Welcome to Charming, where swirling petticoats, the language of flowers, and old-fashioned duels are only the beginning of what is lying underneath…
After a magical attempt on her life in 1877, Queen Victoria launched a crusade against magic that, while tidied up by the Ministry of Magic, saw the Wizarding community exiled to Hogsmeade, previously little more than a crossroad near the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In the years that have passed since, Hogsmeade has suffered plagues, fires, and Victorian hypocrisy but is still standing firm.
Thethe year is now 1894. It’s time to join us and immerse yourself in scandal and drama interlaced with magic both light and dark.
O & I say hello, as usual. I believe I will go to Evander's for Christmas Day; we Fisks are never sure what to do with ourselves after breakfast. No interesting news out of England. Is there anything from home you want mailed to you for your birthday or for Christmas?
Hello to you and O. If you do go to Evander's be sure to give my love to Charity (and all the rest, of course, but I expect she may need it more than the rest — new babies and Hogwarts all at once is a lot). I don't think I'll have a Christmas gift to her in time, unless something suitable comes up in our next port — it's the last until my birthday which would be too late for an owl by Christmas. But tell her I'll get her something delightful and exotic and it will be worth the wait.
Realized I don't have a picture of you with the baby. So if you have time to sit for a photograph (and if O will tolerate), that would be nice. If it's too much of a strain, of course don't bother; will be seeing you both again soon enough.
Love,
Alfred
MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER
I'll see what we can schedule for a photograph. I'm not sure O will tolerate, but we can always try and if it doesn't work I'll send you the errors.
I'll send your love. Do you know what I should get for Charity for Christmas? I was thinking of as mild of a penny dreadful as I can find, but I'm not sure Evander will approve.
Evander would not approve. I think it's perfect. Maybe he'd be more amenable to a supernatural villain as opposed to a murderer? But whatever you can find I'm sure she'll love. It's not as though Evander can sanitize her reading habits while she's at Hogwarts, anyway.
Pulling into port in a few days. I'd ask if you want anything, but there's not much of interest until we reach Arabia. I mean, Africa's fine, but safaris and masks and things don't really go well with our decor, and all the food's too spicy.
love,
Alfred
MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER
I'll grab Charity something morbid the next time I'm in London, then.
I think I will pass on the spicy food & the masks. Try to have a good time in port, though, and you have to let me know if you see anything in port. The Sanditon in the off-season is fine, but there is not much going on here in the winter.
Nothing exciting ever happens in port; these short ones are all the same. Pull in, spend half the day dealing with cargo, spend an hour in a market, get dinner, get drunk. Hope the crew has sobered up enough to manage setting sail on time the next morning. Next one is the 20th, at some port I don't think existed last time I sailed this way... but I suppose it will be nice to have a real meal on my birthday, even if it's too spicy.
How's the weather there? There being England, not the Sanditon, of course. Snow yet?
love,
Alfred
MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER
Got it yesterday morning. You look — I miss you — Sometimes it's Good timing on the owl. Port call last night was rough; might be feeling my age but I guess I'm not acting it yet. Sun set half an hour ago and I still don't think I've quite worked through the hangover. Smooth sailing in these waters, though, so at least there's that to look forward to. Should sleep well tonight.
Sending my love, as always. Probably my last owl before the holiday so wishing you a lovely Hanukkah and happy Christmas.
Alfred
PS: hid a present for you in the drawer of my bedside table before I left.
MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER
I'll wear it to Christmas on Sunday! I'm sure you're no longer hungover, but I hope the next port is a little easier. I've hung your Christmas gift on the wall downstairs, so you'll have to see it when you're home.
Looks like I had more to drink than I thought in our last port and
There's something I kept meaning to talk to you about but it never seemed like the right time, but
I got a letter from Jo Smith yesterday and
I got a letter from Jo Smith yesterday in response to
I accidentally sent Jo Smith a letter last week and yesterday I got a response from her
I wrote to Jo last week. I'm sorry.
I miss you. I wish we could talk.
I made a mistake and I want to explain it to you but I don't even know where to start. I don't know how to explain it. I don't know why I did it. I don't know —
"I don't know" is probably the last thing you'll want to hear from me right now.
I ran into Jo back in October, while I was getting ready to leave. It just occurred to me that I never told you. I wasn't hiding it, or anything. Just busy, and it honestly was such a small interaction it hardly seemed consequential. But I guess I've been thinking about it a lot. I should have told you, probably.
MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER
Excited to see you in it, and to see this mysterious wall-hanging gift. I know it's probably decor but until that's confirmed I'll imagine you've magicked something bulky up there — a suit coat, a bottle of rum, a new seabag, etc — and are having to explain it to everyone who comes calling.
yours,
Alfred
MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER
I assume you won't get this for a few days, so first off, happy new year. I love you. I'd like to send you a letter full of all the things that made the past year wonderful, and all the things I hope will happen in the next year, but there's something I need to talk to you about first. The letter I'd like to write you would be a lot more fun for me to pen and for you to read, but I've been putting off bringing this up long enough and it's not fair to do that again because I'd rather do something easy. There's never a good time.
The long and short of it is that I want Jo Smith back in my life. I don't know how you'll feel about that, but there it is. I miss Jo.
There are things I wanted to talk to you about before I left, but with the pregnancy and then Orion and getting ready to go underway it never felt right to bring it up. So I suppose the first thing to say is that I'm sure you'll read this and think: why didn't I say any of this earlier? And the answer is: I know. I should have. The longer I went without bringing it up the harder it was to find a time that felt right to talk about it.
I know that you knew about Jo's child when she came to see you. I didn't know why you didn't tell me about that, when we talked about it. It worried me.
I knew Jo had a child, too, obviously, and I didn't tell you that and I didn't know why and that worried me too. So I got into a habit, then, of hiding things to spare your feelings without even knowing what your feelings were.
I think I'm getting ahead of myself and risk giving you the wrong impression, so let me stop and be clear: I haven't touched her and I would never do that to you.
I talked to her, a few times. Always by accident, in London or somewhere, and only a few minutes at a time. I didn't tell you because I wasn't talking about it with you but it hurt every time I saw her, like salt in a wound. I missed her and every time I saw her it made me miss her more. No, that's not quite right... It made me realize more how much I'd always been missing her.
I saw her in our last port call. I don't know what the odds of that are, but it happened, and I just don't think I can keep this up, seeing her and trying to talk without saying anything and missing her all the time. And I know she feels the same way.
I told her how I feel about it. She told me to talk to you about it first. She doesn't want to cause any trouble for us.
We can talk about it when I'm back in England. I just wanted to tell you. I was worried if I didn't now, I wouldn't.
yours, always, with love,
Alfred
MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER
Time passes slowly when you're not here. I don't know if it's because O doesn't sleep through the night or because I quit or if this is just what happens every winter, but time passes slowly and I wish you were home.
I didn't tell you that I saw Jo because I didn't want to see the look on your face when I brought it up. I didn't want to see what happened when I told you that she has a daughter. I don't think it was jealousy anymore, but — I just didn't want things to be difficult anymore. I wish you had brought this up earlier.
If that's what you want you can be her friend again. But we have to talk about this when you get back, because when I asked if you were in love you said you didn't know — and because I'm your wife and the mother of your son and it's hard to read that you miss another woman all the time.
I know it shouldn't have been a letter. I thought since I'd gone so long not talking about it I might as well wait until after winter was over, because it seemed like it wasn't going to make any difference while I was gone, but
(should he tell her about the letter that he'd written to Jo?)
I should have found the time to bring it up.
I understand, I think, about not wanting to see how I reacted. I don't want things to be difficult either. That's probably the same reason why I didn't tell you about Jo's daughter in the first place. I was
(how to explain it?)
worried that you'd be worried, I suppose. But when I realized you knew and hadn't told me I thought — this sounds insane now but I thought maybe you were worried that it was mine even though it couldn't have been. So I thought you didn't trust me. Or... maybe that you were trying to trust me but having trouble with it.
Anyway. We'll talk about it soon. I'm due home the last week of February.
love,
Alfred
PS: When you say "O doesn't sleep" I hope you mean in the same way he was already not sleeping, and not that he's gotten any worse since I've been gone — because Merlin, Z, if he'd gotten worse let's hire another nurse and put you up in one of the main resort rooms for a few nights. They're all empty anyway; the Fudges wouldn't mind.
MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER
Katia told me that sometimes around this age they get worse at sleeping again. I'll get used to it, or he'll get better, I don't know, I don't want to inconvenience the Fudges.
I didn't think that she was your baby. I thought that — well, I thought that when you knew Jo had a baby you would feel odd about it, given — I don't know. We can talk about this in February.
![[Image: xXXD462.png]](https://i.imgur.com/xXXD462.png)
