Winter at the Manor

The letters

Rose's POV

I was sitting at the desk of my room, getting ready to write a letter home. The question was, what would I write? I didn't want to worry them or make them think I was unhappy. My mum was only as happy as the least happy of us. 

So, I decided to lie. This was the letter. 

Dear Mum and Dad

Things are great here. I am having a great time, I hope that you all can say the same. I am safe, no sign of Delphi on the horizon, and I love all of you and hope you have a great Christmas

-Rose

I knew it was pretty flimsy, but I wanted to give them an illusion that I was slightly happy. Then again, the letter was choppy and short, generally I send long, detailed letters. They'd probably see right through this... I thought. But, I wanted to send them something. 

I put the letter on my owl, Pepper, and held the letter in her beak. She flew off with it, and I took out my laptop and continued typing one of my stories. At least I had one thing. Writing. 

My parents responded remarkably quickly, their letter arriving an hour later. Pepper, with her sense of humor, dropped the letter on my head during lunch. I opened it after we ate, and it said this:

Dear Rose,

We are glad to hear that you are doing well. We had the annual snowball fight this morning and without you, Lily was the obvious winner. Hugo misses you a lot, he wanted us to send a note in here with this letter. We love you very much and wish that you could be here. Rose, you were lying in that letter. Generally you write novels home, but that was shorter than Hugo's, which is saying a lot. Rose, we are really sorry we had to do this, and wish you could be here. 

Mum and Dad

I love those guys. I smiled a true smile for the first time in days. 

If only I could be there.