The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 326: Return to Lockwood (1)

After no one came forward after Rafael gave them the chance to fight him, he left the knights to keep an eye on everyone leaving the camp and went to his tent to write a letter he would have someone send to the palace about his plans for a truce.

When the letter was finished and tucked away to be sent out in the morning, Rafael found water to wash up with and then returned to his tent to rest.

He laid in the tent alone, not wanting to be bothered by both the knights and guards. There were many changes he had to make in his life because of his relationship with Annalise so he had to start planning them now.

For one, he thought about her future time in the manor. Rather than move her to another room that was on the same floor as his bedroom, he would prefer to place her things in his own room. To avoid having things said about Annalise staying with him when they were not married, he would have a room belonging to her but invite her to his room when the servants were asleep.

Rafael also thought of her needing more dresses and pants for her stay with him. He had enough money saved to spoil her. To decorate her body with the finest things and to also buy her more swords or armour.

He wanted to make her life in the manor to be as pleasant as possible and since she once worked as a maid, he needed to keep an eye on what the servants said or did concerning her. He remembered the maid who complained about Annalise and thought of letting her go.

They were still in the early part of their relationship to be considering marriage already, but just as he planned back when he decided to stop entertaining women he didn’t see a future with, he was going to marry the woman he decided to court next, which was Annalise.

He needed a way to let her know of his plans to be with her in the future while not scaring her off since she wasn’t ready for marriage.

Rafael turned to lay on his side, looking at the empty space he would have liked to have Annalise present. Before all his other plans, he wanted to get her here to be the last thing he saw when going to sleep and the first thing he saw in the morning.

The one problem that would stop him from having this was Phillip. Phillip would no doubt assign someone to watch over Annalise and keep them from being alone. Phillip telling Annalise to do as she wanted would not last long.

Rafael closed his eyes, deciding to go to sleep to let the next day come faster. If he was lucky, Phillip might agree to let them start packing to go to Lockwood tomorrow.

The next day, Rafael exited his tent wearing a shirt and pants instead of his armour. He had woken earlier to hear from the knights what the guards did during the night and did another look around for more guns.

There were two guards who took his order as a joke and tried to sneak off toward where Annalise lived and it cost them their lives. He was quite serious about killing anyone who messed with the truce.

The truce was not only important for ending this war but it would help his relationship with Annalise. For her to walk with him without needing to hide who she was.

"Are you going to meet with Annalise? I want to join you since I have a lot of questions to ask her," said Logan. He hadn’t gotten over how Annalise could have killed him for annoying her with his crush. He wanted to know if she was going to go that far to get rid of him or not so he could ease his mind.

"I don’t have any plans to meet with her today," Rafael answered as he walked by Logan. They hadn’t discussed when they would meet again and if Annalise wanted to speak she would have to come to him. "Did the letter for the palace leave already?"

"It left right after you put it in my hands. I wish I was the one delivering the letter so I could witness how the palace would react to you working on a truce and Annalise. You did mention her, right? You shouldn’t let anyone sneak a letter out of here concerning your relationship so the men in the court will say you-"

"I mentioned Annalise. There is no point in hiding what is known by many. I spoke of her now because I need to know if it will be safe for me to take her to the palace. If it is not, I will take her back to the manor," said Rafael.

If the palace wasn’t welcoming of Annalise, they would pick up his mother and go back to the manor. They could still work on the truce by sending letters to Tobias until the palace calmed down and Annalise could enter without having to look over her shoulder.

"Good. Well, since most of us know her from seeing her around the manor, we’re on your side in this. She’s dangerous, but she’s still just Annalise the odd maid. Now that I think about it, our security of the manor isn’t that great. She was there for weeks and we did not think anything of her," Logan said only now realising Annalise went unnoticed as a spy. "We should have known something was wrong when I caught her in the bushes."

Rafael had also thought of it too that while being in his manor looking for information he had not once suspected she was a spy. His father had caught on, but in a manor full of many knights, no one else had realised it. Not even when they had sparred together and he learned of her ability to use a sword.

"We’re lucky she’s good since she could have taught others how to slip by our suspicion. You even made her your personal maid. You could have been killed in your sleep!" Logan exclaimed, finding more danger the more he thought about Annalise. "The two of us are lucky to be alive. It’s good she never worked in the kitchen or she could have poisoned us. Do you think there are more spies in the manor?"

"No," Rafael answered, going toward his horse to ride out to see if there was anyone he could pass on a message to Annalise. "They would have left when Annalise did, but then again, her father spoke of sending out scouts. There could be more in town."

"Do you think they have a spy school over there?" Logan asked, seriously wanting an answer.

"Don’t annoy me so early," Rafael said, stopping to look at Logan who was slowly losing his mind. "Find Christian and bother him."

"Commander!"

Rafael looked where he heard someone calling for him. "What is it?" He asked.

"You are being called out by their leader where we were yesterday," the knight answered. He was keeping watch for any guards sneaking away and spotted they were being approached. He didn’t run away since Rafael was friendly with the leader and took the message to call for Rafael.

"Come with me, Logan. No one is to leave while I am away," Rafael said, untying his horse from the post it was tied to.

He hoped to have good news that he could leave with Annalise.