Post by Kelly Melly on Jul 30, 2007 2:45:08 GMT -5
Scarlett followed Rhett to the room with some fear. Rhett had her wrist in his hand and was holding it with a restrained but firm grip. Almost too firm. Scarlett could fill the same thickness in the air as she had several other times when she was with Rhett in other situations. That same restrained power, about to burst through the surface but held at bay by a strong, iron will.
Upon reaching the parlor door, Rhett dragged Scarlett into the room before him with a yank on her arm then entered himself and closed the door stoutly, and turned to her. It was dusk, and the room was dim. The sunset was coating the ornately decorated room in beautiful lilacs and maroons until they made the ostentatious parlor look like a dull and pallid box. The faint stream of light filling the room cast harsh shadows on Rhett’s already chiseled features, making them seem more prominent and roguish then ever.
Scarlett looked into that hard face and tried to see what he was thinking, tried to see what was going on in his mind. But, as always, his face was a blank slate. Almost lifeless. But his eyes seemed to leap as if they were a blazing fire and they seemed to drill a hole into her mind, to her deepest and most secret thoughts. They read through her, right into her soul, and it was something that she couldn’t understand and almost didn’t want to. What was that old adage? Ignorance was bliss? She found this to be truer than anything in her life at the moment.
He stood there, before the door and just looked at her. It seemed that a long time had passed when he finally moved from the door and walked to the window. Still silent. Still inscrutable.
He stood there for so long without speaking she almost thought he wasn’t going to. She was about to turn around and sit down when she heard him sigh. It was a heavy sigh that seemed to come from deep in his chest. When he did speak his voice was calm and placid, laced with a lazy and almost tired drawl. But still beneath, there was the leashed power, restrained but wanting, even needing so badly to break through. But the wall refused to bend.
“The sunset can be so beautiful, can’t it?” Though she hadn’t a clue of what he would say first, this had not been it she would have expected. Why was it that everything he said never made any sense?
She didn’t know what to say. She sat there for a moment and was about to speak but he spoke first.
“You never were one to pay any attention to scenery were you, my pet. All you care about is whether or not it is worth something or useful to you.” His words were still calm but seemed to have an underlying bitterness. She was slightly offended by his words, but not enough to say anything. His voice was calm in an unusual and dazed way that she would have never recognized in him. She was, for the first time, almost interested in what he had to say.
He finally turned to her and gave her a slight grin and continued. “You would never think that something was there just to be beautiful, would you my dear? You would never look at that same sun during the day and think that it is what gives you warmth all day, even if it is sweltering warmth.”He started to walk towards her, “And you wouldn’t think about the fact that it gives you the light you need to go about your day. And you would have never looked at it as I did just now. In an amazed way, as I did. To look at it in with certain adoration for it’s beauty and for it allowing you to see that beauty. You see the sun all day long and it gives and gives to you,” he was in front of her now and though his voice was still calm his face was hard with urgency. He placed his hands on her shoulders with hard fingers. He spoke with more force as he finished what he was saying. Speaking with the restraint that had been characteristic in his demeanor the past few minutes.
“But you never acknowledge it or show it that you care.” He released her shoulders and turned from her to pace to the other side of the room. He got to the corner of the room and leaned on a chair close by in a casual but reliant way.
He was silent again and Scarlett thought she would go mad with the silence. What was he talking about? She knew that he wasn’t just saying those things to say them. He had something he was trying to tell her but…she just didn’t understand. And once again, she didn’t want to. She didn’t know how to handle this Rhett. He was even more unreadable than the sardonic and caustic Rhett she was used to.
Suddenly, he laughed. To the passerby, it sounded happy enough. Joyful almost. But it was an amused laugh, with an almost contemptible quality to it.
He leaned heavily on the chair until she heard it creek under his weight, and then he slowly turned towards her and he was the Rhett she knew again. His face bore, once again, his mocking and sarcastic smile and she knew that she was going to hate whatever he said next.
“So!” he said with mocking merriment, “after your long separation you and your beloved were finally reunited today!” He laughed again. But this time it was short and harsh. “I am sure that I would have liked to see such a touching reunion. Two lovers torn apart for months. The young woman trapped in her castle by the monster of pregnancy, which was planted there by the evil and despotic lord of the castle. Oh, how glorious a reunion! One you could base fairy tales on! The honorable and wooden-headed warrior and his hard and unscrupulous princess. What a scene!” He laughed harshly again, and she finally found her tongue.
Her brow went together and she spoke quickly. “I would like to see if you will ever be anything but a cad.” The last word was barked out at him with great force.
He laughed again, but this time it was more quiet and cynical. “My dear, even if there was a side of me that had not the slightest touch of my cad-like qualities, you would never see it. You never see the things that aren’t right under your nose.”
She didn’t like the way he was looking at her. “What business would it be of yours if I had seen Ashley today at the mill? I am not your slave to be commanded, Rhett Butler! I shall do as I please and go where I please and there is no one who will stop me.” She looked at him with a defiance she hadn’t felt in a long time.
He grin at her mockingly and said, “So, you admit that is was Ashley that you have seen today! And all this time I thought it was you lovely store manager!” She started to breathe with harsh and short breaths and this. “What business is it of mine? Well, I suppose only a husband’s concerning his wife. Would that be considered classified enough for you, my sweet and defiant little child? I suppose that you can see who you please when you please, but that will never change the fact that I will eventually find out about it. And I will not keep silent about the things you do that I dislike like your past two cowering, shrinking husbands.”
“I will see who I want when I want and why should you care…” He interrupted her.
“I have never had any doubt that you would do what you want when you want. As for my caring, I would call it more curiosity than anything. After all, it is a rather interesting love affair, isn’t it? Two people loving each other as you two do, and yet there has never been anything-how did you put it once, my dear?-anything wrong between you? What do you do in such a relationship that is in such a restricted state? You must have some secret, loving glance that only you, together share. Or perhaps, a word or phrase that is only understood by you both?”
His face seemed to be getting harder as he went on. He was getting too close to the truth for comfort and she was afraid that he had already realized her secret gift that she had wanted to give to Ashley.
“It must be hard for you two to be married to separate people and still be faithful to each other.” He said with a thoughtfully caustic look. “Though we both already know that it is relatively easy for him to be faithful to you, isn’t it? With his wife in so convenient a state.” He started to walk toward her again and she felt her body, as if willed on its own, starting to inch its way back farther from him as he got closer.
“But you, my dear! How do you stay faithful when married to a wretch like me? How can your wonderfully honorable Mr. Wilkes sleep at night knowing that you are being defiled by such a rogue as I?” She stared at him in horror now, for those were almost the exact same words that Ashley had spoken that morning. Something about Rhett coarsening her fineness and not being able to bare the thought of him touching her.
She finally noticed that Rhett’s eyes now held that omniscient look at her expression and once again he seemed to read her thoughts. His face got hard and his eyes turned as cold and they had been out in the foyer. “So, our fanciful and scrupulous Mr. Wilkes has made his dislikes known to you, has he?” She was still moving backwards but had now reached the wall and braced against it as if it would suck her in if she pressed hard enough. He trapped her between the wall and himself once he reached her, his hands placed on her arms above her elbow, squeezing her tightly.
He was speaking in low and heavy tones now. No mockery or sarcasm was even hinted at in his words. “And you had decided that if Ashley wasn’t pleased, than you weren’t either. And you were going to do something about it.” He smiled maliciously now. “Sacrifice for the cause, as it were.” He laughed low in his throat.
“What a double-minded little wench you are, my dear! So willing to sacrifice for your precious Ashley! And yet just about a year ago when you married me, and you knew you had your paws on my money, it never occurred to you that our contract, of sorts, was making you wane in your refinements .” He was suddenly sarcastic again. “I always thought that you were a decided woman Scarlett! I would expect better from you my darling little cat!”
He face was hard again and he looked at her with red hot eyes. He bent down over her and he was so close to her face that his face was now a blur before her eyes. He spoke with bitterness and longing.
“If you wanted to give him the entire banquet table, couldn’t you have at least given me the crumbs!?” Suddenly he kissed her, just as he had the day of he proposed. Just as on that lazy, humid night Atlanta fell, on the road to Rough and Ready. He was kissing her with that same possessiveness that she had never been able to resist. In the whole time that they had been married, he had never kissed her like this! It was probably a good thing. She couldn’t keep her bearings when he kissed her like this. She always felt as though she were going to faint if he didn’t stop. She always felt she would go insane if he did. When he kissed her like this, her head was full of contradiction. Stop. No, don’t. Faint. No, stay alert. Ashley! No. Rhett.
She could feel her arms wrapping themselves around his neck as if pulled there by some force that was not her own. She pulled him closer to herself and knew that she was now, willingly and of her own accord, kissing him back. Much in the same way he was kissing her.
But as soon as she pulled her arms from his shoulders to rest her hands against his cheeks, he pulled away and slightly stumbled backward in an effort to get away from her. She involuntarily whispered at the absence of his warmth, “No.”
He stared at her a moment, with a longing she hadn’t ever seen in him before. He was breathing heavily and he looked almost astonished when she spoke. She thought that at her whisper, he was going to kiss her again but she heard the kitchen help out in the foyer saying that supper was ready.
Rhett looked to the door then back at her and his face seemed to be wiped clean of all the expression she had seen in it just a moment before. It was so unreadable now and she immediately began to doubt what she had seen in his eyes just moments before.
“Supper is ready. Let’s not make the children wait to eat.” He exited the room, leaving the door ajar for her to exit as well.
She was left feeling confused. She knew something significant had just happened between them, but she didn’t know what it was.
It was now more than ever she wished that she was more analytical then she was. She would do anything to know what Rhett had thought about the events of just a few moments ago.
She would do anything if she knew how she felt about them.
Upon reaching the parlor door, Rhett dragged Scarlett into the room before him with a yank on her arm then entered himself and closed the door stoutly, and turned to her. It was dusk, and the room was dim. The sunset was coating the ornately decorated room in beautiful lilacs and maroons until they made the ostentatious parlor look like a dull and pallid box. The faint stream of light filling the room cast harsh shadows on Rhett’s already chiseled features, making them seem more prominent and roguish then ever.
Scarlett looked into that hard face and tried to see what he was thinking, tried to see what was going on in his mind. But, as always, his face was a blank slate. Almost lifeless. But his eyes seemed to leap as if they were a blazing fire and they seemed to drill a hole into her mind, to her deepest and most secret thoughts. They read through her, right into her soul, and it was something that she couldn’t understand and almost didn’t want to. What was that old adage? Ignorance was bliss? She found this to be truer than anything in her life at the moment.
He stood there, before the door and just looked at her. It seemed that a long time had passed when he finally moved from the door and walked to the window. Still silent. Still inscrutable.
He stood there for so long without speaking she almost thought he wasn’t going to. She was about to turn around and sit down when she heard him sigh. It was a heavy sigh that seemed to come from deep in his chest. When he did speak his voice was calm and placid, laced with a lazy and almost tired drawl. But still beneath, there was the leashed power, restrained but wanting, even needing so badly to break through. But the wall refused to bend.
“The sunset can be so beautiful, can’t it?” Though she hadn’t a clue of what he would say first, this had not been it she would have expected. Why was it that everything he said never made any sense?
She didn’t know what to say. She sat there for a moment and was about to speak but he spoke first.
“You never were one to pay any attention to scenery were you, my pet. All you care about is whether or not it is worth something or useful to you.” His words were still calm but seemed to have an underlying bitterness. She was slightly offended by his words, but not enough to say anything. His voice was calm in an unusual and dazed way that she would have never recognized in him. She was, for the first time, almost interested in what he had to say.
He finally turned to her and gave her a slight grin and continued. “You would never think that something was there just to be beautiful, would you my dear? You would never look at that same sun during the day and think that it is what gives you warmth all day, even if it is sweltering warmth.”He started to walk towards her, “And you wouldn’t think about the fact that it gives you the light you need to go about your day. And you would have never looked at it as I did just now. In an amazed way, as I did. To look at it in with certain adoration for it’s beauty and for it allowing you to see that beauty. You see the sun all day long and it gives and gives to you,” he was in front of her now and though his voice was still calm his face was hard with urgency. He placed his hands on her shoulders with hard fingers. He spoke with more force as he finished what he was saying. Speaking with the restraint that had been characteristic in his demeanor the past few minutes.
“But you never acknowledge it or show it that you care.” He released her shoulders and turned from her to pace to the other side of the room. He got to the corner of the room and leaned on a chair close by in a casual but reliant way.
He was silent again and Scarlett thought she would go mad with the silence. What was he talking about? She knew that he wasn’t just saying those things to say them. He had something he was trying to tell her but…she just didn’t understand. And once again, she didn’t want to. She didn’t know how to handle this Rhett. He was even more unreadable than the sardonic and caustic Rhett she was used to.
Suddenly, he laughed. To the passerby, it sounded happy enough. Joyful almost. But it was an amused laugh, with an almost contemptible quality to it.
He leaned heavily on the chair until she heard it creek under his weight, and then he slowly turned towards her and he was the Rhett she knew again. His face bore, once again, his mocking and sarcastic smile and she knew that she was going to hate whatever he said next.
“So!” he said with mocking merriment, “after your long separation you and your beloved were finally reunited today!” He laughed again. But this time it was short and harsh. “I am sure that I would have liked to see such a touching reunion. Two lovers torn apart for months. The young woman trapped in her castle by the monster of pregnancy, which was planted there by the evil and despotic lord of the castle. Oh, how glorious a reunion! One you could base fairy tales on! The honorable and wooden-headed warrior and his hard and unscrupulous princess. What a scene!” He laughed harshly again, and she finally found her tongue.
Her brow went together and she spoke quickly. “I would like to see if you will ever be anything but a cad.” The last word was barked out at him with great force.
He laughed again, but this time it was more quiet and cynical. “My dear, even if there was a side of me that had not the slightest touch of my cad-like qualities, you would never see it. You never see the things that aren’t right under your nose.”
She didn’t like the way he was looking at her. “What business would it be of yours if I had seen Ashley today at the mill? I am not your slave to be commanded, Rhett Butler! I shall do as I please and go where I please and there is no one who will stop me.” She looked at him with a defiance she hadn’t felt in a long time.
He grin at her mockingly and said, “So, you admit that is was Ashley that you have seen today! And all this time I thought it was you lovely store manager!” She started to breathe with harsh and short breaths and this. “What business is it of mine? Well, I suppose only a husband’s concerning his wife. Would that be considered classified enough for you, my sweet and defiant little child? I suppose that you can see who you please when you please, but that will never change the fact that I will eventually find out about it. And I will not keep silent about the things you do that I dislike like your past two cowering, shrinking husbands.”
“I will see who I want when I want and why should you care…” He interrupted her.
“I have never had any doubt that you would do what you want when you want. As for my caring, I would call it more curiosity than anything. After all, it is a rather interesting love affair, isn’t it? Two people loving each other as you two do, and yet there has never been anything-how did you put it once, my dear?-anything wrong between you? What do you do in such a relationship that is in such a restricted state? You must have some secret, loving glance that only you, together share. Or perhaps, a word or phrase that is only understood by you both?”
His face seemed to be getting harder as he went on. He was getting too close to the truth for comfort and she was afraid that he had already realized her secret gift that she had wanted to give to Ashley.
“It must be hard for you two to be married to separate people and still be faithful to each other.” He said with a thoughtfully caustic look. “Though we both already know that it is relatively easy for him to be faithful to you, isn’t it? With his wife in so convenient a state.” He started to walk toward her again and she felt her body, as if willed on its own, starting to inch its way back farther from him as he got closer.
“But you, my dear! How do you stay faithful when married to a wretch like me? How can your wonderfully honorable Mr. Wilkes sleep at night knowing that you are being defiled by such a rogue as I?” She stared at him in horror now, for those were almost the exact same words that Ashley had spoken that morning. Something about Rhett coarsening her fineness and not being able to bare the thought of him touching her.
She finally noticed that Rhett’s eyes now held that omniscient look at her expression and once again he seemed to read her thoughts. His face got hard and his eyes turned as cold and they had been out in the foyer. “So, our fanciful and scrupulous Mr. Wilkes has made his dislikes known to you, has he?” She was still moving backwards but had now reached the wall and braced against it as if it would suck her in if she pressed hard enough. He trapped her between the wall and himself once he reached her, his hands placed on her arms above her elbow, squeezing her tightly.
He was speaking in low and heavy tones now. No mockery or sarcasm was even hinted at in his words. “And you had decided that if Ashley wasn’t pleased, than you weren’t either. And you were going to do something about it.” He smiled maliciously now. “Sacrifice for the cause, as it were.” He laughed low in his throat.
“What a double-minded little wench you are, my dear! So willing to sacrifice for your precious Ashley! And yet just about a year ago when you married me, and you knew you had your paws on my money, it never occurred to you that our contract, of sorts, was making you wane in your refinements .” He was suddenly sarcastic again. “I always thought that you were a decided woman Scarlett! I would expect better from you my darling little cat!”
He face was hard again and he looked at her with red hot eyes. He bent down over her and he was so close to her face that his face was now a blur before her eyes. He spoke with bitterness and longing.
“If you wanted to give him the entire banquet table, couldn’t you have at least given me the crumbs!?” Suddenly he kissed her, just as he had the day of he proposed. Just as on that lazy, humid night Atlanta fell, on the road to Rough and Ready. He was kissing her with that same possessiveness that she had never been able to resist. In the whole time that they had been married, he had never kissed her like this! It was probably a good thing. She couldn’t keep her bearings when he kissed her like this. She always felt as though she were going to faint if he didn’t stop. She always felt she would go insane if he did. When he kissed her like this, her head was full of contradiction. Stop. No, don’t. Faint. No, stay alert. Ashley! No. Rhett.
She could feel her arms wrapping themselves around his neck as if pulled there by some force that was not her own. She pulled him closer to herself and knew that she was now, willingly and of her own accord, kissing him back. Much in the same way he was kissing her.
But as soon as she pulled her arms from his shoulders to rest her hands against his cheeks, he pulled away and slightly stumbled backward in an effort to get away from her. She involuntarily whispered at the absence of his warmth, “No.”
He stared at her a moment, with a longing she hadn’t ever seen in him before. He was breathing heavily and he looked almost astonished when she spoke. She thought that at her whisper, he was going to kiss her again but she heard the kitchen help out in the foyer saying that supper was ready.
Rhett looked to the door then back at her and his face seemed to be wiped clean of all the expression she had seen in it just a moment before. It was so unreadable now and she immediately began to doubt what she had seen in his eyes just moments before.
“Supper is ready. Let’s not make the children wait to eat.” He exited the room, leaving the door ajar for her to exit as well.
She was left feeling confused. She knew something significant had just happened between them, but she didn’t know what it was.
It was now more than ever she wished that she was more analytical then she was. She would do anything to know what Rhett had thought about the events of just a few moments ago.
She would do anything if she knew how she felt about them.