Bonnie was glad to see her cousin Louis Valentine again. While her father and her aunt Rosemary talked about the things grown-ups talk about, Belle and Prissy took Bonnie and Louis Valentine to the promenade to see the boats. Prissy chattered with Belle just like Belle wasn't a fallen woman.
Bonnie wanted to stay longer in Charleston, but her father said they couldn't. Bonnie pouted until they were back in their dear familiar Pullman car. She ate her dinner and climbed into her little bed. Since Bonnie was afraid of the dark, her father left a light burning where she could see it through the bed curtains.
Bonnie woke to cypress swamps that gave way to shacks and shanties, then more substantial buildings, and then their track joined another as they sped past old stone houses Daddy Rhett called "the Vieux Carr?. It's the old French Quarter, Bonnie." Their train rolled along the levees above the wharves and the ships in the big river. Bonnie was fascinated by the steamboats and she begged until Daddy Rhett gave his laughing promise that yes, yes, they would take a steamboat ride. Because as Bonnie Blue asserted, "I had to leave my pony behind and I miss him very much, but I shan't miss him so much when I'm taking a steamboat ride.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
A Catholic City
A spring morning in the Vieux Carre: Church bells echoed in the narrow streets, the birds-of-paradise were flowering, and behind wrought iron gates overripe lemons and oranges were dropping from the trees.
Waiting beside Rhett for a cab, Belle Watling remembered the pregnant young girl she'd been in this city so many years ago.
"What did you say, Belle?" Rhett asked.
"I spect I was talkin' to myself. I was thinkin' how New Orleans seemed like the biggest city in the world." Belle added, "Lord a mercy, I was scared.”
Rhett helped her into an open landaulet. "Do you remember when you and me met up outside the St. Louis Hotel? That Didi woman you was with? Mercy, what a beauty! She was wearin' the brightest red hat I'd ever seen. Sometimes I still dream about that hat..." She touched Rhett's arm, "If you hadn't found me that day, Rhett, I...”
"But I did, Belle." He smiled. "Very occasionally, things turn out better than we expect.”
Belle knew Rhett's marriage wasn't one of those things. That foolishness between Mr. Wilkes and Miss Scarlett had birthed something terrible.
Belle'd never known Rhett so drawn and sorrowful.
When they stopped at number 12 Royal Street, Rhett said, "I think it best if you meet Taz alone. I don't want his dislike of me ruining things.
I'll be back in an hour.”
"But Rhett!”
He helped her down and gave her Andrew's bequest. "Go on, Belle. Go brave." The cab horse's iron shoes rang on the ancient cobblestones.
Belle had moved Andrew's things from Isaiah's rough paper parcel to a nice poplar box, which seemed more respectful. Now, with the box in her hands, she wondered if she couldn't have found a nicer one — maybe walnut.
Belle told herself, Ruth Belle Watling! Don't be a ninny! and yanked the bellpull more vigorously than she'd intended.
On tenterhooks, she listened for his footsteps and the rasp of drawn bolts. The gate creaked, swinging open. "Maman!”
Belle dissolved in tears. "You've grown a beard!”
"I was just about to go out... I am surprised, so happy you are here!
Please, please come in.”
Taz's little garden was the prettiest Belle had ever seen. Its lime tree was certainly the most fragrant. What a sweet little bench! What a cunning little fish pond! The house — was this her dear son's house? What a perfect little house! Belle sniffled into her handkerchief.
Taz threw his arms out to encompass it all. "Maman, it is yours!”
Belle froze like an animal sensing a trap. "But Taz, my home's in Atlanta.”
"Come in, Maman," Taz adjusted. "Please. I'll make tea. English tea.
Unless you'd rather have water or a glass of wine?”
"Taz, who would have dreamed ..." Belle's gesture was a mother's delight.
"Honey, you've done right well for yourself!”
"Maman, I have done it all for you." Taz flashed his familiar grin. "And I'm not always so pompous. I promise you I'm not. Why didn't you tell me you were coming? Bon Dieu, I am so very happy. Please, let me show you the house." Taz laid Belle's box on a window ledge and led her into the kitchen, which had just enough room for both of them. "Oh," Belle said, "it's so cozy and snug!”
The front bedroom's balcony overlooked the garden. When Taz said, "This will be your room," Belle pretended she hadn't heard. The bedroom in the back had a separate staircase, which would be ideal — as Belle understood — for the young man about town who might come home late.
Back in the parlor, Taz insisted Belle take his new chair, a Suffolk chair, which, he told her, "was made in New York City.”
"I don't believe I ever sat in a more comfortable chair.”
When Belle ran out of things to admire, silence filled the room. The birds twittered loudly in the garden.
"I've missed you, Taz," Belle said.
"I missed you, too." Impulsively, Taz knelt and pressed her hand. "I am a full partner of J. Nicolet. We do a very good business and employ four men.”
Belle beamed at her boy.
Taz rubbed his palm across his forehead. To Belle, that familiar gesture recalled the little boy he'd been, and tears welled in her eyes. He said, "You know what I wish for. I never could fool you.”
Belle went to the window and pushed the shutters open. She said, "I'd forgotten how well things grow in New Orleans.”
"Will you come here and live with me?”
Belle turned to him with a tremulous smile. "Taz, I've a business to look after.”
"Sell it. You won't want for anything. I can provide...”
"Taz, my dear boy, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, but I can t.
"But Maman," Taz spoke as if to a child, "here in New Orleans, you would be a lady.”
Belle restrained her laugh. Belle Watling, a lady! "No, my darling," she said. "I'd spoil everything. Think what J. Nicolet would say when he learned your mother is nothing but a common — “
The ringing bell saved Belle. She said, "Get the gate, Taz. Rhett and me'll tell you everything you want to know.”
Outside that gate, with Bonnie Blue's tiny hand in his own, Rhett Butler had slipped into that mood where the deepest affections are colored by sorrow and love's losses seem the greater part of love.
How had the boy he'd brought from the Asylum for Orphan Boys become this young man standing before him? The young man's eyes were honest and calm. "Welcome to my home, sir. I owe you an apology.”
"This is my Bonnie Blue," Rhett said.
"Hello," Bonnie piped up. "I'm four. I've had my birthday.”
Taz smiled. "A fine thing it is to have a birthday. But are you sure you're four? You're so tall for four.”
"I am very tall," Bonnie assured him. "I have a pony.”
"A pony! My goodness!" Taz ushered them into his garden.
Poplar box in her lap, Belle waited on the circular stone bench beneath a lime tree. Bonnie dashed to the tiny pool, where goldfish flashed under a carpet of water lilies.
"I thought we'd talk better out-of-doors," Belle said quietly. "Ain't this place pretty, Rhett?”
Taz began, "Sir, I must apologize. I have been an ungrateful fool. I — “
Rhett put a finger to his lips. "Shh.”
"Sir, I — “
"It was nothing, Taz." Rhett grinned. "On second thought, I'm glad it's over." He took Belle's hand. "Your mother and I... for a good many years we were custodians of another man's reputation. A man who had more to lose than we did. Andrew Ravanel was one of the bravest soldiers in the Confederacy. In his last moments, he thought of you.”