The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 208: Separate ways (2)

The next day, Annalise leaned on a wall watching as others passed by in a hurry to get to what they visited the market for. She was waiting for Thomas in their usual spot so she could find out what happened with the person sent by the palace.

News wasn’t reaching the manor as fast as she liked and since she became Rafael’s maid, she had not taken a day off to come to the market to hear what the people were talking about these days. The gossip in the manor was about Rafael, the knights, or the dead men the town guards were looking for.

While she waited, she prepared how she was going to break to Thomas that she would be leaving town with Rafael and his family. Annalise was still deciding if she should tell him that she would not be here. Thomas was going to lose his mind so a part of her really wanted to hide this from him.

For their plans, it wouldn’t make sense for her to go out of town with the Callahans, but she was still Rafael’s maid. It was part of her job to go with them. How could she as the maid say she was not going when it was her job? Mavis might have her head and go back to asking for her to be fired.

Thomas would not like it and ask her to quit, but Annalise was not going to. She was able to hear so many things about the border guards thanks to the knights being angry about the town guards coming to the manor to ask about the missing men.

The knights revealed a lot of secrets about the border guards connections in the court or around the kingdom, and their failed plans to take over the border which now resulted in the knights being called to deal with the border. They spoke out of anger, but then caught themselves when they realised they were saying too much.

She learned that to get them to spill the information she needed to get one of Rafael’s enemies in town to rile them up. They were like mother hens when it came to Rafael.

"Annalise."

"It took you long enough to get here. Were you working or did you forget where we meet?" Annalise asked, looking up from the ground to Thomas. "It looks like you have been eating well so I don’t need to worry about you. I brought some money with me in case you don’t have much of your own."

"It is not like you have been keeping up with the days we are supposed to meet so I didn’t think you would be here. You should have told me the last time we saw each other that you would want to meet with me today," Thomas said.

He came to this spot every day as they agreed to meet before Annalise started to work at the manor. When she wasn’t here, he returned to finding work so he could afford the rooms he was using and have food to eat.

"I cannot control how busy it is in the manor sometimes and I didn’t plan on not being able to see you the day of the competition. Rafael made me stay in the tent after the border guards showed up. We should find somewhere better to talk in private," Annalise said, taking Thomas’s hand to lead him away from where everyone walked.

Thomas worried for Annalise when he returned from taking care of the person from the palace and saw many guards in the uniform he recognised. It was the one time he thought she would be safe in the manor since he had witnessed the border guards unable to enter Rafael’s gates. He heard the townspeople questioning if the two sides were at odds because of something that happened at the competition.

"Why did he make you stay in his tent? He shouldn’t know anything about why you would need to hide from them. Does he know, Annalise?" Thomas asked, pulling on her hand to get her to stop. He didn’t like this feeling he had recently that Annalise was getting too close to Rafael.

"Of course, he knows because I am so stupid to trust him with my secret. Have a little faith in me that I wouldn’t reveal anything to him, Thomas," Annalise muttered, letting go of his hand as she was angry with his words. "These days you speak as if I am a fool."

"I am only worried about you," Thomas said. "You are so close to someone you shouldn’t be around. I am telling you it is time for you to quit so we can move on."

"I can’t quit now when there are so many guards in town. We will leave after they are gone. Forget about that for now. What happened to you and the person from the palace?" Annalise asked, more interested in knowing if he was able to do what they planned.

"They have been taken care of. It should have been the king so we would have cut off the head of this kingdom," Thomas said, looking down at the palm of his hand that was stained with blood not long ago. "I took the carriage from the road to toy with them. They will be waiting for a carriage that will never show up."

"Well done. Since you are eager to return home, I have thought of something to speed up our plans. Do you still have your small bottle of poison?" Annalise asked softly. She looked around to make sure they were truly alone.

"I do. Why?"

"I want you to head to Lockwood without me and meet with the man named Grant to give him the poison for the king. It is impossible for us to get into the palace quickly. It will take days, weeks even and I cannot stay away from home that long. My father must be losing his mind looking for me. I will be fine without you here," Annalise assured him.

"Why can’t you just come with me to Lockwood and then we will go home? There is no point in us being separated. I am here as your guard just as much as I am here as your friend. Your father will want to have my head more than he already does if I leave you alone. Here with Rafael. You do not see it, but that man is smitten by you and who knows what he would do that get you-"

"He wouldn’t force himself on me if that is what you are implying. I have been alone with him many times and nothing has happened," Annalise replied, slowly down her pace as she walked as the memory of what happened in the tent came back to her. She wouldn’t call him suddenly kissing her forcing himself on her so she would still be right. "He is the type to ask for a kiss."

"I don’t trust him. You shouldn’t trust any of the men there. I cannot leave you in this town alone," Thomas said, refusing to go through with what she wanted. They were to leave together. "I know the border guards are a chance for us to get more information, but we should leave while we can. You are the person they are looking for."

"They won’t know it is me and besides, I am going out of town with the Callahans. Only for a few days," Annalise muttered. Before Thomas could get angry with her, she added, "I hear they are visiting an old knight who once marched with River. I might get to hear more about the stories of their fights with my father. I want to know why my father and River called their fight a draw and no one died."

"Annalise-"

"Do not be against this and I promise you that when you return, we will leave. Promise," Annalise said, holding out her right hand for the deal to be made.

Thomas sighed, knowing he would regret this. If he could, he would throw her over his shoulder and take her home, but then Annalise would put up a good fight and be angry with him for a long time. "When I return, we are going home," Thomas answered, shaking her hand to seal the deal. "No excuses to stay."

"There won’t be any," Annalise promised, looking at their hands. She made the deal, but she was already second-guessing if she would be ready to leave when Thomas returned.