"Don't be a goose, Scarlett, you've never been afraid in your life."
"Oh, Rhett, I am afraid!"
The words bubbled up faster than she could speak them.
She could tell him.
She could tell Rhett anything.
He'd been so bad himself that he wouldn't sit in judgment on her.
How wonderful to know someone who was bad and dishonorable and a cheat and a liar, when all the world was filled with people who would not lie to save their souls and who would rather starve than do a dishonorable deed!
"I'm afraid I'll die and go to hell."
If he laughed at her she would die, right then.
But he did not laugh.
"You are pretty healthy--and maybe there isn't any hell after all."
"Oh, but there is, Rhett!
You know there is!"
"I know there is but it's right here on earth.
Not after we die.
There's nothing after we die, Scarlett.
You are having your hell now."
"Oh, Rhett, that's blasphemous!"
"But singularly comforting.
Tell me, why are you going to hell?"
He was teasing now, she could see the glint in his eyes but she did not mind.
His hands felt so warm and strong, so comforting to cling to.
"Rhett, I oughtn't to have married Frank.
It was wrong.
He was Suellen's beau and he loved her, not me.
But I lied to him and told him she was going to marry Tony Fontaine.
Oh, how could I have done it?"
"Ah, so that was how it came about!
I always wondered."
"And then I made him so miserable.
I made him do all sorts of things he didn't want to do, like making people pay their bills when they really couldn't afford to pay them.
And it hurt him so when I ran the mills and built the saloon and leased convicts.
He could hardly hold up his head for shame.
And Rhett, I killed him.
Yes, I did!
I didn't know he was in the Klan.
I never dreamed he had that much gumption.
But I ought to have known.
And I killed him."
"'Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?'"
"What?"
"No matter.
Go on."
"Go on?
That's all.
Isn't it enough?
I married him, I made him unhappy and I killed him.
Oh, my God!
I don't see how I could have done it!
I lied to him and I married him.