The next morning, Penn was awake, dressed and ready to take on the world when her door opened with a bang.
"Good, you are awake." A taller buffer boy strode into the room without knocking. "My name is Stanley and I am going to show you around today."
Without acknowledging the presence in the room, Penn continued with putting her new shoes on. She would need to see Vallas later so they can make plans about how they would go about achieving her mission.
"Hey." The tone of the boy, Stanley turns sharp. "You have no right to ignore me."
"Get Out." Penn said instead.
"Excuse me?" the boy questioned.
"Go out. Close my door, knock, wait for an invitation then come in." Penn said as Stanley stared at him. "Do you want to keep gaping at me or do you want to get this ridiculous chore over with so we can go about our lives and not see each other again."
Stanley snapped his jaw closed so hard that she could hear the snap from where she had sat. With a nod, Stanley turned to leave while she stood up and collected the key for her room from the drawer where she had dropped it last night after Vallas had given it to her. When the knock sounded, she strolled to the door, opened it and slipped out then locked the door behind her.
"But…" Stanley started.
"Nobody is welcomed into my room." Penn tells him as she put her key in her pocket and waited for Stanley to talk.
"Lord Vallas does not like any room door to be locked in his house." Stanley said with pride at knowing what Lord Vallas wants more.
"He will take a special exception to me." Penn replied as Stanley smile got wiped off. "The tour."
"You think that you are so special but you are not." Stanley hissed, showing his hatred of the fact that Penn was the heir.
"I am actually very special. You just don't know." Penn said as Stanley expression turned into confusion, like he couldn't tell why Penn was not scared by him. Penn was already used to bigger and worse people in existence than Stanley and his attempts to scare her were simply laughable but she maintained her stoic face to prevent herself laughing out loud at Stanley words.
"We will see…" Stanley started.
"Yes we will, the tour?" Penn asked losing her patience with Stanley.
"Right this way." Stanley answered as he led her on the tour. He showed her different parts of the compound and most of which were filled with boys of different age and half of those boys were glaring at her as if she stole a converted position and thinking about it, she did.
"I want to stop here for now." Penn paused outside the house that served as the kitchen when she saw Leda inside directing different women to do different chores.
"I don't have the time to babysit someone later especially since I am busy not jobless like the person." Stanley said hoping to get a rise out of Penn but she just looked at him with blank eyes.
"Leda will continue my tour." She said as she turned entered the kitchen without any extra words said to Stanley.
"That boy is so unnatural!!! I am having goosebumps because of his actions." Stanley complains before he left.
Meanwhile Penn got to where Leda was standing, ignoring the looks of curiosity she was getting. "Leda, good morning."
"Lord." Leda shrieked as she turned around to stare at Penn who was failing woefully in her attempt not to smile. "Don't attempt to scare me like that boy never again"
"Attempt? But I did." Penn gloated as Leda frowns more.
"Very funny, I am dying with laughter boy, what do you want?"
"To ask you to tell me what is going on. I don't want to ask Lord Vall… Master." Penn corrected herself, she needed to get used to calling Vallas master like the other boys her age do and Father in front of other important people. "But I will, if it do come to that and it hasn't, I want to know why I have hostility pointed at me from all angles especially when I just barely got here, I haven't had the chance to step on anybody toes yet."
"You say yet like you plan on doing it." Leda questions.
"I can't be peaceful with everybody so it would be better if I do go out and make my enemies on suppose."
"Just like Lord Vallas." Leda clicked her teeth. Then putting her heavy arm on Penn shoulders, she directed her to a stool on the corner of the room where they was in, away from all the action of women running around, either cooking or carrying platters of food around. "Over the years, Lord Vallas has recruited boys from all age, either to join his family or to be trained but each and every of us know that Lord Vallas was looking for a Heir, someone who would be his son in every bit of that word except blood, a lot of the boys were bitter that he didn't chose them to get that boy he was looking for but over the years they began to think that my Lord will not be able to find the perfect person he was looking for until you came along. So your presence reminds them of the fact that they are lacking and not the special person they think they are."
"Why would they think they are special when they are not?" Penn asked confused, if there was one thing she never did, it was to not deceive herself into thinking she was special when she clearly wasn't.
"To help reduce the sting to their pride and besides, they are special, not as special as they think but still special." Leda smiled.
"How?"
"Not everybody gets to be chosen by Lord Vallas, he only chose those he sees something in them. Whatever he must have seen in you was enough to make him chose you as his heir."
"There is nothing in me, I am not special." Penn shrugged.
"You are, you have potential beyond what is seen, your mind works in ways which others cannot fathom."
"You don't know me enough to arrive at those conclusions."
Leda looked at Penn like she would like to hit some sense into her. "Really? Tell me Penn, why did you come to the kitchen."
"Because you are here."
"And why chose to talk to me when you would have just gone to My lord room."
"Because women knows more gossips than men, the rest will probably dismiss you as not important but you are the second most important person in this household." Penn shrugged. Leda was the mistress of the house if Vallas was the master. The easy conversation that happened between them when Penn arrive was enough to make her see that it was the truth.
"And you came to this conclusion less than a day of staying here." Leda said.
More like within five minutes of arriving. Was Penn thought but she just shrugged.
"That just proves that My Lord was right in choosing you. Most people here are not even aware of that, they think that I am just a housekeeper. A servant." Leda spat out angrily.
"And you let them think that." Penn studies Leda who smiled a secretive smile. "Tell me, how did you know Lord Va… Master and who are you to him?"
"Smarter than your appearance and you do look smart already." Leda said appraisingly. "I am the person who has known him the longest here and probably the only one alive. And I am his best friend."
Penn stared at the woman in shock but she smiled. "I never expected that answer."
"We find the unexpected in places we never thought to look for them. I am sure that was your case with the master." Leda voiced.
Penn nodded. "You have no idea."
"Then you will be just enough. I am guessing you didn't finish your tour." Leda changes the topic and when Penn shook her head.
"I wanted to see you and I was hoping you could find someone with an unbiased view about this place to give me a tour. Stanley was definitely not raised right."
"Really? What made you come to that decision?" Leda asked.
"He is too prideful and pompous, those certainly can't be the qualities Master is looking for. I didn't like anything about him, he rubbed me the wrong way." Penn rants, Leda cracked a smile.
"Stanley must have gotten on your nerves, well you are right about enemies, Stanley is bitter that you were chosen, he will try to make your life hell on earth."
"He can try." Penn retorted.
"Agnes will show you around." Leda waved a girl over. "The females are the ones whom Stanley has no control over, Stanley was the second male with this most power here, you just dropped him to third place so he does have reason to be prideful."
"Who is Stanley?" Penn asked Leda, confused.
"Lord Vallas star student and my son." Leda replies.
"And here is the meeting room, it has been empty for a while but I don't suppose it would be empty for much longer since Master will send missives to tell his friends he now has an heir and visitors will start visiting, most of them will be entertained here." Agnes explained but Penn thoughts wasn't in the explanation. It was on the words Leda used in ushering him away from the kitchen, Stanley was her son? And Penn had just used her large mouth to bad talk the second most powerful person in the compound son and probably the most deadly."Sir… Our tour is over." Agnes said softly laying a hand on Penn chest and batting her eyes at her but Penn ignored the gesture. He had bigger things to think about than trying to decipher the meaning behind the rapid eye blinking the girl was doing that was making her look weird. Penn jerked at the contact, she didn't like to be touched by those she didn't know but still she smiled. "Of course.
Penn opened the door to the meal hall which suddenly went quiet as she entered but the silence didn't unfazed her, instead she took wide strides to the man table where she sat down besides Vallas and opened the dishes before her. Vallas continued his conversation with his trainers while Penn listened with half attention. It was a while after that before conversations resumes it flow in the room.Penn started to pay attention when she heard her name from Vallas in passing words. "…will need Weapons training and a training in subterfuge and in Lessons on behavior."At the last words, Penn snorted and when Vallas looked at her, she asked. "What am I? a girl? Why do I need lessons as if I am going to be wooing suitors?"Vallas removed his eyes from Penn own because he knew the exact questions Penn was asking. "That attitude of yours is one of the reasons why you need those lessons.""No." Penn
"Young master, you cannot run away from your lessons." Rima says searching for Penn who was on a low branch of the tree closed to her quarters, eating an apple and watching her behavior teacher face slowly getting red with anger. There were few things which Penn got to like about her new life and one of them was getting on Rima neck and watching her lose her cool. The girl was too composed and straight laced for someone who was young. Even Master Vallas was more carefree than her. Penn paused that thought. Master was on a class all on his own. He was even more carefree than Penn herself."Penn, this is not funny." Rima stomps her foot on the ground. "I can't keep losing you, what will do you think that your father will do if I tell him that you keep escaping from your lectures? I will be sent away and that will bring discredit to my father since he was the one who actually suggested that I should be your teacher." Her eyes filled with t
Since Penn agreed to ignore the actions of Stanley, Rima had been lost in thoughts. Penn was a better man that Stanley was. He was kind, considerate and loyal to those he cared about, all qualities she was looking for in a husband. And it also helped that Penn was easy on the eyes. His beauty rivals hers and she was the girl. His brown mop of hair he never bothers to care about, framed his face in unruly cuts, something she had learnt that he did himself with a sharp knife. His face although it was shaped like a woman, there was nothing womanly about Penn. His eyes were hard, that of a man who had seen things in life. Enough things to haunt him but he refused to let them get to him, Penn spirit shone bravely from his eyes. His nose was a little crooked from being broken multiple times but they added to his appeal. His body was a bit on the slim side…not racking up muscles like other boys but he was muscular enough and people rarely know of his sl
"What is this I am hearing about you losing your temper to hit Master Rodas daughter?" Vallas said as a mode of greeting the moment he stormed into his heir room. His heir was lying on the floor and staring at the ceiling and when Vallas growled in anger at the lack of response from the child. "What I am talking to you child, look at me and pay me the respect I deserve."Penn released a sigh as she slowly sat up and struggled not to let her face pull up into a grimace because she knew that Vallas was watching her. She had to be careful not to show enough of what she is feeling because nothing much gets to escape her master notice. If she could pull off this deceit, she would count herself as lucky."Sorry sire, what?" Penn snaps at Vallas who frowned at the temper shown by his ward and also the title which his ward had not used in a long while."Why did you hit a friend of yours, what on earth possessed y
“What do you mean that Penn is taking the blame for Stanley?” Vallas fury filled the room.“Apparently, Leda told Penn to try and look out for Stanley then the idiot decided to accost Penn in town and beat him then when my daughter tried to step in, Stanley turned his fury on her.” Rodas explains as he watched Vallas pace around in anger.“Unbelievable… so that was what the little brat was hiding.” Vallas was clearly angry but also he was amazed by Penn decision. Choosing to take the blame for someone who despised him and whom he hates just because he made the person’s mother a promise. That left him humbled. Penn was raised by good people to be able to do something which he himself would have never been able to do. “I am tempted to leave him there just because of his fool hardy behavior.”“Him being able to do something
Penn returned to the compound to see Rima waiting impatiently for her.“I have half a mind to order your disassociation from her.” Vallas said in the middle of his conversation with Penn as Penn frowned at him.“Why? What have we done?” Penn asked.“It isn’t as a result of what you have done but what you will do and have already started doing to her.” Vallas corrected.“Speak plainly Master, I have not hurt Rima in any way and I would never allow her to get hurt in my presence.”“Hurt is inevitable, especially for those who we care about.”“There is no possible way for me to hurt her.” Penn said after thinking about it as the carriage rolled to a stop. Hurt Rima who was her only friend would be a foolish thing to do and she knew this and she wouldn’t be able to hurt Rima in any way, she actually liked the girl and Rima represented a sense of normalcy to her.
Penn smiled as she looked at where Stanley and Rima were arguing like a pair of old married couples, they were perfect for each other but they would rather die than admit to that. Penn remembered when Stanley's attitude towards them changed, that was when he came back from the mill. The first thing he did was to hug Penn and thank her for saving his place in the compound and then he started to find ways to help Penn and to be around her, at first it infuriated Penn because Stanley was always getting close to catching her in her disguise. She still remember one time when Stanley had barged into her room while she was undressing, the hell she had raised as if she was being raped.“You maggot, stop dragging Penn's attention with me, he was my friend first while you were making his life miserable.” Rima stomped her foot in anger as Penn watched on in silence. While Stanley might have infuriated Penn before she started to make time for him, he still infuriates Rima who Pe