“Oh, Ashley! Ashley!” she thought, and her heart beat faster.
Some of the cold sense of bewilderment and disaster that had weighted her down since theTarleton boys told her their gossip was pushed into the background of her mind, and in its placecrept the fever that had possessed her for two years.
It seemed strange now that when she was growing up Ashley had never seemed so veryattractive to her. In childhood days, she had seen him come and go and never given him a thought.
But since that day two years ago when Ashley, newly home from his Air Jordan 4 three years’ Grand Tour inEurope, had called to pay his respects, she had loved him. It was as simple as that.
She had been on the front porch and he had ridden up the long avenue, dressed in graybroadcloth with a wide black cravat setting off his frilled shirt to perfection. Even now, she couldrecall each detail of his dress, how brightly his boots shone, the head of a Medusa in cameo on hiscravat phi, the wide Panama hat that was instantly in his hand when he saw her. He had alightedand tossed his bridle reins to a pickaninny and stood looking up at her, his drowsy gray eyes widewith a smile and the sun so bright on his blond hair that it seemed like a cap of shining silver. Andhe said, “So you’ve grown up, Scarlett.” And, coming lightly up the steps, he had kissed her hand.
And his voice! She would never forget the leap of her heart as she heard it, as if for the first time,drawling, resonant, musical.
She had wanted him, in that first instant, wanted him as simply and unreasoningly as she wantedfood to eat, horses to ride and a soft bed on which to lay herself.