Scarlett (124 page)
Authors: Alexandra Ripley
Tags: #Romance, #Historical, #Classic, #Adult, #Chick-Lit
Rhett stared into space, unseeing. Scarlett waited. He prayed he hadn’t hurt Anne, he said. He’d searched his memory and his soul, and he could find no willful hurt. She was too young, and she loved him too much, to suspect that tenderness and affection were only the shadows of a man’s loving. He would never know what blame he should take for marrying her. She’d been happy. One of the injustices of the world was that it was so easy to make the innocent and caring ones happy with so little.
Scarlett put her head on his shoulder. “It’s a lot, making somebody happy,” she said. “I didn’t understand that until Cat was born. I didn’t understand a lot of things. Somehow, I learned from her.”
Rhett rested his cheek on her head. “You’ve changed, Scarlett. You’ve grown up. I have to get to know you all over again.”
“I have to get to know you, period. I never did, even when we were together. I’ll do better this time, I promise.”
“Don’t try too hard, you’ll wear me out.” Rhett chuckled, then kissed her forehead.
“Stop laughing at me, Rhett Butler—no, don’t. I like it, even when it makes me mad.” She sniffed the air. “It’s raining. That should finish off the fires. When the sun comes up, we’ll be able to see if anything’s left. We should try and get some sleep. We’re going to be very busy in a few hours.” She nestled her head into the hollow of his neck and yawned.
While she slept, Rhett moved her, lifted her into his arms and sat down again, holding her as she had held Cat. The gentle Irish rain made a curtain of soft silence around the old stone tower.
At sunrise, Scarlett stirred and woke. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Rhett’s beard-shadowed, hollow-eyed face, and she smiled contentedly. Then she stretched, moaning softly. “I hurt all over,” Scarlett complained. Her brow wrinkled. “And I’m starving to death.”
“Consistency, thy name is woman,” murmured Rhett. “Get up, my love, you’re breaking my legs.”
They walked carefully to Cat’s hideaway. It was dark, but they could hear her soft snoring. “She sleeps with her mouth open if she turns over onto her back,” Scarlett whispered.
“A child of many talents,” Rhett said.
Scarlett stifled her laughter. She took Rhett’s hand and drew him with her to a window. The sight that met their eyes was sobering. Dozens of dark fingers of smoke reached up from every direction, making dirty stains on the tender rose color of the sky. Scarlett’s eyes filled with tears.
Rhett put his arm around her shoulders. “We can build it all back, darling.”
Scarlett blinked away the tears. “No, Rhett, I don’t want to. Cat’s not safe in Ballyhara, and I guess I’m not either. I won’t sell up, this is O’Hara land, and I won’t let it go. But I don’t want another Big House, or another town. My cousins can find some farmers to work the land. No matter how much shooting and burning, the Irish will always love the land. Pa used to tell me it was like his mother to an Irishman.
“But I don’t belong here, not any more. Maybe I never did really, or I wouldn’t have been so ready to go off to Dublin and house parties and hunts… I don’t know where I belong, Rhett. I don’t even feel at home any more when I go to Tara.”
To Scarlett’s surprise, Rhett laughed, and the laughter was rich with joy. “You belong with me, Scarlett, haven’t you figured that out? And the world is where we belong, all of it. We’re not home-and-hearth people. We’re the adventurers, the buccaneers, the blockade runners. Without challenge, we’re only half alive. We can go anywhere, and as long as we’re together, it will belong to us. But, my pet, we’ll never belong to it. That’s for other people, not for us.”
He looked down at her, the corners of his mouth quivering with amusement. “Tell me the truth on this first morning of our new life together, Scarlett. Do you love me with your whole heart, or did you simply want me because you couldn’t have me?”
“Why, Rhett, what a nasty thing to say! I love you with all my heart and I always will.”
The pause before Scarlett answered his question was so infinitesimal that only Rhett could have heard it. He threw his head back and roared with laughter. “My beloved,” he said, “I can see that our lives are never going to be dull. I can hardly wait to get started.”
A small grimy hand tugged on his trousers. Rhett looked down.
“Cat will go with you,” said his daughter.
He lifted her to his shoulder, his eyes glistening with emotion. “Are you ready, Mrs. Butler?” he asked Scarlett. “The blockades are waiting for us.”
Cat laughed gleefully. She looked at Scarlett with eyes that were bright with shared secrets. “The old ladder is under my quilts, Momma. Grainne told me to save it.”
Scarlett
“Fun… entertaining… absorbing.”
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People
“Alexandra Ripley is true to Scarlett’s spirit and to Rhett’s. Her sense of Mitchell’s style is right on target.”
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Chicago Tribune
“Adds new zest to a much-loved classic… Ripley keeps the pace going.”
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San Francisco Chronicle
“Popular entertainment of the highest order… The narrative has real bite. Ripley’s hard work, research, and writerly competence shines through… She is a skilled professional storyteller… Characters are well-rounded and vital… a complex, compelling adventure. The heroine of this story… is Ripley’s. And she lives.”
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Orlando Sentinel
“A real page-turner… Ripley has remained true to Mitchell.”
—Gannett News Service
“Ripley is…[an] American Rosamund Pilcher.”
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Cleveland Plain Dealer
“As good as romance novels come.”
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Chattanooga Times
“Captivating.”
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Ladies Home Journal
“Evokes the swift pace, the endearing characters, and the vibrant regional color and history of the original.”
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Grand Rapids Press
Copyright © 1991 by Stephens Mitchell Trusts
Book design by Giorgetta Bell McRee
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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First e-book edition: November 2011
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ISBN 978-0-446-50297-9
