Separation

My love,

My heart is heavy with the news I have to share. Our time apart is to be extended by a five-week quarantine. Today the Atlantic seems as vast as the distance between sun and moon for it keeps me from you.

Would you welcome me smelling of fish? I contemplate joining smugglers to Albania and getting passage on a fishing vessel heading across the Ionian Sea.

I lie awake at night dreaming of you and home.

Impatient to return,

Nikolas

Darling,

I hug your letter close to my heart and search it for the longed for scent of you. I imagine you as you wrote it, your fingers caressing the paper, your hand crossing the page with command as you write each word. How you haunt me husband. It was I who warned you not to love me too dearly and here I am, possessed by you. My throat closes and my eyes tear as I think of our separation.

How to explain the hours I spend pacing our room and sitting behind your desk, seeking you only to be left longing. Love, I would welcome you, just as the fish monger's wife welcomes her husband each night. Just stay safe and keep well.

Missing you,

Elizabeth

My beautiful Elizabeth,

My most cherished and beloved wife, my great plan will have to wait. A fever unmans me. Writing you is costing me dearly but I must. The pleasure of our letters are so sweet to me they are worth any suffering I may endure.

I curse the hour I decided to leave the warmth of you for cold hard business. I shall get well and make loving you desperately my new business.

Don't worry over me love, I have much to live for and shall not give in to this dark death.

Nikolas

My love,

Shall I continue writing intimate letters during your convalescence? Are strangers reading the words I write to you? While I fear prying eyes, I cannot deny you the sweetness.

The pleasures of the written word are all I can give you in your hour of need. The solemnity of this time, of your health, way heavy on me, but as you wish I shall not worry. Instead I dream of you coming to me at night.

I dream you are with me, your right arm holding me tight, your left hand holding mine. I blush at the ripple of feeling that burns through me at the thought of your touch. If I write no more this evening it is because my memories of you have become a throbbing pulse preventing thought, speech and words.

I pray for your swift recovery with every breath. Get well and return to me.

Your Elizabeth

P.S. Darling, disregard the water spots, I swear I but spilled water on the vellum.

Devotion

Nikolas,

Again we are parted, this time it is I who have left you behind and alone in our home. As I reflect on our life together, each separation is a barb that tears at my heart. The barbs are softened only by the constancy of your letters. Each kept in the mahogany box, your Christmas gift to me, and tied together with a black silk ribbon.

Reading them gives me an appreciation of our partings, for the reunions have always been sweet. So now I write to you.

Our boy does well. He looks very handsome in uniform and has all the women chasing him. Do not worry over me, he is my escort every evening. He said something about rogues and a promise to you.

I thank you for the compliment.

As ever devoted,

Elizabeth

My girl, my love, my wicked child, my enchantress, I know you well; tis the rogues our boy protects, not my fiery queen. Your prince is far to old to fight another duel protecting his honor. Yes, I said my, not yours, I am full of tenderness towards your wayward ways today.

I spent this afternoon in the company of friends, the warmth of their friendship could not heat the chill from my heart, for I am missing you.

Come home to me soon love, for I thirst.

Nikolas

Darling,

Have no fear of rogues or wandering eyes. I need not beg forgiveness from you for I declare that I love you now more than my own health or happiness. Everything about you still charms. I languished before gaining your love. If you thirst, I starve.

Do not be jealous of your son. I but spend a few more days with him before returning to you.

Your fiery queen,

Elizabeth

Wife,

I am glad your are to come home. The pleasure of your company is sweet enough that the memory of all our time together cannot displease me. The successes out-way the failures, I cannot even groan at the memory of the faults. The solemnity of our love is purer and more precious than any minor irritation along the way.

I grow maudlin without you. Only in your presence do I enjoy laughter and beauty. The train will make our parting too long.

Fly to me love.

Nikolas