Her English contemporaries would no doubt consider such work treasonous, but then those little goose-brains were not enduring the same circumstances as she, and, furthermore, Merry no longer cared what anyone thought of her actions. Especially since she had watched Sir Jasper and his men ride off the previous eve, her emotions a mixture of relief and dismay. So in the end, Sir Jasper had abandoned her to her fate, a fate come about only because of his own actions. Courage was only a title in the Wickham tradition, and Merry was admittedly embittered.She had no notion what might happen now, save the fact her reputation was certainly destroyed and she could never return to Court. Her family would not reject her, she knew, but the notion of returning to Ireland and suffering the mingled pity and outrage of the entire O’Neill clan was not a pleasant one. She supposed Uncle Kit and Aunt Isobel would permit her to live at Ambergate for a time, and she did have a dower house property in Kent, though she assumed it was likely uninhabitable after long years unoccupied.Without a sterling reputation, a woman could not hope to secure a good marriage.
