Chapter Fourteen
It was well after dark when Meridith arrived in London.
Her excitement to arrive made the trip seem overly long, and as the coach travelled through town, she kept the curtain open, to see the lights, the traffic, homes, and eventually the park.
There was much she would miss here, mainly her family and the zoo, but it wouldn’t compare to how much she’d missed Drake this past week.
And the week before that. When he’d been in Bristol.
What if he’d gone back there?
What if he wasn’t even in England?
She would just have to find out where he was and find him.
Whether it took hours, days, months, or years, she was going to find him.
When the coach stopped, she didn’t wait for the driver to climb down and open the door. She flung it open herself and climbed out.
Mr Kent opened the front door as she approached the house. ‘Lady Meridith, we weren’t expecting you.’
‘I know,’ she said, climbing the steps. ‘I decided this afternoon that it was time to come home.’
‘It’s good to have you home,’ he said. ‘I will have your luggage sent to your room.’
‘Thank you.’ She crossed the threshold into the house. ‘Is my brother in bed?’
‘No, my lady, he is in his study.’
‘And Lady Alena?’
‘She is upstairs putting Miss Mary down for the night.’
‘Thank you, Mr Kent.’
‘You are most welcome,’ he replied.
As the butler walked outside to oversee the retrieval of her luggage, she glanced at the hallway and then the stairway, not sure if she wanted to face Peter first or talk to Alena first, for she was going to ask her sister-in-law for some advice concerning how she should go about ‘mailing a letter’.
Quickly discerning that if she was going to be this undecided about every move, she’d never accomplish her mission, she chose the hallway.
Moments later, she knocked on Peter’s study door and turned the knob to open it at the same time he provided permission.
‘Meridith!’ He lifted his feet off the stool in front of the leather chair and laid his book on the nearby table at the same time. ‘What are you doing home? Is something amiss with Diana? Walter? The girls?’ He’d risen to his feet and was walking towards her.
‘Nothing is amiss,’ she said, closing the door. ‘They are all fine, but I’ve made a decision.’
‘Oh? What have you decided?’
Holding her chin up, her shoulders square, she said, ‘That I do want to marry Drake.’
‘Oh,’ he said hesitantly. ‘Well, I see. He’s no longer interested in a partnership.’
She’d assumed as much. ‘And you?’
‘It would have been an ideal business venture, but…’ He shrugged, then said, ‘It’s all out of my hands.’
A sense of relief washed over her. ‘That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.’
‘It is?’
‘Yes.’ Then, needing an answer to her most important question, for it determined her next move, she asked, ‘Do you happen to know if Drake is in town?’
‘Yes, he is. He and his cousin have been at the docks all week.’
‘Wonderful.’ She turned and walked towards the door. ‘Goodnight, Peter.’
‘Goodnight?’
‘Yes.’ Opening the door, she said, ‘I will see you in the morning.’ Just as she was about to step into the hallway, all she’d learned the past week about her family came rushing back, and she turned about.
Quickly crossing the room to where he stood, she wrapped her arms around her brother.
‘I love you, Peter, and I want you to know that you are a wonderful brother. And I’m sorry for all I put you through. ’
Peter gave her a tight hug. ‘I love you, too, Meridith, and all I’ve ever wanted was for you to be happy.’
‘That’s what I want, too.’
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither had it taken a day for all the changes Drake had envisioned to be put into place. So far, it had taken him five days, and though there were still matters to see to, as there always would be, he was ready for the most important step.
It could be the hardest or it could be the easiest. He wasn’t even going to try and determine which.
Things had gone far more smoothly with Archibald than he’d first imagined.
Granted, their agreement was still only five days old, which wasn’t a long time, but it was also the most time he and Archibald had spent together in over ten years, and they were both still alive and getting along very well.
Drake just hoped that he was as lucky when it came to Meridith. She could be stubborn, so he might have his work cut out for him, but he was up to the challenge. Up for whatever it took for her to agree to marry him.
Last night, he’d told Archibald that he was ready for his next step and didn’t know how long it would take. Archibald promised that he could handle whatever arose, and for him to take his time. Drake appreciated that, and told his cousin as much.
He had made a mental list of what he needed to do. First, he needed to confirm Meridith’s whereabouts. When he’d visited Hugo earlier in the week, he’d heard from Mr Ratnam that she was in the country, at her sister’s estate.
If she was still at Holdenstall, he would travel there and then somehow convince her that he’d been wrong about marriage, wrong about so many things, and ask her if she would ever consider marrying him.
Not because he needed a business partner, but because he loved her and wanted her to be his life partner.
If she wasn’t still at her sister’s, he’d find out where she was and go there. Wherever it was, he would see her by tonight.
He had to. It had already been too long. Never before had he been so certain of what he wanted or so committed to making it happen. It made him feel like a new man.
Impatient to get his new life started, he strode directly into the servants’ kitchen upon waking and asked George to saddle his horse.
‘Right away, sir,’ George replied, and walked out the back door.
‘One egg or two, sir?’ Agnes asked, gesturing towards a cup of steaming tea with the knife she’d used to slice into a fresh loaf of bread.
He picked up the cup and an end crust of the bread loaf that she’d sliced. ‘Neither. This will be fine.’
‘A person can’t start their day on an empty stomach,’ she said.
‘I’m not,’ he replied. He was just taking a bite of the bread when a knock sounded on the front door.
‘Who can that be at this time of the morning?’ Agnes asked, setting down the knife and wiping her hands on her apron.
Drake touched her shoulder, indicating she could stay put.
‘I have no idea, but will go and see.’ He would get rid of whoever it was.
He had too much to do today to waste time on anything that wasn’t necessary.
He took a sip of tea and another bite of the crusty bread before setting the cup on the table and heading out of the room.
Made of the same bricks as several in the neighborhood, his house wasn’t large, simply three stories with four bedrooms upstairs, the usual dining room, study, and front and back parlours on the ground floor. The basement hosted the kitchen, the coal heating source, and storage.
It didn’t take him long to get from the kitchen to the front hall, but because the knock hadn’t sounded again, he was of the mindset that whoever it had been must have decided it was too early to call.
Most likely a peddler of sorts. Agnes had pointed out some new rugs that she’d purchased from one the other day.
There was a window next to the door, but he didn’t bother pulling back the curtain to see if anyone was on the porch or not, merely opened the door.
And then the chunk of bread that was still in his mouth lodged itself in the back of his throat, and he choked in surprise at the sight of the person standing on his front porch.
Instantly unable to breathe, he grabbed his throat with one hand and tried coughing to dislodge the bread.
‘Oh, dear!’ Meridith exclaimed and, leaping forward, she quickly began pounding on his back.
It took a few moments, but the bread came free, and Drake swallowed, sucked in air, and swallowed again. ‘What are you doing here?’ he asked, blinking away the water in his eyes and more than slightly embarrassed at almost choking to death right before her.
‘Do you need a glass of water?’ she asked, now rubbing his back.
He swallowed, and feeling fully recovered, from the bread, at least—the sight of her, as well as the touch of her hand on his back, still had his heart racing—he shook his head. ‘No, I’m fine. What are you doing here? I thought you were at Holdenstall.’
Meridith removed her hand from his back and took a step away to glance at the hallway. ‘Are you sure you don’t need a drink?’
Of whisky maybe, just so the bite and vapors of the alcohol could confirm that he hadn’t choked to death and was having a heavenly vision. ‘No, I don’t need anything.’ That wasn’t true. What was true was that it felt like an eternity had passed since he’d laid eyes on her.
His gaze shifted from her face, going lower, along the lines of the purple dress that fit her womanly curves like a glove fits a hand.
She was so very enchanting. No other woman had ever stirred his blood like she did.
No other woman had ever made him want the things that she did, made him understand the things he now understood, and he knew in his very soul that none ever would.
Despite years of sailing, where he’d faced numerous dangers, he’d never felt the depths of true fear until this moment.
How could he possible expect Meridith—a refined, beautiful lady—to love him?
A selfish rake with no title other than that of captain, which had no real standing in the ranks of society that she was a member of.
She rested a hand on the edge of the front door. ‘Do you mind?’
Brought out of his dazed state, he grasped the edge of door and pushed it closed. ‘My apologies. I thought you were at Holdenstall.’
‘I was. I returned to London last night.’