January 2, 1813
Dear Mr. Potter
I know you’re probably wondering who this person is, but I thought it would be appropriate for me to let you know that we’re engaged. I know you are an imaginary person but since I am being forced to write this letter so that my story seems coherent, I will explain my reasons for creating an imaginary engagement, the main one being that I cannot stand the idea of having to be present to another high society event and see everyone judging me for being my second season without finding any decent suitors. Of course there were some interested parties but everyone seemed to be more interested in my father’s fortune or the fact that I was young enough to provide for children. The second reason is the fact that I don’t want to have to depend on a man I don’t love and who doesn’t support my secret desire to be a book illustrator. What most of my suitors showed was a repulsion just to discover that I read books.
That’s why I had to create you, it was even easy to convince everyone that I had a romance during the winter I spent in the countryside with Aunt Aura. She didn’t spend much time with me so I decided to spend most of the month there walking around the countryside so I could draw some landscapes. This was a great excuse to say that we met on one of those walks and started to live a hidden romance. Surprisingly, my family believed they were delighted with the fact that you asked me to marry you right before embarking to return to serve our country in this war. I even said that I saw tears in their eyes when they promised that they would come back for me.
So my dear imaginary fiancé I will finish writing this letter and pretend with the most passionate smile when I ask someone to send this letter to an army post far from here where they got lost because there is no Mr. Potter who is eager for his fiancée’s mail, and my secret will be safe.
P.s: I hope you don’t mind but I didn’t say it was just tears in your eyes but rather that you cried like a baby when we said goodbye, I think it would make the story more dramatic.
, Fondly,
Miss Adams, Anne
February 8, 1814
Dear Mr. Potter
My beloved fiancé, I realized what an impolite bride I am, in a year of engagement I never introduced you to my family. This unfortunate mistake only came to light when my younger sister was upset because I was the only one who could send you letters so I promised her that I could write you a note and I would put it with my letter. Then I realized that even after a year of sending you letters almost every week I never introduced you to my family so let me redeem myself by doing that now.
Aunt Aura is responsible for our romance happening. In fact, she is a very reserved lady who apparently doesn’t like company, but at least once a year she invites me to spend some time with her in the country. I think it’s because she knows that sometimes I need some time away from the city and from the curious glances of others. She has been a huge supporter of our love story.
My father is a simple man despite having inherited a title and having a very large fortune. He was always there for me as a child, he raised me to be smart and free, so while I wasn’t running around playing, I was in the library with my dad. I think because of him it’s so difficult for me to accept a marriage where I wouldn’t have the freedom I grew up having. He loves my mom, they didn’t get married for money or title but because they couldn’t live without each other and that is clear in their eyes every time they look at each other. My mother is beautiful, kind and has always been like an inspiration. She is strong and despite trying hard to marry me, she always respected my objection to knights that I didn’t love. Deep down I know that she just wants a loving marriage for me.
My brother Carlos is the oldest, but despite being years apart, he and I have always been very close to the point where he was the only person who was tempted to tell my secret that you’re not real. He has always been a great libertine but he confessed to me a few nights ago that he intends to participate in next year’s social season. This is not surprising, I always knew that Carlos would give in to marriage sooner or later.
Finally the youngest of the family, our little Elie, is the most creative child I’ve ever met at just 9 years old, she loves dancing, being sweet and creating crazy games that it seems like only she understands. And now she is delighted with the idea of writing you a letter and welcoming you into the family.
Sometimes I feel guilty for lying and now my sister wants to write you letters and I know this letter won’t reach anyone, but at the same time it’s comforting to think that my family has already accepted this fiancé who doesn’t even exist and who they’ve never seen before just because they think that I love him and that he loves me too.
Fondly,
Anne
Dear Mr. Potter
I think it’s very mean that only my sister talks to you and I can’t introduce myself, but I’m Elie and I’m your fiancée’s sister. I’m nine years old, but my instructors say I’m very mature, but my parents won’t let me have a dog and my brothers don’t want to play with me. Can you ask Anne to play with me? When you get married, can I come visit you? My parents told me that they are at war and that they are dangerous, so I will pray for you to come home and buy my sister a dog.
Fondly,
Miss Adam, Elie
March 17, 1815
Dear Potter
I’m afraid to say that my brother finally surrendered to society and got married. I already expected this to happen as soon as he talked about her desire to participate in the social season, but it still seemed very unrealistic that he would actually find love. Not that he wasn’t a good catch, but seeing him fall in love made me understand that we are no longer children, and even though I was already aware of that, it’s scary to think that my brother is now a responsible adult with a wife he loves, why not there is literally no other word to be said other than what he feels for his wife and true love.
The wedding was beautiful. My mother was in charge of the decoration, there were orchids everywhere which made the whole room have a pleasant smell of flowers and the table was decorated with white tablecloths the food was good but the cake was divine to the point of making me believe that God really can exists and that the vicar in the parish deserves my respect more. The ceremony was short, which was good because my brother seemed so eager to go on their honeymoon that they decided to go to the house in the country, which was far enough away for my mother to take three days in a carriage to disturb the newly couple. But the part that everyone will remember from the wedding is without a doubt the kiss, which made every woman in the room sigh at the affection that was clear they both felt for each other.
I have to admit this made me sad. Don’t get me wrong, I love having a new sister, she became a friend after the engagement and besides being kind and funny, she is the only one who can make my brother shut up. And most of all I love her for making my brother happy and making him finally give up that unfounded idea of being a libertine, because deep down I always knew he would be a great husband for someone one day. The fact that I know that they love each other so much makes me sad, because I know that I gave up on living this when I created you, and I know that I can no longer go back on that decision.
With love,
Anne.
April 4, 1816
Dear Potter
I’m excited to officially be able to write this, I’m officially a book illustrator. It all happened so suddenly, I was reading in the library when my mother informed me that a gentleman was coming to see me. At first I was scared that she would believe she could break up with our fiancé and want me to marry a complete stranger after all these years. But in fact the gentleman was a writer that she and my father met at one of the balls that I was not present at, he was writing a children’s book and looking for an illustrated one and my mother commented that I was a wonderful illustrated girl who was looking for distraction because the groom was in war. He really liked my work and offered me the job right away.
With love,
Your Anne.
May 22, 1817
Dear Potter,
I stayed up all night but I couldn’t go to sleep until I told you that I’m officially an aunt. Carlos will finally get what he deserves for all the heartbreak he did before getting married, as he had the wonderful luck to have a sweet girl. I have to confess that I made a point of being the one to break the news that London’s most famous rake will now have to worry about his sweet daughter having her heart broken by other rakes. his face, I can also say that I have never seen him so happy.
Now that the night has passed (the longest of my life) and the long labor has finally come to an end I can’t stop feeling like crying. Holding my niece in the whites I realized what it would have been like to have something so fragile and adorable to call my own, because although I love my freedom and appreciate having time to work on my illustrations, I never imagined what it would be like to know for sure that I will never get married and be able to raise my children.
So with tears in my eyes I confess to you one of my biggest secrets; I hate my brother for living something that I, with a smile on my face, barely opened, I hate Carlos’ wife for having a beautiful girl, I hate the baby for being the most perfect thing I’ve ever seen and above all I I hate myself for not having given up on my dreams, my books and my personality and having married one of the men who proposed to me. The reality is that all I wanted most at that moment was to be in an unhappy marriage but to have a family to raise.
With love,
Your Anne.
June 31, 1818
Dear friend
I’ll be honest as I’ve always been all these years and say that this will be the hardest letter to write! All these years I saw these letters as a place where I could tell my secrets and be myself in a way I haven’t been with anyone else, and that’s why I feel compelled to write this goodbye letter. It was 5 years together and sometimes it was hard not to believe that I was actually engaged to a man in the office, but even though I enjoyed writing these letters, I can’t keep lying to my family.
You gave me the freedom I wanted, the job I was looking for and above all you gave me a safe place where I could be myself without the judgments of society and for that I will always be grateful for having the idea of creating you. But unfortunately I will kill you, I promise you will die like a hero, I will say that your death saved 6 other people or maybe even 10 and in the name of all these I will keep mourning for you, I will wear black and I’m sure my family will also feel the loss. I will never get married and I will always have a debt with you and with this lie for allowing me to follow my dreams. So this is my farewell letter to the closest I’ve come to having true love.
With love,
Your friend Anne.
December 1, 1818
My Anne,
I can’t believe you killed me! It’s partly my fault for not writing you back, but you’ll have to forgive me for being in the middle of the war and not having time to send a letter to a young woman I don’t even know. But unfortunately my beloved fiancée’s letters reached me and I am particularly curious to see who is the young woman with such great creativity to write letters to me all these years.
So my beloved Anne, I hope you don’t mind me calling you Anne instead of Miss Adam but after all these years it’s very difficult not to feel that we are close after everything you’ve shared with me. And I can’t believe he still tried to kill me at the end of that year, just a few months before I could go home and officially meet my fiancée. Anne, I’m going to board the ship now to meet you and I hope you’re waiting for me.
Ps: Of course I care about telling your family that I cried, we will have a conversation about how you should lie to your family about my display of feelings.
With love,
Your fiance.
The End ?…
