The next day Valerie was exaugsthed because she was up all night thinking about something the King said.'Eyes lit with delight, with an anxious smile.' It lingered in her mind for far to long.
Valerie knew she was jealous, she wasn't oblivious to the known feeling circling in her. She came to ask herself why, and she didn't want to answer the question so she pushed it to the furthest corner in her mind. Yet she couldn't keep the question in the dark forever as she would often find herself wandering off in the direction of the question.
Valerie wanted to get this feeling away from her as soon as she could, so she decided to go to search for Mary instead of playing with Alan in the garden as she usually would for the hour break she had everyday.
She walked into the kitchen first, half expecting to find her former friend washing dishes or sweeping the floor, yet to her dismay she wasn't in the kitchen. Then she walked to the stables, no Mary. The servants corners, the tool shed, the library, the grand hall, the ball room, and the storage room, and Mary still hadn't been found.
At this point, Valerie had given up and was heading to the garden to play with Alan to find someone else had already taken that job, and it was none other than Mary. Of course this came as shock for Valerie, because Mary would steer clear of the boy unless she needed a favor.
They were playing tag when Alan saw Valerie and yelled "Mommy! Mommy! Where have you been? Miss Mary played with me because you weren't here to." as he ran up to Valerie.
"I had something important to do, I was looking for Miss Mary. Do you mind if we talk a bit while you go feed the sheep?" asked Valerie in a soft unsettled tone as she saw Mary walk up to her with a bored look on her face.
"Yes mommy, see you later Miss Mary!" waved the little boy as he went to do the task he was given.
"Hey Mary, I wanted to ask you something." Valerie said as she tried to stabilize her voice, she wasn't used to being in situations like this.
"What is it Valerie?" Mary changed her expression from bored and annoyed to sweet and happy, as if her parents were watching and they had told her to be nice to the girl.
"I um, well I heard from unknown lips that you and Malphus have slept together. Is it true?" Valerie softened her eyes as much as possible to ask the question, and Mary's face turned horrified at the girls words.
"Are they spreading such horrific rumors all over the palace?" Mary's eye's looked frightened, like she had been caught doing something to which she wasn't supposed to be.
"I can't say for sure, but this is what I've heard. Still you haven't answered my question, have you slept with the King?" but at hearing the words this time, Mary turned her head. She waited a few seconds before she replied.
"I have to go, I'll see you later." and at that she left.
Of course any girl being said to have slept with a King would be nervous and frightened, wanting to know where the smoke for that fire had arisen from, but the only thing that didn't seem right to Valerie was that she didn't answer her question.
She had even turned away the second time the question was asked, this made Valerie think she actually had slept with the King. The most the girl could have done was say no, be it a lie even.
This made Valerie's skin boil, of course! The person who told the not-so-lie lie got the wrong person when saying Valerie slept with the King weeks after her arrival. They meant Marry but it had come out as Valerie, and which they were too embarrassed to admit.
All this time, she had been lonely just because her name was ushered instead of Mary's! She suffered the fate of having no friends, for something she didn't do, and for something Mary did.
She wasn't normally messy, but this once something had to be fixed in the rumor which is true.
Valerie walked into the kitchen and spoke to a girl that was washing dishes, she said "Hey, I have something to tell you. You know when people said I slept with Malphus to get more money and silk dresses? It turns out that Mary was the one to sleep with him, he told me out of his own mouth." she talked in a hushed tone.
The girl gasped and nodded her head, she told two or three more people to insure the rumor to spread, and it wouldn't exactly fall back on her.
An hour later she felt bad about it, but the truth had to be let out somehow, wither people found out on their own or was told what to believe. There was no turning back now.