The Ashford Diaries: Letter 76
Elena Shepard. Widow. One child. Resident, Ashford Manor, 1943–1945.
The Ashford Diaries is a serialized gothic mystery unfolding day by day in letters from Ashford Manor. New here? → Start reading from the beginning.
July 16, 1947
Ashford Manor
My dear,
A letter came today from a local archivist. Nothing official, no grand seal—just a soft envelope with slanted ink and a story it didn’t quite know how to tell.
Inside:
"Elena Shepard. Widow. One child. Resident, Ashford Manor, 1943–1945."
No embellishments. No context. And yet it shook something loose inside me.
Her name, finally written down, no longer a whisper behind someone else's silence. A record that says: she was here. That she mattered.
The nursery creaks more these days. Sometimes it sounds like footsteps. Sometimes breathing. I used to think it was memory playing tricks on me. Now, I wonder if the house remembers more than I do.
Did you ever imagine I’d find all this? That your secrets would surface like seeds you once buried, now sprouting between the cracks of my grief?
I wonder what she wrote to you, if she wrote at all. I wonder what she knew of me.
The more I uncover, the less certain I am that any part of our life was untouched by her presence.
Tomorrow, I return to the nursery.
—Calliope.
Ashford Theory Prompt: Who was Elena Shepard, truly? Why was her name buried beneath layers of dust and war? What secrets did she keep inside Ashford Manor, and what might still be waiting for Calliope to find?
Tomorrow’s Letter: Lucy finally speaks. Her voice is tired, but firm. “She left with a promise, not forgiveness.”
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Thank you for reading. Always.
— Dakkota Lane, author of The Ashford Diaries, a serialized gothic mystery unfolding letter by letter.