A Powerful Little Love

Chapter 22

If Amorette had thought England was cold, it was nothing to the freezing temperatures of Scotland. Buckingham had managed to lure her away from Paris under the guise of helping him root out Henry Fitzgerald and foiling the Scotsman's plans. There was a large part of Amorette that did in fact believe that Buckingham had done so to remove her from the distractions and anxieties that Franc's trial would bring. They had been traveling for so long that Amorette was now no longer aware of the date. She had no knowledge of whether the trial was still taking place or if it had ended. She knew that the outcome would be Franc's execution but not knowing the ins and outs greatly calmed her nerves on the matter. Buckingham was going to face some trouble when they did return for dragging her away from a trial that she may have been called as a witness in even though Treville had all but promised her that she would be kept out of it completely.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Amorette called to Buckingham who was sat at the other end of the fishing boat. Finlairg castle could clearly be seen from their vantage point on the River Lachay. "What If he's not even here?"

Buckingham turned back to her with a bored frown. "He's a Scotsman in hiding so it goes without saying that he will have taken up fort in one of his clan's own homes!"

Buckingham had been telling Amorette ever since their return to Paris of Henry Fitzgerald's absence within their friendship groups. Amorette had not really thought much of it until he had not attended her birthday celebrations with all the others. Despite Buckingham's close relations with the King of England, henry had still managed to wander astray and rebel against English rule in Scotland. Something within the dashing young red-headed Scotsman had snapped and he was now secretly campaigning to overthrow the Stuart monarchy in favour of a Scottish crown. In her own mind Amorette actually felt pride instead of ridicule for another of her old friends who was standing up for what he believed in but Henry's plot was foolhardy and doomed to fail. Buckingham had dragged them both to Argyll to try and find their Scottish friend before his plans became actions. They had searched every one of the castles and strongholds that belonged to the Campbell clan in the hopes that Henry would be hiding with the protection of his family but so far they had found nothing.

Finlairg castle was the last on the list, and Amorette was pretty sure that Henry would have heard tell of their search of him by now. It was with great reluctance therefore that she stepped out of the boat onto the rocky shore of the peninsula that the Castle was nestled upon. Buckingham was in hiding somewhat, with Stuart tartan draped around his shoulders in homage to his English king's heritage and Amorette thought that he couldn't have looked more out of place. When they reached the Castle doors they found them unlocked and the downstairs halls deserted. Amorette thought it was painfully clear that no one had resided there in months. Buckingham though was still convinced that they would find Henry there. They split up, taking separate floors to search as the sun began to set. It was in the amber glow of the cold sun that Amorette reached the top floor of the house and began to call out to Henry.

The rooms here were all bedchambers and each finely draped four-poster bed was extremely inviting to Amorette after all of her traveling. Hopefully after this search Buckingham would give up and they could begin to make their way back to Paris. She moved to one of the windows that overlooked Loch Tay and stared out at the beautiful landscape. It would not have been a bad life, she supposed; to marry a Laird and take up home in one of these grand Castles that sat in such stunning landscapes. It would have been a hard life as mistress of a Castle like this, but a worthwhile one. There was one condemning factor though. The feud between the clans was something that struck fear into the hearts of many. The murder and bloodshed that was commonplace and had in fact won the Campbell's that very Castle was not something that Amorette would have considered appealing to any young woman, Scottish or not.