Hello Dear Readers!

Your author has delayed the update again, I apologize for this...

Thank you for reading, leaving comments, sharing your thoughts and feelings. It is very important and means a world to me! :)

The new chapter is here. The link for our inspiration is below

https//polinka22malinka/776502671354036224/my-inspiration-for-the-chapter-23-of-the-story?source=share

Enjoy reading!:)

Chapter 23

A day passed after the trip to the estate, and on a sunny April morning, just after breakfast, Scarlett watched with interest the passing carriages and pedestrians through the window while the maid cleared the table. Wade was changing into his riding costume, while and Ella and Rhett were changing their clothes too, for her obnoxious husband, could not eat his breakfast in peace and made a show of teaching their little daughter how to eat pancakes with syrup. In the end, they both ended up in the syrup and Scarlett was a little bit angry at him.

She noticed the sound of soft footsteps nearby and before could turn her head, she heard his cheerful voice, "And why is my wife frowning?"

Scarlett wrinkled her nose slightly, then turned to see those black, laughing eyes and froze for a moment. Sometimes her breath caught at the sight of him. It seemed to her that there was something special, something unfathomable. Something definitely for her.

But she quickly dismissed that feeling, looked at him belligerently and said sternly, "Rhett, you don't have to turn every meal into a game! Children have to learn manners and..."

"Darling," he interrupted her gently, "children should be comfortable around their parents, around the table. They shouldn't be afraid to pick up the wrong fork," he continued, hinting that Scarlett had scolded Wade a little about it recently.

She looked at him even more sternly and said, "But they should know etiquette, behaviour rules, Rhett! I'll be judged by others because of their manners and..."

"What about me?" he asked, no longer smiling.

She looked at him perplexed, and he clarified, "I won't be judged? Scarlett, these are my children, just like yours..."

She didn't know what to say, realizing that he really wanted to be a real father to Wade and Ella, that he was succeeding, but in the eyes of society he would always be a stepfather. She'd heard such gossip from the ladies in the sewing circles more than once, and suspected that their life was discussed with equal interest in her absence.

She looked at him more gently, realizing that didn't want to hurt him and that she could make with the gossip herself, so she just said, "Okay, I can understand that, but they need to learn to behave, otherwise..."

Rhett smiled again and just replied, "They're doing fine as it is, they're observant, Scarlett... I think they'd behave themselves perfectly in any decent Charleston house. But, I repeat, they're so young, Darling. And let's save the games and fun for our house..."

"I guess our house is indecent," she mumbled, trying to make a joke, turned back to the window and, hearing him laugh, felt him hug her from behind.

"I'm very glad our house is going to be 'indecent', Darling," he whispered to her cheerfully, adding meaningfully, "or at least some of its rooms."

Scarlett bristled and whispered, "Rhett, shut up! You are incorrigible!"

She felt his warm breath on her neck and whispered, "Stop it, you, crazy..." as she saw Ross through the window entering their gate.

"Oh Rhett, look, your brother's finally here! God, I haven't seen him in days, but it feels like we haven't talked in ages," she said, gently removing his hands from her waist.

She caught Ross' eye through the window and waved cheerfully. In response, Ross lifted his hat slightly in greeting, but barely smiled.

"What's the matter with him, Rhett?" she asked, adjusting the emerald sash of her cream-coloured house dress.

Rhett shrugged and Scarlett hurried to the hall to meet her brother-in-law.

"Ross, at last! Hello!" she chirped, smiling and touching his shoulder lightly, taking his hat from his hands and placing it on the table by the large mirror.

"Come on, come in quickly, I'll ask them to serve us some coffee and you and I can talk things over! Do you know how many stories I heard from your mother when we went to the estate? We went the day before yesterday, it's a pity you weren't with us, it was..." she looked at him cheerfully and stopped herself. Never before had Ross looked so... He looked at her like this... Like this... In her mind Scarlett tried to find out where she'd seen that look of pity, of doom... Suddenly she had a comparison that this look was like that when someone looked at the horse that had broken its leg and had to shoot it.

"Ross," she called to him quietly, "are you all right?"

He just nodded and smiled wryly, and she decided to ask further, "Are there any problems with the papers and what we've been counting?"

"No, no," he said quickly, reaching out to touch her shoulder lightly, "Scarlett, I need to..."

"What is it Ross?"

He took a deep breath and said, "Scarlett..."

"Hey, where have you two gone?" the familiar cheerful voice of his older brother interrupted him and Ross fell silent, looking seriously at Rhett who was standing in the doorway of the living room.

Rhett smiled and walked quickly over to them, holding out his hand for Ross to shake, noting that the handshake was too quick and jerky.

"Let's go into the living room, Ross, and we'll talk there," Scarlett said, and the man just nodded, followed his sister-in-law, avoiding his older brother's questioning gaze.

They sat down in the living room, Rhett and Scarlett on the sofa and Ross in the armchair opposite. She asked the maid to serve them coffee and turned to her brother-in-law with a smile, "So, Darling, how was your trip? Tell me it's solved, Ross, you've been working on this case for so long..."

"Yes, Scarlett, thank you, it's all sorted," he replied, smiling slightly when he saw her look of satisfaction.

"You said you had a triple meeting, didn't you Ross?" asked Rhett, seeing his brother barely look at him and nod.

He didn't understand why Ross avoided looking him in the eye. His little brother was acting like a child who was about to tell their mother another one of their secrets and then would whimper, "I was afraid for you..."

Rhett was lost in thought as he listened to Scarlett talk about the estate and their trip, and then ask Ross about Marietta. The maid brought a tray of coffee and white china cups, placed them on the coffee table between them, and Scarlett nodded her she would pour the drink herself.

She grabbed the coffee pot and started pouring coffee into cups when Ross suddenly said, "By the way, my colleague from Atlanta couldn't come to Marietta.

Scarlett looked away from the coffee and said, "Oh, yes? I thought you said there was a meeting..."

"He sent a colleague in his place, an experienced lawyer, also from Atlanta..."

She nodded, set the coffee pot down and handed the cup to Ross, then reached for Rhett with the another cup, smiling slightly.

"His name is Henry Hamilton," Ross said clearly.

Scarlett nodded again and suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, Rhett..."

The china cup trembled slightly in his hand and a few drops of the dark drink spread like ink stains down her cream skirt.

Rhett was pale, clutching the cup tightly and gazing earnestly into his brother's eyes, who, finally catching his gaze, did not avert his stubborn gaze.

"Oh, no, look at this" Scarlett complained as she stood up, "you're so awkward, Rhett Butler! Now I must go and change, sorry Ross."

She cast an angry glance at her husband, then an apologetic one at her brother-in-law, but the men barely nodded at her. With a slight irritation, she quickly left the living room, deciding on the way that she would change into her dress for the walk and go to the garden with Wade to watch him riding a horse.

"That obnoxious man didn't even apologize," she thought angrily as she picked out a dress from the wardrobe.

"And his brother is good too! He came here like someone forced him to!" she continued, as the maid helped her into a dress with little blue flowers and white collar.

"I'm not going to talk to either of them," she thought resentfully, and with a slight pout she walked proudly out of the bedroom, straight to Wade's room.

There was a silence in the living room that made Rhett's palms sweat and Ross felt a slight trembling in his fingers.

They put down their cups, not stopping to stare at each other and clearly understood that there were no secrets between them.

The living room suddenly felt stuffy and Rhett said firmly, "Let's go out on the veranda, Ross."

He nodded and they both walked through the French doors of the living room out onto the veranda, which overlooked their large garden. In April it was all shades of green, with splashes of pink, red and blue flowers.

They sat side by side in the white wicker chairs, staring straight ahead, and Rhett dared to ask, "What do you know, Ross?"

"Everything..." he began, only to be interrupted by his older brother's angry voice, "You can't know everything, damn it!"

Ross frowned and said firmly, "I know you're lying to the woman you love! To your wife, for God's sake! You've been looking for her, Rhett! You've travelled all over the South like a madman, hiring men and wasting time, money and effort. You used to get drunk on our estate after every failure, I remember! But that all changed when you came back from that trip from Boston... You went quiet, you lay low. You stayed on the estate again for a year, visiting our mother and sister occasionally... You found her then, didn't you? Admit it, Rhett!"

Ross looked at his brother questioningly and he nodded without looking at him.

"Then her husband died... How did you find out?"

"I corresponded with him... We had the same lawyer..."

"What the hell... Rhett! How did you know her husband? How did you even lose her, if you helped them escape from Atlanta... ?!! Explain it to me, damn it, or I'll explode!"

Rhett looked seriously at his brother and reached to touch his shoulder, but he jerked sharply to one side and said muffled, "Tell me, Rhett! Everything from the beginning."

Rhett realized that, as with his sister, there was no point in hiding the truth, so he began his story with the night Atlanta fell.

"You left her there? Alone?" Ross's surprised voice interrupted him at one moment.

"Yes," he replied hoarsely.

Ross ran a hand through his hair and just said, "I don't understand..."

"I'm not asking you to understand," Rhett snapped back.

"But I want to understand, damn it, Rhett! You're my brother and she's my sister-in-law, almost a sister! I'm trying to understand how you can let this whole marriage be built on deceit! After all, you love her!"

"That's why I won't tell her what caused her memory loss! Obviously that bloody night and the morning after hurt her so much that she forgot everything! And I don't want to bring that pain back to her!"

"Besides the pain, you're not bringing back her past! And Wade's past for that matter!"

Rhett fell silent, and Ross stood up and paced the veranda. Then they both noticed a familiar female silhouette in the distance in the garden, and a small rider with a groom on his horse.

"So," Ross broke the silence, "you lost her there. Now explain to me how Dr Carter found her? How did you find them in the North?"

He sat back down beside his brother, who ran a tired hand through his black hair and began to recount the events of April two years ago. The chance meeting at the station, the train journey with Dr Carter, his story, then their correspondence...

"We need to talk to her," Ross said seriously after Rhett had finished his story.

"It's none of your business, Ross," he said firmly, clenching his hands into fists.

"I can't and won't lie to her, Rhett!"

"Nobody's asking you to... Just keep talking to each other like you used to!"

"It's not going to be like it used to be," Ross exclaimed, jumping up again. He stood at the railing and watched as a young, slender woman stood near a horse in the distance, stroking its mane while a small boy was feeding the animal.

"This isn't the time to tell her everything, Ross, try to understand that. It's not the right time..."

"Nonsense..."

"No..."

"When is the right time, Rhett?"

"I don't know... Later... Are you trying to hurt her, Ross? We just got married, we have a family, she adores our mother, you, even with Rosemary they've found common ground..."

Ross was silent for a moment, thinking about something, then suddenly said, "Rosemary has changed her attitude towards Scarlett too abruptly... I know our sister, Rhett, and so do you... There's a reason, yes... She knows something, doesn't she?"

He looked at Rhett, who nodded his head, then got up and walked over to his brother.

Ross just shook his head.

"I can't lie to her, Rhett. I can't, knowing that she wanted to remember her past so badly..."

"She doesn't want to anymore, you know, Ross?" he explained him in a low voice and Ross stared at him in confusion.

"I don't understand..."

"We talked to her about the past... Ross, she is so happy and excited to be part of our family that the past doesn't matter to her now. Besides, you can see for yourself... She has no parents... No home..."

"There is her uncle, a sister-in-law from a previous family, there are sisters..." Ross listed.

"What matters now is us and our family," Rhett interrupted him firmly.

Ross took a deep breath and fell silent again, then noticed a woman in the distance looking in their direction but not waving.

"See, she's offended already..." he said sadly.

"It's me," Rhett replied, remembering how he had ruined her cream-coloured dress, and continued, "Ross, please understand and listen to me. This is not the time to tell her. Let's tell her gently, quietly, so as not to hurt her... We will think about it later, after Wade's birthday in May, in summer... "

Ross suddenly looked up at his brother and asked, "Rhett, is Wade's real birthday..."

"In January," Rhett interrupted and Ross shook his head again and whispered, "What a mess..." then added louder, "Rhett, you started this mess and now you want me to tell her lie too!"

"Ross, look at me," he said quietly but firmly to his brother, in the tone he had often used in conversations with him in their childhood. Ross knew, knew for sure, that if his older brother talked to him like that, he would agree to anything. It had always been like that...

He looked stubbornly into his older brother's black eyes and heard his serious voice, "Understand, she's the dearest person in the world to me... I've been looking for her for a long time, almost lost her twice," Rhett looked back at his wife in the distance and continued, "I love her very much. The children. And I know a bit more about her past, yes... But it's the present that counts. She's happy now, Ross... I want to keep making her happy. I want to spoil her like a child, she and Wade have been through enough. When the time comes, I'll tell her myself, Ross," he finished quietly, then added, "It's none of your business, you don't know her past. But you give her happiness and the joy of communication now. Don't distance yourself from her, Ross..."

Ross pondered, watching his sister-in-law too. He liked Scarlett, her company, their talks...

"I really don't know her past... If we wait a little..." he thought, talking himself into it, and finally nodded to his brother, but added, "But you'll tell her, Rhett, won't you?"

Rhett just nodded his head and patted his brother on the shoulder, "Thank you, Ross!"

A warm April flew by, giving way to a hot May with refreshing winds and thunderstorms.

Wade's birthday had been celebrated at the beginning of the month, and while Rhett, the birthday boy and Ross took the boat out to sea, Scarlett, Mrs Butler and Rosemary were busy with preparations to the evening.

Scarlett was selfishly glad that Wade was too little and hadn't had time to make friends in town, preferring the company of his stepfather and uncle. "And I won't have to listen to those pompous turkeys talk," Scarlett thought and chuckled, remembering that some of the ladies on the committee were like silly, fussy birds, like hens.

Of all the older women with whom she had ever communicated, only her mother-in-law, only Mrs Butler, had inspired in her a feeling of love, respect and a strange awe. Her gestures, her speech, her smile. This woman was not prim, she knew how to joke, but she knew when there was a time and a place for it. She moved with such grace and elegance that Scarlett froze at her place. And her perfume... That lemon verbena scent gave her such a sense of peace and happiness that tears tickled her eyes. At their dinners, their meetings, Scarlett always sat closer to her mother-in-law, always listening with interest. Sometimes she wanted to hug her slightly, to rest her head on her shoulder, but of course, she realized it was not the proper thing to do.

But Mrs Butler herself reached to her daughter-in-law. Her touching story, her loss of memory, her temper mixed with stubbornness and childlike naivety, her passion for living and, above all, her love for her eldest son, were all things that helped Miss Eleanor to quickly to love and accept her new daughter-in-law into the family.

She was glad that her eldest son had found happiness, that Scarlett got on so well with Ross and even Rosemary. Her children were lovely and Mrs Butler liked to call them "grandchildren". She saw the young girl reaching to her and didn't push her away, because she realized that Scarlett had no other relatives. She believed that in time her daughter-in-law would remember everything, but in the meantime she was willing to be there for her.

Scarlett went into the kitchen, leaving Miss Eleanor in the living room with Ella and Rosemary, who were checking the piano, which they had finally got a man to fix.

Everything was almost ready, the cook was finishing decorating the chocolate cake, and the sweet scent of vanilla wafted through the air, making Scarlett take a deep breath and remember Saratoga and her former cook, Amy.

Glancing out the window, she noticed the silhouettes of her husband, son and brother-in-law returning, and that the sky had darkened slightly, the sun behind the clouds and the wind picking up.

"Mummy," Wade called to her as they entered the kitchen through the back door, "Mummy, there's a thunderstorm coming!" he said with a cheerful smile, and Scarlett noticed that he was covered in sand and his clothes were not in the best condition. Noticing Ross and Rhett coming in behind him, she shook her head, wrinkled her nose slightly, and said, "I hope your walk went well, because you look..."

"Like pirates!" interrupted Wade with a grin, and Rhett grinned at her.

Scarlett caught Rhett's eye, frowned even more and said, "Anyway, get changed quickly! And Rhett Butler, don't stand there grinning, this isn't a stable for you to come in looking like that! Oh... And you, Ross!"

The three of them looked at each other, smiled and quickly went to the kitchen door.

Rhett lingered beside her for a moment as he passed and whispered, smiling, "How tough you are, Mrs Butler..."

Scarlett snorted in response, only tried to slap him on the shoulder, but Rhett quickly caught her hand and pressed it to his lips for a moment before releasing it just as quickly.

When they left the kitchen, Scarlett looked out the window again, noticing how dark the sky had become, and said quietly, "It seems like really it is going to be a storm..."