“Do not move an inch, I am taking your shawl,” Mr. Stratton said.
Felicity’s mind was not working very well, and she could not fathom why Mr. Stratton should choose this moment to require her India shawl. Nevertheless, it slipped from her shoulders.
The movement attracted the tiger’s attention. He stared with a strange and intense focus.
Suddenly, the shawl sailed over her head and into the enclosure. The tiger was lightning fast after it. Mr. Stratton pushed her out of the way and slammed the enclosure door behind the beast.
He forced the latch closed. The tiger was contained once more.
Felicity’s heart pounded as it had never done before. How had Mr. Stratton known that a cat that size would chase like a housecat?
It was a cat’s instinct to chase what ran. That was how.
Then the idea of what would have happened ifshe’drun—it would have been after her just as fast as it had gone after her shawl. It would have been his instinct to chase and pounce on her, just like a housecat on a mouse.
Felicity felt tears spring up in her eyes. She felt like laughing or crying or both. Never in her life had she come so close to dying. One lunge from that beast would have done it.
Mr. Stratton sighed in relief and turned to her.
He suddenly lurched forward with a shout and Felicity was horrified to see the tiger’s paw swipe through the bars, massive claws outstretched. A terrible ripping sound rent the quiet of the night and Mr. Stratton fell forward on the grass.
As he lay on the ground, Felicity could see the tiger had ripped right through his coat and his shirt. The blood seeped everywhere and was dreadful to behold.
At least, dreadful for her to behold. The tiger seemed to find it less dreadful and lifted its nose to the air, sniffing it. It smelled the blood. Seeming enraged by it, the beast crashed itself against the bars of its enclosure.
“No time to waste,” the duke said. “Let us go from here before the creature takes another run at it. Felicity, help me get him up. Come on, mister, time to quit this party.”
Mr. Stratton seemed to be in a state of shock, but he made a valiant attempt to rise. Felicity grabbed his arm on one side and the duke took the other.
Between them, they supported him to the door which, incredibly, they found locked. She supposed once people understood that a tiger was loose it was every man for himself. They’d been left to face the beast alone, with no means of escape.
The duke banged on it and shouted, “Open this door at once or I’ll hunt down every last one of you and shoot you in the head!”
Felicity heard fumbling with the lock. The door cracked open and Lady Albright appeared, her face gone very white.
“Out of the way,” the duke said, pushing the door fully open. “Send for a doctor, we’ll get him up the stairs and take over one of your bedchambers.”
“But what… what happened? Who let Tiberius out?” Lady Albright stuttered.
“My daughter fell against the latch after some idiot made her sneeze,” the duke said, practically dragging Mr. Stratton forward. “One wonders, Madam, why there was not a lock on it!”
“The padlock? Oh dear…” Lady Albright said softly.
From this, Felicity supposed there was meant to be a lock on the door. Really, how careless must one be to forget to secure the lock on a tiger’s cage?
Mr. Stratton was getting heavier and harder to hold upright.
Her father pointed at two stunned looking footmen. “Don’t stand there with your mouths hanging open. Carry this fellow above stairs!”
The footmen hurried over and took Mr. Stratton from either side. Felicity was rather relieved to be unburdened, as she had not known how much longer she could have held up her side. Mr. Stratton was rather tall and slim, but there was a solidness to him that she had not expected. His arm had been heavy as iron.
Now that shewasunburdened and in better light, she could see the extent of the damage to Mr. Stratton’s back. It was as if someone had taken a sharp knife and cut him open in four deep lines.
He had bled a lot and seemed only barely conscious. The side of her dress where she’d held him up was dripping with his blood.
“You all right, girl?” the duke asked.
Felicity nodded, attempting to appear very brave.
