Post by Kelly Melly on Aug 11, 2007 0:35:02 GMT -5
Hey! I know some of you are waiting for "Sur le Mariage". But at present, I am taking a break from her. I have kind of come to a dead end. I know where I want to go with it I just don't know how. I need to brainstorm, and I shouldn't have started to post so soon. But then I got this idea- a one-shot - and decided I would write it, and here it is!
To give you some background--it starts in the middle of the scene in the book where Rhett comes to see Scarlett after he gets out of jail. In this conversation they discuss Ashley and Scarlett's relationship. This is just a bit of a twist on the scene.Possible out-of-character material on both, but it is like that with all scenes that are redone, because it isn't the original. I did this for fun and I hope you enjoy!
This was too much. She couldn’t take it. He did love her, and she wasn’t going to stand here any longer and let Rhett ruin that one pure knowledge that she had in this cruel and hateful world. Ashley. Her sweet Ashley! Of course he loved her!
She turned on him, her eyes piercing and greener than usual. She released the words that instantly came to her mind and lips, and felt no shame for the emotion that was carried in them. She wouldn’t let him desecrate what she and Ashley had, even if it meant Rhett Butler getting the upper hand and laughing at her in the face.
“How dare you pry with dirty fingers into the only beautiful and sacred thing in my life? You can’t see that he loves me because you haven’t a clue as to what love is! You judge everyone’s mind but your own vile one!” She was crying. She could feel the tears on her cheeks, but she was too angry to care. Why was he trying to make her think that Ashley didn’t want her or love her? Why was he trying to break her? Trying to make her believe that everything she holds dear is a lie?
Rhett smirked and she just knew that he was going to laugh, but he didn’t. If she had been looking at his eyes, she would have seen the pity, understanding and pain that passed through them at her words. He spoke softly with less mockery but the cynicism hadn’t left his voice.
“My dear, what you and Mr. Wilkes have is neither beautiful nor sacred.” Scarlett’s rage was greater now than before, as was her frustration and all she wanted to do was to scream at him and kick him and yell over and over that what he said was not true. But she didn’t and he continued.
“And you can wish and hope that he loves you for your mind, but here are the facts.” He leaned over her, his eyes piercing and bright. He spoke softly with real emotion. Her breathing slowed slightly at the look in his eyes, but she still gazed at him hard. “He doesn’t even know you have a mind, Scarlett. You and Ashley are so different that he looks at you, but he can’t see any deeper into your soul than person can see into a pond full of mucky water.”
At his last words she hardened again and reached up and slapped him across the face, her tears running down her cheeks at a quicker pace. That wasn’t true and she knew that it wasn’t true. It couldn’t be. No, it couldn’t be…
Rhett ran his hand across his cheek, a smirk decorating his face. Scarlett’s emotions ran away from her again. She would show Rhett Butler that she and Ashley really loved each other. She would tell him. Everything.
Scarlett stood. Her movements quick and haphazard from her normally ladylike poise. She was shaking with emotion and was fighting to keep the quaking at bay. But it showed in her voice as she spoke, as did her tears. She almost screamed as she spoke to him. Her eyes were traveling around the room crazily, and her heart was racing in her chest. She would show him. She must show him. He had to be wrong this once.
“Ashley loves me! He does! He told me! If it weren’t for Melanie…if it weren’t for her… And I love him! Oh, I know I said I didn’t but I lied! And there is no way of explaining something like it to someone like you! Something that is so pure and sweet…” Her last words faded out to nothing and ended in a tiny squeak. But as soon as she stopped speaking, she spoke again with renewed vigor.
“Ashley told me loved me. He came home from the war and told me he loved me. And you want to know what else, Rhett?” She looked at him with mad triumph in her eyes. “He kissed me! He kissed me in a way I have never been kissed…” She broke off in embarrassment at having revealed so much about the kiss, but started again without bothering to blush. “And he almost did take me! Right there in the orchard. And I would have let him! I would have gladly let him! Gladly…” Something in his eyes made her stop, something that she couldn’t describe.
They were bright and alive. They were like an ocean newly thwarted as soon as a storm strikes. Like the embers of a fire, suppressed by the ashes but then brought to sudden and reckless life. His eyes had always been dark but they seemed to turn an unworldly black, making everything else in the room appear a blurred gray in comparison to the striking darkness.
And she was suddenly afraid. For what unknown reason? She didn’t know. But the piercing darkness…the frightening black depths. They called to her an emotion that she was too young to comprehend. To inexperience in the world to understand. And she was sure she didn’t want to understand.
But in the face of fear, she had always straightened to her highest and fought with all she had. He probably wanted to scare her. And it was working. But he would have to do more than give her threatening looks to make her back down. She would not let down. Especially because of Ashley. More than anything, because of Ashley. She spoke again, the hardness still in her eyes but her voice softer with more earnest and conviction.
“Ashley loves me. And he always has, and he always will. And I will love him until he tells me that he doesn’t want me. But he does. And you can laugh at him and at me for all I care. I still have Ashley and his love, long after your laughter has subsided.” She looked him straight in the eye. He was still staring at her with that dark, queer look in his eyes. When he spoke his voice was calm, the antithesis of his raging eyes.
“When did this said love begin, Scarlett?” He was leaning forward now, leaning his forearms on his knees.
Scarlett was completely taken back by his question, and took a moment before answering. She gazed out of the window at nothing in particular. “As soon as I saw him again after his tour of Europe.” She smiled in sweet remembrance. “He rode up to the house and as soon as I saw him, I knew that I loved him. He came up the steps and told me that I had turned in a lovely young lady and kissed my hand.” Looked down at her hand now, rubbing her fingers across the top as if she could still feel the imprint his lips had left there.
She didn’t look at Rhett, but if she had she would have seen the change in his eyes. Suddenly they were dead and lifeless. Empty. Without anger. Without happiness. Without hope. Without any sort of emotion. At her declaration of her immediate love of Ashley, he winced as if he had been physically wounded. His face was contorted and writhed with pain.
“So, you loved him from then on?” He spoke clearly, never revealing his agonizing emotions.
She turned to him now. “Of course. Isn’t that what I just said?”
“And when did Mr. Wilkes reveal to you his recuperate of these feelings you both have so willingly shouldered in the light of…circumstances.” The mockery was back in his voice, but it was laced with malice and bitterness. Touched with more cynicism than was usually present. But there was a small flicker of light in his eyes again.
“Well…” Scarlett thought frantically. “I don’t exactly know. I don’t remember when the first time was that he told me he loved me.”
Rhett laughed outright at this, the light that had lit his eyes now burning brighter. “You don’t remember? How inconsiderate of you, my dear? To forget when the love of your life first poured out his heart to you. And how negligent your memory must truly be to have forgotten so monumental a moment in your short life.”
She bristled at this and said, “I haven’t forgotten and my memory isn’t negli…whatever you said. I just…it was just a long time ago, that’s all.” She was getting nervous again and she was unsure as to why.
Rhett’s eyes were now bright with amusement and…was that something akin to hope lingering within the depths? “My dear, I will tell you why you can’t remember because it never happened.” She started to speak, but he put his hand up to stop her and continued. “Oh, I know. I am sure that at some point in time he has made some clumsy declaration to you amidst one of your bewitching tirades. Did you beg, Scarlett?”
Her eyes were set and she stared straight ahead of her, never moving and seeming not to hear anything he said. But he knew she did. For at his question, a blush crept up her neck. “Ah! So you did beg. My dear, any man in his situation would have done the same. Espacially a man of honor. Think of it! There you are, your green eyes pleading, sucking the control right out of the man. Of course he is going to tell you what you want to hear, just to get you to stop looking at him with that need and longing.” He smiled. “How do I know this? Because I know Ashley. I know his type. He refused to give into what he wanted, so he gave you what you wanted so that you would take the temptation away.” He leaned over her and spoke softly with much emotion. “All men have a breaking point, my dear. Even the most gentlemanly men.” He rose and looked down at her with a smirk on his face. “Our honorable gentleman was on the verge of his breaking point, and knew he had to escape from you. Anyway he could.”
Scarlett was still looking straight ahead of her, but her eyes were now opened wide with shock and unbelief. In her mind and heart, her logic was fighting what she was refusing to let go of. Ashley did love her! Rhett was wrong! He had to! If he didn’t…if he didn’t…
“I see you still refuse to believe it.” Rhett spoke smoothly. He sat down again, and leaned back in the chair. “Well, then answer me this one question and then tell me with no doubt in your mind that he loves you, and I will forever be silenced on the sublect.” He leaned towards her, his lips close to her ear when he spoke, so softly and eagerly. “Then why did he let you come to Atlanta? Why did he let you come to me with your propositions and portieres? Before I let a woman I loved do that…” He was now on his feet again, his hand in his hair.
Scarlett quickly came to his defenses. “But he didn’t know. He didn’t…”
“Did it ever occur to you that he should have known? Should have known what you would do when you were desperate. He should have killed you rather than let you come here.”
She looked at him, and then looked down again. Was Ashley a mind reader? She didn’t tell him or anyone else! He couldn’t have known. “But he didn’t know…” She spoke quietly, more to herself than him. But he answered, nevertheless.
“If he didn’t guess it than he will never no anything about you or your precious mind.” Rhett looked down at her urgently. He wanted her to see so badly what was so obvious.
Scarlett’s heart once again was fighting her logic, but it was a losing battle. She couldn’t deceive herself, and say that what was now so clearly set before her was a lie. Realization flooded her eyes with tears and she silently started to cry.
He was right. Oh how she hated to admit it! She couldn’t even think the words. But she knew. She couldn’t make herself say ‘Ashley doesn’t love me’ even in her mind, but it was true. And she knew that Rhett could see she knew. She supposed that he would laugh at her now and tell her that she was a fool.
But he surprised her, as he always did.
He sat down next to her, and gathered her to himself. Her face was buried in his chest and she finally cried as she hadn’t in years. Cried because Ashley, her Ashley, didn’t love her. Cried because she had been a fool. Cried because Rhett knew it. His arms were tight around her, and he was murmuring softly, things she didn’t comprehend. She melted against him and couldn’t help but feel an unearthly comfort in his arms. This made her cry harder.
“I’ve been such a-fool.” She said in between her sobs. She buried her face deeper into his chest.
“No,” Rhett said softly. “No, darling.” He kissed the top of her head tenderly. “You were just in love.”
To give you some background--it starts in the middle of the scene in the book where Rhett comes to see Scarlett after he gets out of jail. In this conversation they discuss Ashley and Scarlett's relationship. This is just a bit of a twist on the scene.Possible out-of-character material on both, but it is like that with all scenes that are redone, because it isn't the original. I did this for fun and I hope you enjoy!
This was too much. She couldn’t take it. He did love her, and she wasn’t going to stand here any longer and let Rhett ruin that one pure knowledge that she had in this cruel and hateful world. Ashley. Her sweet Ashley! Of course he loved her!
She turned on him, her eyes piercing and greener than usual. She released the words that instantly came to her mind and lips, and felt no shame for the emotion that was carried in them. She wouldn’t let him desecrate what she and Ashley had, even if it meant Rhett Butler getting the upper hand and laughing at her in the face.
“How dare you pry with dirty fingers into the only beautiful and sacred thing in my life? You can’t see that he loves me because you haven’t a clue as to what love is! You judge everyone’s mind but your own vile one!” She was crying. She could feel the tears on her cheeks, but she was too angry to care. Why was he trying to make her think that Ashley didn’t want her or love her? Why was he trying to break her? Trying to make her believe that everything she holds dear is a lie?
Rhett smirked and she just knew that he was going to laugh, but he didn’t. If she had been looking at his eyes, she would have seen the pity, understanding and pain that passed through them at her words. He spoke softly with less mockery but the cynicism hadn’t left his voice.
“My dear, what you and Mr. Wilkes have is neither beautiful nor sacred.” Scarlett’s rage was greater now than before, as was her frustration and all she wanted to do was to scream at him and kick him and yell over and over that what he said was not true. But she didn’t and he continued.
“And you can wish and hope that he loves you for your mind, but here are the facts.” He leaned over her, his eyes piercing and bright. He spoke softly with real emotion. Her breathing slowed slightly at the look in his eyes, but she still gazed at him hard. “He doesn’t even know you have a mind, Scarlett. You and Ashley are so different that he looks at you, but he can’t see any deeper into your soul than person can see into a pond full of mucky water.”
At his last words she hardened again and reached up and slapped him across the face, her tears running down her cheeks at a quicker pace. That wasn’t true and she knew that it wasn’t true. It couldn’t be. No, it couldn’t be…
Rhett ran his hand across his cheek, a smirk decorating his face. Scarlett’s emotions ran away from her again. She would show Rhett Butler that she and Ashley really loved each other. She would tell him. Everything.
Scarlett stood. Her movements quick and haphazard from her normally ladylike poise. She was shaking with emotion and was fighting to keep the quaking at bay. But it showed in her voice as she spoke, as did her tears. She almost screamed as she spoke to him. Her eyes were traveling around the room crazily, and her heart was racing in her chest. She would show him. She must show him. He had to be wrong this once.
“Ashley loves me! He does! He told me! If it weren’t for Melanie…if it weren’t for her… And I love him! Oh, I know I said I didn’t but I lied! And there is no way of explaining something like it to someone like you! Something that is so pure and sweet…” Her last words faded out to nothing and ended in a tiny squeak. But as soon as she stopped speaking, she spoke again with renewed vigor.
“Ashley told me loved me. He came home from the war and told me he loved me. And you want to know what else, Rhett?” She looked at him with mad triumph in her eyes. “He kissed me! He kissed me in a way I have never been kissed…” She broke off in embarrassment at having revealed so much about the kiss, but started again without bothering to blush. “And he almost did take me! Right there in the orchard. And I would have let him! I would have gladly let him! Gladly…” Something in his eyes made her stop, something that she couldn’t describe.
They were bright and alive. They were like an ocean newly thwarted as soon as a storm strikes. Like the embers of a fire, suppressed by the ashes but then brought to sudden and reckless life. His eyes had always been dark but they seemed to turn an unworldly black, making everything else in the room appear a blurred gray in comparison to the striking darkness.
And she was suddenly afraid. For what unknown reason? She didn’t know. But the piercing darkness…the frightening black depths. They called to her an emotion that she was too young to comprehend. To inexperience in the world to understand. And she was sure she didn’t want to understand.
But in the face of fear, she had always straightened to her highest and fought with all she had. He probably wanted to scare her. And it was working. But he would have to do more than give her threatening looks to make her back down. She would not let down. Especially because of Ashley. More than anything, because of Ashley. She spoke again, the hardness still in her eyes but her voice softer with more earnest and conviction.
“Ashley loves me. And he always has, and he always will. And I will love him until he tells me that he doesn’t want me. But he does. And you can laugh at him and at me for all I care. I still have Ashley and his love, long after your laughter has subsided.” She looked him straight in the eye. He was still staring at her with that dark, queer look in his eyes. When he spoke his voice was calm, the antithesis of his raging eyes.
“When did this said love begin, Scarlett?” He was leaning forward now, leaning his forearms on his knees.
Scarlett was completely taken back by his question, and took a moment before answering. She gazed out of the window at nothing in particular. “As soon as I saw him again after his tour of Europe.” She smiled in sweet remembrance. “He rode up to the house and as soon as I saw him, I knew that I loved him. He came up the steps and told me that I had turned in a lovely young lady and kissed my hand.” Looked down at her hand now, rubbing her fingers across the top as if she could still feel the imprint his lips had left there.
She didn’t look at Rhett, but if she had she would have seen the change in his eyes. Suddenly they were dead and lifeless. Empty. Without anger. Without happiness. Without hope. Without any sort of emotion. At her declaration of her immediate love of Ashley, he winced as if he had been physically wounded. His face was contorted and writhed with pain.
“So, you loved him from then on?” He spoke clearly, never revealing his agonizing emotions.
She turned to him now. “Of course. Isn’t that what I just said?”
“And when did Mr. Wilkes reveal to you his recuperate of these feelings you both have so willingly shouldered in the light of…circumstances.” The mockery was back in his voice, but it was laced with malice and bitterness. Touched with more cynicism than was usually present. But there was a small flicker of light in his eyes again.
“Well…” Scarlett thought frantically. “I don’t exactly know. I don’t remember when the first time was that he told me he loved me.”
Rhett laughed outright at this, the light that had lit his eyes now burning brighter. “You don’t remember? How inconsiderate of you, my dear? To forget when the love of your life first poured out his heart to you. And how negligent your memory must truly be to have forgotten so monumental a moment in your short life.”
She bristled at this and said, “I haven’t forgotten and my memory isn’t negli…whatever you said. I just…it was just a long time ago, that’s all.” She was getting nervous again and she was unsure as to why.
Rhett’s eyes were now bright with amusement and…was that something akin to hope lingering within the depths? “My dear, I will tell you why you can’t remember because it never happened.” She started to speak, but he put his hand up to stop her and continued. “Oh, I know. I am sure that at some point in time he has made some clumsy declaration to you amidst one of your bewitching tirades. Did you beg, Scarlett?”
Her eyes were set and she stared straight ahead of her, never moving and seeming not to hear anything he said. But he knew she did. For at his question, a blush crept up her neck. “Ah! So you did beg. My dear, any man in his situation would have done the same. Espacially a man of honor. Think of it! There you are, your green eyes pleading, sucking the control right out of the man. Of course he is going to tell you what you want to hear, just to get you to stop looking at him with that need and longing.” He smiled. “How do I know this? Because I know Ashley. I know his type. He refused to give into what he wanted, so he gave you what you wanted so that you would take the temptation away.” He leaned over her and spoke softly with much emotion. “All men have a breaking point, my dear. Even the most gentlemanly men.” He rose and looked down at her with a smirk on his face. “Our honorable gentleman was on the verge of his breaking point, and knew he had to escape from you. Anyway he could.”
Scarlett was still looking straight ahead of her, but her eyes were now opened wide with shock and unbelief. In her mind and heart, her logic was fighting what she was refusing to let go of. Ashley did love her! Rhett was wrong! He had to! If he didn’t…if he didn’t…
“I see you still refuse to believe it.” Rhett spoke smoothly. He sat down again, and leaned back in the chair. “Well, then answer me this one question and then tell me with no doubt in your mind that he loves you, and I will forever be silenced on the sublect.” He leaned towards her, his lips close to her ear when he spoke, so softly and eagerly. “Then why did he let you come to Atlanta? Why did he let you come to me with your propositions and portieres? Before I let a woman I loved do that…” He was now on his feet again, his hand in his hair.
Scarlett quickly came to his defenses. “But he didn’t know. He didn’t…”
“Did it ever occur to you that he should have known? Should have known what you would do when you were desperate. He should have killed you rather than let you come here.”
She looked at him, and then looked down again. Was Ashley a mind reader? She didn’t tell him or anyone else! He couldn’t have known. “But he didn’t know…” She spoke quietly, more to herself than him. But he answered, nevertheless.
“If he didn’t guess it than he will never no anything about you or your precious mind.” Rhett looked down at her urgently. He wanted her to see so badly what was so obvious.
Scarlett’s heart once again was fighting her logic, but it was a losing battle. She couldn’t deceive herself, and say that what was now so clearly set before her was a lie. Realization flooded her eyes with tears and she silently started to cry.
He was right. Oh how she hated to admit it! She couldn’t even think the words. But she knew. She couldn’t make herself say ‘Ashley doesn’t love me’ even in her mind, but it was true. And she knew that Rhett could see she knew. She supposed that he would laugh at her now and tell her that she was a fool.
But he surprised her, as he always did.
He sat down next to her, and gathered her to himself. Her face was buried in his chest and she finally cried as she hadn’t in years. Cried because Ashley, her Ashley, didn’t love her. Cried because she had been a fool. Cried because Rhett knew it. His arms were tight around her, and he was murmuring softly, things she didn’t comprehend. She melted against him and couldn’t help but feel an unearthly comfort in his arms. This made her cry harder.
“I’ve been such a-fool.” She said in between her sobs. She buried her face deeper into his chest.
“No,” Rhett said softly. “No, darling.” He kissed the top of her head tenderly. “You were just in love.”
