The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 329: Return to Lockwood (4)

"Take care of yourself out there. Don’t be afraid to knock him on his ass again if he does something you don’t like. The second you start to miss home you can always have Ezra bring you back. And-"

"I understand father," Annalise said, stopping her father before he could give her another long speech. She had to stop her mother’s tears when she was packing and then she had to listen to her father tell her what not to do when she was at the door ready to leave. "Grandmother was easier to say goodbye to. She told me not to come home soon."

Phillip frowned, wishing his mother would not encourage Annalise to be away from home. He had to be around more when the two were talking since their conversations were about encouraging each other to do something wrong. "I will have a word with her when I return. Go on before I end up stopping you from going. You should set out while there is still sunlight."

The bags were already packed onto a cart to be pulled by the horses and all that was left was one more goodbye before Annalise left with Rafael who was waiting for her not far away.

Annalise hugged her father once more as she knew he needed it. "I will be alright. I will find a way to send letters to you to let you know everything I am doing. Don’t spend your time worrying about me."

Phillip couldn’t promise that he wouldn’t sit around worrying about her. How could he not worry when his daughter would be far away? He hugged her like he didn’t want to let her leave, but then he loosened his hold on her to let her go to Rafael.

Annalise stepped away from her father and got up on her horse so she could ride to where Rafael was waiting for her. Behind her were Ezra, Thomas and two other men she knew who would act as her guards. She had to thank her mother for talking her father out of adding more people to guard her.

She was already travelling with Rafael Callahan and his knights. How much more protection could she need when she could defend herself?

Annalise started leading the others toward where Rafael waited for her alone on his horse. She assumed the knights were already packed and just waiting for Rafael to bring her so they could all leave together.

Annalise could not believe that she was leaving with Rafael. When she had parted with him at the manor, she did not think it would have been possible for them to be together again. For secrets to be revealed and for her to be going to the palace with him. Had she not planned to meet with him again, she would have missed out on this.

"Are the knights ready?" Annalise asked right after she stopped beside Rafael.

"Some have already started to leave. I need to catch up with them to lead the way back to Lockwood. You can join me at the front if you want," Rafael said, guiding his horse to turn around to start leaving the border.

Rafael came alone so it would be faster to take Annalise to the camp and then leave. He sent out some of the knights so they could start covering ground to reach their first resting point.

"If I want? I would gladly join you there so I can act as if I am the commander of knights. Our cart might slow us down," Annalise said, looking behind her at the cart with some of their bags. She accidentally met eyes with Ezra who was already giving her and Rafael a look. "We are just talking."

"I didn’t say anything," Ezra replied. He was tasked with keeping an eye on the two, but he wasn’t interested in doing it the entire time he was following Annalise. They were going to sneak around at some point and as long as Annalise wasn’t finding herself in trouble or hurt, he would leave them be.

That was what Celeste ordered him to do or he would have bad luck. He was in a terrible position to have to choose to listen to Phillip or Celeste. So, he decided to act like he was doing what they wanted.

"Your eyes said something," Annalise answered, turning around to look in front of her and Rafael. "We need to distract him so we can be alone. My father has picked him to watch over us," she whispered.

"Are you sure it is not all of them meant to be watching us?" Rafael asked, not seeing why Phillip would only place one person to watch them. Phillip could put as many people as he wanted to keep an eye on them, but once they left the border, those people would not get in his way of spending time with her.

"Ezra is like an uncle so my father would trust him the most to watch over me. When we get to Lockwood, we should pick the room farthest away from us to get rid of him. I want to feel the wind in my hair. Catch up if you can," Annalise said, commanding her horse to go faster.

Rafael stayed behind to lead Thomas and the others to the camp while Annalise had fun riding around. He glanced to his left at Annalise’s former bastard brother who turned out to be a long-time friend and someone who had an interest in her.

Rafael was not concerned when Logan had a crush on Annalise, but the same could not be said about Thomas. Taking one look at Thomas, the man appeared like someone who would do something foolish. Someone who would try one last time to find a spark between him and Annalise.

For Annalise, Rafael would not be guarded when it came to Thomas unless the man tried to see if there would be feelings. Someone who couldn’t respect his relationship with Annalise and try to get her to give him a chance was not in his good graces.

Thomas watched Annalise’s every move and then turned to his right to see if Rafael would follow her. He stared right back at Rafael to show he was not afraid. He knew that Rafael must be aware that he once liked Annalise or knew that he still did. Feelings he had from childhood weren’t easy to go away but he was taking Phillip’s advice.

He already messed up by telling Phillip about Rafael so he was not going to do something stupid again to ruin their friendship. Rafael had nothing to worry about but there was an evil side to Thomas which made him want to make Rafael jealous of the friendship he had with Annalise. He wanted to make Rafael jealous just once to make up for losing Annalise to him.

Annalise arrived at the camp first and ignored the stares from the guards who were not yet used to the two sides being around each other. She rode her horse to where the knights gathered to see old faces.

"Move out!" Rafael yelled, ordering the last of the knights to leave.

A new guard was picked as the new captain and warned that if anyone did something to affect the truce, he would lose his head. Joel couldn’t be trusted to not act a fool so Rafael had him tied up and was taking him to Lockwood.

Only a small group of Callahan knights stayed behind until other knights were assigned to the border and then they would return to the manor.

Rafael rode to the front of the knights, trying to catch up to the first group he sent ahead. Annalise didn’t try to ride off as her excitement wore off and she wanted to travel by his side. She didn’t know what awaited her in Lockwood, but she looked forward to her time there.