Meridith’s heart skipped a beat, hoping that nothing out of the ordinary had happened. The scheduled time for her to meet Drake and Rosemary, as well as her younger brother and Lady Montgomery and her son, was still over half an hour away. The boys would be so disappointed if something had happened to Hugo.
So would she.
Rather than trying to manoeuver her way through the crowd, she walked to the reptile building, and then along the narrow passageway to the back of the row of buildings. This was the route she always took to get to Mr Andrews’s office, where she recorded her regular donations, along with those of many others, as well as expenditures in the zoo’s ledger books. Mr Andrews was a wonderful man, but his handwriting was notorious. Walking past his office allowed her to arrive on the back side of the elephant enclosure. Besides the tall fence made of large pipes, there was a brick building to give Hugo shelter, and though a significant crowd was gathered on the other side of the fenced enclosure, there was no sign of the elephant. Or of Drake.
That thought had no sooner crossed her mind when the side door on the building opened and Drake appeared. Her heart practically leaped inside her chest at the sight of him, and at that moment, her thoughts of being excited to see him returned, but this time, she was fully able to justify it.
Since she had returned from school, her siblings had all insisted that she needed friends, people she could attend events and activities with, and there was no reason why Drake couldn’t be her friend. They certainly had a lot in common.
With a smile, he walked towards her, and she couldn’t stop a sigh from escaping. It would be wonderful to be his friend. He was just so, well, perfect. She enjoyed being in his company.
‘Took the shortcut, did you?’ he asked.
She nodded and glanced over his shoulder towards the crowd. ‘Yes.’ Then, recalling why she’d deemed the shortcut to be necessary, she asked, ‘Is Hugo all right?’
‘Yes, he’s perfectly fine.’
Relieved, she nodded, ‘Quite a crowd has gathered.’
Drake didn’t glance behind him as he said, ‘I noticed that. Evidently, word spread during the ball last night that Adam and Thomas were going to receive rides today and others are hoping for the same. Did you bring any of your nieces or nephews with you?’
‘No, I did not.’ She felt a touch of chagrin, yet chose to admit, ‘I’m not allowed to bring them to the zoo.’
‘Why is that?’
She huffed out a breath. ‘Something about spending too much time with the children and not enough on looking for a suitable husband.’
‘Oh?’
Something in his eyes said that he knew there was more that she wasn’t saying. Which there was. Letting out a sigh, she admitted, ‘My sisters claimed that I was using the children as an excuse to be unavailable to accept invitations to other things.’
‘From gentlemen callers?’
‘Yes,’ she said.
‘And were you using the children as an excuse?’ he asked.
For whatever reason, she wasn’t embarrassed that he knew the entire truth. ‘Yes, I was, with good reason.’
‘Because you are particular,’ he said.
His smile made her smile increase. ‘Precisely.’
Holding out a hand, he said, ‘Well, Miss Particular, give me your hand, and I’ll help you climb through the rails.’
She lifted her hand, but hesitated. There was enough room for her to climb through the piped fence, but she wasn’t sure that she should. ‘Why do I need to climb through?’
‘The only gate is on the other side of the building, where the crowd has gathered, and you’re here to help me, aren’t you?’
She was, but climbing into the elephant enclosure might not only be unsafe, she wasn’t authorized to do such a thing.
However, she trusted that Drake wouldn’t let any harm come to her, and he was authorized.
Having convinced herself, she grasped a hold of the bottom pipe with both hands and ducked down to climb between solid pieces of iron built to keep the elephant from escaping. The pen and building had been built years before to house an elephant for a short time when it was merely on loan to the zoo. She didn’t know the name of that elephant, but had seen it as a child and had been disappointed that it had only been at the zoo for a while. Others had been disappointed, too. Hence the reason that Hugo had quickly become so popular.
Once she was on the other side of the fence, Drake took a hold of her elbow and helped her stand. ‘Thank you,’ she said, while smoothing the blue material of her skirt over her stomach with both hands, hoping it would calm the chaos of flutters erupting inside her. It was doubtful, considering they’d been present even when Drake wasn’t. Just thinking about him had made them take off.
They hadn’t really calmed down since she’d met him.
