The Knight's Mysterious Maid
Chapter 156: New side (2)

Chapter 156: New side (2)

"You are haunted by people you have killed? There is a tea you can drink to help you relax while you sleep if you drink it before bed. It tastes like alcohol but it is not. Whenever I was restless and could not sleep, I always made it. I slept quietly and none of my problems showed up in my dreams. I can," Annalise stopped herself as she realised what she was offering to do.

’Am I crazy? Why would I make him that drink? I don’t even have what I need to make it,’ Annalise thought.

"You can do what?" Rafael asked, urging her to continue. "Are you taking back your offer to make it for me? After how kind I have been to you? To let you eat my food."

"If I had known that meant I would owe you in the future, I would not have accepted the food. I remembered that there were some special ingredients my mother used to make it that might be hard to find here. A special root she let soak in tea and if I do find it here, I cannot afford it," Annalise answered.

"Find out how much it will cost and I will give you the money you need or I can pay someone to find it. I have tried many ways to have a peaceful night’s rest, but nothing has worked. Only trying to drink myself to sleep and I don’t want to resort to that," Rafael replied, sitting down on the long chair. "You are free to sit."

"So, when I leave your bedroom after you have had dinner, you are not going straight to sleep? How long does it take you to finally go to sleep?" Annalise asked.

"After an hour or two. Sometimes I wake in the middle of the night and go out to the yard to train until I have cleared my mind, but I have not done that since I have returned. I stay here and drink the water that you place for me. This will pass at some point. My father says he is able to sleep peacefully," Rafael said, leaving out the reason why his father said it stopped.

His father started to explain that it had something to do with his mother and Rafael cut in before the conversation went someone who would have scarred him for life.

Annalise now wondered how her father dealt with death almost every day and seemed fine when they came together for dinner at night. She was not haunted by anyone she had killed like Rafael because she had not taken many lives compared to him.

Annalise couldn’t forget about him sending out the guards for how they talked about her people. It was a small gesture she could overlook, but he was the first person to somewhat defend her people. He was still her enemy, but he was not cruel like the other knights or guards she came across outside of this manor.

"On the day that I do not have to work, I will get the ingredients and make it for you. I will make a big bottle so you can store it here in your room. The longer you store it the better. I will advise you not to drink it unless you are trying to fall asleep because it will make you sleepy. Your parents raised you to be a good person. There should be more people like you," Annalise said.

Now she wanted to get out of this room and far away from Rafael to stop feeling like a fool. She was only going through the trouble of making him this drink because he was the first person to not think of her people as savages.

"Why do you seem fluster-"

"I am not!" Annalise exclaimed, her eyes widening because of how loud her voice was. "I am not," she repeated softly. "It is hot in here."

Rafael looked at the opened window that brought enough air into the room. "You can drink the juice in your hands. It will just go to waste if you take it back to the-"

Rafael stopped in the middle of trying to convince her to drink the juice meant for him as Annalise moved to put down the tray and started to pour the juice into one of the empty glasses.

There had to be something wrong with her because of the way she drowned the juice in one go and then went back for more. Then there was the fact she had not fought against him to reject his offer of her drinking the juice.

He knew there was something on her mind which was why he wanted to have a conversation with her, but she was not willing to share what it was. He didn’t want to push her since it had to be hard to speak freely with him about matters regarding his guests. Instead, she was drinking a jug of juice at a rate that scared him.

"Annalise," he said to stop her before she moved on to her third cup. "You should slow down."

"I should take these things back to the kitchen. Excuse me," Annalise replied, putting everything back on the tray. "I will be back shortly."

"Whatever it is that is making you strangely you can tell me about it and I will not judge you. Does it have something to do with something the men before said or the tea you offered me? You do not need to go out of the way to make it for me," Rafael said. He wasn’t forcing her to help him find a way to be able to sleep through the night.

"You’re right. I don’t have to, but I will because I am a fool," Annalise answered, wanting to hit her head on a wall for her logic to make sense.

This was the one moment when she did not need to do something for him as her grandmother would say because he had not saved her life. It would have been called her to owe him if he had killed the two disgusting men. He sent them away without a fight and here she was offering to make him tea that would make her waste her day off to prepare for him.

On any other day, she would have liked to hear that he was having trouble sleeping through the night.

"Excuse me," Annalise said, leaving with the tray to take it down to the kitchen. The time away from him would clear her head and this would all make sense.

Instead of her being the one to make the tea, she would have Thomas make it by telling him it was for her. He would need to go far out of town to find the root so they could keep the money Rafael would give her to pay for it.

Rafael watched Annalise hurry out of the study, somehow managing to open the door despite having the tray in her hands. He did not understand her answer about being a fool for wanting to make him tea. Rather than try to understand what was going on in her head, he decided to forget about it for now.

Annalise was harder to understand than most women. Once again, he tried to figure out what was wrong with him to like her so quickly with all her strange ways.

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