"Do you have any special plans for your birthday?" Rhett asked casually.
"Well, coming here to Atlanta is very special," Cossette replied. "And meeting all of you. And staying with you. I can't tell you how special it is.
"Only one thing could make it better. I wish I could see Tara."
She smiled softly as she spoke, and looked around, taking special note of Ashley, again studying his face and wishing yet again that he would participate more in the conversation. The others politely murmured their appreciation of her comments.
Dinner was over and the children had retired to the back of the house. Except for Bonnie who now sat on Cossette's lap.
"I thought I was your favorite, sweetheart," Rhett had protested.
"I wanna sit with Cossy," Bonnie insisted with a defiant frown, and Rhett laughed as he surrendered her to Cossette's care.
"I thought so," Rhett said with a grin. "I knew you couldn't have had anything planned. No parties or balls. Not even a cake, I'll bet."
"Not even one of Mrs. Merriwether's pies," Cossette agreed.
"Well you can't celebrate your fifteenth birthday without a cake. Bonnie would never allow it. Would you, sweetheart?
"No!" Bonnie retorted emphatically.
So this afternoon I took the liberty upon myself of ordering a cake," Rhett announced.
"Oh how thoughtful of you, Captain Butler" Melanie said. "Cossy must have a cake for her birthday."
"Yes. So thoughtful," Scarlett agreed, distractedly. She still didn't understand and it was starting to irritate her. Who was this Cossette and why had she come all the way from Canada to Atlanta? Why did she keep looking that way at Ashley? And how, oh how, had she so quickly injected herself into their lives?
"I'm afraid that's not the only liberty I took," Rhett informed them. "Do you like parties, Cossette? Do you like to dance?"
"I love to, but. . ."
"Then it's all settled!" Rhett brushed aside her protests. "In three days we're going to have a grand birthday party for Cossette. Right here in this house. In the ballroom upstairs."
Bonnie squealed her approval. Melanie clapped her hands with delight, and Ashley gave his wife a melancholy smile. Scarlett just frowned.
"A party? Here? Yes, how wonderful. I wish you had told me so we could have planned it together."
"Oh dear, how thoughtless of me to go to the store to discuss it with you, when I should have known you were out," Rhett said smoothly, gently mocking her. "But I'm sure you'll excuse my carelessness when you think of the pleasure it will give you.
"Scarlett just loves to give parties and receptions," he explained to Cossette. "And it will simply put her in Heaven to invite all the fine people of Atlanta to her house." And the ever so slight emphasis he put on the words "fine people" very definitely made the point and silenced Scarlett's budding protests.
"In fact, that reminds me of a favor I need to ask of you, Mrs. Wilkes." And now there was no mockery, but genuine respect and sincerity.
"Of me," Melanie asked uncertainly.
"Just a kindness," Mrs. Wilkes. Could you speak to the ladies of your acquaintance and ask them to come? For Cossette, of course, not for us. Scarlett and I would be ever so grateful."
"Oh, that varmint," Scarlett thought in exasperation.
"Why I should be glad to help, Captain Butler," Melanie said.
"I hope you brought your dancing shoes, Cossette," Rhett smiled.
"My goodness, yes!" Cossette exclaimed excitedly. "I'd dance with Ulysses Grant himself, if he were here. Er, he is the President now, isn't he?"
"Why yes, he is, dear." Melanie replied.
"Oh, I was afraid I'd made a mistake," Cossette said with relief. "In Canada we don't learn American History. Of course," she added, gently chiding, "Americans never know who the Canadian Prime Minister is."
Scarlett wrinkled her brow as she thought about it, but she had no idea who the Canadian Prime Minister was. She glanced at Rhett. Rhett seemed lost in thought as he studied the backs of his hands.
But then he looked up with a strange smile.
"I've just been thinking about Tara," he said. "In fact I've been thinking about it for the last few days. The weather has been so lovely and it seems a shame to waste it here in the city. Cossette wants to see Tara and now would a perfect time for a trip to the country. Is the thought of a visit to Tara, perhaps even a picnic, agreeable?"
Cossette caught her breath in excitement.
"Yes," Bonnie shouted.
"Rhett I just can't go now," Scarlett said. "You know how busy we are at the store. And with all the new construction, the lumber business. .
. "I'd like to go," she said with a smile to Cossette, "But I just can't leave Atlanta now."
"No!" Bonnie protested vehemently. "I wanna go to Tara with Cossy!"
"Well then, I guess we won't be going. I'm sorry, sweetheart." Rhett responded with a sigh, but Scarlett could recognize the amused gleam in his eyes.
"I'd be happy to take you," he said to Cossette. "If only. . . No it wouldn't be proper.
"Unless. . ." and there was sudden animation in his voice. "Unless we can persuade Mr. and Mrs. Wilkes to accompany us.
"What!" Scarlett exclaimed.
Ashley and Melanie stared at Rhett.
"Think how much the children will enjoy it," he said in his most charming voice.
"Yes!" Bonnie shouted again. "I wanna have a pic'nic at Tara with Cossy!"
"So what do you say, Ashley?" Rhett asked encouragingly. "Is the answer 'Yes'?"
"Oh please say 'Yes'!" Cossette implored. And she looked at him in a way that made Scarlett very uncomfortable.
"Well. . .," Ashley replied, his instinctive inclination to refuse struggling with, then yielding to his inherently chivalrous nature. "It would be better if we could wait a few days. Until they blow up Shantytown. I can't go to the mill that day."
"Blow up Shantytown?" Cossette asked in surprise.
"Yes," Ashley explained. "It's a long story. A few years ago there was a war. . . Oh, you know about that?
"Well, right after the war ended, times were difficult here in Atlanta and many men, troublesome men, took to living out on the Decatur Road. Inside the woods. We called it Shantytown. They put up shacks and huts, or tents, or often not even that much. They were dangerous men and it was a dangerous place."
"Absolute trash," Scarlett muttered.
Ashley glanced at her in embarrassment, before continuing. "But there's no one there now. They've all been cleared out and the authorities don't want them moving back. So the Army is going to destroy the place. Set charges and blow it up."
"When are they going to do that?" Rhett asked.
"In a few days. I haven't been told when. But they'll close the Decatur Road when they do, and I won't be able to go to the mill."
"I didn't know about that!" Scarlett said as her mind grappled with questions of how this disruption would affect her lumber operation.
"So if we go to Tara, that would be a good day," Ashley concluded.
"When are you returning to Canada?" Rhett asked Cossette.
"The day after my birthday," she replied. "My train leaves first thing in the morning."
"And we have to be in Atlanta on your birthday, because we're having the party that night," Rhett commented.
"I have to be in Atlanta, too," Melanie announced. "The Association for the Beautification of the Graves of Our Glorious Dead. That's the day we pull the weeds and plant flowers."
Rhett shook his head. "No. We can't wait. We'll have to leave tomorrow and come back the following day."
Ashley started to say something, but Rhett forestalled him. "Let me make the arrangements. Henry Hamilton can look after the mill. So it won't hurt for you to be away. It's only two days.
"Besides, it'll be good for you, too. You work so hard."
"That's so true," Melanie agreed. "Please dear, let's do go."
"Are you sure you're not coming, too, Scarlett?" Rhett asked. "Henry can also look after the store.?"
"No, I just can't," Scarlett replied, but not as emphatically as before. Something about this rush of events was making her very apprehensive.
"Well, then it's just the four of us. And the children," Rhett announced. "Cossette, you shall see Tara. And spend the night there. And have a picnic."
"Oh, this is the most wonderful birthday I've ever had!" Cossette said, her face radiant with joy as she looked her gratitude around the room. As usual she paused on Ashley, searching for some sign of happiness, and for Scarlett, watching her closely, the answers she had been seeking all evening suddenly fell into place.
"Great balls of fire!" she thought. "She's after Ashley!"
"And you're the most wonderful man in the world," Cossette said turning a brilliant smile on Rhett. And Scarlett's eyes opened wide.
"And Rhett, too! She's after Ashley and Rhett!"
It all made sense now. The reason she had come to Atlanta. The reason she had come straight from the train station to the store. The way she had moved right in on them. She was after Ashley and Rhett. And even if Ashley and Rhett had been complete strangers, the sheer effrontery would have been too much for Scarlett's predatory nature to ignore.
But to go after Ashley and Rhett, the two most important men in her life. . . And at Tara! She had chosen Tara as the setting for her conquests! Tara!
The surge of Scarlett's seething emotions was evident in her face. But only Rhett noticed, grinning at her with mocking laughter in his black eyes. With great effort Scarlett recovered a placid expression as she planned her campaign.
The store, the lumber business receded to insignificance. As long as Cossette remained in Georgia her business, her only business, was the business of thwarting whatever moves the little minx from Canada made. At Tara. That would be the first battlefield. And then Atlanta.
"You're right, Rhett," Scarlett suddenly announced. "Uncle Henry can look after the store."
"You've changed your mind?" Rhett asked in that infuriatingly silky voice he employed for such occasions.
"Oh Scarlett," Melanie urged, "Please say you'll come. It will be so wonderful having you with us."
"You'll come to Tara?" Cossette asked delightedly, turning her sparkling smile on Scarlett.
And Scarlett smiled back at her as she replied.
"Of course I'll come to Tara, Honey." And her green eyes glinted as she sweetly added, "The whole Yankee Army couldn't keep me away."
***