Inked In Crimson #4 (She)

Dear Daniel,

As I write to you, the clouds paint streaks of gray turmoil across the heavens and the nightingale hesitates in her song. The cautionary whistling of the wind seems to warn me that I have stepped aboard a ship that may go below water any moment. Yet I don't step off.

Visiting weary Yankees has barely taken my fancy. I come, however, to see you whenever time permits it of me. I know I was nervous and even afraid the first time I visited. A week of thought left me calmer and miraculously free of fears. I saw you more frequently after then. I cannot say that the reason for my visits is the same each time. Some reasons ought not to be mentioned, lest I put your life and mine into jeopardy with my carelessness. I think I know what I am doing, but I wonder at times whether I am not deceiving myself. I doubt I know of my own intents!

What a sly creature this mind is, Daniel! When it knows the task ahead is sprinting, like an unbroken colt, out of its control, it hands the reins to the heart without a warning. Now my heart steers me in a direction which might lead me nowhere at all.

Already I long to see you again. I wish to gaze into those eyes which remind me of voyages on turbulent green seas. I shall let those eyes speak to me 'till the waters calm, reading every story they may narrate. For time undefined I might gladly listen to the comforting hum of your voice, which drowns out and softens the thudding of cannons in an ill-fated field killing the men too far for us to save. Each conversation makes me wonder at how much there is to your character I am yet to understand!

You intrigue me sometimes. I can't forget our conversation on Thursday. Betraying a loved one, you said, was a sin unforgivable of man. For a moment, your words filled me with dread, but I now convince myself that your statement showed only that you are a loyal and just person. I hope you thought over my opinion as well. Betraying your society, your nation- how can there be a crime as unforgivable as that? You seem an intelligent and dedicated soldier, so you would without a doubt understand what I mean.

We all want the fight to end, Lieutenant Adams. Yet suffice it to say that the ends we desire are not the same.

That is why I am certain I'll never let you read this letter. It is of importance to be cautious. In this caution I must accept that you will never know I am enamored of you.

Yours truly,

Katherine