Chapter Eight
Sitting in the front parlour, Meridith reflected on how easily Peter had accepted her declining to attend the theatre.
He hadn’t seemed surprised or disappointed, nor had he questioned her, which was baffling.
Or maybe he was finally accepting that his efforts were for naught.
Did that mean he’d give up on finding her a husband?
She doubted it. Perhaps he was merely looking for a different avenue to proceed with his quest?
He and Alena, along with Diana, had left for the theatre right after dinner, and the children were in bed, so it was just her and the quiet of the evening.
She could get a book and read for a while, but an inner restlessness meant she wouldn’t really be reading, simply staring at the words while her mind wandered.
A walk would suit her better, so she rose and sought out Mr Kent to let him know that she would be taking a stroll in the park.
He requested her to wait while he arranged for a companion to join her, but she declined, promising not to go far and to return before dark.
Her family would be upset, but she was tired of worrying about upsetting them.
Yes, she had promised her father to obey them, but she was tired of being lied to.
They were trying to find her a husband, despite insisting they weren’t.
They’d made the same excuses about school, said she needed friends, whereas they’d truly sent her away because they didn’t know what else to do with her. Just like now.
The evening was warm, the air was filled with scents of the blooming flowers, and upon entering the park, she automatically began walking in the direction of the zoo.
Habits were hard to break, but she would turn around long before the zoo came into sight.
It was closed now, the entrance gates shut for the night, but knowing that didn’t stop her from thinking about the last time she’d seen Drake.
When her nieces and nephews had ridden on Hugo.
He’d made them all laugh and let her give Hugo a squash in front of the children, who had cheered, watching him break it apart and eat it.
Evening settled around her as she walked.
Dusk slowly stealing away the brightness of the day, casting shadows as she moved along the pathway beneath the tall trees.
Lamplighters would soon be along the trails, lighting the street lamps with their long poles.
Come dawn, they would use those same poles to extinguish each lamp.
There was no breeze to rustle the leaves, so the only sounds were those of birds fluttering about, looking for an unsuspecting evening bug or a place to rest for the night.
She encountered a few people along the pathway, couples out for an evening stroll, which made her wonder if that would ever be her. If she would ever find someone to share her life with, a life that included marriage and children.
Was she being too particular?
Her thoughts fell into an endless carousel of the men her family had paraded before her. She even tried to come up with some positive traits for some of them, but ultimately, the only one with encouraging qualities was Drake.
He was also the only one who didn’t want to get married. At one time that had thrilled her. Now it saddened her, and she wasn’t sure why.
With her mind fully occupied, she didn’t realise how far she’d walked until she recognized the outline of large buildings forming in the darkening sky were those of the zoo.
Aware that she’d travelled further than intended, and that she needed to turn about and hurry home to keep Mr Kent from worrying, she stopped walking but took a moment to watch a lamplighter using his long pole to light a street lamp.
Those near the entrance gates of the zoo had already been lit, and the man was now making his way along the walking path of the park.
What happened next was so fast and unusual, that she wasn’t sure if she heard or saw the commotion first. Either way, sounds of shrieks and thunderous footsteps filled the air and a huge animal barrelled through the zoo gates with a person haphazardly bouncing upon its back.
‘Hugo,’ she whispered, in such disbelief her voice didn’t want to work. A moment later, even as her heart leaped into her throat, she found her voice and screamed, ‘Hugo!’
‘Bloody hell!’ the lamplighter shouted. ‘It’s an elephant!’
Hugo was racing along the main pathway leading out of the zoo, with what appeared to be a boy struggling to stay upon his back. Two more boys were racing behind the animal and, remembering what Drake had once told her, Meridith ran towards the boys. ‘Don’t chase him! It’ll make him run faster!’
Or turn about and charge them! She was already afraid enough for everyone and didn’t say that aloud. Instead, she shouted, ‘Stop! Stop! Don’t chase him!’
The lamplighter grasped her arm as she ran past him, pulling her to a stop. ‘Lady! Stay back! You’ll get trampled!’
‘Those boys could get trampled!’ she shouted. ‘We have to stop them!’
‘Those boys were up to no good!’ the man replied. ‘And they aren’t going to stop for us! Neither is that elephant. We got to find some bobbies!’
‘The police won’t be able to stop Hugo!’ Only one person would be able to do that. Drake.
‘Goodnight!’ the lamplighter shouted. ‘They just entered the park. There’s no telling what damage that creature is going to do!’
It seemed impossible, for he was extremely large, but between the looming darkness and the foliage, Hugo and the boys seemed to disappear.
The sounds of screams and thunderous footsteps could still be heard.
Meridith’s heart was racing with fear for humans and elephant alike, and there was only one thing she could think to do.
‘Find a bobby and have him get in contact with Mr Andrews, he manages the zoo, and Mr Ratnam,’ she told the lamplighter before she turned about and started to run.
‘Lady!’ he shouted in her wake. ‘You’re going to get yourself killed!’
‘No, I’m not! I’m going to get the only person who can catch that elephant!’
Having been cooped up in the shipping company offices yet another full day, Drake was glad to turn his horse down Albany Street. He could see the lights on in his house and was ready to get home. Have a good, solid meal and settle his eyes on something besides numbers in ledger books.
It was his own fault. He should have listened better, paid more attention when Uncle Donald tried to teach him more about bookwork.
All he’d cared to learn back then had been everything he’d needed to know to captain a ship, and he’d mastered that side of things in no time.
For years, he’d turned his ledgers over to the accountants and had never worried about them again.
That had been foolish, and the past few days had taught him that balancing a ledger was no easy feat.
He fully understood the weights and measure configurations needed to assure that a ship was equally loaded and never overweight, but the charging and the taxation of different types of cargo were new to him, as well as many other things that went into each and every contract.
He’d gotten a grasp of it all now and, in all honesty, was glad that he had, because they were things he should have already known.
It had been selfish of him to believe that all he had to do was captain a ship.
If he’d truly wanted full control over his life, he should have understood that he needed to know everything there was to know about his business.
Upon entering the offices a few days ago, after visiting Archibald, he’d barely recognized anyone.
Now he knew every person there. He’d ordered every ledger for every trip that every ship had taken for the last year to be delivered to his uncle’s old office, and that was where he’d closeted himself and dived into stacks upon stacks of ledgers for hours on end. Days on end.
It was consuming, but not so consuming that his mind didn’t have time to wander and wonder how Meridith was doing.
Telling Chesterfield that there was no longer a reason to see her had made Drake want to see her.
He knew from checking in on Hugo that she visited the zoo every day, and that made him miss her even more.
Then, at that very instant, his spine stiffened. For a moment, he wasn’t sure if his ears were playing tricks on him, or if he’d truly heard her voice shouting his name.
Scanning the street ahead of him, he saw her push off a street lamp pole and run towards him, shouting his name.
Urging his horse into a run, he raced towards her. ‘Meridith!’ he shouted, his heart pounding against his ribcage.
A block later, he barely brought the animal to a stop before leaping from its back and rushing to catch her as she flew into his arms.
‘I found you!’ she said, looping her arms around his neck. Gasping for air, she pressed her head into his chest. ‘Thank goodness I found you!’
He wrapped his arms tighter around her, held her close. ‘You did. But why? What’s wrong?’ Telling himself not to think about how perfectly she fit in his arms, he glanced about to see if someone had been chasing her. It made no sense for her to be out so late, alone and so far from her house.
The pins had all fallen from her hair, leaving it hanging loose and it fluttered across her face as she lifted her head to look at him. ‘It’s Hugo.’
‘Hugo?’
She nodded. ‘He escaped.’
Trying to make sense of what he was hearing, he used one hand to brush the hair away from her face. ‘That’s not possible. He can’t get out of his pen.’
‘I saw him. There was a boy on his back and two other boys were chasing him.’
‘The zoo is closed. Not offering rides at this time of night.’
‘The boys were up to no good and somehow let him out of his enclosure. He ran right through the main gate. The lamplighter went to find a policeman and Mr Andrews and Mr Ratnam.’ Shaking her head, she pressed a hand against his chest. ‘We have to find him, Drake. We have to.’