She glanced at her friend trying to concoct a lie that he will believe. "Ummm, Jer l wanted to tell you something" Florah said acting nervous.
Jeremiah looked at his friend giving her his undivided attention. Florah saw that she had successfully gained his attention and continued.
"Lately at night, there are two men who snoop around my house and they often whisper words that are incoherent. I didn't want to tell you earlier because l didn't want you to worry but it has been going on for four days now". Florah lied fiddling with her fingers on her lap.
She hoped Jeremiah would buy her lie and take her out of there because it was very lonely.
Jeremiah looked at his little conniving friend that thought that she could actually lie to him.
He decided to act along and asked concern laced in his voice "At what time of the night".
"I think around midnight" she lied again.
"Did they try to break into the house" He asked
"No they didn't,but they seemed to be looking for something" Florah said frowning.
"Oh then, it's alright" Jeremiah said shrugging his shoulders.
A flabbergasted Florah turned to look at the vampire, "Ww..what do you mean 'it's alright' you don't care what they would do to me once they break into the house". Her voice rose a few octaves while she scolded the man.
"Well you said they seemed to be looking for something yet you are 'someone' or are you 'something' it puzzles me" Jeremiah said narrowing his eyes at her in askance.
"You bloody.." Florah cursed while slapping Jeremiah's arm.
"Aaahh stop. I should be the one slapping you liar" Jeremiah said exposing Florah's lies and the way her body reacted when she lied.
From then on, Jeremiah taught Florah how to lie without getting caught especially to vampires who could sense the slightest change in a person's demeanor when they lied.
He taught her so that she could get herself out of trouble incase she encountered other vampires.
With her personality, he knew she would easily attract a lot of trouble.
While Florah was busy sliding through memory lane, Gavriel was sipping his drink slowly while observing the girl standing away from him.
He knew that there were guests in the castle who were waiting for him to dine in the dining hall. But he couldn't care less about them.
Right now, he wanted to make use of his maid's talent. Standing up, he went and grabbed a parchment from his desk. He looked at the dried ink and rolled the piece of paper, tying it with a small ribbon.
He made his way to the door with Florah following behind him trying to keep up with his long strides.
The two walked in the dark hallway with Florah barely seeing where she was stepping.
They cascaded down every floor's stairs, servants bowed at the king when he walked past them.
They wondered what the new maid was doing with the sovereign of the empire, some envied her while others pitied her knowing how twisted the man was.
Meanwhile in the dining hall, four men and four women sat at the long table. The food before them unattached, the atmosphere was awkward and unfriendly.
A moment later the butler entered the dining hall, trotting near the table he announced, "The king apologizes for his tardiness, he instructed me to inform you to start without him but he will make sure to join for a toast later".
With that said, the butler politely bowed at the King's esteemed guests and exited as he came.
"Well, lets feast" Lester declared grabbing his cutlery to cut into the meat on his plate and so did everybody else at the table.
Florah sat across Gavriel in the royal carriage, she made sure to keep her eyes down and not make even the slightest movement.
She lifted her head slowly to peep at the quiet man, finding his eyes closed. Florah lifted her head more and looked at the king.
She wondered what the man wanted from her, she was nothing special. And his character right now wasn't like what the people said about him.
The only part of his crazy she had seen was when he lit a head on fire and make her touch it.
They said he was crazy, blood thirsty, manipulative and many other things but she was yet to see that.
Maybe she agreed with the crazy part because why would he chase after the likes of her 'a mere maid' she was a peasant for Lord's sake and he was the king didn't he have better things to do, she wondered.
"You know if you had spent half the time you are using to stare at me to dry that hair, you wouldn't look like a wet cat". Gavriel opened his eyes abruptly to look at Florah.
Florah's cheeks tainted pink from embarrassment of being caught staring and from his insult.
The pale moonlight passed through the small windows by the sides of the carriage, to give some light inside the carriage.
Gavriel could clearly see Florah and her damp hair sticking to her forehead and cheeks.
He looked at the small lantern hanging by the roof of the carriage, in less than a second the lantern lit up surprising the girl who didn't even know that it was there.
"Come, here" Gavriel instructed tapping the empty space by his side.