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 toassure 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.’
He cursed beneath his breast. Hugo was well-mannered, but scared, and in unfamiliar surroundings, there was no telling what sort of damage he could cause. To himself and anyone around him.
‘Which way did they go?’ he asked.
‘Into the park. I lost sight of them. He was running so fast. The boy on his back was trying to hold on, and the other two were chasing after him.’
