December 1st, 1864
Dear Inga,
I'll be mailing this letter when we arrive in Portsmouth tomorrow. I can't believe it's December already. The weather is so mild this far south, though I never would have guessed we'd see any nice weather on this trip, as rough as the waters were in the North Sea. To think, there was already snow on the ground when we left Arendelle last week!
I would really like to stay in England long enough to see some of the country, but we'll be booking passage on the first steamship out. I suppose I should look on the bright side, that we'll be settled by the new year. A friend of Father's has arranged for us to stay with his family for Christmas, so I don't need to worry about doing anything for that. I hope the holiday preparations are going well in Arendelle, though I am very sad to be missing it.
With love,
Elizabeth
P.S. I just want to thank you all again for the wonderful party before we left Arendelle. I'm sure you'll object again that it was mostly Halima's work, but it was so nice to see everyone there.
Elizabeth sighed, looking out the porthole of their cabin at the distant lights on the coast of England as they sailed along. Normally, she didn't mind sailing, but this trip felt so terribly bittersweet. There were so many possibilities where they were going, and she would see so many things that she had only read about, but she had really started to feel at home during those few brief months she had been in Arendelle.
"We'll have an early morning," Lars reminded her as he finished changing, "please come to bed."
"I haven't written to your mother yet," she smiled. "I thought of some things I forgot to ask her to bring with her from Corona."
"She'll be in Arendelle for another month; you can write from the inn tomorrow."
"I am feeling rather tired," Elizabeth admitted, turning down the lamp as she walked to the bed.
Lars dressed and quietly left the bedroom. A cold sleet was coming down outside, but the kitchen was warm. It had been fairly mild when they first arrived in Boston more than a month before, and Elizabeth had been convinced there wouldn't be a real winter, but they had a thick layer of snow for Christmas, and the temperature had been below freezing nearly every morning for several weeks.
Susan, the girl they had hired to help around the house, had already arrived, and she had even prepared some coffee for Lars to drink before he left for the stable. It wasn't that long of a ride to the office they had rented, but the sleet made every minute feel like an hour. There was almost no work so far, but the assistant keeping up the office in Washington had started forwarding all of the mail, which mostly consisted of a handful of applications for Arendelle travel visas. The previous evening's mail had been brought in, and there were a few official notices, plus the bundle that had been forwarded, and finally he noticed a letter personally addressed to himself, and opened it.
January 7th, 1865
Dear Lars,
Inga told me that Elizabeth has been writing, and I realized that you're only getting official correspondence from us right now, so I thought I'd fix that. I can't say I'm as good at writing personal letters as my sister, but I hope you don't mind getting another letter. I won't bore you with official updates and announcements, since I know we send them to everyone.
There was a lot of snow last night, and everyone was outside enjoying it all morning, then we all packed into Hudson's to warm up, then back out. Do you get snow there? I know it's much further south where you are. If you're not too busy, write back, because I'm curious what they actually have you doing there.
The week after Christmas was quiet, with no business and just the family at the castle. Things are picking up again this week, but Father is going to be taking me, Anton, and Peder up to the mountains for the first ice harvest in another week. We'll only be staying a week or two up there, and then the rest of the winter I'll have to spend most of my time with the tutors if I want to be allowed to do the naval training trip in the spring.
Stay well!
Frederick
Lars placed the letter in his bag. Elizabeth would like to read it, and Frederick hadn't included anything that he would mind being shared, and he'd write back after dinner and send it out in the morning's mail.
Elizabeth looked up. "A valentine? Lars, you didn't have to get me anything!"
"There was a shop full of them, I couldn't help it," he laughed, sitting down next to her on the sofa.
"But," she sighed, "I have nothing for you."
"Of course you do," he replied, kissing her forehead.
"What do you mean?" she asked blankly, then looked up at him and got his meaning. "Oh!" she giggled, lightly punching him.
Elizabeth looked up from the letter she was reading out loud, and sighed. "This is dated two weeks ago, so Inga must already be up North. She promises she'll write to me when she gets back to Arendelle next month, but she didn't say whether she'll get any letters up there."
Lars nodded. "It won't hurt to write, if you want to. Is it any different from writing to your father while he's at sea?"
"That's true," she smiled, looking out the bedroom window. She set the letter on the nightstand and started fastening the front of her corset as Lars began to help with the back. Today was the first day of spring. It was still chilly, and the locals said it was likely to stay so through most of April, but at least the sun was up early. Elizabeth had again started waking up at the same time as he woke up, so he no longer had to leave the house while she was still asleep.
"I got a telegraph from Mother," Lars said as he gingerly laced the back of her corset, "and she's on a steamship arriving next week."
"Oh, that's wonderful news!" Elizabeth smiled, "she'll be here for your birthday, too!"
"Yes," Lars replied quietly, gently tying a bow at the bottom.
"Are you sure you can't get it a little tighter?" she pouted.
"Absolutely not," he chided her, holding her shoulders and kissing her cheek. "It's not going to fall off, and…"
"I know, I know," she sighed.
April 25th, 1865
Dear Inga,
How are you doing? I feel very restless right now, and I hope you don't mind that I don't want to talk about anything serious, because around here they're only talking about the President's funeral and all that horrible business.
On that note, Lars has carried the letters from your family on his trip to the capital. He's missing his own birthday, though of course it's perfectly understandable. It's only me and his mother right now, though Susan still comes in during the day to help out. Lars should be back in a day or two, and we'll celebrate then, but I do feel bad, since he's twenty-one now. This evening I made his mother tell me stories about him as a child, and it sounded delightful. I tried to ask about the day he was born, but she said she was too tired and that I should be getting more sleep. Obviously, I didn't mean about Lars in particular, just in general. I'll need to know what it's like eventually, right? She knows this, and I suppose she doesn't want to scare me with details right now. I'm sorry I'm being so vague. But, she's certainly right that I should get some sleep while I can. I hope everything is well with everyone there.
With Love,
Elizabeth
"Elizabeth, have we met a Mr. Curtis?" Lars asked, looking at the envelope that had come in the mail.
"No, you haven't met him," Elizabeth said casually, looking up from the sofa. "I haven't met him, either, exactly, but I wrote to him while you were gone last month. He's a ship builder, and you were talking about contracting with ship builders here."
"Oh," Lars hesitated, "I did say I would do that, didn't I?"
"Do you mind that I did? I'm sorry I forgot to tell you, but so much was going on."
"Not at all," he said as he opened the envelope, "and it looks like he wants to have us over. You'll need to come with me, of course, to keep me from looking like an idiot."
Elizabeth smiled, looking out the window. "Oh, good, your mother is home from visiting Mrs. Wirth."
"Are you sure you're up for this?" Lars asked as they came to the large lawn of Mr. Curtis's house. "It's rather hot today, and I really don't want you-"
"Your mother is here, and there are plenty of seats in the shade. It's not like I'm going to be on a train for twenty hours like you've been doing lately."
"True," he replied, "and I promise I won't be away from you this summer. At any rate, please don't feel the need to act as a hostess today. That's for Mrs. Curtis to take care of. We've given them a contract for a new ship, and they're throwing a party in honor of the Queen's birthday."
"So that's already been approved? The contract?"
"It's in transit. The sooner Mr. Curtis gets started, the sooner Arendelle can have the ship. We'll worry about the details later."
July 20th, 1865
Dear Inga,
We received the invitation to your birthday party next month. It sounds like a wonderful day you have planned. Obviously, we can't be there, but hopefully we'll be able to send you good news before then. As always, I look forward to your letters.
I wish I could travel back there for the summer. The weather last summer was so pleasant, but it has been so unbearably hot and humid here. Our neighbors all seem to be traveling to the shore or the mountains, but Lars is worried about being too far away from a doctor right now, and he assures me it's worse in the city at his office, so in the meantime I've spent most my time in recent weeks in the shade in our yard.
With Love,
Elizabeth
The baby was cooing softly in Elizabeth's arms when Margit Nilsen quietly entered the bedroom. The afternoon sunlight was peaking through the curtains, keeping the room from being completely dark.
"I have so many letters to write," Elizabeth fretted from the bed, "as soon as the baby's asleep, I want to get up."
"You still need your rest," her mother-in-law scolded her. "Lars will write to everyone, don't worry. Nobody expects you to be writing letters yourself so soon."
"It's been three weeks," Elizabeth sighed.
Soon, the baby was asleep, and her mother-in-law gently picked him up and set him in the cradle in the corner. "There, dear, now you should rest, too."
"I'm going to get up in just a minute," Elizabeth protested, closing her eyes for just a moment before falling into a deep sleep.
Margit quietly closed the door and sat down next to Lars at the table.
"You're going to tell me I should sleep, too, aren't you?" Lars sighed.
"If you're tired, you should," she told him, "but, no, that wasn't what I was going to say."
He looked up.
"You still haven't told her about Anna, have you?"
"We missed your birthday, but we can have a party on your anniversary!" Lars's mother announced as he returned home from his office. Elizabeth had dressed up and tried something new with her hair, which Lars thought looked rather nice on her, and the baby was asleep in the cradle.
"I hope you didn't think I'd forgotten when you left this morning," Elizabeth smiled.
"I... I'm going to pretend that I remembered what day it was today," Lars laughed, coming over to sit next to her.
His mother went into the kitchen to check on how dinner was coming along, leaving the two of them alone.
"I didn't get you anything," Lars confessed, "I really wasn't kidding that I forgot what day it was. I'm sorry."
"You have a lot going on now," Elizabeth reassured him, touching his cheek. "Remember, you can tell me anything."
October 2nd, 1865
Dear Lars,
Sorry I haven't written in a while, but Inga has been telling me that you're all doing well. I know you're probably tired, Mother and Father always are with a new baby. Everything is fine here, basically. We're supposed to be getting another visit from a certain person from Corona in a few days, but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to tell you that. It's not an official visit.
Anyhow, I said I wouldn't bore you with official announcements, but you probably saw that they'll be sending me to the naval academy in Corona at some point, but nobody can agree when. Our Admiral says he would be perfectly happy to set up an academy here, but obviously that would take a while, and there are only a few of us right now.
I'll stop here because I'm sure you're quite busy.
Stay well!
Frederick
Elizabeth sat with the baby in the chair by the front window watching the first snow of the season, thinking about how it was almost December again, and they had left Arendelle a year before. The baby was fast asleep, but she was comfortable and he was warm, and she felt no need to move.
Her mother-in-law brought her a cup of tea, then poured one for Lars, sitting down next to him at the table. They could hear Susan in the kitchen preparing something for dinner. Lars sat reading the evening paper, and finishing the front page, did his best not to make noise turning to the second page, since the baby would nearly always wake up if the paper rustled. He started to take a sip from his cup while he was reading, but set it back down abruptly and stared at the page, whispering something to his mother, who looked surprised.
"What is it, Lars?" Elizabeth asked, briefly glancing over, then returning her attention to the snow and the sleeping baby. Lars handed the folded newspaper to his mother, who brought it over to her.
Elizabeth took the paper, and skimmed over a few headlines about nothing astounding, then gasped, stopping herself before the baby stirred.
"Inga said there might be news soon, but nothing about marriage- did you know anything?"
"I thought I might hear something about their officially courting, certainly, or maybe even an engagement," he muttered. "I suppose I'll see tomorrow if any messages arrived since I left this afternoon, but they completely ignored any suggestions about getting a telegraph set up. I dropped the topic this summer since it just sounded like I wanted faster congratulations about the baby."
Elizabeth stood up, handing the baby to her mother-in-law. "I need to write to her!"
Lars sat down at his desk, opening the diary to December fifteenth. He realized that it had now been one year since they'd arrived here. He was growing to like this office, but there was increasing pressure to move everything back to the capital now that things were settling down. He would need to consider that carefully: he could always spend time on the train, traveling back and forth, or they could all move South, and spend less time apart. But then he remembered the constant threat of malaria, and what if there was another outbreak of Yellow Fever? That wouldn't do at all.
He heard someone ring the bell at the front door, and he got up to answer it himself. With all the uncertainty about whether this office would be permanent, he had never hired an assistant, but there were so few interruptions that it really didn't matter.
Opening the door, he saw a young man in a heavy winter coat, thick hat, gloves and scarf, even though the weather had gotten mild again for the last week or two.
"Hello, I'm looking for the Ambassador." The young man spoke through his scarf, looking directly at Lars with dark brown eyes that almost matched the bridge of his nose.
"I'm the Ambassador," Lars informed him.
"Oh! I'm sorry… am I supposed to call you Your Excellency? I think that's what I read."
"Just call me Mr. Nilsen," Lars laughed, remembering how fastidious he had been with titles not that long ago. "Come inside. You're not from around here, are you?"
"No," he said, coming inside. He rubbed his chapped hands after he'd stuffed his gloves in his coat pockets, "in fact, I only got off the train two days ago. First thing I bought was this coat. I'm not used to cold weather."
"Where are you from?"
"Louisiana," he explained, finally taking his scarf off, "and now you're probably going to laugh at me for wanting to visit Arendelle if I can't handle the cold."
"It's quite pleasant there in the summer," Lars offered, "but you do have me curious."
"Well, I've always heard stories about it, and I started saving up my money while New Orleans was occupied, doing any odd jobs that I could. And now, I'm ready for an adventure, just for myself. A few of my cousins went out west this summer, but I wanted something different."
"I hadn't realized the stories of Arendelle were that widely known," Lars admitted, "but I'd be happy to get you set up with a travel visa, and answer any questions you have." He motioned for the man to sit down next to his desk.
"Thank you, Mr. Nilsen," he said, taking a seat, still wearing his coat and hat. "I found a few books at the library yesterday, but I'm sure they don't tell the whole story. The books certainly told a different story than the ones I heard from the master's family."
"Oh?" Lars said, retrieving the papers from his desk. The man seemed amiable enough, and Lars was interested in hearing some more about his interest in Arendelle. He hadn't even mentioned the fjords. The handful of people he'd seen so far coming in person for visas had talked about nothing else. Besides, Lars didn't get much conversation when he was at work these days. "Were they…were they from Arendelle?"
"Oh, no," he laughed, "in fact, I didn't really hear any nice things about Arendelle from them, but that makes me all the more curious to see the place for myself."
"It's a beautiful place," Lars said, half listening as he started to organize the paperwork for a travel visa. He glanced at the first space on the form. "I'm sorry, I realize I never asked you your name."
"Right, you'll need that," he smiled, "John Westergard."
Lars felt his stomach drop. It could be chance. It could be anyone. He needed to keep calm.
"Westergard?" Lars tried not to be obvious as he looked the other man up and down. There was no resemblance, not even some quirk of his nose or the shape of his earlobe, to any member of the royal family of the Southern Isles. But the name, still, the name must have an explanation. "That's an unusual name…"
"I've been thinking about changing it. It's not really my name, you know how it is."
