Free The Brigadier's Daughter by Catherine March Page A

with the fox-fur trim over her going-away outfit of sapphire silk.
    â€˜What on earth!’ Sasha exclaimed, her eyes flitting between the frozen couple, who stared back at her with guilty, nervous eyes.
    Then Georgia came rushing towards her. ‘Oh, Sash, please, do be quiet! I beg you, do not give us away.’
    Sasha lowered her arm and stared at them. ‘What’s going on? Felix, how did you get in here? We thought you were in Scotland.’
    Felix shrugged, with a defensive frown. ‘I’ve been lurking in the back alley all day and bribed Farrell to let me in through the servants’ door in the mews. He took pity on us—the servants don’t miss a thing, believe you me. I came back when my mama wrote to tell me about Georgia getting married to that Bowen chap.’ He glanced at his beloved with a sheepish smile. ‘Only wish I’d come to my senses and got back sooner.’
    Her sister grasped both of her hands and gushed an explanation. ‘Felix and I are running away. We are going to GretnaGreen to be married and then to Paris for a wonderful honeymoon! Papa gave me all my travelling papers last night, so I can go anywhere in the world that I want to!’
    â€˜Oh, no, you’re not!’ exclaimed Sasha. ‘Have you gone completely mad, Georgia? You are getting married in the morning to Captain Bowen, it’s all arranged, everyone will be there, everyone expects—’
    â€˜No!’ said Georgia vehemently, almost stamping her foot, her mouth set in a mulish line. ‘I don’t love Captain Bowen and I don’t want to marry him! I won’t! In a few days’ time I will be twenty-one and can do as I please.’
    â€˜But—’
    Felix came towards them, his arm curling around Georgia’s waist. ‘Now listen here, Sash, old girl, you know I’m besotted with Georgia. Can’t bear to see her getting hitched to another chap, just not the right thing, not the right thing at all.’
    â€˜But—’
    â€˜Oh, Sasha, darling, please, please, I beg you, don’t say anything, just let us get away.’
    â€˜But—’
    â€˜Better get a move on, Georgie, before someone notices the hansom cab lurking in the mews and starts getting nosy,’ Felix urged.
    As the couple hastened to pick up their bags, Sasha suddenly ran to the door and blocked their path. ‘Georgia, no, I can’t let you do this! Have you thought this through? You know how impulsive you can be! Why, tomorrow the church will be full of people and Captain Bowen will be left standing there like a complete fool!’
    Georgia sighed, and then tugged the diamond engagement ring off her finger and pressed it into Sasha’s palm, firmly closing her fingers over it. ‘Tell him I’m sorry, but—but, well, just say I’m sorry.’
    â€˜I’ll do no such thing! Tell him yourself!’
    â€˜Come now, Sash, old girl, out of the way, we really must getgoing,’ Felix said, in a soft voice that held a thread of steel in its depths.
    Sasha looked at him in surprise, hardly believing that fun-loving Felix was capable of a serious thought for longer than a blink of an eye. The cold hard contours of gold and diamond seemed to burn into her hand, and she asked, looking him directly in the eye, ‘Tell me, Felix, do you love Georgia?’
    â€˜Yes,’ he answered quietly, returning her gaze unwaveringly. ‘I do, very much, and I promise that I will look after her.’
    Sasha wavered then, as he turned to smile at Georgia, and she saw in that one glance how much they adored each other. How could she stand in the way of her sister’s happiness, when it was so obvious that this was what she truly wanted?
    â€˜Are you sure, Georgia?’ she asked again, desperate to ascertain that this was no mere whim on her sister’s part and that she understood all the consequences, ‘Captain Bowen will be so