The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 311: Accepting (1)

"Remember, we are to focus on starting a truce today. Not focusing on Rafael. I still think we should have left my mother at home," Annalise said, trying to ignore her mother’s obvious excitement to meet Rafael. She was lucky that Celeste did not want to come.

"I cannot miss out on an important meeting that concerns there being peace," Celine answered, trying to hide her interest in meeting Rafael. She had been trying to come up with an idea of how Annalise got herself involved with a knight. How did working for him end up with loving him?

How did Rafael get her daughter to feel something for him? Have a relationship with him while knowing the consequences she could face?

Annalise would never believe her mother was here just to talk about a truce. When Annalise told her mother what happened with Rafael, first she dragged Phillip away to have a private talk, and then she came back to speak about meeting Rafael.

Celine wasn’t happy with the way Phillip attacked Rafael and before they could make Annalise run off again, she wanted to be the voice of reason to see the man causing her family to be split and make a decision on accepting him or aiming for his head.

"I don’t believe you don’t have any interest in meeting Rafael," said Annalise.

Annalise didn’t worry about her mother when it came to Rafael. Her mother was always the easy parent when it didn’t involve her interest in swords instead of doing things like other young ladies. It wouldn’t be hard for Rafael to win over her mother, but she was worried about what her mother would say to Rafael.

Her mother was like Beatrice when it came to marriage. With only one child, when marriage came up her mother would get too excited. If the two women were to meet soon, Annalise and Rafael would have to run away to avoid their questioning.

"What do you want?" Annalise questioned when another horse rode close to her own. She didn’t have to look to her right to see who it was. "It was you, wasn’t it? The one who told my father about Rafael. I don’t want to speak to you right now, Thomas."

"I left the note for your father to be found in case something went wrong with your meeting with Rafael," Thomas said, wanting to explain himself.

He worried about her plan and the only thing to ease his mind was leaving behind a message for Phillip to find at some point to know the danger that Annalise could be in. He didn’t leave the message in plain sight. It was placed near Phillip’s sword he would have to pick up if there was a fight and he was called to help them.

"The mere fact what you said seems to make sense in your head is one more reason why I don’t want to speak to you right now. If you didn’t like my plan, you could have said so from the beginning. I understand fearing the worst happening, but sometimes I just need you to trust me or give me a heads up you left a note for my father. Give me some space," Annalise said, riding ahead to get away from Thomas.

They would work this all out at some point, but not right now. She couldn’t easily ignore that he went behind her back and informed her father. This day could have gone a little bit better if not for that one note. She wouldn’t have to be worried about Rafael having his wound taken care of.

Thomas knew that he made a mistake. As long as he gave her the space she was requesting, she could forgive him and move on, hoping he wouldn’t be so foolish to do something like this again to ruin their friendship. She could not always move on and be his friend if he did something stupid in regard to Rafael.

"I see them," Annalise announced as she spotted Rafael in the distance. "Remember, you are not to attack if someone says something you don’t agree with. It might be best to have everyone’s weapons be taken away," she said, looking her father’s way.

Phillip knew her words were directed at him for attacking Rafael. Annalise didn’t hide that her words were for him because she looked right at him. His weapons weren’t going anywhere since he still did not trust the knights.

Annalise thought of riding out to meet with Rafael ahead of everyone else so she could see his wound and end her worrying, but she decided to stay with her parents.

Reaching Rafael took longer than she liked, but soon they met up at what Annalise considered the border of the Castro kingdom. Rafael did not cross over the painted line the guards drew so he could respect Phillip’s request to stay off his land.

Rafael travelled with Christian and four knights Annalise had encountered while working around the manor. Logan was left with Michael to keep an eye on the guards to make sure they did not leave to start another fight.

His order still remained that anyone looking to disrupt the peace they were forming would be beheaded. He would deal with the complaints for this later.

Annalise was the first one to get off her horse since she didn’t see the need to sit on one during their talk. "Is everyone just going to stare at each other or are we going to talk?" She asked as she got down.

Annalise was the bridge between the two sides so she walked over to where the knights were to ease the tension. She heard someone walking behind her and hoped it was not her father.

Rafael got off his horse to join Annalise. His attention on her didn’t last long as he noticed a woman walking behind her.

Annalise looked more like her father, but Rafael saw some similarities with the woman approaching him to know this was her mother. "It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Woods," he greeted, holding out his hand to greet her.

Instead of shaking his hand, Celine held it to inspect it and then gave a squeeze to see how he would react. Sometimes men looked strong with their muscles, but they were somehow weak.

"What are you doing?" Annalise whispered to her mother as she was just as confused as Rafael was. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

"Seeing if that body is useful or just for looks. He’s a strong one," Celine said, letting go of Rafael’s hand now that she confirmed he was strong. He didn’t whine like some people caught off guard by her handshake. "A handsome one too," she complimented his face.

Celine realised she had been worrying about Annalise for no reason since Annalise turned out to have hidden good taste in men. Celine had been secretly rooting for Thomas because he appeared to be the only man Annalise planned to entertain, but now her mind had changed.

Celine still needed to spend some time with him to know about his personality, but he was halfway to having her blessing. A handsome man could always sway her mind. Phillip was evidence of that since he was not her first pick.

"Thank you," Rafael said, putting his hands to his side so they wouldn’t be squeezed again.

"Won’t you compliment me and tell me about my beauty? How I look like Annalise’s sister and not her mother?" Celine asked in a serious tone to scare him.

She always wanted to hear those words because it was said to her peers with daughters being courted. Celine wanted the whole experience everyone else had with a man trying to win her over to get to her daughter.

Annalise leaned close to Celine to pinch her. "Mother, you shouldn’t show him this side of you so fast. What if he tries to flee from me?"

"You and I are good at hunting," Celine answered. A fast horse and a rope would have him right back in front of them.

Rafael smiled, finding Annalise’s personality to make more sense. From her father, he understood her love of violence, and from her mother, he understood her somewhat crazy side. He didn’t for a second doubt that her mother wouldn’t hunt him down. Luckily, he would never run away from Annalise to need to be hunted down.

"Celine," Phillip called to his wife. How could she be so easy on the knight? They needed to have a proper conversation with him with Annalise not around before accepting him.

Once talk about a truce was over, he would take Rafael on a small walk to test him to see if he was worthy of his daughter.