A/N: Hopefully people are reading and reviewing this story! If you don't like it now realize I'm trying to set it up, and also if you don't like it tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Chapter Two :: Life Can Change :: Bad News

Her answers wouldn't have to wait for such a long time because just then they approached the front door of her manor. She always wondered where the time went once she started thinking. Thinking made everything go by very fast. Merri stood still, and decided to let Gertrude get the door. Gertrude knocked the large oak door, and the butler, Henri, came.

"Oh Gertrude, I'm so glad you were able to find her." Henri too appeared to be upset though he hid it well. He let them walk in and then stared at Merri's dress. "What every has happened I suggest you change. Then you can join everyone in the dining hall."

Merri looked at him shocked. "I am not going to change my clothes! I don't care what anyone thinks. I want my answers now!" Both the servants knew not to challenge Merri in a temper so they left well enough alone.

"Very well, Mistress Meredith," Henri said. Because Merri did not want to change, they proceeded into the dining hall. In two of the chairs sat who she assumed to be her aunt and uncle and wear dressed very eloquently. Henri politely said, "Duke Charles and Duchess Doanni of Frell, I have Meredith of Calder as you requested." It bugged her how he insisted upon calling her Meredith.

She studied them for a while since she had never seen them before. The woman, her aunt, was adorned with jewels. Way too many jewels, thought Merri. She had luxurious brown locks, and Merri thought no possible way for them to be real. Her eyes were blue as were her husbands. The blue of their eyes was pale-not nearly as pretty as Merri's bright ocean blue ones. She had tears coming out of them. Her aunt was a good actress, but Merri could right through that act. Merri had pretended or lied enough to know when something wasn't real.

Her uncle had brown hair that was balding at the top. He looked like he might have possibly been handsome in his youth. Now it was hard for her to imagine it, though his wife and other middle-aged women might still find him attractive. He had managed to put a mournful look on his face that was very convincing. Merri, already having prejudices against him from the things she'd heard, didn't believe it to be true unhappiness.

They looked at her dress, but were too proper to make a comment on it. Instead her uncle more commanded than asked, "Meredith take a seat."

"It's Merri," she replied as she sat in the chair farthest from them. Her attention again became focused on the reason for everyone's grief. The Duke and Duchess scared her slightly so she decided to give them a chance to explain it without direction from her.

He gave no acknowledgement of what she said and continued, "Meredith, there's something we need to tell you." Oh here it comes, Merri thought. That dreaded something I've been waiting for. She nodded her head to show that she was ready. "Your parents were killed." Merri froze. She hadn't expected that. She then blamed herself for not even considering it. The wild imagination she possessed should have cooked that up. She must have been losing her touch. She refused to believe it.

"No. No they haven't. This is just some cruel trick some one has played on me. I know I'm not an angel all the time but not bad enough to get a trick like this played on me." It was sad the way she said it. She didn't even believe it was a trick. It was real and it was a nightmare.

Her aunt piped in, "I assure you we tell no lies." Maybe they weren't lying about this, but they definitely tell lies. "There were several witnesses."

"There were witnesses! No one tried to help them?" Merri was now in a rage. "If they saw them die, they could have done something!"

"I suggest you hold your tongue until we finish, young lady," her uncle said apparently losing any patience he had had with her at the beginning of their conversation. "The witnesses were not people who are likely to help anyone. Your parents were killed by bandits so the witnesses are some of the bandits themselves and the others children from the near village who happened to be around at the time."

"And how do you know your so called witnesses were telling the truth?" Merri asked trying to find some way for this not to be true.

"I assure you, your parents are no longer with us," her uncle said with aggravation. "I cannot prove that they were killed by bandits as it's said, but they are dead!"

How could he possibly be so mean? Doesn't he realize that I'm just in shock, which first leads to denial? Even if he didn't he could at least show some sympathy. How did he know that they were dead, anyway? Probably because he watched and laughed at them as they were tortured. I need to stop, shock changes the way I think. She was a little more relaxed now and asked, "Where and why? I know bandits are cruel and evil, but they don't kill without a reason."

"As I'm sure you probably know your parents were carrying quite a deal of money with them. It was known they had money with them. Fortunately they had been leaving Frell so most of that money had been safely stored there."

What was he talking about, "fortunately?" Merri luckily held her tongue, but that didn't mean she couldn't think it. Her parents had died. Nothing was fortunate. Only he was shallow enough to think that at least the money had been saved. Now Merri hated Frell. They certainly did travel a long way though, she thought. Frell is at practically the northernmost ((A/N: I'm just making that up. I have no idea where it is in terms of geographical location.)) tip of Kyrria, and here is as south as you can go. There is a slight possibility they could really care. Very slight, she reminded herself. Merri couldn't get too comfortable and just become not suspicious at all. That wasn't possible, Merri could never let her suspicions drop of anyone.

"Have you been listening to everything we've told you, Meredith?" her aunt asked.

"Yes," she lied. After her uncle's "fortunately" comment she had just sat there not listening to a word they said.

"Good, you shall accompany us back to Frell tomorrow morning. I'm sure your servants can have all your belongings packed by then."

"I'm moving?" Merri asked, becoming more and more shocked with every word that came out of their mouths.

"Yes, bright and early tomorrow morning. You didn't think you could stay here and manage the manor all by yourself did you?" Her aunt had a small point. She hadn't even considered the volume of things that would change with her parents no longer here. She certainly didn't want to live with them. That was the only reason they had traveled all this way: to get her.

"So I have less than 24 hours to say good-bye to the place I have called home for the last 16 years?"

"That is correct," her uncle answered in the driest and what she would have called a "most certainly" voice. She couldn't believe it. It was amazing how your whole life could change so easily.

"And I have no time at all to mourn for the death of my parents?" Merri wondered aloud.

"Oh, you can mourn for them for the rest of your life. It would be nice if you could possibly try to not do it in public." Her uncle's answer to her simple question was more than she could bear. She got up, slammed the door, and ran to her room while drowning in her own tears.



~*~Jane of Q~*~