“Where’s Betsy?”
“Ah doan know.
She ain’ came.”
Scarlett walked to Melanie’s door and opened it a crack, peering into the sunny room.
Melanie lay in bed in her nightgown, her eyes closed and circled with black, her heart-shaped face bloated, her slender body hideous and distorted.
Scarlett wished viciously that Ashley could see her now.
She looked worse than any pregnant woman she had ever seen.
As she looked, Melanie’s eyes opened and a soft warm smile lit her face.
“Come in,” she invited, turning awkwardly on her side.
“I’ve been awake since sun-up thinking, and, Scarlett, there’s something I want to ask you.”
She entered the room and sat down on the bed that was glaring with harsh sunshine.
Melanie reached out and took Scarlett’s hand in a gentle confiding clasp.
“Dear,” she said, “I’m sorry about the cannon.
It’s toward Jonesboro, isn’t it?”
Scarlett said “Um,” her heart beginning to beat faster as the thought recurred.
“I know how worried you are.
I know you’d have gone home last week when you heard about your mother, if it hadn’t been for me.
Wouldn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Scarlett ungraciously.
“Scarlett, darling. You’ve been so good to me.
No sister could have been sweeter or braver.
And I love you for it.
I’m so sorry I’m in the way.”
Scarlett stared.
Loved her, did she?
The fool! “And Scarlett, I’ve been lying here thinking and I want to ask a very great favor of you.” Her clasp tightened.
“If I should die, will you take my baby?”
Melanie’s eyes were wide and bright with soft urgency. “Will you?”
Scarlett jerked away her hand as fear swamped her.
Fear roughened her voice as she spoke.
“Oh, don’t be a goose, Melly.
You aren’t going to die.
Every woman thinks she’s going to die with her first baby. I know I did.”
“No, you didn’t.
You’ve never been afraid of anything.
You are just saying that to try to cheer me up.
I’m not afraid to die but I’m so afraid to leave the baby, if Ashley is-Scarlett, promise me that you’ll take my baby if I should die. Then I won’t be afraid.
Aunt Pittypat is too old to raise a child and Honey and India are sweet but—I want you to have my baby.
Promise me, Scarlett.
And if it’s a boy, bring him up like Ashley, and if it’s a girl—dear, I’d like her to be like you.”
“God’s nightgown!” cried Scarlett, leaping from the bed.
“Aren’t things bad enough without you talking about dying?”
“I’m sorry, dear.
But promise me.
I think it’ll be today.
I’m sure it’ll be today.
Please promise me.”
“Oh, all right, I promise,” said Scarlett, looking down at her in bewilderment.
Was Melanie such a fool she really didn’t know how she cared for Ashley?
Or did she know everything and feel that because of that love, Scarlett would take good care of Ashley’s child?