The next morning was a rush for Valerie. She and the King had somewhere to be, and it seemed to be important because he was yelling and fussing all that morning. He even yelled at the butler, who was older than him and his father and was like a grandpa to him. The butler hit him in the mouth, which made it quiet for a couple of minutes because of how his mouth hurt.
Then they left the castle, Valerie wasn't wearing her maid uniform but a dress that looked awfully close to one Mary got form the lord.
He had told her to wear it for today, and he said if anyone asked who she was to tell them she worked close to the King. It wouldn't be a lie, because she did, she is his personal maid so she works close to him.
First, they went to a farm to make sure the King had ordered the right amount of food for the castle, then they went to an ink and parchment store to order some more ink and parchment. They made a couple of more stops as well. The King went on throughout the day telling Valerie that they wouldn't be doing this kind of thing often and had only done it this time because his assistant had fallen ill.
Once they made almost all the stops they needed to, they stopped by the black market. The King needed something from there and brought Valerie along with him.
They came across people being sold, and there was a little boy being offered. Valerie hated the black market for this reason solely. She didn't care about any other illegal activity going on inside the black market but this one. It made her sick to her stomach to know what these people have gone through and were going to be treated worse after leaving the black market.
The King saw her staring at the stage where people were being sold off, he yelled an absurd amount of money "$3,000" for the boy who was on the stage.
No one was going to pay more than that no matter how much they wanted the little boy slave.
"Going once! Going twice! Sold, to the man and lady in the very back of the crowd" the man threw the boy over to someone in the back.
They walked back there to sign and collect paperwork for the boy. When they got back there they saw a terrified look on the boy's face. Malphus went to go sign some papers and give the money, while Valerie headed over to the little one.
"Untie him, please" The man did what he was told and untied him, but grabbed one of his hands tightly so he couldn't escape.
"I'm Valerie little one, who are you?" he looked so scared. One would guess him to be 6 or 7 years of age. He most likely knew the nicest people who owned slaves treated them the worst.
"Alan m-mistress, my name is Alan." You could see the boy shaking in fear.
"Well Alan, how would you like to come home with us?" Alan didn't give an answer, he didn't want to get hurt for saying he didn't, but he didn't want to say he did. "It'll be okay, come on and grab my hand".
Alan hesitated before he grabbed her hand, and the man let go of his. Malphus, Valerie, and Alan all walked away from the stage together.
"Thank you for buying Alan, Malphus."
"Is that your name? Alan?" The boy didn't answer, he was too afraid to be hit, even though it was him being spoken to.
"Go ahead, he won't hurt you. I promise."
"Yes ma-master, Malphus my name is A-Alan."
"Are you scared of him? Or me? You don't have to be okay?"
Alan didn't answer, he sat in the corner of the carriage on the side opposite to the side Malphus and Valerie sat on.
They arrived at the castle and Alan rushed out of the carriage so that he could help Valerie down, and close the carriage door after Malphus got out. He was amazed at the size of the castle but didn't look at it for too long.
"Alan, you will be staying with Valerie. She will be around me a lot so you can be around me too." Malphus said for the boy to nod his head.
Valerie heard Alan's stomach rumble, it was loud. She wondered why he hadn't asked for anything to eat yet.
Alan tugged on Valerie's hand to grab her attention "Mistress Valerie, when will you eat dinner?"
"Well, right now it's only midday after lunch. I will eat dinner when it's been dark for an hour." This made the boy's eyes fill with sadness, and she heard his stomach rumble once more.
"Are you hungry? Do you want a snack?" To this, the boy nodded his head. He had been taught better than to eat anything other than his mistress' or master's scraps after they finished eating.