Burning Ember

Chapter 22

Hale righted the mannequin to its previous standing position and left on the floor beneath it was a single letter. He grabbed it and turned it back and forth before handing it to me. I took the letter and began opening it as we headed back down the stairs, but I couldn't help the feeling that someone was watching me. As I sat down on the sofa where Hale had just passionately cleared my mind and body of the stresses that plagued me, I began skimming over the letter. It was more clearly written than the last letters had been, and not as worn and faded.

Chère Lucienne,

J'espère que cette lettre te parviendra. Tu m'as terriblement manqué, et j'ai l'impression que mon monde s'écroule. J'aimerais que tu viennes me rendre visite, si seulement cette distance entre nous n'était pas si grande. Je crains d'avoir fait une erreur que je ne peux pas réparer. Claude... est parti, et je reste ici avec mes pensées et ma misère. Cela ne devait pas se passer ainsi, bien que je ne sois pas sûre de ce que j'imaginais, pourtant je me surprends à vouloir changer les choses que j'ai faites, ces erreurs. Elles me hantent éveillée et endormie, je ne peux les chasser de mon esprit, et je me trouve au bord de commettre une autre. Juste pour voir ton visage et entendre ta voix m'apporterait tant de réconfort. Bientôt tout sera terminé. Bientôt, je serai libre.

Avec tout mon amour,

-Geneviève

Staring at the parchment in my hands, delicate and thin with age, I couldn't help but wonder what it said. Hale peered over my shoulder at it. Sighing, I dropped my hands to my lap and said, "It's in French."

He smiled as he came around to sit beside me. "Why don't you just scan it and translate it?" The thought was so simple and right in front of my face I wondered why I hadn't thought of doing that with the rest of the letters. My mind had gone straight to Ivy, thinking she was the best option. I hadn't even thought of doing it myself. Taking the letter back up to the attic while Hale prepared dinner, I sat down in front of my laptop in the turret room. It was colder up here than the rest of the house, the chill settling in as I scanned the letter. Staring at the screen as the three dots pulsed, I tapped my fingers on the old sewing table impatiently. The translation finally loaded, and I read it through.

Dear Lucienne,

I hope this letter reaches you. I have missed you dearly, and it feels as though my world is falling apart. I wish you would visit, if only this distance between us weren't so. I fear I have made a mistake that I cannot undo. Claude . . . is gone, and I am left here in my thoughts and misery. It was not supposed to happen this way, though I am not sure how I thought it would, yet I find myself longing to change the things I have done, those mistakes. As they haunt me through waking and sleep, I cannot rid them from my mind, and I find myself on the verge of making another. Just to see your face, and to hear your voice would bring me so much comfort. Soon it will all be over. Soon, I will be free.