Zebras

Zebras appear among the exotic animals kept on Cy Goldman’s estate, where their presence turns an already extravagant property into a place that feels both fantastical and potentially hazardous. The book offers no separate account of the animals’ individual behavior, but their appearances connect the visitors’ apprehension with the risks of Goldman’s private menagerie.

First Sighting on the Estate

On arriving at the castle, Georgiana Rannoch sees striped animals moving among the trees in the parkland and realizes they are zebras. The sight surprises her because the wild animals had been mentioned during conversations aboard the RMS Berengaria, but she had not taken those reports seriously. The discovery makes the estate’s unusual grounds more than an extravagant backdrop: animals are present in the landscape around the house.

Visitors’ Apprehension

Claire Daniels is reluctant to walk along the path alone at night. She worries about encountering wild animals, fears lions and tigers may be stalking nearby, and says she would not welcome meeting a zebra face-to-face because she has heard that they have bad tempers. Her concern records a visitor’s fear, not an incident involving an attack; the evidence does not show a zebra approaching or harming anyone.

The Menagerie’s Practical Risks

Later, when Sheriff Billings considers bringing dogs onto the property, Stella Brightwell warns that they could provoke a stampede involving zebras, giraffes, and wildebeest. She adds that a giraffe can be dangerous to a dog or even a person. Claire Goldman explains that Cy Goldman kept the African animals as exotic decorations, part of his habit of buying whatever his growing wealth made possible. The zebras thus belong to a collection intended to display extravagance, but their potential to move unpredictably gives the menagerie consequences beyond display.