‘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. Tomake 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 croquetgame. 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 wereforcingsecond 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.’
She hadn’t been made aware of anything, but that certainly wasn’t the butler’s fault. It was her brother’s fault. Peter was not going to get away with this. ‘Of course you were, Mr Kent. Thank you.’ Turning about, she nodded towards Drake, who was still standing near the stairway. ‘My apologizes, Captain Taylor, but it appears—’
‘That we have both been duped,’ he interrupted.
‘Yes. Thank you, but I will not be needing an escort.’ That would teach them. She simply wouldn’t go to the ball.
He walked towards her. ‘Why not?’
She couldn’t tell him the real reason—that she liked him and shouldn’t. Therefore she just replied, ‘Because I’m not going.’
