<strong>Ashburne - Amberthorne</strong><br/><br/><div class="floatleft">(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/54/29/2e/54292eda7aecbf7e8de1395949b4700a.jpg)<div align="center"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: georgia;"><strong>Asher Bray</strong></span></div></div>After Graham wrapped up the meeting, leaving the men with specific instructions, Asher followed Meg out of the room and pulled her aside to go over the details necessary to complete his assigned task.  She relinquished more correspondence, albeit reluctantly, and he handled them with care as he read the words.  He didn’t enjoy having to invade her privacy to get the information – especially after catching some details from her personal life that he was sure she would have preferred to keep to herself, considering her initial hesitation – but there was a reason for doing so, and he was not one to spread gossip about a lady.  It did, however, prompt him to raise his eyes from the parchment to give her a cursory glance, inspired solely by curiosity, remaining quiet as his attention drifted back to the ink on the page and finished the letter.  His primary concern, after all, was the information gleaned from it, accompanied by her description of her brother, as well as her sister, which, by her account, would be a dead end, and possibly quiet literally if he pursued it as a source.<br/><br/>He thanked her for her cooperation before they parted ways, and then he immediately took that knowledge to his own private quarters and put it down on paper.  Her brother had mentioned the town he was located which, by his knowledge, was a few days’ worth of hard riding away.  His likely would have been able to track the man down regardless, but knowing what he did currently would help track down the man in less time.  Something that happened to be more scarce than gold in the Ellery purse.<br/><br/>Per order by his lord, he did not leave Amberthorne to seek out any of his sources personally, instead relying on one of his more tenured men to deliver the missive directly to a discreet location and place it only in the hand of the bounty hunter he sought.  Marx, they called him, which was credited to his reputation for being accurate in his pursuits.  He threatened to retire many times, since earning a prodigious abundance of gold from dealing with wealthy nobles for years, who could afford his steep fee.  Some claimed he was invincible, after taking several arrows, a knife, and a purported drowning, though it was hard to gauge where the truth ended and embellishment began.<br/><br/>Having dealt with the man a few times in his life, Asher knew the bastard was hard to kill, but not invincible.  At least, not enough to where he had nothing to hide.  All men had secrets, and would do anything to keep those secrets from letting loose…<br/><br/><hr/><br/>The next few days dragged.  Between waiting for word on Marx’s findings, and organizing a plan with his men in the event that the mercenaries, or the one who hired them, decided to pay Amberthorne a visit, Asher had little time for anything else besides a few hours of sleep and the quick meals he barely was able to make time for.  Meg was left to her own devices; as a guest she was welcome to explore the common areas to keep herself busy in lieu of the lack of presence from her hosts.  During his duties Asher found his thoughts occasionally wandering back to the troubled young woman, regretting that neither he nor Graham were able to offer her company in her time of grief.  Though, perhaps it was enough knowing they were doing their best to provide for her well-being, as well as the others who lived under his lord’s roof.<br/><br/>If they days were long and tiresome, at least they had the nights to look forward to.<br/><br/>Asher made it to Graham’s bedroom first, finding it dark, cold, and empty.  That was not a surprise; his lord often sacrificed his own needs for the greater good.  Some of those would be taken care of as soon as he returned; in the meantime, Asher went to the task of lighting candles around the centerpiece of the room:  a massive four-poster bed, equipped with thick bed curtains that were parted to welcome two eager bodies and a tapestried canopy that was reminiscent of their homeland.<br/><br/>Some of that light was birthed next to the wash room, illuminating the tub that would be drawn with hot water to ease the ache from cramped muscles.  Two towels were placed on the edge, along with two wash clothes and a bar of soap.  Everything was ready; now he just had to wait for his lover to make an appearance.<br/><br/>He wasn’t kept waiting too long, knowing that, eventually, fatigue would settle in and lure his lord to the bedroom.  Over the years he’d grown adept at predicting approximately when that would happen, and that time was no different than any other.  When Graham entered, Asher stood next to the bed, ready to help his lover out of those constricting clothes so he could better participate in activities of a more… relaxing… nature.  “I was wondering when you would find your way to me,” he teased, taking those last few steps to close the distance between them.  Eager hands made quick work of baring his companion’s chest, even while exchanging a heated kiss.  Nothing was ever as satisfying as having that bare skin contact with his lord, which was a sentiment expressed in a low, predatory growl against those lips.<br/><br/>Things were quickly heating up between the two… and then the warning pattern of a fist pounding on the door cut through the passion…<br/><br/><hr/><br/>The hour was late, and it was time for an impromptu checkup on the pregnant mare who was having a harder time carrying than usual.  It would be her last, as promised by Severn, the stablemaster, for fear that another hard labor would surely kill her, if the current one didn’t do the job.  He’d left one of the stablehands in charge of watching over her, and while he trusted the boy to do a good job of tending to the horse, he was never satisfied with someone else doing what he felt was<em>his</em>duty.  Those horses were raised and trained by his own hands, and he felt responsible for what happened to them, good or ill.  He worried about them as if they were family, which explained the aggravated tossing and turning beneath the sheets, as if seeking a way to get rid of his guilt for not being out there with her.  Wide awake, he looked over his shoulder at the woman sleeping peacefully next to him, and carefully slid out of the warmth of their bed to pull on his trousers.  It would only be a quick check and he’d be back to her side in no time.<br/><br/>He exited the servant’s quarters and began to cross the yard to the stables when he caught movement on the east side of the mansion.  Prudence made him freeze momentarily, and before he was fully exposed, he back-pedaled to the side of the house, where he could peer around the corner without being detected.  A dark figure had cleared the wall surrounding the estate and was making its way to the fruit trees.  Severn hadn’t noticed Meg up in the branches, though it would have done little to sway his course.  Immediately, he turned and ran back inside to warn the guards on duty.  The ones already on shift would converge rather quickly, and the rest would be pulled from their beds to join the others.<br/><br/>By the time the Lord and his Captain arrived, the guardsmen were already standing outside in formation, archers in the front with loaded crossbows pointed at the intruder, who, having started to climb while not knowing his presence was already noted, jumped the ten feet to the ground and started running.  The trees were close enough together that it would be difficult to get a clear shot, which the man judged accurately.  He was running back to the wall, which had a length of rope dangling within reach to make for an easy escape.<br/><br/>There was movement in the higher branches of the tree, where he spotted the startled Meg.  He pointed to Roland, who made it to his side to await orders, then to the tree as an indication for him to help her down, before taking off toward the intruder.  The mercenary was quick and had a head-start, but he still needed to climb up the wall, which would give Asher those extra seconds to capture him.  That is if he didn’t get help from a carefully-aimed arrow beforehand.