num_pages: 184
description: When Laure Blanchefleur's step-father begins to take too great an interest in her she is forced to run away from the Chateau Viemont with Ninon Clement her former nurse. They find an uneasy refuge with Ninons brother. Fabien. an inn keeper in a poor district of Paris.Although Laure finds the inhabitants of the Coq dOr disturbing in particular Fabien's jealous mistress Barbe and the Colossus a dumb giant she prefers this new life to the unhappiness she has experienced with her selfish mother Simone and the Marquis de Viemont.Laure makes friends with Le Souris a dwarf lute-player who works for Fabien. Through 'Toinetie a convent friend Laure meets Charles MacDonald a young French-Scots lawyer whose grandfather Coll chose exile in France to being hunted in his own country after the defeat of Prince Charles at Culloden.She is caught up in the French Revolution and it is brought home to her how insecure is the life of an aristocrats step-daughter living in the same quarter as the starving poor of the city.When Charles leaves with his parents and relatives for Taranaich his grandfathers home in Skye Laure realises she loves him but expects never to see him again. Worse still Barbes already dangerous jealousy is roused still further when she imagines that Fabien is becoming too interested in Laure whom he has always professed to despise.
language: English
title: Forest of Fear
publisher: Hurst & Blackett