Chapter Text
Home of Viktor Mironov.
November 26, 1888.
Anna Viktorovna Mironova.
Dear Anna Viktorovna,
Already I have penned and discarded the beginnings of this correspondence a half-dozen times. Late into the night I struggled with expressing the thoughts that trouble me. No, not trouble...reproach, beguile, tempt. My mind is unaccustomed to weighing the rightness of my actions. It is a sorry thing to admit.
You will challenge me here, Anna Viktorovna. I can hear your voice recounting how I have acted honorably in my position at Zatonsk’s Department of Police. I will not deny that my actions have been correct and pragmatic and have resulted in solid investigations. There are motivations, however, that tend to be ascribed to such deeds which are falsely applied to me. At times, I believe you erroneously paint my efforts with heroic qualities. Selflessness, noble deeds, and resolute morals cannot and should not be attributed to my efforts, which, as I have enjoined upon you before, are a simple matter of performing the duties set forth by my occupation.
I fear that I am to blame for allowing these romantic ideas to persist, perhaps I have even encouraged them. It is difficult to insist upon detachment when my inclination is the opposite. But the recent events at the home of the Molostovas, where your safety was compromised in a most severe manner, compels me to alter our association. My head and my heart are loath to proceed along this path, to accept the distancing that sincere reflection shows to be necessary. My moral sense can at least concede this.
It is the most gratifying and natural thing to review the facts of a case with you, Anna Viktorovna. I give no thought to it. Your particular perspective, combining evidence and an understanding of personal relationships, enhances our investigations. And therein lies the rub. I have easily cast off the castigations of my conscience by invoking this truth. But this must end. I can no longer ignore the absurdity of a scale in which the benefits of your insight are weighted equally with the heightened risk to your person that such involvement provokes.
But the solving of this situation requires more than a resolution on my part alone. It will require restraint from you, Anna Viktorovna, as well. I realize, with the heaviness of regret, that I have failed to establish and hold firm the boundaries between police work and social dialogue. That will no more be the case. I ask for your compliance in this regard. I know you will understand this to be reasonable, even as you may dismiss the threats engendered by your past involvement with detective work.
Yours sincerely and respectfully,
Yakov Platonovich.