Lady Margrette Ansbach-Stewart,

from your devoted niece Francis.

I need assistance at once from whatever quarter you can raise it. Please pass this onto my father. I have paid the messenger well and he is instructed to carry any note from you or this letter to him at your request.

Colleen is injured. From her moments of consciousness I believe she is trapped within some packing case, one loaded most violently into a ship's hold, canal barge or even a freight wagon. It is nighttime so I cannot tell.

I have tried repeatedly to contact Colleen's mind with mine. I believe I have succeeded for a few moments on several occasions but fear I have terrified her instead of bringing her solace. Ever since her projection of great pain then her silence the few times I have managed to sense her she is in intense discomfort. I fear she has broken or inured a limb and sustained a frightful blow to the head.

She is definitely Colleen again. She was bemoaning the sorry state of her nails at one instance of my attempted mental *visits. This was moments before her box began moving and the violent calamity near overcame her..

I have ceased my attempts for now as they fatigue me and cause me great pain. I believe this pain to be from Colleen's injuries. If her beauty is marred I shall be bereft!

I have tried to contact grandmama and urge her to make haste to port but with equally limited success. Were it not for my difficulties with Colleen I would imagine grandmamma does not wish to be disturbed and had blocked my attempts.

I succeeded but once. I perceived a momentary image of a handsome man half out of a uniform in a small room, the sounds and smells of the sea were strong. I had feeling much like I have during one of my lust filled *attacks* moments before an intense surge of embarrassed outrage and our *connection* was broken.

I owe grandmama an apology and do NOT tell her I wrote about... I rely upon your discretion.

To the heart of things. In my naiveté I thought Queenstown docks a simple place to search. I have my magical gifts as does Colleen. It would be no more difficult than calling across a street to greet an acquaintance. I was mortified to see a multiplicity of docks, wharfs, mooring buoys, store houses, barges , ships of every description and condition. There were more wagons with wooden boxes upon them than I could scarce count.

I am doing everything my constitution allows but I am a frail thing. If I had the strength of Hercules I might just manage to find fair Colleen but I admit I am not he.

Send any assistance you can. I have all but exhausted my funds paying for assistance, for information, to bribe officials so I might examine areas *unsuitable for the fairer sex such as yourself.* Some spoke in cruder, unsavory words. They believed me a woman of loose virtue and queried as to my price!

I will not lower myself to tell of the outrages the less than gentlemanly types have accosted me with. I am wonderstruck i have not been bludgeoned and awoke pinned to a filthy bed as some common whore.

If not for the courtly manners I have been drilled in since a babe I would have beaten such men with any weapon at hand. I feared for my safety more than once. I was compelled to striking one most cruelly in a place a single woman dare not touch upon a man. It was not cricket but then I am not a man am I? Neither are they anymore if I struck well and true.

These magical gifts are not so welcome when one can read the vile thoughts in the minds of denizens of the unsavory parts of the town.

I have found a quiet corner of the Harbor Master's building in which to rest for some moments. I should be secure until the morning. The brace of pistols I *liberated* from a less than gentlemanly officer of one ship do instill some confidence I will remain a *virtuous woman*.

How I liberated those pistols I do not care to retell. I suspect the officer though one could not honestly call him THAT will recall the incident with false bravado claiming to have broken a naive virgin. He did not and his purse paid for the swift and determined messenger I sent your way along with the temporary assistance of the few trustworthy men I could find among the drunken uncouth rabble lurking here. This is a fearful place I will be glad to be rid of.

Please make haste. The tide will favor ships departure but scant hours after sunrise . If Colleen should be on a vessel I have not searched we might never... I refuse to contemplate such a fate.

Do hurry. If not for my duty to my cousin I would be in tears and quite useless.

Your faithful niece,

Francis as I do not feel worthy of the honorific Lady at this juncture.

I awoke to a very sharp pain in my left side. I think something is seriously wrong. I have tried to stay awake but I seem to be very sleepy.

Sorry I fell asleep again. My dreams are troubled I seem to see my cousin Francis and he seems to be shouting at me while wearing a dress. It is most confusing.

I woke this time to find my crate moving it is hard to tell how it is moving or mayhap why. I should know this but the pain is making it very hard to concentrate.

I managed to drink some rainwater to quench my thirst and to force some of that awful cheese and ham down my throat. Peeing as a lady through a crate is not easy when you are in pain and do not want to move. I feel faint.

I woke to find myself rather wet down below these trousers are rather useless now as they are covered with blood and I have had little choice but to remove them. I find myself wishing for the ease of my skirts right now.

This last small dream was funny I could see throw some girls eyes and I hope prevented her from debasing herself. It was a small thing but maybe I have some sort of ability with magic. If I had more energy I could...

I think that some of the blood I have been letting go is not only from my ...belly. Some seems to come from the side of my hip. It is really painful when I try to touch it.

I do not wish to try that again I screamed with everything I had. Well silently and in my mind anyways it would not do for some ruffian to find me in such a state.

I must have shifted or my crate has as there tis now not any rocking motion anymore I do not seem to be near the water as such anymore either. I smell horses though and if I didn't know better I could swear I hear the bells from the college in the distance.

I must sleep again after my small meal with more rainwater. I do hope I end up somewhere friendly and that they can help me. I am much more weary and I am afraid that I may be dying. If I should pass whoever you are please let father and mother know I love them.

Lady Coleen.