Scarlett’s mind went back through the years to the still hot noon at Tara when grey smoke curled above a blue-clad body and Melanie stood at the top of the stairs with Charles’ sabre in her hand. Scarlett remembered that she had thought at the time: ‘How silly! Melly couldn’t even heft that sword!’ But now she knew that had the necessity arisen, Melanie would have charged down those stairs and killed the Yankee – or been killed herself.
