After all the awkward greetings from the royals to Valerie, lunch was served and everyone had a great time. The king and queen were even kind enough to acknowledge everyone else at the table beside themselves, their son, and Valerie.
While they were acknowledging everyone else, they saw Alan. Much like Margret and Robert, they fawned over Alan, thinking he was the cutest thing in the world.
"Who gave birth to such an excellent young man!" The king demanded to know, but no one spoke up.
"Malphus?" The queen asked.
"That is Valerie's slave, Alan," Malphus said and Alan started shaking his head furiously.
"I am not papa! I am not, I am not, I am not! Don't call me a slave!" Alan shook his head so hard his face turned red.
"Papa?" The queen said and everyone at the table looked at Valerie and Malphus with a weird look on their faces.
"Ever since we got him from the slave establishment, he wouldn't stop calling Malphus papa," Valerie said through a voice crack, how much more wrong could this day go?
"We?" The king asked.
"Malphus and I were in the black market looking for something when I saw him up on stage, Malphus took pity on him because he looked helpless and starved, so he brought him home and assigned me to take care of him," Valerie said through another voice crack and nervously chuckled at the end.
"Why wasn't Chris in the black market for you?" The queen asked Malphus, Valerie thankful that eyes turned away from her.
"He was ill," Stated Malphus as he finished off the salad that was brought in for him to eat. It was funny, Valerie had never seen Malphus eat salads, he struck her as the meat type of person.
"Aw, poor thing, is he alright now?" The queen asked, oblivious as to what had taken place.
"He's dead," Malphus said bluntly for the queen to give out a dramatic gasp.
"Why, whatever do you mean he's dead?" The queen placed her hand on her son's.
"We'll talk about it later, right now isn't the best time," Malphus said and the queen nodded.
Everyone finished their meals and excused themselves from the table. When Valerie did, so did Oscar, it made Valerie nervous.
"Where are you going?" Oscar said as soon as the grand hall's doors were shut.
"To my room," Valerie said and Oscar gaged, he must have thought her to be in the servants' corners.
"Aren't you sleeping in the guest room with me?" Oscar asked and Valerie shook her head.
"No, that'd be inappropriate for someone of my status," Valerie said, repeating what was told to her by Kathy once while they were going over castle etiquette for maids.
"What are we doing over here? Isn't this where the King's study is?" Oscar asked and Valerie nodded.
"Than what are we?- Woah," Oscar asked following her into a room.
Valerie fluffed out Arlo and Alice's beds and then she sat down on hers.
"Are we supposed to be in here?" Oscar asked looking out the door to make sure no one saw them enter.
"Me? No, not until nightfall, but I suppose it's fine this time as it seems I have the day off," Valerie said as she stretched and yawned.
"Valerie, come on, let's go before you get in trouble. I have some things I want to talk to you about," Valerie nodded and ate a grape from her fruit bowl.
"Well, close the door and come sit down. No one bothers me in my room unless it's important," When Oscar realized that that was her room, he felt like a dunce, nonetheless, he was going to get his answers.
"So I've noticed how you are with the male population here, it seems to me you've gotten close," Valerie laid out on the bed and giggled.
"Yes, you can't stay in a place for almost a year and not make friends," Valerie said playing in her hair, more focused on her balcony than her and Oscar's conversation.
"Well, I was expecting you to make friends, just not so many guy friends is all," Oscar said and Valerie sat up.
"What do you mean?" Then it hit her, he was jealous.
"Well, you shared a wink with that male servant who helped us with our stuff and you have secrets with Malphus you never told-" Valerie started laughing.
"You're jealous!" She teased.
"I'm not jealous I'm-" Valerie laughed again.
"You're jealous!" She kissed him to stop him from talking furthermore.
"You don't need to be jealous," Valerie said with her forehead still on his, their noses almost touching.
Oscar mouthed an 'okay' before he went in for another kiss, some things like this would never change.