The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 334: Change in plans (1)

Rafael knew there was a possibility Annalise wouldn’t be welcomed to the palace right away which was why he was planning on staying in Edgar’s home where his mother was now to work on easing Annalise into the palace. He didn’t think they would want to stop her from entering the town,

The court pushing for her to not step foot in Lockwood now called for a change of plans. They could only go back to the manor and speak to Tobias through letters.

Rafael understood the fear of these men who rarely picked up a sword and felt like their life was in danger because they couldn’t protect themselves. It was a little frustrating because he was only travelling with Annalise and three of her guards. It wasn’t like he was travelling with Phillip and his army for the palace to need to worry about a big attack.

In his opinion, they were overreacting. It wouldn’t be the first time they had welcomed one of their enemies to the palace to talk about peace or meet elsewhere.

Rafael had been badgered to help with the border and now that he was finally helping for peace, they were turning down the chance to meet with Annalise.

"You look like you could pass out at any second. Get some food and rest. I will call upon you later," Rafael said, sending the knight away. There was more Rafael wanted to hear but after a long ride to catch them before they got too far into Lockwood, the man needed to rest.

The knight nodded his head, grateful he was getting a break to find food and water. He was on the verge of dropping to the ground to go to sleep, but first, he needed food.

Rafael remained outside the tent, trying to think of what to do now. He had to get his mother to take her back home while keeping Annalise out of Lockwood.

Rafael entered the tent to tell Annalise about their change in plans and found Annalise sitting up.

"So, what will we do now?" Annalise asked. She heard everything said thanks to the knight speaking loudly. "It was a little expected they wouldn’t want me in the palace. I knew a lot would need to happen before we could get to working on the truce. Should I return home or will we go to the manor?"

"The manor," Rafael answered. It wouldn’t be a good idea to take her home already for her father or someone else to claim that a truce was not possible. It could still happen once they worked with Tobias. "I should have considered that with the current state of the palace, you wouldn’t be able to meet the king."

Rafael knew that there were a lot of discussions about the queen not yet having a child so women were being invited by some of the men in court to be picked as the king’s mistress. Then there was the trouble Grant was starting and women disappearing all over the town.

The king already had a lot to deal with. Now was not the time to have the king listening to the men in court cry about Annalise coming to the palace. It also wouldn’t help anyone to disregard the court thinking Annalise was dangerous and still show up with her at the palace. It would just end with the knights and palace guards having to defend their side.

"I will send letters to Tobias in private when we reach the manor to tell him of your demands and for him to send what he wants. We can solve most of this without you needing to be in the palace right now. I’ll consider this a good sign that you shouldn’t be in a town where women are disappearing," said Rafael.

"Why is it a good sign? I would hunt down the bastards doing it and kill them. Now I wish I could go there. He would be in for a surprise if he tried to kidnap me. I would enjoy beating him," Annalise said, clenching her fists as she imagined beating on someone.

"It’s a shame the town can’t get your help," Rafael said, feeding into her wanting to beat someone up though he wouldn’t let her join in luring out whoever was taking the women. "I will send a group to collect my mother tomorrow while we change our path to head to the manor. You will get to see your friends soon."

"And start picking out a room for my pet. That is also important. The one problem with us returning to your manor is your uncle. He will not be happy knowing that you are already with someone. Perhaps we should announce we are engaged to make him mad," said Annalise.

"I will not propose to you for the sake of angering him. He will be angry and a problem regardless unless my father has killed him. That is another good reason for us to go to the manor. I must check if my father has hurt or killed Travis," Rafael said, starting to worry about his father.

It hadn’t crossed his mind when they were at the border that his father could be fighting with Travis all now. He had been distracted by seeing Annalise and now the truce.

"I’m sure your father is fine. He survived a fight with my father which means he isn’t easy to kill. I would love to watch your father spar against someone. I’ve been eager to see him in action since the story my father told me about their fight. Do you think he would have a match with me?" Annalise asked, hoping she would have a chance.

She wanted to get a better idea of what it was like for her father to fight River.

"Maybe when he is not worrying about Travis. The food won’t be ready for some time now. Do you want to wash up? I can have one of our pots for cooking warm-up water and throw it into a barrel for you to dip out-"

"That won’t be necessary. If there is a stream nearby, I will wash up there. I don’t want to interrupt the knights cooking just for hot water. I think you and I have a bit of bad luck right now. We should wait until we are back at the manor to make up for lost time. I grow more frustrated each time we are interrupted and do not continue. Sleeping beside you tonight is enough for me right now," Annalise said, putting an end to their attempt to be intimate.

They have tried to make the most of their time alone and didn’t get to do anything too many times. She could wait a little longer for when they reached the manor. If she didn’t and someone interrupted them once more, Annalise didn’t think she had it in her to not kill that person.

Annalise had never been so frustrated this way and it was starting to make her angry for some reason. To have Rafael right here with her and he wanted the same thing as her, but everyone was out to disturb them was something that greatly annoyed her.

It was like the world didn’t feel bad that they spent some time apart.

The one thing that concerned Annalise was Rafael having to wait. "If you can’t wait any longer, we can do it now," Annalise said. freewebnøvel.com

"I can wait, Annalise. It is not as if I cannot live without it," Rafael replied, truthfully not minding that she wanted to hold off being intimate. There would be no pleasure in it for him if it was something Annalise was only doing because she thought he needed it.

It wasn’t as easy in the manor to disturb him as it was here because he had Edwin to send away anyone looking to speak with him. Rafael wished he had travelled with Edwin to stand nearby and send away anyone looking to disturb them. This had to be the first time that he missed Edwin while he was away from the manor.