Chapter Three
Once again, Meridith found herself dressed in a fashionable gown, chosen for her by one of her sisters.
The dress was uncomfortable and hard to walk in, covered with lace and ruffles, with a long train that dragged behind her and was sure to be stepped on.
Worst of all, the padded bustle hanging low over her backside would make sitting practically impossible.
Sea green in color, the tight-fitting bodice of the dress extended to her hips, where layers of white lace alternated with silk, each one decorated with wide bows and gathered in swooping folds down the back of the skirt.
Another layer of lace was stitched to the short collar and fell around her shoulders, extending down to her elbows like a miniature cape, and matching lace made up the cuffs that fell from her wrists to cover the back of her hands.
Roses made of pink silk were sewn amongst the skirt’s white-and-green layers.
Looking in the mirror, all Meridith could think was that she looked like a walking rosebush.
If she’d seen the dress on others, she might have found the ability to admire the beauty of the silk or appreciate the handiwork that had gone into creating the design, but that was difficult while wearing it.
She would never understand why women went to such lengths as impeding their movements just to be fashionable.
That was if being a rosebush was considered fashionable.
Wearing this, she was sure to stand out in the crowd, one more thing she hated.
She was able to find an ounce of solace in the fact that she needn’t deal with a matching hat that was sure to have slipped and slid about all evening.
Instead, after painstakingly curling her long brown hair into fashionable locks, Clara had forced the curls to stay in place atop her head by pinning matching silk roses into her hair.
Which, ultimately, added to the rosebush look.
Letting out yet another sigh of frustration, Meridith slid on the wrist-length white gloves and turned away from the mirror.
The gown would soon be the least of her worries, for her family was sure to have arranged for her to meet yet another young man of outstanding reputation from a family of good breeding at the Montgomerys’ ball this evening.
Meaning there was absolutely nothing for her to look forward to for the next several hours.
Life would be so different if her father hadn’t died, but he had, and she had to abide by her promise to him and obey her siblings. She would meet their prospective grooms, even if she was determined never to choose one.
On her way to her bedroom door, she picked up the matching silk hand fan and looped the tasseled string around her wrist. Heaven forbid that she should forget that. It would have meant a trek back up to her room to retrieve it.
Taking smaller steps than usual, due to the tightness of the skirt around her hips caused by the huge bustle, she made her way across the hall, then, with the help of the banister, carefully manoeuvred her way down the steps of the sweeping staircase that ended in the foyer of her brother’s home.
She couldn’t help but remember how she used to run down the same steps as a child, carefree and happy.
A wave of poignant emotion washed over. It wasn’t that she was unhappy, nor ungrateful that Peter and Alena allowed her to live with them.
She loved them and knew that they loved her.
She just felt out of place. And bored. It had been that way since she’d returned from Bath.
She’d been ecstatic about being back home, until it had become blatantly clear that much had changed during her absence.
Try as she might, she just hadn’t fit in.
She didn’t have a spouse like everyone else, and she was too old to be considered one of the children.
She’d gone to Chesterfield for several months, thinking that would help, but everything had changed there, too.
She’d ambled about in the big country estate, alone, with nothing constructive to do, until she’d returned to London, where there was at least family.
And the zoo. That provided something to fill her otherwise endless hours of tedium.
Her return from Chesterfield was when the find-her-a-husband mission had started.
In the last few months, it had escalated.
And now… All of her self-pitying thoughts came to a halt as she rounded the curve in the stairway and looked into the foyer.
There, upon the white-and-black tiled floor, stood none other than Captain Drake Taylor.
Meridith’s grip on the banister tightened, and she did her best to continue downward without tripping.
Now, besides the constriction of the dress, she had to contend with her heart pounding unusually fast. Drake had been on her mind for most of the day, but she’d never imagined seeing him again so soon.
His tailcoat was black, with grey piping on the lapels, hem, and collar. A piping of grey silk extended the length of his pants on the outer seam, and the vest covering his white shirt was grey, with black embroidery. His ascot was black, with stitched white embellishment.
All in all, he was the most handsome man she had ever seen.
‘Lady Meridith,’ he greeted her, moving to meet her at the bottom of the stairway.
‘Good evening, Captain Taylor,’ she said, surprised at how normal her own voice sounded.
He extended a hand in her direction. ‘I regret having missed you at the zoo this morning.’
Her feet glued themselves to the second to last step. ‘How do you know that I was at the zoo this morning?’
‘Mr Andrews informed me,’ he replied. ‘Unfortunately, you had departed an hour before I’d arrived.’
Heat rushed into Meridith’s face as she remembered how she had spent most of the morning at the zoo, questioning Mr Andrews about Drake and the animals he’d delivered over the years.
‘Had I arrived prior to you leaving, I could have introduced you to Hugo,’ he said.
Still not moving, she forced herself to sound as normal as possible as she said, ‘I have seen the elephant several times.’
‘I’m aware of that, but I could have personally introduced him to you, perhaps given you a ride upon his back.’
Mr Andrews had confirmed that Hugo provided a few zoo visitors with rides upon his back, but currently that happened only when Drake was present, because the elephant was most comfortable in his presence. There were also high hopes that rides would soon become a regular occurrence.
Though the idea of riding a real live elephant excited Meridith, she pretended otherwise. ‘I shall let others have that experience.’
He chuckled, reached up, and removed her hand from the banister, giving her no choice but to descend the final two steps.
Her heart had never pounded as hard as it did when she stepped onto the tiled floor.
The heat of his hand penetrated through the cloth of her glove, causing even more commotion inside her.
To make matters worse, his fingers tightened around hers as if he knew she was considering pulling her hand out of his grasp.
‘Why would you deny yourself something that you truly want?’ he asked.
‘Excuse me?’ she asked, astounded that he’d be so brazen to think that she wanted him to hold her hand. She didn’t. Not at all.
Yet, she didn’t try to pull her hand out of his grasp. For some reason, she felt incapable of doing that.
‘I know you want to ride on Hugo,’ he said.
‘Oh.’ She pinched her lips together, having forgotten that had been the topic of their conversation. The rest of her senses, or at least her common sense, quickly returned, and rather than reply to his statement, she asked, ‘Why are you here?’
‘Your butler had just invited me inside when I saw you at the top of the stairway and decided to wait for you.’
She’d been so focused on using the banister to aid her descent, she hadn’t looked over the railing on the other side of the staircase. Or perhaps she’d just been blinkered by her own swirling thoughts. Either one was hardly a good excuse for not having noticed him. ‘Why would you wait for me?’
He frowned slightly. ‘Because I am here to escort you to the Montgomery ball.’
A shiver rippled down her spine. ‘You are?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
He released her hand and took a step back. ‘Did your brother not mention that?’
The commotion within her hadn’t subsided—it was merely taking a different form.
Anger was growing inside her now. Fast and furiously.
‘No, he had not.’ She’d assumed, wrongly, that her family had determined that Drake was not a good candidate for marriage, since no one had mentioned him after the croquet game.
Usually, there was a conversation about who she’d been introduced to, and more than once, she had been reprimanded about how she shouldn’t be so quick to judge people.
Now that she thought about it, she realised that they must have changed their strategy. Now they were forcing second encounters.
‘I see.’ Frowning slightly, Drake asked, ‘Are you not aware that the duke and duchess have already departed?’
‘No.’ Meridith sidestepped around him and, silently cursing the dress for being so tight, walked as fast as she could (which wasn’t very fast at all) across the foyer. Before she made it to the hallway, Mr Kent, their butler, met her. ‘Where are Peter and Alena?’ she asked.
‘They departed some time ago, Lady Meridith. The duke informed me that Captain Drake would arrive to escort you to the ball.’
Her anger was no longer growing; it had struck its peak. Introducing her to men was one thing. Forcing their company on her, as in arranging for them to escort her privately to the ball, was another. ‘Why wasn’t I informed?’
‘I do not know, Lady Meridith,’ Mr Kent said, shaking his head. The wrinkles on his forehead became more pronounced as he continued, ‘My apologies. I was under the impression that you were aware of the arrangement.’