Alicia insisted that they take another route into the market. As they strolled side by side, she asked him a lot of questions about the village and the people who lived there, and Harold tried his best to answer her questions without giving away too much.
"How often do you come to the market?" Alicia asked, turning to look at him.
"I only pass through it sometimes; I don't have any reason to be here," Harold explained, and Alicia nodded. Of course, he had no reason to be here. He was part of the royal family, and most of the things here would be inferior to the items used in the palace, as they were made especially for the royals.
The two of them attracted several eyes, especially Alicia, who was wearing a dress made from such fine material.
Alicia soon realized that she hadn't handled the situation properly. She and Harold were dressed differently from the other people, so they stood out from everyone else, and as a result, they attracted a lot of attention, whether they wanted to or not.
"Have you ever been here with a woman before?" Alicia asked simply to piss him off since she could tell he didn't like talking much and especially about women.
"No," Harold said indifferently.
"Seriously? Like you've never even had a girlfriend?" Alicia asked, looking at him with interest. Anyway, judging by his personality, she shouldn't be so surprised. Only annoying and crazy ladies like Beth would be interested in being in a relationship with someone as foul-tempered and scary as Harold.
"Girlfriend?"
"I mean, you have never been in a relationship with a lady? Do you pay for sex?" Alicia asked, making Harold turn to look at her with a frown.
It was one thing to be vulgar because she grew up in exile, but it was a completely different thing for a lady to talk about sex this openly. "Do not speak of this in the company of others. Ladies are supposed to be modest and chaste," Harold said, making her roll her eyes.
The men of this era would be mortified if they found out just how much the world had evolved, and that ladies no longer just talked about sex, but actually initiated it and didn't bother to hide their dissatisfaction if the men failed to please them.
"That doesn't answer my question. Are you trying to shy away from it?" Alicia taunted, and this time Harold stopped walking.
"I don't have to pay for sex to have it. But I'd rather be with someone that isn't giving herself to me because she is scared of me," Harold said in a flat tone.
"I think Beth will be happy to—"
"You should stop unless you want me to ask you some questions too," Harold threatened, and Alicia quickly shook her head. After hearing from Paulina that he knew a lot of things about her, she didn't want him to ask her any personal questions.
They both resumed walking without saying a word until Alicia abruptly stopped walking again when something occurred to her, causing Harold to also stop walking. "What is it again this time?" He asked, sounding tired already.
"I hope you came with a lot of money. Because we are about to go SHOPPING," she said before she began to hop excitedly.
Having no choice, he followed behind her.
Once again, she stopped and turned to look at Harold, who was beginning to grit his teeth. He really hated how she couldn't just talk without halting their movement.
"And you should stop looking so intimidating. You will scare off everyone," she lectured a bored Harold, who looked like he would rather be anywhere else than be there with her.
Harold followed her when she resumed walking again, letting her lead even though she had absolutely no idea where she was going. Seeing how everything seemed to fascinate her, he guessed it was because she had been in exile and was not used to seeing these things.
What he did not know was that she was thinking about the possibility of taking some of the things with her from this era to hers, where she could sell them off as antiques. How much was she going to make? That would definitely take care of her money problems, Alicia wished it were possible.
She finally saw a shop that interested her. It was a clothing store. Judging by the quality of the clothes the new customers were dressed in, the seller decided to make quite a profit from them as he showed them the clothes that were on display. Alicia's eyes fell on the men's pants that looked like leggings, and she suddenly missed wearing pants instead of being stuck in these suffocating clothes. An idea suddenly struck her, and she grinned, causing Harold and his wolf to wonder what she was up to this time.
'That doesn't look good,' Harold's wolf said warily as they watched her smiling.
"Come! You need to change," she said to Harold, who frowned at the thought of changing into those ugly-looking outfits. Although these outfits were expensive to normal citizens and considered the best, they looked like rags to him. He was a royal, after all.
"Why are you just standing there? Come and get changed," She said, calling him forward while pointing out all the outfits they would be needing. The seller was only too happy to bring it all to her.
"Do you have this in a smaller size?" She asked the vendor while pointing at the leggings and a knock-off brocade boot.
Harold wondered why she was asking for a smaller size when he wore a far bigger size than the one she was pointing at.
"What size are you looking for, my lady?" The man asked, smiling politely as he was already imagining how he would milk out many gold coins from these customers. He even went as far as sending other customers away who wanted to take a look at what he had for sale.
"Something small. Made for a pre-teen boy. Something I can wear," Alicia said, startling the man and Harold, who looked at her like she was crazy. The man began to laugh, thinking that she was joking. How could a lady wear pants and boots? He continued to laugh until he noticed the look on her face.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺