My Dearest Petra,
11/24/1873

I just received your letter, and I must say that I'm sorry. I've been a fool and a coward for leaving when times got rough. If I couldn't stand up for myself then how could I do so now? Our home... burned? Is that true? We built that house from the ground up, those damned Southerners! This is why I moved up North, to get some peace and quiet... and to run away from the fight. I wish I could answer your questions but I cannot for reasons in which I cannot speak of.

So I guess it's time to tell you what I've been doing over these past few years eh? Well when I moved to Canada it was freezing cold for most of the year, except summer. Summers are actually pretty nice here better than South Carolina. So through most of the year I would stay indoors and have one of my servants go outside when it must be done. The only time I go outside is during summer and whenever the government needs me. Yes I have an important role in Parliament. It's probably hard for you to believe me but it's true, I still write on the side but my property is my country now. You out of all people can understand that.

You've been through so much Petra and I don't want to hear about your suffering anymore. Which is why I'm inviting you to stay with me for the summer. See how you like it up here, and maybe one day you'll become a citizen if you choose to stay. We can be together again! Just you and me, living in a new born country. Taking the mistakes of America and doing what we can to avoid them. I don't ask for much, all I ask is for us to be together again. I can see the vision clearly, can't you? Me a member of Canadas Parliament and you a civil war hero. Together what does that make us? It makes us unique from all those French bastards. All the same with their complaining about how their wives cheated on them or the other way round. Quebec citizens wanting to be their own country, and the Americans my god the Americans! It's horrible coming out of my mouth considering I am an American Southerner, but the complaining never stops! The arguing, the scandals, the treason. Petra I think I'm going mad!

It's a horror show up here! I might as well just tell you for the sake of eventually gaining your forgiveness. Over the years I've been seeing other women. Sometimes I courted them, but most of the time they just courted me. We were apart and I thought that you would've been killed, I thought that you would've wanted me to move on. And if you where to actually be alive then I suspected that you would've married someone else. If I died I would've wanted you to move on. Moving on just teaches us how to say goodbye, it makes us strong. However, when I received your letter I immediately stopped letting other women into my life... romantically that is. I still had female friends they just stayed that way. Friends. Nothing more, nothing less.

You can't blame me for wanting to have someone in my life again. It gets lonely up here and my servants never want to talk to me like I'm a person. All my friends live in cities while I live in a small town in Ottawa. I get asked everytime I visited the Parliament building, "Why don't you move into a city?" But my answer is always the same. I'm done with big cities, before I met you I lived in New York wanting to become an author. I kept moving from city to city until going home to South Carolina, cities aren't for me. And knowing you I know you love exploring new frontiers. Cites aren't our thing aren't they? Little towns are more for us adventurous loners, and little towns are the best place to start anew.

We can make this work if we try, we both have no idea how much we mean to each other. And we'll never experience the same pain as each other. I will never understand everything you lost over the war and you will never understand having an entire country on my shoulders. However, I'm proud to call you my wife regardless if a stupid piece of paper says so or not.

Your loving husband,
Lukas Bianchi