A Powerful Little Love

Chapter 25

Amorette didn't know why she felt so self-conscious in that moment, but she couldn't help it. For ages there was silence and she grew too hot with her shall around her. She slipped it off and threw it towards the end of the bed. She tossed and turned many times before she let out a frustrated sigh and lay on her back, staring at the canopy above her bed.

"Are you awake?" came Athos voice from the end of the bed.

She smiled wryly. "No. I feel asleep quite some time ago. It must have been your dry wit and sparking humour that helped me drift right off to sleep Athos dear."

"Athos dear?" he queried. "You haven't called me that in a long time."

"You haven't deserved it in a long time," she muttered. She pushed her pillow up behind her and sat up a little in bed, frustrated with her lack of sleep. From her half sitting position she could just see his face.

"Is your shoulder bothering you?" he asked.

"A little, but I suppose that's to be expected." She watched as Athos sat up a little on the couch and reached to the floor for something. Amorette watched as he fumbled with the pocket of his doublet before pulling free a little leather bound book.

"I almost forgot, D'artagnan asked me to return this to you." He placed the book at the foot of the bed and Amorette reached down to take it.

"Ah, I'll have to thank Monsieur Desrosiers for his help earlier. I don't think I'd have worked that riddle out at all if it hadn't been for him."

She saw Athos turn his head towards her. "The poet? Is he in Paris then?"

Amorette gave a light chuckle. "Yes. He arrived today with some friends. Claude is trying to marry off her niece to one off them, poor Georgitte." Amorette chuckled again as she recounted that day's events regarding Claude's mission.

Athos laughed along with her. "With what you tell me of your friend Mademoiselle, I'm surprised she isn't trying to find you a husband also."

Amorette felt the smile vanish from her face. "I think I'd only need to ask her and she would have men lined up outside the door. She means well, but I think she forgets that its people's feelings she puts on the line; both with the woman and the man. It's awkward enough as it is when it's something that happens naturally between two people, but when it's all arranged and put together by a third party it can feel like you have no control over your own feelings or situation."

"Are you talking about Franc la Belisle?" Athos asked, apprehension in his voice.

"Not really. I know my father had given Franc his blessing but he didn't push the matter too much. And don't worry, Claude told me about Franc. I know he's dead. I'd rather not know the details though." Amorette pulled at a fraying thread of the blanket that was spread over her absentmindedly.

Athos moved off the conversation of Franc altogether, whether on purpose or not, Amorette did not know. "So there have been other proposals made to you?"

Amorette felt herself squirm. It wasn't exactly a conversation that she wanted to have with Athos but she supposed that it was the most hospitable conversation they had entered into since her return to Paris. "Not as such. There was one or two, but I never really gave any of them any consideration."

Amorette felt the question in the air even before Athos asked it. "Who were they?"

"There was Henry Grey, the Earl of Kent. He's a good man, and they said that he treated his late wife very well. He and my father never saw eye to eye which would have been a bonus. It would have been a good match if he'd been a catholic. He was very understanding about the situation too."