Florah had woken up extra early today, cleaned up with a wet cloth and wore a presentable dress given to her by Jeremiah.
Though it wasn't much, but it was still better than her usual ones. She was so excited to go for the job interview at the castle that she did everything hurriedly so as to keep time.
She was particularly excited to see the magnificent structure, as she had heard many stories about how big and beautiful it is. Walking to the market in the wee hours of the morning, Florah reached the place where she had agreed with the kind man to meet.
'We should properly get reacquainted when he arrives' Florah thought as she didn't know the man's name yet.
Soon two carriages arrived, one driven by a man she didn't know and the other by the kind man from yesterday. Plastering a kind smile across her face, Florah made her way to greet the man."Good morning Mr....." "Titus Evans" the man filled in his name. "Good morning Mr.Evans" Florah bowed politely.
"Nice to meet you again, am Florah Crest", "Good morning Miss Crest" Titus greeted back."Well you are awfully early, I need to first pick up a few supplies first before we head for the castle" he explained. "Oh no problem, I can wait and be of help anytime, Sir". Florah said
"Oh you don't have to, you can take a seat there let me take care of some things first" he motioned to the front of the cart where he sat while driving it before he bowed and hurried away into the market.
Minutes later, Mr.Evans came back pushing a small cart filled with tomatoes, onions, carrots among other vegetables. Florah got down to help him but he raised his hand indicating to her not to.
After he finished loading the supplies into the big wooden cart, he went back and later returned with a lot more stuff and other two men carrying them.
Filling the big cart, Titus paid the two helpers and turned to Florah who was patiently waiting. "We can go now, am done here" he said while dusting his clothes, and Florah nodded.
Coming to sit next to Florah at the front, Titus grabbed a hold of the reins and took the southwestern route heading to the castle. "Umm Mr.Evans..." "Please, Titus" "Please just call me Titus" he interrupted Florah's speech.
"OK Ti..Titus, umm i have never been at the castle, What is it like?" Florah nervously asked. "Well it is very grand, polished and yes the structure is very beautiful".
"But it is the people there that you have to worry about". 'Oh' Florah wondered for Titus to continue "You should be wary of everything and everyone, be it the servants, the guests especially the vampires(he emphasized), they all have ulterior motives" Titus warned. "What about the king, what is he like?" Florah cautiously asked.
"Well, I have only seen him from afar but he is the one that you should steer clear of mostly. I heard of stories among us servants, where some female servants go to serve him and are never seen again" He said quietly.
Florah didn't need anymore clarity to understand that the women were probably dead.
The route was quiet, given that it was still early in the morning. The cart drove towards the castle in silence as Florah pondered over what Titus had said.
After afew minutes of silence, Titus voiced "I didn't mean to scare you, i was just warning you incase you get the job". He said thinking that his blabbering had scared the red beauty.
"No am fine, i was just wondering why the girls at the market said that most girls failed the interview, is it hard " Florah asked "Oh that, i think it was just old Margaret being too hard on them" Titus assured her.
"Ok" Florah said and the two went silent. "Uhh, Mr. Titus" Florah called after a while and Titus felt like correcting her but left her. "Can you interview me, as a test so that I can get a glimpse of how my interview might be..." suddenly Florah stopped mid-sentence, slightly panicking and asked further "will I even be allowed in the castle?"
"Calm down Miss Crest, I am going to introduce you as my cousin who came for the kitchen hand job interview"Titus answered. "Okay, thank you again Mr. Titus, I honestly don't know how I am to repay you". "You could start calling me Titus without the 'Mr.' for a start" Titus requested.
"OK, you can also call me 'Florah' " Florah said and Titus nodded and asked hopefully "Are we friends now?", Florah offered him a kind smile and nodded.
"Okay, where have you worked before" Titus asked.
"I previously worked at a local restaurant, as a kitchen hand" she lied remembering that she had no experience working in the kitchen whatsoever.
"Okay then i presume, you know how to cut kitchen, skin livestock and peel vegetables". He asked again and Florah nodded, which was another lie.
She remembered that it was always 'Jer' that hunted and skinned the animals, it was Mr.Humphis who always gave her free Well cooked meals. She realized that she had to lie to get the job, and lying to vampires was hard. She remembered that Jer catched on to her lies by a skip of her heartbeat.
They made a short turn, for the outstanding structure to come into view, standing tall and proud the castle covered a large area, a tall brick wall surrounded it in all directions acting as barricade against intruders.
The more they neared it, the more Florah was astonished.
She had asked about it multiple times from Jeremiah but he had only given her a very vague explanation like it was 'very big and nice'.
"Remember you are my cousin, make sure you follow my lead" Titus voiced bringing Florah out of her stupor and she nodded.