The Marquis was determined to rescue his daughter from the clutches of Beaufort, so sent a message asking her to meet with her brother Lord James at Castle Dounie to discuss her situation. Lord James was under instructions to bring her back to Blair Atholl, by force if she would not come willingly. Lady Amelia thought that this was an opportunity to put her point of view, and she trusted her brother James, who was about four years older, and had always been a kind friend. Simon was suspicious and tried to talk her out of the meeting, but she was adamant. So he offered to send her with a party of armed highlanders, which she also refused, thinking that this would suggest that she did not trust her brother.
At Castle Dounie, Lord James greeted his sister warmly and asked if she was ready to return to her family. Lady Amelia replied that she was married to Simon and intended to stay with him. So Lord James, with some reluctance, obeyed his father’s instructions and took her away by force.
Once Lady Amelia was safely away, Tullibardine went to the Court of Session asking that Simon be brought to justice, on the understanding that Lady Amelia would soon be available to provide witness as to the rape and abduction. The Court issued ‘Letters of Communing’, making Simon a wanted man, open to arrest by any citizen.
Despite pressure from all her family, Lady Amelia refused to testify against her husband. She considered that she had been betrayed by her whole family, including her father and brothers, and it was now clear to her that her first marriage to Lord Hugh had not been with her father having her interests in mind, but that he had simply used her as a pawn to gain control of the Lovat estates. She hardened her heart and withdrew into dignified solitude.
She was a prisoner at Blair Atholl and told that she would remain so until she denied the marriage and was prepared to give testimony at court. The news of the pillage of Fraser country by the Atholl Militia and soldiers from the garrison at Inverness added to her alienation. She had bleak satisfaction from hearing that Simon was still at large.
She was not allowed to see her father, then living in Dunkeld because of his poor health. The Marquis asked to meet with her, but Tullibardine told him that she was still suffering from the ill-treatment that she had undergone from Beaufort, and that he would bring her as soon as she was well enough. The Marquis maintained his rage.
Then she found that she was pregnant. She kept the knowledge to herself through the first trimester, as miscarriages were common enough, and she needed to be certain. She would give her father one more chance to treat her with love, not seeing how he could deny a daughter carrying his grandchild.
She asked her brother, Lord John, Tullibardine, for a meeting in her chamber, and demanded to see her father, explaining that she was pregnant and needed his approval for her marriage.
He totally lost his temper, instinctively feeling that his father might well be overwhelmed by the emotion of a favourite daughter with child, and seeing that all his efforts to maintain the old man in a state of rage to prevent Beaufort taking advantage might be subverted, and then tell against him.
In his rage he lashed out a backhand across Amelia’s head, with her falling stunned to the ground. As he stood over her, she turned her head and looked him in the eye, with strength and no fear. Another wave of red rage and her kicked her hard in the belly, twice, before storming out of the room, leaving Amelia groaning on the floor.
Her maidservant rushed in and helped to the bed, bleeding from her womb. A few hours later she miscarried. The maidservant, with help from other maids, unobtrusively carried the foetus, still wrapped in a bloody towel, to be quietly buried under a tree near the castle. When she had recovered enough, Lady Amelia went to sit under the tree, with her maids, and wept and wailed until the pain became bearable.
Tullibardine, Lord John, for his part, was deeply remorseful about the consequences of his outburst, but blamed Beaufort for firstly manipulating his sister against her family and secondly having the impertinence to make her pregnant, never being legally married in the first place. It was well known that he was hot tempered, and it was not his fault that the combination of the circumstances and his sister’s defiance caused his temper to flare out of control. He was never to have the same authority over his sister again, but was all the more determined to bring Beaufort to justice. Even though it was not his fault, he deeply regretted causing the death of his sister’s child, and vowed never to allow his temper to overwhelm him again.
Simon remained at large in Fraser country, supported by the Clan, despite the Atholl militia harassing and devastating Clan settlements in a bid to force the Clan to hand him over.
Lady Amelia found that she could not bear to live with her family under the circumstances and moved to Inverness. She sent for her two youngest daughters from Beauly and set up house. Her eldest daughter, Amelia the heiress, was under the legal control of her uncle, and was not permitted to go with her mother. Lady Amelia had some contact with the Clan, particularly with her clanswomen, but was very restless, and distressed by the stories about how her Clan were being treated by her family.
Tullibardine continued to pursue Simon through the courts, and finally achieved a verdict of guilt of rebellion, and the award of a Commission of ‘Fire and Sword’, allowing him the full use of force to bring Simon to his execution.
He sent his brothers, Lords James and Mungo, with an armed force to fully subdue and take control of the Lovat estates. This force was ambushed by Simon and his highlanders and force to yield. This was again an action in the traditional highland tradition, with much drama and threat, but no blood was spilt.
Following the death of his father in exile, Simon became even more determined to resist Tullibardine. He decided that there was nothing to be gained from continued resistance to the legal leverage of Tullibardine, and with the continued military harassment of the Clan, so, taking advice from Archibald Campbell, Earl of Argyll, he travelled to London to seek a pardon from King William III. With some difficulty, he was finally pardoned from his indicted crimes against the Crown, but the issue of the forced marriage remained unresolved.
So Simon assumed the mantle of Lord Lovat and returned to Castle Dounie and started to put the Clan back into order. He was no longer a fugitive and looked forward to a normal life.