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

Chapter Nine

Needless to say, Miranda, Elizabeth, and his relatives were mortified by Rhett's actions. More Miranda than Elizabeth and his relatives. The men and women who were gossiping about Rhett were speculating about why Miranda couldn't keep her husband in Charleston much less home at night. The women then discussed how Miranda had let herself go and no wonder her husband was looking elsewhere.

Elizabeth had written to her son. In her letter she wrote. 'There is a rumor going around that you are calling on a young girl in Atlanta. Tell me this isn't true. It will be so embarrassing to all your relatives if you are truly behaving so badly. You need to nip this in the bud. If not for Miranda's sake than for my sake.'

Rhett had written back. 'You will be happy to know that I am no longer seeing the young lady. She stopped seeing me the moment she found out I was a married man.'

After Elizabeth received Rhett's letter, she was happy that he had stopped behaving badly, but sad that because of a broken buggy wheel almost twenty years ago, Rhett would never be happy.

After Scarlett and Rhett had been separated for two months. She decided she was going to sell the sawmills. She just couldn't deal with Ashley after this. It was going to be all she could do to keep putting one foot in front of the other foot. She didn't have the energy to push Ashley or prevent Johnny from stealing from her. They would have to become someone else's problems. She would spend all her time at the store. Maybe she would open another store. After all, she didn't have a husband to occupy her time.

When Scarlett went to visit Ashley one afternoon, she spoke her usual words about him barely covering cost and that he needed to go out and sell more lumber. At the end of her spiel she added, "I am going to see Uncle Henry tomorrow about selling my mills."

"What?"

"I'm going to focus on the store."

"If you sell your half of this mill, we won't ever get to see each other."

"True, except at church and family events."

"We … we … won't have any….."

"Oh, Ashley, you were right the day the war started. We are too different to live happily together. Besides, we could never be together until Melly died. I really don't want Melly to die. She is my best friend."

"Scarlett, have you fallen out of love with me."

Scarlett laughed and said, "Ashley, I never loved you. You were someone I made up in my fourteen-year-old heart." She looked at his shocked face and said, "I know what real love is now."

"You love Rhett Butler?!"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Why did you break up?"

Scarlett ignored the question and said, "Also I hate poetry. Do you want to sell your half of this sawmill?"

"No, no. What else am I trained to do?"

"Nothing, I guess. Goodbye."

Scarlett went to see Henry Hamilton about selling her mills. Henry looked at his niece-in-law and was amazed at how sad she looked. She certainly hadn't looked that sad after Charlie had died. Of course, he hadn't seen her until Charlie had been gone for a year, but he knew for a fact that she had not been this sad after Frank was killed.

Henry didn't ask any questions. He knew like everyone else that her gentleman caller had stopped calling on her. He was sorry for her, but romances didn't always work out. He could attest to that. After three failed romances, he had given up on love. It seemed any woman he thought interesting, didn't find him interesting. He shook those thoughts off and said, "How can I help you today, Scarlett?"

"I would like to sell my mills."

"Did you ask Ashley if he wanted to sell his part?"

"Yes, and he doesn't want to."

"How much do you want?"

"A thousand dollars but I will settle for anything more than seven hundred and fifty dollars."

"Not a lot of people have that much money."

"I know but I put a lot of time and energy in building up those mills from scratch. I'm not giving them away."

"Very well. Was there anything else?"

"No, that is it."

"I will let you know when I hear anything."

Scarlett stood up and said, "Thank you."

As Scarlett got to the door, Henry said, "I should be able to afford to get Sarah Jane a new dress soon."

"I'm sure she would like that, goodbye."

"Goodbye."

When Scarlett got to her buggy, she decided to stop at the bookstore. She finished the book she was reading last night.

Scarlett had been in the bookstore for about ten minutes when Rhett was driving by in his buggy. He recognized her buggy and decided to stop. He hoped she would talk to him, but at least he would get to see her. His missing her was a lot worse now than it had been before he saw her at the train station five months ago. She was the woman he had always wanted her to be mature, out of love with Ashley, and in love with him.

Rhett walked around one of the bookshelves and there was Scarlett. He just stared at her. She was looking at a book by Alexandre Dumas. It was The Three Musketeers. Rhett said, "That is a good book."

Scarlett looked up and saw him. Her face broke into an extremely happy smile. Then she remembered he was not someone she could have a relationship with. She then frowned.

Rhett quickly said, "Let me explain what happened."

With foolish hope in her heart Scarlett thought, 'Maybe there is an honorable reason for his actions.' She said, "Go ahead."

"I married Miranda when I was twenty-two to avoid a scandal. I had taken her on a buggy ride in the afternoon. My buggy wheel got caught in a rut and when I tried to get it out, it broke. We had to walk back into town. We didn't get back until after dark, therefore, I had compromised her. I only married her to save my reputation, my families' reputation, and my extended families' reputations on both sides."

"Oh."

"I have never loved her. I don't even like her. She is a ninny. She is just like your sister-in-law Melly."

"Oh."

"And about as attractive also."

Scarlett giggled and said, "Rhett, don't say that about Melly."

"I fell instantly in love with you at the train station. That is why I did the uncouth thing of asking you to have coffee with me. I honestly was hoping that after being in you your company I would discover that you were a ninny. Unfortunately for me the more time I spent in your company the more in love with you I was."

"Oh Rhett."

"Can we meet quietly? No one will ever know."

"I would love to say yes, but people always find out these things." With a sigh, Scarlett continued, "If it was just me, I would accept your offer, but I have to think about what is best for Wade and Ella."

Scarlett turned and hurried out of the store. Rhett didn't try to stop her. He agreed with everything she had said. The fear of someone finding out would eat her up inside. She might cheat other businessmen, she might sell greenwood, she might marry a man for his money, so her family and she could survive but forgoing all her raising just for her happiness was not something Ellen Robillard's daughter could ever do.

Rhett bought the book Scarlett had been looking at. He would leave it on the swing on her front porch. Hopefully, she would go ahead and read it.

Rhett left the bookstore shortly after Scarlett. He wasn't mad at her. He was mad at the situation. He briefly wondered if he had stayed could they have truly been happy. Maybe. Yet he really didn't think so. There had been too much pain and unhappiness between them. Of course, Bonnie's death would have been like an anchor around their happiness. One thing he was happy about. In this lifetime he had never said anything ugly or hurtful to her. In their previous lifetime he had always been saying hurtful things to her because of her steadfast love for Ashley. That bulldog stubbornness had always set off his temper.

Rhett stopped thinking about their past life and started thinking about how he could solve their current dilemma. He knew without a doubt he would solve this dilemma. Somehow, someway. He refused to acknowledge there was no way no matter what. There just had to be a way.

Rhett briefly considered killing Miranda. It would not be the first time he had killed, yet he couldn't kill her. In truth, she was just a pawn in the travesty of his life. He would shelve that idea for now, but maybe he would revisit it later.

Instead, Rhett thought about having another child with Scarlett. They couldn't get Bonnie back. The timeline was all wrong. Yet, he continued to hope that they could.

Rhett did drop the book off at Scarlett's home. She found it later that day and it made her happy, he had gone ahead and bought it for her. She found the note. It said: I will always love you. It made her so happy because she knew she would always love him too.

After Rhett and Scarlett's conversation at the bookstore he went to see his attorney. He knew he would have to find another way to stay in her life. Once he was in Will's office, he said, "I want to buy a couple of sawmills if they are put on the market."

"I know of a couple of sawmills that are for sale."

"No, I want to buy these in particular. I don't think Mrs. Kennedy has put them on the market."

"Let me check?"

Will got up and got a folder out of the file cabinet. He brought it back to his desk. He opened it and said, "This is everything that is for sale in Atlanta."

Rhett looked at the mass of papers in the file and said, "I guess there is a lot of items for sale."

"Yes, houses and businesses."

"What about horses, carriages, and buggies?"

"No, you just have to ride around Atlanta looking for sale signs. Although finding any good deals is going to be hard."

"Of course. The sawmills are owned by Scarlett Kennedy. One is on Decatur Road just past Shantytown and the other is on Buckingham Rd just past Brown St."

"Let me see if there is anything in here about those."

After about five minutes of Will sorting through the papers, he said, "No, there is nothing for sale by Mrs. Kennedy."

Rhett stood up and said, "If you hear of her selling those mills. Offer her a thousand dollars."

Will stood up also and said, "Are they worth that much?"

"I don't know. I am going to ride out and look at them. If they aren't I will be back."

"Yes, Mr. Butler."

"I will pay Eric on my way out."

"Yes, sir."

Will thought Rhett's behavior strange but he had been a lawyer long enough to know that his clients could get strange thoughts in their heads.

Rhett rode out to the mill on Decatur Road. It had been Scarlett's first mill. Rhett did not enter the clearing. He didn't want anyone to see him. The mill did not look in as good of shape as he remembered it from last time, but he was not sure. He did not care. He was buying the mills to separate her from Mr. Wilkes. That was all. He would resell them quickly even if he had to take a loss. He rode to the bend in the road where he had waited for her when she was carrying Ella and smiled. Those rides may have been the highlight of their relationship. Their physical relationship certainly hadn't been.