Your position in this respect is perfectly clear: you participate as my companion, not my abigail! Those people down there haven't the faintest idea you've that status!" Suddenly Ashleigh grew thoughtful. "Oh, dear! I've just realized something.... Megan..." She turned to look at her friend who'd been helping her complete her toilette for the dinner party that was soon to commence downstairs. "Is it because you're fearful that if you join the guests from London, someone might recognize you...?" She continued awkwardly. "You know... from Hampton House, and—" "Ah, no," Megan chuckled, "'tis not that, darlin'. Ye might not have noticed, but I did plenty o' checkin' on the duke's guests durin' the luncheon, ah, from afar, ye understand. No, it turns out the only one here who knows what I was before I, ah, retired, is Mr. Shelley—No, don't fash yerself—Percy, whom I met later this afternoon on the terrace, is the last person who'd give me away. He even told me so! Said he was delighted that a poor Irish lass had worked her way through the insufferable English class barriers.
