Scarlett was nervous and the only thing that she knew for certain was that she loved Ashley. She loved everything about him from the proud lift of his gold head down to his shining black boots. She knew she loved him. As she heard him say the last of his farewells her heart started pounding so loud in her ears that she couldn't think. Only if he would come in here and take her in his arms where she didn't have to say anything, maybe if she prayed it would help to come her nerves.

"Hail Mary full of grace…" began Scarlett.

"Scarlett, who are you hiding from Charles or the twins?"

He did notice how the men swarmed around her. He is such a dear with his eyes sparkling unaware of her excitement. She held out her hand and pulled him in the room. He had a puzzled look on his face wondering why she was so excited. He had never seen her eyes glow like this before with such excitement and emotion.

"What is it, a secret?"

"Yes, I love you Ashley."

"Isn't it enough that you collected every other man's heart here today?" he said in a teasing voice. "Do you want to make it unanimous? Well, you've always had my heart. You cut your teeth on it."

"Ashley please don't tease me. Don't you love me? Don't you want to marry me?"

Ashley stood there in silence thinking how he hated dealing with the harshness of life & wished that he didn't have to break her heart but he loved Melanie and not her.

"No, I don't love you Scarlett. I love Melanie."

Scarlett stood there in silence. This isn't the way it was supposed to happen. He was supposed to love her not that mealy mouthed person that can't say anything but yes or no. She isn't even pretty. How could he love someone like her?

"Scarlett please listen to me. I'm sorry if I hurt you but I never dreamt that you felt this way. I thought you knew like everyone else."

"I thought you loved me. You came and saw me. We went to parties, picnics, & we danced together. You made me think that you loved me!"

"Yes I did those things with you but it was friendship that I was offering. I never went beyond friendship and you know it."

"How could you love someone like her? She can't open her mouth except to say yes or no, and I bet she will raise a bunch of mealy mouthed brats just like her."

"Scarlett you mustn't say these things about Melanie. She is my everything. I can't imagine her not being in my life. She is my equal in every way. I dream of her and of our life together. I'm going to marry her."

Scarlett looked at him for the first time and looked back over the past year and saw the truth. He was only seeking her friendship and not her love. He never courted her like the twins or Cade did. Oh, she felt anger more at herself than at him. She was such a fool. She had made him be her knight in shining armor that day when he called after coming home from his Grand Tour in Europe. She just wanted a hole to open her up and swallow her up. She should have listened to her mother and Mammy about not letting him know how she felt. Anything would be better than this humiliation knowing that she threw herself at him and he didn't want her.

"Scarlett?"

"Leave me alone! Just go away!"

Ashley took a last look at her to make sure that she would be alright before he turned around and walked out of the library.

After he had left, she paced back in forth not knowing what she was going to do. Was the whole world laughing at her? What kind of miss did she get herself into today? Looking back she could now see in her quest for Ashley she acted like white trash. She wished she could just magically appear back at Tara and cry the whole horrid story to her mother. She knew she couldn't run because that would add fuel to the fire. What was she going to do? She needed to do something before she screamed down the house. She put her hand down and felt a small china bowl on the table. She threw it across the room before she knew what she was doing and it made a small crashing noise as it broke against the fireplace.

"Has the war started?"

Scarlett gasped in surprise when Rhett Butler rose from the couch.