Disclaimer: I own nothing in regard to GWTW. I am not making any money on this writing.

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

Chapter Fourteen

When Wade and Rhett returned in the middle of the night, Scarlett heard them enter the hotel room. She had not been asleep. She jumped out of the bed and hurried into the common room. She ran over and took Wade out of Rhett's arms. She said, "If you ever steal my child away again, I will kill you. Somehow, someway."

With those words, Scarlett hurried back into her bedroom with the sleeping boy in her arms. When Rhett tried to follow her, he found the door would not open. He sighed. He went and slept in Wade's room.

Mystic Rhett thought, 'Why can't we just apologize? We have never apologized to Scarlett for all the awful things we have done to her. No wonder she doesn't love us. What I don't understand is how to we justify to ourselves that ever treating the woman we love that way is right or deserved.'

Rhett laid in Wade's bed and thought, 'Why can she not see I am the better man? I buy her presents, let her spend my money, and bring her sexual satisfaction. What more could she want?'

After lying there for a few minutes, Rhett thought, 'Maybe I should tell her that I love her. No. If I told her of my feelings, she would just use those emotions against me. She just needs to wake up and see that I love her.'

Rhett failed to acknowledge to himself that in truth he wasn't allowing any of his emotions to show therefore there was nothing for her to wake up and see.

The next morning Scarlett would not let Wade out of her sight. It was not a problem the boy didn't want to leave his mother.

At first, Wade was happy about going to New Orleans with his daddy, but the longer he was away from his mother the more he began to worry that his daddy wasn't ever going to return to his mother. Wade had been left with a maid at the hotel while Daddy conducted business. At those times he would worry that Daddy wasn't going to come back for him. He had no idea what he would do if that happened.

One thing Wade knew was that he would never willingly leave his mother again. It made him feel good that she acted like she had missed him as much as he had missed her.

Although Scarlett was speaking to Rhett again, they had lost the relaxed comradery they had since they had gotten married. She no longer asked him to ride out to her sawmills with her. She started focusing on their new home, but she stopped asking him what he thought of any of her design choices.

Rhett started going out alone a couple of nights a week. He went to The Painted Lady. He played cards and talked to other men. Sometimes these conversations led to business deals, but most of the time it was just talk. He was making some money over the poker table.

Although Rhett acted like nothing had changed his other self knew he was regretting his actions nonetheless he would not apologize. Mystic Rhett thought, 'Why can't we just say we were wrong? It doesn't matter now. We broke something in the relationship.'

At the end of September, a tragedy happened to Frank Kennedy. He died. Nobody knew for sure, but the man clutched his chest then fell to the ground. Dr. Meade thought it was a heart attack. His sister, Edna, came up from Jonesboro and arranged the funeral. The funeral was at the store because Frank hadn't had a home of his own. He had lived in a room behind the store.

Edna found that Frank had five hundred dollars in cash in a sock in his dresser.

After the funeral Edna told Ashley and the other employee, George Dayton, that she was going to close the store and sell off the stock.

Ashley said, "Why not sell it to me and George?"

"Alright. How much will you give me for it?"

"One hundred dollars."

"There is more here in stock than a hundred dollars. Two hundred and fifty dollars."

George said, "I don't have any money."

Ashley said, "I can give you two hundred dollars."

Ashley had to do something. Jobs were still hard to come by and he wasn't qualified to do anything but sit in a library and read fine books while drinking good wine. Kennedy's was an established business with a good trade. Frank had told Ashley that he had already made a lot of money through the store.

Ashley thought for a moment about accepting Scarlett's offer to become a manager at one of her sawmills and rejected it immediately. No, that would not do. He was not a salesman, although he had gotten better about actually trying to sell items. Furthermore, with her marriage, he had finally gotten her out of his life except for a few social visits.

The problem was that Ashley wanted her in a physical way so very much. He always had. It had not lessened with her marriage to Rhett. If anything, it had gotten worse. He would often bemoan the fact that Rhett was being intimate with Scarlett, and he wasn't. In fact, he wasn't being intimate with anyone.

Ashley now knew that what he felt for Scarlett was lust not love. He had to dress it up as love because to lust after her would have been dishonorable.

Ashley's sexual desire was made worse by the fact he and Melly couldn't have relations. The more he saw Scarlett the more he wanted her. She would never be his now because she was married to another man. She would never cross that line. He didn't even know if she would have crossed that line that day in the orchard. The thought of her with Butler was driving him insane with jealousy. No, he had to keep a wall between them.

The other problem was that he only had one hundred dollars saved up. Maybe Scarlett would lend him the rest. Of course, she would. She would be happy to help him get ahead. He said to himself, 'It will just be a loan and once it is paid off, she will be out of my life more or less.'

Edna said, "I will take it just to be done with this entire mess."

"I will get my attorney to draw up the papers."

"Have him come see me in Jonesboro. I live at seventy-five Cotton Patch."

"I know where that is. Give me a couple of days to get the money together."

"Of course."

Scarlett was at the National Hotel in their restaurant having dinner with Rhett, Wade, Suellen, and Will. Ellen was up in their suite with Mammy. Suellen would let Ellen nurse before they got on the train. It would throw the child schedule off, but it could not be helped.

Suellen had been determined to attend Frank's funeral. She wanted to make sure the rat-bastard was really dead. She was thanking her lucky stars he hadn't married her. Here she would be with a dead husband and a small child with no way to support herself. Instead, she was married to wonderful Will, who was managing Tara quite well. He was turning himself into a gentleman. He knew how to read now and for the most part always spoke and acted correctly.

Scarlett complimented her sister by saying, "You certainly have gotten your shape back fast."

Suellen whispered, "I think it is because I am nursing Ellen, because I am eating like a horse."

"I might try that next time. It took me forever to get my shape back with Wade."

"I would recommend it."

The sisters smiled at each other.

The next day Ashley called on Scarlett at the hotel. She happily went down to meet him in the lobby. She would have invited him up to the suite, but that would have been improper. There was no one to chaperon them and she didn't want people gossiping about her any more than they already were.

After Scarlett had joined Ashley in the lobby, they took seats on one of the sofas that were available. Ashley said, "You look beautiful as always."

"Thank you, Ashley."

"As you know Frank has passed away."

"Yes."

"His sister is willing to sell the store to me for two hundred dollars."

"That is a good deal, but you could always become the manager of one of my sawmills instead."

"No, I think not."

Mystic Rhett said, "He can't take a job from you. It would demean his masculinity."

Scarlett thought, 'Same problem all men have with working for me."

Ashley continued, "I have a hundred dollars. Could you lend me the rest?"

"You want to borrow a hundred dollars?"

"Yes."

"I will not lend you the money, but instead I will become your partner."

Ashley smiled a weak smile and said, "I don't want a partner."

"But I do. That is the only way I will give you the money."

Ashley mentally groaned and said, "Then I guess we are going to be partners. I will get Uncle Henry to draw up the papers."

Scarlett smiled a triumphant smile and said, "Great."

Ashley stood up and said, "I will let you know when the papers are ready to sign."

Scarlett stood up and said, "Great. See you then."

Ashley turned to walk away as Rhett was entering the lobby. The two men greeted each other as Ashley was walking out.

Scarlett had waited for Rhett to join her. He walked over to her and said, "What were you doing meeting him here in front of everyone?"

"I thought it would be better than meeting him behind closed doors in our suite without a chaperon."

"He should have brought Miss Melly with him."

Scarlett turned to head toward the stairs. She said over her shoulder, "It was business. Nothing Melly would know anything about."

Rhett followed her and said, "What kind of business?"

"We are going to buy Frank's store from his sister. We will be partners."

"Partners. What the hell are you talking about? You know absolutely nothing about running a store."

"I didn't know how to run a sawmill either, but I did quite well at that."

"Neither one of you has the brains to pour water out of a boot."

"I am a lot smarter than you seemed to think. Especially in regard to business."

"If you want to throw your money away by going into business with Ashley, I won't stop you."

Rhett and Scarlett had reached the suite door by then and she said, "That's right. You can't stop me."

As the couple walked into the suite, Rhett said, "I could if I wanted to. I have complete control over all your legal contracts."

Mystic Rhett was saying, "Calm down. Don't lose your temper. You always lose when you lose your temper. Say something to appease him."

"I am tired of working so hard at the sawmills. It is also dangerous for me to keep driving out there. I can sell the mills. The store will be enough to keep me happy. It will give me more time to spend with my trashy friends."

"If you sell your sawmills, I will allow you to become partners in the store with Ashley. Although I will not be happy if you end up spending all day every day down at the store."

"Of course not. Ashley knows how to run the store. I will become a silent partner."

Mystic Rhett said, "Smile at him." Scarlett did. Rhett begrudgingly smiled back. Mystic Rhett knew his other self wasn't happy about this at all. He also knew that his other self didn't know how to stop Scarlett without revealing too much. For the first time ever Mystic Rhett thought, 'Just tell her you love her and always will. But I won't because I am afraid of her using my love against me.'

Scarlett said, "After dinner I will go see Uncle Henry."

"I will go with you."

"I don't need you going with me."

"Nonetheless, I will be going with you. I will go arrange to have our dinner brought to the suite."

"Alright."

Mystic Rhett said, "He loves you and is jealous of your feelings for Ashley."

Scarlett thought, 'I don't know why I think that. He certainly doesn't act like a man in love. Except for his gifts I have never seen any display of affection from Rhett. If he treated me nicer, I might fall in love with him, but I won't because he is so nasty far too often.'

Mystic Rhett sighed. It was true. His other self did not behave like a man in love.