*Mulloughsby Hall, Saturday November 16th, 1833* Dear Anne, At times I like to imagine, my eyes closed and breathing deeply, that your lingering scent means that you're nearby. That I have only to reach out, an infinitesimal gesture, and you shiver as I caress you. It is the draft, surely, a candle's light flickering on the wall as I sit here alone in my room. I feel you are near, I am certain. Close, but just beyond my reach. Close, but so far away. If only we could touch. Yours forever, Sophia. *Mulloughsby Hall, Sunday November 17th, 1833* My dearest Anne, Today I thought I saw you on my way back from service, in the woods beyond the pond, bare feet dirty as you danced on the forest floor. Kicking up soil as we used to. I know it cannot have been so, perchance is was just a trick of the light in the rain? It felt so real. Do you remember, Anne, our magical summer together? I was happy then, knowing you, thinking myself the luckiest girl in the world when you returned my smiles. Sometimes I wonder, did you feel the same way? I like to think that you did. Sincerely and entirely yours, Sophia. *Mulloughsby Hall, Thursday November 21st, 1833* My darling Anne, These last days I have not been well. The rain last Sunday and our little escapade in the woods left me frail as I succumbed to a particularly malevolent cold. You know I cannot be allowed too far from the manor, Ann. Yet I went to you, my love, across starry distances, reaching for you. Did you feel me near? I so long for the taste of your lips, pressed to mine. For the comfort of your arms around me, summer neverending in our embrace. I felt so alone, laying in bed, shivering from what surely must be the most atrocious of diseases. Could you not have found me in my feverish condition Anne, could you not have reached out while I lay alone in the draft-ridden dark? Your love, Sophia. *Mulloughsby Hall, Saturday November 23rd, 1833* Anne, My love for you is profound. My last letter, it was...I am not fully well yet. I will send for Doctor Hartley as soon as I am able. Please understand that you are not to blame for my illness. Were you here, I could explain to you in person, how I love you, how I wish that our connection could take form, how...oh how I ramble. Please Anne, do not leave me alone, not here in these destitute halls. I watch you every day, yet you seem not to notice me. We must find a way to be together again, to bid farewell to this frigid excuse for a home. Anne, dream of me tonight my love, perhaps we will be together beyond the veil of somnolence, where we can freely share our love. Undoubtably yours forever, Sophia. *Mulloughsby Hall, Sunday November 24th, 1833* My love, Oh Anne, I miss you so dearly, your smiles off with the swallows to warmer lands. Feeble flames struggle in the hearth, hard-pressed to do away with the dampness that seems so omnipresent, the weather being as it is. My throat and lungs hurt from coughing all week, and I feel so tired. Tired of being alone. Tired of this place. Tired of the long days that creep by as I wait for you. Maybe soon I can join you, and we can be together again. Forever at your side, Sophia. *Mulloughsby Hall, Wednesday November 27th, 1833* Dearest Anne, Can't you see me? Can't you hear my whispering in the night? Don't you notice that I'm so very close, reaching for you? Can't you reach out and touch me, my body, my soul? Please my love...I am so alone. I yearn for your warmth, the cold burns my bones and leaves me shivering in my bed. Anne, please listen to my call... Come for me. I feared to pass on, but I am free of care now, free to go, gazing into the light that took you so many years ago. In summer. Until soon my love, your Sophia ![[graveyard-1.jpg]] **Coroner's Report** *Date: Monday December 2, 1833* Deceased: Ms. Sophia Bernice Wellsworth, of Mulloughsby Hall Findings: Deceased was reported absent from church service by Father Paules, who expressed his concern to the constabulary, for Miss Wellsworth had not been well of mind and body in recent months. Upon inspection at Mulloughsby Hall, the Wellsworth family manor, Miss Wellsworth was found to have passed on, presumably between two and four days ago, from a consumptive sickness, as confirmed by Dr. James Hartley. In Miss Wellsworth's possession were a large number of communications addressed to one "Anne", detailing Miss Wellsworth's degradation of the mind. All indications are of a death by natural causes, albeit for one much too young. May the Lord's embrace be gentle. Recommendations: Miss Wellsworth shall be laid to rest in the family crypt. Estate shall be sold under auction if no relative or inheritor is found within one hundred days and one, proceeds added to the municipal treasury. Signed, Tobiah J. Buckland Coroner of the Crown