Persuading Annie Read Online Free PDF Page B

ready to take the plunge. By the time she had fully confronted the horror of her situation she was already pregnant with her second daughter, Victoria. Two years later, Annie had been born into a loveless sham of a marriage in a last-ditch attempt by her parents to beget themselves a son.
    By this time Caroline Markham was a jaded, used and lonely mother of three girls. Again she did the best thing she could do for her class, era and gender.
    She did nothing.
    Eventually, her early end came from an unfortunate mix of drink and pills. ‘A tragic accident’, was the official verdict. And nothing more was said of the matter. Her three daughters, then all away from home, were told little about it, save the final fact, and were expected to get on with things. Katherine, nineteen, was staying with friends in Switzerland when she heard the news. Her first thoughts were that she would have to buy a new outfit for the funeral and that she’d miss the next ball. The disappointment of the latter surpassed the excitement of the first. Victoria, seventeen, at finishing school nearby, was distraught – or at least distracted – until she realised what this meant. It meant time, sympathy and understanding from the teachers with her school work and attention of a totally novel kind from her fellow pupils; she was a guiltless victim of circumstance, the feeble, motherless,utterly passive heroine of her own life, to be pitied, revered and secretly envied by all. She felt like a princess. Annie, fifteen, at an English boarding school she despised, was heartbroken. She had lost the one close relation she could relate closely to, and for the first time in her life, she felt truly alone. It was a feeling that was to stay with her for a long time.
    Back in the adult world, there was, of course, the predictable gossip along the lines of a happy outcome for George Markham and Susannah Brooke. Their names were linked by many tabloid diarists for the first few years after their shared widowhood. But it soon became clear that George’s interests lay in women who knew less of the world than he, not more, and that Susannah’s interests lay in the world around her, not the men.
    But that wasn’t to say that they didn’t find each other’s company charming. Susannah still found it thrilling to meet every day with a man whose very ancestors had been King James’s sycophants. George was as English as weak tea, mild weather and rabid xenophobia, and Susannah couldn’t help but respect him for it. And George, full of generosity of spirit, respected Susannah for respecting him. In her work and in her most proper behaviour to George, Susannah had quickly become almost as indispensable to him as she had been to his wife.
    By the time Shirley popped back into the office, bringing with her a second round of coffee, George and Susannah’s conversation had shifted gently towards businesslike topics.
    ‘Mr Cavendish is coming to this meeting, isn’t he?’ Susannah asked.
    ‘Yes,’ sighed George. ‘That man worries me, you know.’
    Susannah went cold. ‘Why is that, George?’ she asked softly.
    ‘Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed?’ he asked, unable to keep the surprised dismay out of his voice.
    Susannah started to grow concerned. If George didn’t trust Cavendish – whom she trusted enormously – they were in serious trouble.
    ‘Noticed what?’
    ‘His nasal hairs. Spend my whole time wanting to pull them out. Most off-putting.’
    * * * * *
    The role of godmother to the Markham girls seemed at first to Susannah to be a role blessed in heaven. Three beautiful, wealthy debutantes with everything to lives for, who would look up to her as their guide. What more could a woman bursting with maternal advice possibly want?
    Three different girls, perhaps.
    Susannah had had to watch each Markham girl, once so full of promise, miss all the opportunities their lives had offered them and, one by one, sorely disappoint their father. Because