<strong>Ashburne - Amberthorne</strong><br/><br/><div class="floatleft">(http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll4/ElusiveGypsyRose/1%20-%20Characters/Lady%201.jpg)<div align="center"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: georgia;"><strong>Abigail Meghan<br/>O'Hourihane<br/>aka Meg Haney</strong></span></div></div><div class="floatleft">(http://)</div><br/>Meg was well aware that her every word, her every movement, her every tremble, and even her every silence was being evaluated.  She felt very much as she had when her admittedly ill-conceived romance had come to light and she had been called before her mother and father, with the household's most trusted retainers -- the witnesses to her indiscretion -- sitting uncomfortably in the room, eyes kind but wishing they were anywhere but there.<br/><br/>The thought, and the memory of the moment, stiffened Meg's spine.<em>"Please, call me Meg, or Miss Haney.   I would not cause you more trouble than I can help, nor draw attention to myself.  For now, my father's name is a beacon, and though my hope to slip away undiscovered is foiled, I fear it is still the best option.  I thank you for your sympathy all the same."</em><br/><em><br/>"My father tried, my lord, but as I understand it, there were extenuating circumstances. To prove his innocence must damage one to whom he owed much, so he accepted the stain and tried to live as one whose past mistakes could be forgiven.  I am afraid that if there is proof that he was not deserving of the disgrace that saw him fall from the king's favor, then it lies in the hand of my brother, or is lost."</em><br/><br/><em>"To the point of the man who set his dogs upon my family, yes, I do believe that there is proof.  No doubt Lord Ellery and Lord Asher already have discerned that from the fact that I clung to this basket all through my trek through the swamps, even after I had discarded both shoes and every article of clothing modesty would allow.  In it are the documents that my father's most trusted retainer brought to us with the warning that we must flee.  Some are letters between my father and these men, suspicious certainly, but not so damning that they cannot be explained away.  The others ... they are not plainly written.  My father, you see, was something of a diplomat in his youth, and took pride in the ways he had developed of passing information under the nose of the unwitting."</em><br/><br/>She did not answer Lord Ellery's question regarding skeletons.  There was only the one, of her own indiscretion, but while she was in full agreement that it had been a mistake in hindsight, she was not ashamed of it - but still, she would not willingly admit to it in such company with no more reason than she possessed.<br/><br/>Her eyes moved from one to the other, from the older retainer to Lord Ellery, and then to Lord Asher, where they lingered the longest.  For some reason, her cheeks heated faintly when he met her gaze, and Meg gave a long, shuddering sigh.  There was but one thing more she could offer, and while a small part of her wished that she need not lay her troubles upon her rescuers -- who seemed to have troubles enough of her own -- seeing this through to the best of her ability must be her first concern.<br/><em><br/>"I hope you will pardon me for bringing up a matter whose knowledge was not given me, but I do understand the struggles that burden a household from time to time.  My Lord Ellery, perhaps I might have a solution that will somewhat ease both our burdens."</em><br/><br/>It was a risk, but Meg already believed these men were honorable, certainly moreso than the men who were her enemies.  Slowly, she reached into the basket, still damp from its cleaning after the trek through the swamp, and withdrew a necklace, heavy with gold and sporting a trio of rubies, well cut.  The piece was many years out of fashion, but worth a tidy sum all the same.<em>"This necklace was my mother's, part of the dowry from her family, and a piece that would be more to them than sold upon the street.  You have the resources I lack, while I have something that would at least lessen your immediate troubles.  I offer this, for a place of safety in your household, and whatever efforts you can offer to get discreet word to my brother of our mother's fate, and that which I hold.  He has the talents to read the documents ... if I cannot discern the code, I am certain that he can."</em><br/><br/>Of course, they might well have descended upon her brother, just as they had upon her and her mother.  Perhaps her sister could have read the papers as well, but that door had been closed, as surely as the door between herself and her parents.<br/><br/><em>"I do not claim that the necklace's worth can offset the troubles I may bring you, my lord, but if there is no outcry, or if you give out that I took ill after my jaunt in the swamp and fever has robbed me of my memory or wits, perhaps they would think themselves safe."</em><br/><br/>Meg truly did not know if this was a workable plan or something born of too much reading of the wrong kind of books, as her father had often accused, but it was all that she had been able to conceive.