Free Taming of Annabelle by MC Beaton Page A

murmured half to himself.
    Annabelle’s beautiful blue eyes blazed with hope as she put up her hands and clung to his lapels.
    ‘Do you love me?’ he asked softly.
    ‘Yes,’ gasped Annabelle desperately. ‘Oh, yes. ’
    ‘Then let us greet your father,’ he said, tucking her arm in his.
    All faces turned up to them as they descended the stairs.
    ‘See here, Bella . . .’ began the vicar.
    ‘Ah, Mr Armitage,’ said the Marquess smoothly. ‘You are arrived just in time. It is rather a public place to ask you for your permission to pay my addresses to your daughter,
Annabelle, but that is what I wish to do.’
    ‘ What! ’Anger was chased away by amazement to be replaced by a look of joy. His Bella to marry a marquess. The vicar dropped the Duchess’s letter on the floor, held out
his arms and Annabelle rushed into them.
    ‘Hey, my pretty puss,’ said the vicar, rumpling her bright curls. ‘Couldn’t wait for a Season before you got wed?’
    He released her and went to shake hands with the Marquess. ‘Of course, you have my blessing,’ he said, striking that young man jovially on the shoulder. ‘I thought I had made a
mistake letting you go, Bella, but I cry peccavi. ’
    ‘And there is more marvellous news,’ said Annabelle, smiling at Minerva. ‘Peter has agreed that we shall have a double wedding. I will be married in the same church and
at the same time as my dear sister!’
    Lord Sylvester noticed a strange, rather quizzical expression crossing the Marquess’s face.
    But Minerva rushed forwards, her face radiant, and enfolded her sister in a warm embrace.
    ‘I am so happy, Annabelle,’ she said with tears in her eyes.
    Annabelle drew back a little and frowned. ‘You are not mad at me, Merva, for arranging to share your wedding?’
    ‘ Mad ? Of course not. It is the most wonderful thing. Now my wedding day will be doubly blessed!’ said Minerva, clasping her hands as if she were praying.
    Hearing the commotion, the rest of the guests crowded into the hall to find out what was going on.
    Annabelle was soon surrounded by a sort of bewilderment of congratulations. Her heart hammered as a voice nagged over and over in her brain, ‘Minerva did not mind at all . I have not
scored one hit. And I am affianced to one man and – God help me – in love with t’other!’

FOUR

    Perhaps if the Marquess of Brabington had not been so ill, he would have managed to see more of his fiancée before her departure to Hopeworth.
    As it was, it was only after Annabelle had left that the Marquess realized they had never been alone together. Such moments as they had had were usually spent in one of the many rooms of the
Abbey while the rest of the guests sat around.
    He had taxed her on her wish to be married at the same time as her sister, but Annabelle had only fixed him with an innocent blue stare and had said, ‘Peter, I told you, I’m
sure I did. It is certainly very rushed. Do you want to wait?’
    And the Marquess, of course, did not want to wait. He was very much in love, so much in love that he forebore from pointing out that she had no time to tell him about wedding arrangements during
a ten-second proposal.
    His illness had robbed him of much of his commonsense and humour, and so he was out of balance. He had been in love before, at a time when he had neither title nor money. The lady had encouraged
his affections only to turn him down in favour of an elderly lord. He had acquired his title and fortune a week before her wedding, and had been appalled when she had called at his house, saying
that she had always loved him, and begging him to rescue her from a loveless marriage. Her motives were dreadfully plain. Since then, he had thrown himself into his army career, viewing society
women from then on with a certain detached amusement.
    But Annabelle had caught him at a weak moment. Certainly he had been enchanted with her from the first time he set eyes on her, but, in normal circumstances,