The Reverend's Daughter (Book 2 after The Duke's Daughter)

Twenty Two Part Two

Alfred awakened quickly as a smile crept upon his face. He rolled over onto his back, stretching out his arms above his head, he lay across the bed, staring at the ceiling for a moment, experiencing pure, honest joy for the first time in his life.

With the dawn of the bright new morn, Alfred was experiencing an excited, expectant, giddy feeling. An entirely new feeling for him, one that he had never; in his entire life; felt before. This new feeling consumed his entire being. It came from deep within, and had come with the thought that in a few hours he would be courting Terese. The wonderful feeling had already been vividly present before he first opened his eyes.

He could not remember ever wanting to rise and greet the day so excitedly before.

He rose and gathered his things. He then bathed, shaved, and took a bit more care with his appearance than usual this fine morn.

He left the apartments, retrieving his horse, before Merry even rose from her slumber.

He rode to The Boar's Head, where he broke his fast with eggs, ham, toast and coffee. He read the papers, looking up every five moments to check the time.

It was difficult to be patient when he knew he would be seeing Terese before the morn had passed. He did have to still wait quite a while, before he could arrive at an acceptable hour.

He decided to visit a bookstore down the cobbled street, to mayhap buy Terese a volume of poetry.

Yet, once there, he could find not one thing that inspired him during his perusal of the shelves. He left the store empty handed, then strolled the lane of shops, leaving his horse tied in front of the Boar's Head.

He came to the flower shop, where he was inspired by a bouquet of hothouse lilies he saw on display in the window, he went inside and asked for them to be delivered to Terese immediately.

He then went back to the bookstore, having thought to purchase a small volume on the sights of London, hoping Terese would find it interesting, and mayhap even be interested in visiting some of the lesser known exhibits.

He hoped she would want to visit a few of the museums, parks, gardens or famous landmarks, preferably with him.

He arrived mid morning at the grand manor Terese's father had rented for their stay in London. It was a completely enclosed, gated estate, fully staffed, with every amenity one could want or wish for.

Alfred was suitably impressed, and yet also, quite a bit intimidated at the same time.

A groomsman met him at the top of the drive, "A fine day it be for a ride teday, may I take your mount to be cared for, Sir, or should I be 'oldin 'im 'ere?" The small, dark haired groom stood wide eyed, and expectant, his brown eyes shining, as he awaited Alfred's decision.

"I hope to be here a while, I suppose you could take him." Alfred hoped he would not be leaving too soon.

The groom then led the mount away to be watered, fed and stabled.

An extremely large butler answered the bell on the oversized, double doored entrance, allowing Alfred to step inside to the foyer, while he closed the door behind him.

The man was wide as an ox, and much taller than Alfred, though Alfred was a respectable height. Alfred had to look up, to see that the man was topped off with extremely short, bright, red hair. The butler had piercing, dark blue eyes that left no detail uncovered as he looked Alfred up and down slowly, blatantly sizing him up, before he then took Alfred's card.

Alfred was led to, then announced at, the door to the family's drawing room.

Alfred peeked over the butler's shoulder. He could see Terese's mother. She was sitting upon a comfortable looking, red wine colored settee, that was positioned towards the middle of the room. It was angled precisely in his direction.