husband. I take it you're the other man lucky enough to have gotten himself hitched to an O'Hara woman.'

Rhett's stoic demeanour softened at Will's words, a reluctant smirk playing across his lips as he reached out to shake the proffered hand. 'Rhett Butler. Guilty as charged, I'm afraid. Although I'm not too sure if lucky is the word I would have chosen.'

'Why, what word would you have picked, Rhett?' Scarlett asked, dismounting.

Coming to stand next to her husband, she smirked vainly when he slid a possessive arm round her waist and drew her against his side.

Looking into her eyes, he murmured quietly, 'Personally, I'd have gone with blessed.'

Scarlett laughed and swatted him on the chest. 'Personally, I think you're a smooth-talking skunk of a man and no woman should take a word you say seriously.'

'Personally, I disagree,' he teased, tickling her waist until she squealed.

Scarlett extracted herself from his arms, aware she was acting like a lovesick ninny in front of Will and her son.

'We'll leave you two to get on with it. Have you a lot more to do?'

'This is almost the last of it now,' Will said. 'We should be in for supper.'

'Good, or Mammy will have your guts for garters.'

'With all due respect, Miss Scarlett, I don't think we're the ones who should be worrying about her today.'

'Is she terribly cross with me?' Scarlett asked, her smile disappearing as she imagined Mammy sitting around stewing all day.

'You know Mammy, Miss Scarlett. The harder she loves someone, the worse she comes down on them. And you've always been her favourite.'

Unsure whether to be flattered or frightened by Will's assessment, Scarlett tugged on Rhett's arm.

'Perhaps we'd better be getting on home.'

'After that damning prediction?' he asked, incredulous. 'I think we'd be safer packing up the children and catching a steamboat to Europe.'

As appealing as that sounded, after saying their goodbyes to Wade and Will, they remounted their horses and headed for Tara.

'Will seems like a pleasant enough fellow,' Rhett remarked as they emerged out from under the trees and approached the stables.

'He is,' Scarlett replied noncommittally, her attention on the house. She strained her eyes trying to peer into the windows and see if anyone was watching them.

'Wade seems rather fond of him,' he continued flatly.

Fighting to supress a smile, Scarlett felt some teasing was in order.

'Oh yes, Wade simply adores him,' she gushed as they entered the cool, musty shade of the stables. 'He follows behind Will wherever he goes. Just the other day, Suellen said he reminds her of a duckling trailing after its parent, and she's not far wrong. You'd think they'd have run out for things to talk about, but it's been six months now and they're still as attached to one another as they were the first day we arrived. Will's so good with him. He's such a wonderful man, how Suellen managed to snare him I'll never know!'

Rhett didn't respond, but his silence told her exactly what he thought of her little speech. As did the violent way he dismounted Ruby and the excessive banging and clattering he made while putting away his saddle and settling her back in her stall.

Scarlett let him smoulder while she brushed down Trix. For so long jealously had been an ugly emotion between them, gnawing away at their marriage from the inside out. But this was different. This was jealously made fun and thrilling, something to make her heart fizzle with laughter rather than ache with sadness.

Walking over to him, Scarlett wrapping her arms around his neck and nuzzled her face against his jaw.

She felt him bring his own arms up to cradle her, touched that even when he was upset, he still felt the need to draw her close.

She pulled his face down to meet hers and looked him square in the eye, 'Rhett?'

'Hmm?' he murmured absent-mindedly.

'Rhett,' she repeated louder, tugging on the fine hairs of his nape until he looked at her properly.

'What, my dear?'

'Ruby's not the only one around here who knows how to tease somebody.'

He stared at her blankly before a knowing light dawned slowly across his swarthy face.

'What are you saying, my pet?' he asked lightly, the tips of his fingers twitching against her waist in a silent threat.

'I'm saying that while Will's a good man and Wade likes him a lot, you're the one he thinks of as his father.'

'So, you lied to me,' he accused, his fingers dancing across her skin until she yelped. 'You cruelly toyed with my emotions for your own amusement. Whomever did you learn such dirty tricks from, I wonder? Well, I only hope you enjoyed making me squirm half as much as I'm about to.'

Before she had a chance to argue, he was on her, tickling her mercilessly as she screamed and twitched in his arms, giggling so hard that she feared she would pass out if he didn't stop.

'Say you're sorry,' Rhett commanded, grinning down at her as he continued his torment. 'Say you're sorry and I'll stop.'

'I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!' Scarlett cried, her pride be damned.

'That's quite all right, Mrs. Butler,' Rhett said primly, dropping his hands so fast it was as if he'd never touched her.

Scarlett scowled. He was unbelievable, but he was hers and in that moment she had never been gladder for it. Most of her adult life had felt like a life-or-death struggle, the odds forever mounted against her. She deserved to have some fun now, to cast off her worries and play silly games with the man who'd always wanted to be on her team. Before they could begin properly though, there was one last hurdle to climb over.

'Are you ready for your big reintroduction?' she asked, leading Rhett out of the stables and towards the house. The building, as familiar and beloved as her own face, suddenly looked cold and forbidding to Scarlett. She pictured Mammy hiding inside its walls, waiting to pounce.

'I suppose so, my dear,' he said. 'Although I do have one request.'

'What's that?' she asked, spinning round to face him as they stepped up onto the porch.

She felt a rush of cold air at her back as Rhett opened the front door and pushed her into the hallway. 'You go first. Mammy will be less likely to murder me if you're standing in the way.'

'Don't tell me the fearless Captain Butler is afraid of little old Mammy?' she teased, hooking her fingers between the buttons of his shirt as she walked backwards down the corridor.

'Not afraid, my pet,' he said, leaning forward to steal a quick kiss, 'Terrified.'

Scarlett giggled and pulled him close, crushing her lips to his.

A cough had them springing apart like a pair of burglars caught in the act. Spinning round, Scarlett was dismayed to find Mammy stood halfway up the stairs, glaring down at them with a face like thunder.