Letters from the Heart
George knocked on his daughters door softly. There wasn't an answer. On a normal day he would have let her be. Not today. Today was no normal day.
Aly had spent the last two weeks visiting her grandparents in Corus, only returning today. It had been her third such trip in as many months. When she returned this time, rather than her usual cheerful greeting, she rushed to her room without even saying hello.
"Aly? Will you let me in please?" George called through the crack where the door meets the wall. Aly still did not answer. George slid the pouch of lock picks from his left sleeve with a sigh. "I am coming in anyway!"
When he opened the door he found his fourteen year old daughter sitting at her desk, calmly holding a flaming candle to a piece of parchment. A stack of similar paper odds and ends sat on the desk at her elbow.
The parchment glowed as it caught fire. The paper curled and turned a deep brown under the heat of the flame. Aly looked at the burning letter in her hand with detached interest.
"What are you doing, lass?" George asked her gently.
"Burnin' things." Was her offhand reply.
George walked over to the desk swiftly and snatched the top piece of paper off the pile. He unfolded it and started to read carefully.
Dearest Aly,
You are my everything; my morning and my night, my summer and my winter. I long to hold you once more. You seem so far from me, locked away in your tower under the dictatorship of your parents. Let us elope, run far away from here to be together.
George didn't need to read on. He picked up another, one that looked like the most recent, and started reading from the middle.
I wish to run my hands through your golden curls, to slowly undue the laces of your bodice...
This letter George dropped like a hot stone. He leafed through the stack on Aly's desk and selected one of the older looking ones. He very cautiously scanned this one.
Were you to be mine, fair lady, I would fulfill your every wish. You would wear the finest clothes, have jewels to rival the Queens. You would live in a virtual places, with servants to attend to your every need. I would never leave your side.
George now understood what was plaguing his daughter. "Pretty words." He said lightly. "But judging from how meticulously you are burning them, he had no wish to keep any of his promises."
"I found him with another girl." Aly said softly, almost inaudibly.
"I am sorry, love." George got down onto his knees and pulled Aly into his arms, holding her tightly. "You are to good for him, whoever he is."
"His name is Mattes of Princehold." Aly sighed into her father's tunic.
"Isn't he married?" George asked.
"As of last month." Aly's voice was bitter.
Comprehension dawned in George's mind. "The girl you found him with was his new wife."
"He never told me he was engaged." Aly sniffed.