The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 207: Separate ways (1)

"I should take this off now. I don’t want to wear it too much," Annalise said, taking off the helmet. "Once again, thank you. I feel like I owe you something now. It must have cost a bit of money to get a helmet to fit my head so quickly. Unless you have been planning this for days?"

"It didn’t take any extra money. Only a few questions for why I was getting a smaller helmet made. The knights normally go to get their new helmets and I go for mine. I don’t need anything in return from you because you like the gifts. That is not how gifts work for me so just take them and enjoy it," Rafael replied, satisfied with just seeing that he got the gifts right.

Annalise looked at her slight reflection in the helmet. "I will treasure this well. How much must you like me for me to get the full armour? Are you close to that yet?" She asked, hoping that he was since she could already see herself in full armour.

"Don’t push it, Annalise."

"Why? Don’t you think it would make your cheeks hot to see me clothed in full armour? I happen to enjoy the sight of a man in armour. Imagine how it would look on me. If you ever want to get me full armour, I will not be against it. It might just make me like you," Annalise said, wrapping the helmet back in the cloth so she could hide it from any wandering eyes still in the manor.

"A full set of armour would really be all it takes for you to like me?" Rafael asked, somewhat considering getting her the rest. He could save it for later after he got her to like him for who he was, not because she was convinced by what he got her.

Of all his years of being around women, he knew that pretty jewelry could get them to feel like they had fallen in love with just anyone, but armour was never something he thought would have the same effect.

Not even the few female knights around the manor would want armour as a gift for being courted. They would yell and say they were still women and wanted to be courted as such.

What else was he to give Annalise in the future to make her this happy aside from armour? He already thought of a sword and then it wouldn’t be long before guns would be used around the kingdom. It would be the one time he would like for her to go back scaring others with snakes instead of getting her hand on a gun.

"I didn’t say that it would be all it took. I said that it would make me like you. That doesn’t mean I would happily go around calling you my lover. It means that I would see you in a new light. It will take a lot to convince me to take the risk and prepare for everything that will follow," Annalise answered.

"Then I must warn you that my ways of courting you will slowly change and have you clinging to me. I can’t imagine someone with your personality ever clinging to a man, but there is a first to everything. Perhaps if I bribe your brother, he will tell me everything I need to know about how to charm you," Rafael said.

"Oh, I wouldn’t do that. My brother is not a fan of you and doesn’t like that I work here. Never mention any of this for your sake and for the sake of my ears. I don’t need him to always be reminding me about certain things. Sometimes I just want to be carefree," Annalise admitted what had been on her mind for a long time.

She was always reminded at home how she would take after her father and it was something she looked forward to. Annalise trained and prepared for it since as leader her decisions and actions could either save or kill her people. The border had put up a good fight for many years and Annalise did not want to be the leader to ruin it.

Annalise knew her responsibility already and didn’t need Thomas to keep reminding her of it when she became curious about something here. She thought leaving home to explore this side to satisfy her curiosity and get information would have her free of hearing about her responsibility, but Thomas was already there to remind her.

"I see," Rafael said. He had a feeling her brother didn’t like him based on the look he received when he first learned that she had a brother. He had mistaken her brother for a lover because of the gaze.

Thankfully, Annalise wasn’t easily swayed by the opinions of others to listen to her brother to stay away from him.

"Thomas has always been overly protective of me. He’ll forever be that way until he gets married, though I sometimes think he would still be more protective of me more than his wife. I hope not. I need him to be stressing over someone else," said Annalise.

"You should appreciate having someone to look out for you. Regardless of how he feels about me, I will still need to one day bribe him so he doesn’t need to try killing me in my sleep. For now, I will continue to get you to like me. I honestly think you have started to like me, but you are stubborn."

"Ha," Annalise scoffed. "I’m afraid you thought wrong. Maybe you mistook my feelings for your sword as my love for you."

Rafael licked his lips and looked away from Annalise as her words filled his head. "You need to be more specific with what you speak of, Annalise. You’ve called plenty of things...swords."

Annalise stared at Rafael, trying to understand what he meant, but she couldn’t figure it out. "What is with you being all secretive instead of telling me what you mean? What else have I called a- Oh," Annalise realised.

Now she was reminded of her way to refer to his manhood so she wouldn’t get in trouble.

"You know that was not what I meant," she said, glaring at Rafael for his surprisingly dirty mind these days.

"How could I have missed the chance to see you flustered? I’m a bit disappointed that I didn’t get to see you embarrassed, but the way you surprise me is what makes me like you. You can head to the feast now if you would like. I’m sure you are impatient to sit with the other maids and enjoy what was caught today. Try not to drink so much," Rafael said as he stood up to walk her to the door.

She was only here for the gifts and now it was time to go back to being with the other servants.

"Oh right," Annalise remembered the feast happening outside. The gifts were the only things on her mind at the moment so she forgot that there was a lot of food outside and her friends would be waiting for her. " I can have your dinner heated for you if you’d like."

"There is nothing wrong with it as it is now. I’ve grown accustomed to eating food that has long lost its warmth. I won’t take any more of your time and stop you from enjoying the night with everyone else and as I said, you are not working right now," Rafael reminded her.

Rafael went over to Annalise’s side and placed his hands on the chair to pull it out for her.

Annalise stood with the helmet and the knife that were both wrapped in their cloth. "Enjoy your dinner and I hope you have a good night’s rest. Before we depart for the trip, I wish to speak to my brother. I didn’t get the chance to tell him about the trip when I last saw him and I do not want him to worry."

"That is fine. We will be leaving during the night so you will have enough time to say goodbye to your brother and finish packing what you need. I will have Edwin keep an eye on your bedroom while we are away so no more of my uncle’s spies can snoop around your bedroom," Rafael said, pulling out the chair for her as she stood up.

"This should be the time you allow me to place a snake in my room to act as a guard. I will know if anyone tried to enter it, but I already know your answer. No scaring anyone. How boring," Annalise sighed.

Rafael was going to reply just that since he didn’t need any more snakes in the manor. He opened the door for Annalise and watched her walk out, looking down the halls to make sure there was no one around. "Good night, Annalise."

"Good night," Annalise replied, standing still until his door closed. She tapped her fingers on the helmet that she still could not believe was her own. He was making it quite hard to hate him. "Why couldn’t he be some evil commander so I wouldn’t hesitate?"

She stared at his closed door for a few seconds before turning to go to her room to put away her gifts.