A/N: I'm trying to post this, watch the new DA ep and get to work. I think I'm going to fail at one of those. Oh well, who needs work anyway? I think you're going to like this installment...
_bring on the wonder_
They acknowledge Valentine's day a week late. The day itself holds little meaning without the cards and letters and so they think of it only when the post arrives.
He has settled into this world of dirt and bombs and hates it even more than he could have predicted.
He is cold constantly and there is not a day where one of his men is not sick. He himself succumbed to the fever a few weeks ago and though it is more than likely that he said something in his fevered ranting that he should be embarrassed by, Barrow tells him that he has nothing to worry about.
He is honest enough with himself these days to know who he would have imagined with him, what he might have said to this imaginary Elsie Hughes. However, in all his machinations and despicable plots, Mr Barrow has not once hurt the Housekeeper and so he is not as worried as he perhaps should be.
Her letters come packed together as they have from the start, still one for every day. It is a wonder she manages to think of something to fill them all with without repeating herself. But then, they have always found topics to discuss. Perhaps it is even easier now that she does not have his own side of any debate to deal with.
He knows the one intended for the 14th from the rose tint to the envelope and paper. The sight sets his heart beating faster in his chest and although he does not rush through her other letters, he feels as though he is working towards that one.
It reads almost like any other of her letters and he is not disappointed, but his reaction does give him something to think about later.
But at the bottom, just above her name, she writes that she misses him, that he must stay safe because she will need him to return in one piece. She says that she is still waiting with the sherry.
She signs it 'love, Elsie'.
He has a lot to think about. It's a good thing that he has so much time for that right now.