(http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j164/chachi9/ashley2-1.jpg)<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u"><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 1.45em;">Ashley</span></strong> Carriage #2  Ashley,  Ivy, Imogene, Isabella, Emily</span><br/><br/><br/>Ashley knew her friends would want an explanation of what had happened to her.  It was only natural that they would, so before they could question her, she begged their pardon and apologized sweetly, intoning, “Dearests, pray do forgive me for causing you a fright!  The closeness of the carriage and all the mayhem must have gotten to me more that I had thought.”  Ashley hoped she had cleared her friend’s concern for her, but she wasn’t sure what she was seeing in Ivy’s eyes.<br/><br/>She twisted her silk and lace handkerchief around her left hand, and was about to speak again when a volley of shots baroomed out from the front of the convoy.  Ashley knew she should be feeling frightened, but an eerie calm had now settled upon her.  She had seen their faces at Avonleigh.  Thunks broke through the sounds of the gasps of fear coming from the small group—each Thunk--an arrow striking their carriage.<br/><br/>Ashley angled closer to Emily to wipe the tears from the child’s face.  Mopping up the poppet’s face, Ashley taps Emily on the nose, hoping for a smile.  Giving Emily her handkerchief, Ashley returns to her place near the door.  Ashley shifts to settle into her seat, while wiggling back to get a bit more comfortable, she feels something hot and stabbing like a thousand bee stings strike her left side. Ashley puts her hand to her side.  She can’t feel anything there, yet when she pulls her hand away, it comes away with her blood on it.<br/><br/>She looks between Imogene and Ivy, and filled with confusion, her heliotrope eyes are wide and unfixed; she stretches out one arm to each girl and falls back against the seat front.<br/><br/><br/>