Travis had had to leave the morning after the party which had saddened Erin deeply. He and his father had business a few towns over to attend to and had only been able to go to the party because it was on the way. However he had given Erin his permission for her to write him as often as she liked and he would even write back. As soon as his carriage had disappeared from sight she had rushed inside to write him a letter.
Every part of it had to be perfect, she decided, which was why she had nearly gone through an entire stack of paper writing and rewriting her letter. Her first drafts had felt too formal and the next few not formal enough. Some seemed too forward, others too cold, and others just not quite right.
Samantha popped in more than a few times to tease her as well as give her advice. Unfortunately most of her advice could be paraphrased as write from the heart which was not actually helping. Erin had tried writing from the heart and the entire letter had been one giant sentence so obviously her heart wasn’t very articulate. This was a job for her currently very anxious brain though honestly that wasn’t going the best either for her own standards.
Finally she decided on a version that had been frankensteined together from previous drafts. It was the perfect mixture of formal and personal for her sensibilities and her penmanship was impeccable. She sent it off as soon as she could.
Now all she could do was wait. They letter would take time to get to Travis, then he would have to write his response, then it would have to get to her. How was she supposed to wait that long? She had to face the facts, she was more than definitely smitten.
It was one long, agonizing month before she got a reply. A messenger arrived at the manor one morning with a letter for Erin. Helen had been the one to open the door and had shoved the letter in the pocket of her apron when she realized she had left food on the stove unattended. She didn’t remember she still had it until well after supper and thought to deliver it.
Erin was ecstatic, practically vibrating as she took the letter in her hands. She wanted to rip it open and read it immediately, but she stopped herself. Instead she carefully peeled the wax seal from the letter so she could keep it before opening the letter. She had to hold it up to the candle light to read it, but this wasn’t something she could wait until morning to do.
Dearest Erin,
I apologize for the lateness of my reply. I have had scarcely a moment to sit down and write though I have longed to even before I received your letter.
Erin pressed her hand to her chest and sighed wistfully before continuing to read. Travis had apparently been busy helping his father negotiate a business deal in Aefril’s capital. As of the writing of his letter an agreement had not yet been reached, however his father had told him to take the day off and he had spent the better part of his morning writing this letter. The rest of his day he had spent sightseeing in the capital.
This he recounted to Erin in great excitement that came across even in his pen strokes. Despite the amount of travel he had done for business he had never spent very long in Aefril. Afterall Aefril was not known for its textiles, but rather its arts, music and theater before all. The capital especially had one of the grandest theaters that could be found the world over. Travis of course had to take in a show there that evening which he had enjoyed immensely and described as breathtaking. There had also been a small bakery tucked into a nook of the city he was convinced Erin would love. Had she ever been to the capital, he wanted to know. If not she should really visit and maybe they could visit together? He concluded his letter with the hope that she would write him back soon and signed it with your attentive listener, Travis Kincaid.
She reread the letter, soaking it all in for a second time. It finally hit her that he had actually written back. He wasn’t just being nice to her at the party; he had actually enjoyed talking to her. This time her letter was freer, less planned. Erin just wrote whatever came to mind, how her day had been, what she had had for dinner, something her sister had done the other day that annoyed her, that yes she had been to the capital with her grandfather once, but no she had not been to that bakery. She laid herself out there like he had and hoped he would enjoy it as much as she had.
When he wrote back his letter came from Nekmit. Father has decided that while he negotiates in the capital that I should continue the rest of our business as usual, he wrote. This apparently entailed visiting cities where they had opened operations and making sure everything was running smoothly. They did this at least once a year to keep everything in order. Travis wasn’t overly fond of it, but he was good at it and he did like that it allowed him to travel.
He told Erin about Nekmit, a country of small oases amidst a large desert, and the business they had there. The manager there, a kind, bespectacled man with tanned skin like the rest of his people had greeted him warmly. Travis had always liked him since he was a child. He used to give him sweets and let him read any book he liked from his collection while he and Mr. Kincaid conducted business. He always kept everything well in order and like most of Travis’ visits it had become a social call. Nekmit had beautiful architecture which he wished Erin could see and described it for her to imagine. In the market they sold tiny replicas of some of their most famous buildings and maybe he should send her one.
His next letter arrived with a little package which when she opened it up contained a miniature of the Anopalil, one of the buildings he had described in his last letter. She set it on a shelf containing other knickknacks she had collected over the years. While the miniature Anopalil had come from Nekmit the letter had not. Already Travis had moved on to the next building in the next city in the next country.
Almost every letter he sent seemed to come from somewhere new. In contrast all of Erin’s letters came from her home. She wished she could travel like he did, but he it seemed longed for home. As much as he talked about the countries he was in he also talked about his home country of Pruvia and his mother and younger brother who were there.
Being on the road all the time was lonely, he said, especially with his father still in the Aefrili capital. He wished Erin could be with him, not just her letters. She wished she could be with him which she lamented to him as well. But at least for now they had each other’s letters and that was more than enough.
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