The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 203: The hunt (4)

Rafael did as Annalise asked and left her alone to pretend to hunt a rabbit.

Annalise listened closely to know when the person was approaching or if she could hear an arrow whistling through the air since it was easy to get your hands on an arrow today. She had to try not to jump with excitement that someone was bringing a fight to her.

After the fight, she might just shake their hands since they were so kind to bring her some excitement.

"Annalise."

Annalise frowned when she heard the familiar voice of the new maid Olivia. She turned around to where she had walked with Rafael from the river and saw Olivia poking her head from behind a tree. The person following them turning out to be Olivia was a surprise, but now Annalise realised why she was getting a weird feeling these days when Olivia was near.

"I got lost from my group and saw the two of you. I’ve been waiting so long for him to leave so I could ask you if he would be angry that I got lost," Olivia said, slowly walking to Annalise while looking around for Rafael. He was nowhere in sight so it gave her a small window to take Annalise.

It was every other job she had where the target would be so foolish to be left alone for anyone to hurt them. It made the job easier.

"He wouldn’t be angry with you. Just concerned," Annalise answered. Right now, she couldn’t think of any reason why Olivia was snooping around. Was it because Olivia wanted gossip about her and Rafael? Was Olivia really that bored?

"I thought you said there was nothing between you and Rafael? I saw the two of you close to each other against the tree. It did not look like you were just his maid."

Olivia liked the little show Annalise put on with Rafael since it more than confirmed that Annalise was the woman Rafael wanted. Annalise spoke so much about mistresses just to be one. Did Annalise think she would be lady of the manor one day? Olivia was here to wake up the poor soul.

"I’m just his maid, but today, I am the person to carry around his arrows," Annalise said, taking an arrow from the quiver. Other than her hands, it was the only weapon she had. She knew that Olivia was hiding a weapon because of the way she walked with her hands behind her back.

Now she wondered if Olivia was just like Delilah not wanting a maid to get close to Rafael. Annalise just wanted to yell that Rafael was the one with feelings.

Olivia smiled despite the fact she was greatly annoyed with Annalise acting oblivious. She quickened her pace to Annalise and removed her hands from behind her back to show the knife. She pointed it at Annalise for her to understand the gravity of the situation she was in now.

"There is someone who really wants to meet you, Annalise. If you listen, you might live. Come with me quickly," Olivia ordered, reaching out to grab Annalise’s shoulder to drag her out of the woods so she could take her to Travis. She needed to put some distance between them and Rafael to get to the carriage waiting for them.

Annalise was ready to grab Olivia’s hand, but before she could, she heard the sound of an arrow cutting through the air, and then the sound of Olivia groaning. "No no no. I wanted to fight her," Annalise whined, looking in the direction the arrow came from. She stomped her foot on the ground, upset with Rafael intervening.

It wouldn’t be fun to fight Olivia when she was now injured. Annalise would have to injure herself to start off the same as Olivia.

Olivia pulled the arrow out of her arm, hissing from the pain as she threw it on the ground. Now that Rafael was back, she had no choice, but to inflict wounds on Annalise to get him to stay away. Olivia once again tried to grab Annalise, but the woman grabbed her hand which was now bleeding, and twisted it.

"Do not fire any more arrows, Rafael."

Olivia aimed the knife in her right hand at Annalise’s throat. Travis was going to kill her anyway so what was the point of taking her to him?

Annalise let go of Olivia and stepped back to get out of the way of Olivia trying to slash her throat. "You are not very good at this. I should be dead right now with how close I was to you. Stop trying to slash at me and aim to stab. Like this," Annalise said, motioning her hands to show Olivia how to injure her.

"I know how to do my job," Olivia answered, her voice full of frustration. She tried once more to plunge the knife into Annalise’s skin, but her attacks were quickly avoided.

Travis paid her to find a lady and take her. That lady turned out to be a maid which would still be an easy target for Olivia, but she doubted that Annalise was just some maid. Olivia noticed that Annalise was better than some of the people she had ever worked with and better than herself at avoiding attacks.

Annalise moved like she was reading her mind.

Olivia grew more frustrated by Annalise dodging her attacks and smiling like she was toying with her. "You bit-"

Rafael grabbed Olivia’s hand with the knife to stop this game before Annalise got hurt. He skillfully took the knife from her hands and dropped it on the ground. She was child’s play compared to the people he fought with on a regular basis.

Rafael grabbed her other hand before she could try fighting him or going after Annalise and placed her hands behind her back. "Get me one of the ropes from the sacks, Annalise. Now!" He demanded, his voice full of anger.

"Why does it kind of sound like you are angry with me?" Annalise asked as she walked to the sacks they left on the ground. She didn’t see what she might have done to have him so angry. It wasn’t like she got hurt in the midst of this. Olivia was the only one bleeding.

She opened one of the sacks and found the ropes meant for tying up the rabbits they were supposed to catch. Annalise pulled out one and gave it to Rafael.

Rafael started, "You could have gotten hurt-"

"But I did not. If you ask me, I did well with not letting her touch me. Stop thinking that I am some little dainty flower. I can take care of myself. I have been doing it since the moment I came here," Annalise retorted. "You don’t see me being angry with you when you are training dangerously with your knights because I know that you can take care of yourself."

"You were playing around, enjoying this while she tried to stab you," Rafael argued as he tied the rope around Olivia’s hands as she thrashed around. He placed his right leg on her lower back to add his weight to keep her from moving too much while he tied her up.

"Forgive me for having fun. That was quite boring compared to my plan to fight her, but you just had to go out of your way to fire an arrow. Ruined the most fun I had in days by shooting an arrow at her. What fun would it be for me to fight someone who is already so wounded? I wanted to fight her at her best. Which seems to be terrible," Annalise said, looking down at Olivia.

"I intervened because I care for you. How was I supposed to stand there and watch someone approach you with a knife?" Rafael asked, standing up to face Annalise now that Olivia was tied up. "I know that you can take care of yourself. I have listened to it many times."

"Then why didn’t you just stay put unless you saw me really needing help-"

Rafael grabbed Annalise’s shoulders to shake some sense into her since she had forgotten what he confessed to her not long ago. "Because I care for you, Annalise. The single thought of you being hurt makes me want to drop everything to come to protect you. Why is that so wrong for me to do?"

He only agreed to let her lure out the person. Not to stand around and see her avoiding attacks.

Annalise kept quiet as she stared at Rafael. Only now that she wasn’t so worried that her fight was over so fast did she notice that he was not only angry, but he seemed terribly distraught. "I’m sorry," she apologised.