When he arrived back in town, he returned the horse, then headed directly to the Grey Bull’s taproom. He asked for only ale as he would be dining with the Felixes later that evening. He hoped Mrs Felix, who refused to employ a cook, would serve her excellent mutton stew. As the barmaid plunked a tankard down in front of him, he settled his saddle-weary posterior on a roughly hewn beechwood chair.
When he had first arrived in London to start his education, his family’s steward Mr Shrove had accompanied him to seek out a respectable and advantageously located inn. Finding the Grey Bull, they thought it the perfect place where Alwyn might lodge long-term.
During his first two months there, he had spoken as little as possible, fearful that his genteel accent might give him away. To familiarize his tongue with the common parlance, he listened intently to everyone around him during the day that he might parrot their colloquialisms at night in the solitude of his garret.
That seems so long ago. Now, I’ve almost accomplished what I came here to do,he thought with satisfaction as he looked around the tavern. Seven years on, the Bull still lacked even a hint of luxury. Plates of roast beef from the kitchen were more gristle than succulence, and only a few of the timeworn chairs in the taproom could boast of four even legs.
It was not a lack of funds that kept Alwyn there. He could have lived at Brown’s on Dover Street, had he wanted to.
But I have appearances to keep up — or to keepdown, rather — for a little longer anyway.He took a deep draught of the weak ale.And it’s not as if I mind parsimony.
However, once we are married, I want to see Miss Everson sip Ceylon from a fine china cup whilst wearing a silken gown of her own choosing. That is, IF we are married – I mustn’t be presumptuous.
A jolly voice cut through his mulling.
“Thatwasyou at Astley’s last night, wasn’t it? And what did you think of the dancing dogs?” Mr Theodore Sliger, a fellow lodger and medical student, sidled up to the bar as he addressed the serving girl.
Though young and slight, the sandy-haired boy spoke and moved with notable confidence. Normally even a trace of swagger would repel Alwyn, but he harboured amused appreciation for Sliger.Appreciationbecause the boy asked insightful questions during lectures.Amusedbecause his flirtatious nature was ever on display.
It was not just pretty females who attracted his attention. Even spotty, bosomless girls were lavished in it, and would bloom in its glow. The long-nosed barmaid was no exception. Although Alwyn himself always treated her with every courtesy, he had never once seen her smile as she did while Sliger leaned against the wall, prattling away with her.
There’s a lad who can shine a dull apple,Alwyn thought, lifting his tankard in salute when the boy’s eyes flitted over to him. Sliger raised his eyebrows in returned acknowledgment, breaking no cadence in his conversation with the girl.
Perhaps he can school me in the art of wooing.
Chuckling to himself, Alwyn sipped his ale, and watched the demonstration. It was roughly an hour later when he set out on foot for the Felixes’ house.
Alwyn had met Dr Archibald Felix while they were working at a dispensary together. Needing a master surgeon to oversee his apprenticeship, he was delighted when Felix offered to take him on. The two had forged a sense of kinship quickly even though Alwyn evaded the more personal questions Felix thought to ask him. In this manner, he was able to keep his unusual act of rebellion against Society a secret, even from his mentor. The doctor seemed puzzled by his apprentice’s elusion rather than offended, and he eventually quit prodding altogether.
Alwyn knew that Felix would learn the truth about him someday, and he hoped that he would be the one to tell him.
But not until I have proved myself fully, if I can help it.
There were occasions when he thought he might speak of it sooner. Once, when they were discussing the maternal mortality rate of attempted Caesarean operations, Felix had commented, “They are not always fatal, as was proved in 1826. However, I wonder if the mother wished sheweredead as she must have felt her very soul was being cleft in two.”
“Who was the surgeon?”
“Dr James Barry with whom I went to school in Edinburgh. Such an odd, little, belligerent fellow!”
“A mastiff disguised as a pug?”
“Yes, but…” Felix had frowned. “There was more to it than that. He looked so young that when I first saw him, I was tempted to check his coat for leading strings. Even in the years that followed, he didn’t seem to age at all. Most of us weretaller and sprouting whiskers by the time we graduated, but he remained slight and smooth. And his voice! How he was teased for that reedy pipe! He almost seemed to be…”
“What?”
The doctor had chewed his lip, then shook his head. “Nothing. He’s done good work and deserves our respect. That is what matters.”
Agreeing with and appreciating this philosophy, the apprentice had pried no further.
Now, going up the steps to the Felixes’s front door, Alwyn paused to look up and down Harley Street.
Perhaps by Christmas, I can purchase a place here,he thought, regarding the many houses that lined the street.Though the Felixes’ red-brick front had several white corbels and two faux-balconies, it was one of the more modest homes in sight.
Which one would Miss Everson like the most?he wondered as he knocked upon the door.
“Come in, come in!” Mrs Agnes Felix said as she opened it to hasten Alwyn inside. The diminutive woman’s rosy cheeks lifted in a grin, her graying hair flouncing about her ears. Accustomed to her enthusiasm, Alwyn was not surprised when she began to tug at his frockcoat as if he was not removing it quickly enough.
Standing nearby, Dr Felix laughed. “Good heavens, Aggie! Let the man undress himself or he may not accept another of our invitations ever again!”
