Really had a writer's block. You are all welcome to PM me regarding Milady's fate. Hope you enjoy it.

Henry Hamilton was pacing like a caged lion in the parlor. She entered the room and realized the matter. Before he began talking she said quietly -

"He'll be back"

"I know. I'm upset with you my dear. There was no reason for you to entrust him with last year's events. For God's sake! He came back and you had a child!"

"Henry, Ella will be down here any moment now. You shouldn't talk of this now. I'll say only this - I haven't told he everything."

"The ignorant fool. He's enraged because he thinks you were courted? You did nothing wrong."

"You didn't think so when I contemplated leaving to England. And there's Ashley - always stupid Ashley..."

The older man was furious "He knows that Wilkes holds no charm to you, or does he not?"

"Henry, I told him some parts of everything - Ashley, and that I contemplated in accepting Morgan's offer to come and live with -."

"But Morgan is of no threat to him! She was nothing more than confusion."

She gave him a long look and he shrugged "Besides, why didn't you burn those letters? I told you-"

"And I disagreed. We've been through this darling."

"Don't darling me."

She smiled a faint smile "But you are a darling."

"Scarlett - I never disagreed with you for propriety's sake. You are the child I'll never have, being as I am, and as you know me. But you shouldn't live like me. I always hide. Always."

"Not to me, you don't."

"You were the first brave person I met all my life, except Melly, and she was too delicate for-"

"For you to confess your ways?"

"It took you some time too, to accept me as I am."

"I still feel bad about my reaction."

"You simply fainted my dear. You could have reacted worse."

They laughed.

"Rhett doesn't know of me, does he?"

"He wonders, but he saw us and he noticed there is nothing romantic." She smiled reassuringly.

"Good. He's not like you, my sweet one. And so I'll write him and threaten to hunt him down like any primitive gentleman should."

"You won't tell him that Morgan was - er - no threat?"

Henry smiled and kissed her cheek before he left.

It was a windy afternoon. The dance of the falling leaves in front of her made her smile , thinking of the semblance to her state of mind. The park was nearly empty. As she felt a small hand touch her arm she turned her head -

"Ella, Grace is as red as the soil beneath your feet" she laughed.

"Mummy, have you found me a new teacher? I can't stand Lara, she is nothing like Ms. Charlotte"

"No one is like Charlotte, dear. I miss her too."

"Will Uncle Rhett return by Thanksgiving?"

"I don't know, darling, perhaps."

"He would never recognize Grace - She's so big."

Scarlett smiled appreciatively at her elder child - "Ella, have I told you today how fortunate Grace is to have you as her big sister? Aunt Sue and Aunt Careen never had such luck with me."

The child beamed.

As she opened the mansion's door she smelled a faint odour of horses, leather and tobacco.

"Henry, dear, is that you?"

Two men came out of the parlor. Henry was one of them.

He was home. Again.

Ella's fast talk and laughter gave her some time to compose herself. When he approached her by the side of the stroller she raised her head to him with a questioning look, ready for anything, but she found a questioning look returning her gaze.

"Darling! I was sure you'd be gone for weeks, that your businesses…" she made her voice sound light and raised her arms towards his neck.

He shrugged and as he yielded to her hug he whispered in her ear he whispered "Thank you" Louder he added - "Two weeks were too much as it is. I do need to go again but this time all of us will be traveling together to Europe, if that is alright with you."

Sometime later she was nursing her baby in her room when he entered.

"Scarlett, can we talk?"

Her heart was beating fast, for a second she shut her eyelids but he hadn't noticed. He didn't wait for her to answer.

"I'm sorry I left, but-"

"But you needed to. I know. I hoped it wouldn't be so, but I thought that once you read that last one you'd find it hard to stay. I've known from the beginning that you'd need your time alone." She choked "And now? What now?"

"I'll stay if you'll have me." he was at the other side of the room.

"I want you to stay. Of course I want you, that hadn't changed. It can't change."

"Then why did-"

"Why did I let another man woo me for six months?"

"Did you -"

"I told you I never. I wouldn't lie to you. I'd just avoid it if it were otherwise."

"You liked him."

"I liked him very much, Rhett. He was nice and kind and I sent him away." There was a pleading note in her voice.

"You know what killed me the most?"

"That I considered it." her face was bent down but her voice clear.

"You could have burned it. Now-"

"I suppose I could have, but I wanted you to know from me."

"Only after we had Grace."

Her baby was on her so she couldn't leave - "When we first met again you said that you'd accept it if I did much more than allow a man court me. I knew that you were lying to me and perhaps to yourself. But I never have. At the end of the day I sent him away before I did any of the things that -."

"Did Henry read those letters?"

"No, but he knows of this habit of mine."

Silence lingered in the room. It was too much for him for a moment.

"Wade too?"

"No."

"Who else?"

"Regarding Morgan - some people saw us in Philadelphia perhaps. Regarding Ashley - half Atlanta. I refrained from trying to keep pretense. Henry shielded me from the fat-tongued ladies at first and the rest I did on my own - as I wrote. I stood up to him. I think he created the scene on purpose."

"Ashley?"

"Yes. He wanted it for some odd reason."

She saw his fists clench and smiled a small smile, but he saw it.

"What are you not telling me?"

"I made him go throughout the city and explain both cases, the one from his long forgotten birthday and this one. I screamed at him in front of Aunt Pitty and India. I was quite mad with grief myself at the time. But some people may still talk…"

"But in the letter you accuse yourself, I don't understand-"

"You never did."

For the first time ever the roles were reversed - she was the one who read his mind, the one who understood something that escaped him-

"But that's easy, Rhett. You never figured that during that day at the mill, I felt nothing but some distant emotion keen to friendliness. And when you were gone and we had just buried Melanie he held me as if he was entitled to. For that I blamed myself. Hence, I ran away from town with the children the following day for a week. It must have helped strengthen some vile rumors."

"Henry wrote me."

"I figured. He cares."

"Better than me."

"Differently. After two weeks I returned, and a year went by without you."

"When did you send this Morgan fellow away? Before you wrote me?"

"Fellow?" than she came quiet. She drew a long breath in - "After your nasty letter, the horrible one."

He was at loss.

"You wonder why? Isn't it obvious? If I had had a chance of loving someone else I wouldn't have been so happy that I evoked those feelings in you. For the first time in a year I felt happy."

"That letter made you happy? You wrote -"

"I know what I wrote. Rhett - I meant it - and yet I was happy. You once said there is a thin line between love and hate. You claimed for indifference - that letter called your bluff. And that thing about broken things and all - I don't buy it, I chose mending our ruins before it was certain that I will succeed - to building something new with Morgan."

"You loved him."

It was not a question.

"Dearly, but never in the way a wife should love her husband - the way I love you"

As he left the room she observed one last scroll she never gave him, her eyes scanned the words and with a smile she fed it to the fire, the words lingered for a few more minutes -

"Darling Scarlett -

Your last letter was so refreshing from the dreary scenes of South Wales. It was Lucille who has decided we could share a life as teachers in a girl's boarding school, away from prying eyes. I realized, even before you sent me away and back to her waiting arms that your heart was taken beyond repair, and as for me, Lucille knows me and accepts my treacherous ways.

I felt you hesitated taking my offer and it was sweet of you to confirm my feelings. My ego was crushed - like you I am not used to rejection, as odd as it may sound.

I loved teaching Ella, and I would like for you to send her to me a few years ahead, perhaps come with her to us. Lucille will never know that your were my enchanting Kathrine, as your husband should never know that I was and am, always,

Yours truly -

Charlotte Morgan"

So that's it. For those who waited to the end - thank you. I had to give her something to carry just for herself and falling in love, of sorts, with another woman, without loosing her devotion to him seemed proper. Henry does come out rather unrealistic, doesn't he?