Taming of Annabelle Read Online Free PDF

with the chase, one would expect him to have sired a pack o’ fox-faced long-nosed antidotes.’
    ‘Where are the gentlemen, my lady?’ asked Annabelle, looking anxiously at the four settings on the table and wishing there were more so she might at least hope.
    ‘Gone out riding with the ladies,’ said the Duchess calmly. ‘Pray be seated, Miss Annabelle. I trust your journey was not too fatiguing? No? Good. That is a pretty gown you are
wearing.’
    ‘I remember it well,’ said Lady Godolphin, as they all seated themselves at the table. ‘I bought it for Minerva. It’s as well you are of a size and you ain’t too
proud to wear hand-me-downs.’
    Annabelle’s glorious beauty seemed to pale and fade under the mortification inflicted by these words. But the thought that this amiable-looking Duchess might one day be her mother-in-law
stiffened her spine, and she contented herself with smiling vaguely at some point over Lady Godolphin’s shoulder.
    The Duchess launched into a conversation with Lady Godolphin of the do-you-know and how-are-the-so-and-sos variety while Minerva and Annabelle were obliged to sit mum and behave like good little
girls.
    Annabelle gamely, at one point, tried to break in by saying to the Duchess, ‘You have a beautiful house,’ but her grace only fixed her with a pleasant smile which did not quite reach
her eyes, replied, ‘Yes,’ and continued to talk to Lady Godolphin.
    After some time the Duchess asked Lady Godolphin, ‘And how goes Mr Brummell? Still ruling the roost?’
    Annabelle immediately pricked up her ears for Lady Godolphin’s reply, for Mr George Brummell was fashion. It was said the Prince Regent had blubbered like a baby when Mr Brummell
had criticized the cut of his coat.
    ‘Oh, tol rol,’ said Lady Godolphin, waving her pudgy fingers in a dismissive kind of way. ‘He still works so hard at being the fashion which, of course, anyone with a doubtful
pedigree must do. He toadies very cleverly when he is not being frightfully rude and they all love him for it. Like those women who like being insulted by their hairdresser. It appeals to their
love of dollar and humiliation.’
    There was a little silence while the other three ladies tried to think what Lady Godolphin could possibly mean by ‘love of dollar’.
    It was rather like doing an acrostic, thought Annabelle.
    ‘ Douleur – the French for pain,’ said Minerva suddenly, her face clearing.
    Lady Godolphin nodded her large head. ‘That’s just what I said, Minerva. There’s no need to go on repeating my words, you know. We ain’t deaf.’
    Annabelle and Minerva solemnly bowed their heads over their food.
    At last, the meal was over and the two Armitage girls were free to make their escape.
    ‘How could you bear being brought out by her ,’ whispered Annabelle as they were mounting the grand staircase. ‘She is awful. And I don’t think the
Duchess likes us one bit.’
    She expected this latter remark to shock Minerva for she had never thought her sister a very perceptive sort of girl, but Minerva said, ‘I will not have to see much of her once I am
married . . . the Duchess, that is. Lady Godolphin is quite shocking, I agree, but she has a very kind heart.’
    ‘It’s a wonder you noticed it,’ said Annabelle acidly, ‘hidden as it must be under at least three feet of blanc. ’
    ‘Hush!’ said Minerva. ‘We must not criticize our elders.’
    ‘Oh, Merva , if you don’t really think she’s a frightful old hag then you are a hypocrite, or, as her ladyship would no doubt say, a hippopotamus.’
    But Minerva was not to be drawn on the subject of Lady Godolphin. ‘You must lie down and rest,’ she told Annabelle. ‘For they keep very late hours here. No! You must be guided
by me. Off to bed!’
    Rather sulkily, Annabelle complied, but no sooner was she in the privacy of her rooms than she was overcome by a fit of rebellion. ‘Late hours’ probably meant nine o’clock to
Minerva.