Annabelle Read Online Free PDF Page B

and left them alone. The Captain was looking very handsome in black and white evening dress with a fine diamond pin winking at his stock. The pin was an engagement present from Lady Emmeline which she had given him with the curt reminder that it would be in the worst taste to take it immediately to the pawnbroker.
    He nervously twisted his side-whiskers round one broad finger and eyed the girl in front of him with some trepidation.
    “Well, here we are—all engaged, right and tight.”
    “It has all been too sudden,” said Annabelle, equally nervous. “I hardly know you.”
    “Oh, we’ll be seeing lots of each other before we tie the knot,” said the Captain blithely. “Fell in love with you at first sight, ’pon my soul I did.”
    “Lady Emmeline has
commanded
me to marry you,” said Annabelle in a low voice.
    “Put that way, it sounds a bit dismal,” said the Captain, espying a decanter of Madeira in the corner and feeling that life had taken a rosier turn. Should he kiss her before he had a drink? Better. Some females didn’t like the smell of the stuff.
    He advanced and grasped her firmly round the waist and planted a warm kiss on her mouth. It was like kissing a statue. Well, the money that Emmeline would leave her would pay for many a pretty ladybird.
    But the girl seemed to have turned very white and faint. Perhaps she had been moved by his kiss after all.
    The Captain poured out two glasses of Madeira with an expert hand and carried one to Annabelle. She stiffly took the glass like a marionette and drained the contents.
    “That’s the stuff,” said Captain MacDonald enthusiastically. “Ain’t been kissed before?”
    Annabelle shook her head dumbly.
    “You’ll soon get used to it, heh! You’ll find me accounted a ladies man. Even the Prince Regent himself will tell you. “Pon rep, Jimmy MacDonald is a terror with the ladies.”
    Annabelle smiled faintly. “Terror” was indeed the right word. But perhaps it was merely because of her inexperience. The wine had given her false courage, and she tried to assure herself she would get used to the Captain in time.
    “You’ll like being married, you’ll see,” said the large Captain, pacing up and down the room with his replenished glass in his hand. “We’ll buy a neat little houseright in Town and we can do a bit of entertaining. Got to ask the Colonel and his wife, of course, before anybody else.” He paused and looked at Annabelle. She really was remarkably beautiful with that incredible hair and voluptuous figure. He realised he had let his eyes roam too freely and turned his attention to his glass.
    “You musn’t mind Emmeline pushing you around,” he said in a kindly voice. “Fact is—the old girl’s fond of me. The old Marquess, Emmeline’s husband, was a famous soldier, you know, and Emmeline favors the military. Known her since I was so high. She bought me my first pair of colors. Don’t know what I would do without her and that’s a fact,” he added gruffly.
    Annabelle found herself warming to him. “I am also very grateful to Godmother,” she said quietly. “She has really gone to a great deal of effort on my behalf.”
    “Wouldn’t have done if you’d been an antidote,” said the Captain. “Only the best would do for old Jimmy.”
    At that moment the Dowager Marchioness came tittupping in, clutching her bouquet and eager to tell her new audience about her unknown admirer. “Lilies, eh!” said the Captain. “Funny sort of flower to send. Must have thought it was your funeral. Joke, that’s all,” he added hurriedly as Emmeline gave him a steely look. “Shall we go?”
    T HE Egremonts’ ballroom was indeed decorated in the classical manner. Captain MacDonald gallantly scrawled his name several times in Annabelle’s dance card before escaping to the card room. Lady Emmeline headed straight for Diana’s bower which was in a secluded corner of the ballroom. A pretty arbor with a small sofa, it was partly