.htaccess configuration(s)

[#1]

Hello,
Is it possible to use two .htaccess files: one in the root directory which re-directs to another webpage; and another in a sub-directory which does not re-direct anywhere?
I was thinking, in the root directory:

Redirect 301 /index.html http://www.mywebsite.com

and in the sub-directory:

Redirect 301 /index.html

the second one is obviously incorrect; there is only 1 argument. However, I think that there must be some line of code to overwrite the inherited re-direct from that in the root directory.
If I wanted to re-direct to another webpage, I can simply put it as the second argument. If however I do not want it to re-direct, I am unsure of what to do.
Can anyone shed some light on this matter?
Thanks in advance,
Logical

[#2]

Unfortunatly you cannot override inheritance, which is indeed a pain.
You can however make use of something like mod_rewrite, for which you can control it all from a single file in the root, and use matches to ensure that even with inheritance, it works to your needs.