The Knight's Mysterious Maid
Chapter 174: Future daughter-in-law (2)

Chapter 174: Future daughter-in-law (2)

"Lady Beatrice."

"Christian! I am getting to see all the boys today. Normally you are all scattered over the manor and I cannot find you. How many times must I tell you to drop the lady part?" Beatrice asked, leaving River’s side to hug Christian.

It was like hugging a tree, but she had enough practice with hugging her husband and son to be hugging tall men.

"You seem to have grown taller. Please stop as there is only so much heel I could add to my shoes to keep up with all of you. You visited my home recently and did not stop to say hello to me," said Beatrice.

She would have packed him a basket of things from her garden to give to him.

Christian scratched the back of his head, feeling sorry he did not speak to her more the day they went to check on who River had killed. "My apologies. I will visit again even if I am alone."

"Good. I hope some of your behaviour can rub off on Rafael since he isn’t visiting me as much as I like. Maybe if we move far away from him, he will miss us and come visit me more often. He always came running to hug me after he spent weeks away from me when he visited his friends. Should we?" Beatrice asked River.

River shook his head, not wanting any part of leaving the home they had now. He didn’t see that happening for the sole fact Beatrice would get restless being far away from Rafael and then plead with him to return to the home he would have already sold. To save himself the trouble of having to buy back their home, he was saying no now.

River turned away from Beatrice so she could not try to convince him.

"Do not look away from me," Beatrice replied, tugging on his arm to get him to face her. Touching his arm and looking at his bare upper body made her consider going somewhere with him to be alone, but there was much she had to do today. "Oh!" She exclaimed when her shoe slid over a small rock and almost caused her to fall.

"Careful," River said, holding her hand to stop her from falling.

"That is because you were ignoring me."

Christian stood with a blank expression wishing he had not approached the two of them. Seeing the two of them act like this only reminded him that he was going to be alone tonight. "Excuse me, Beatrice. I need to find Rafael."

"You can’t!" Beatrice exclaimed. He couldn’t go looking for Rafael now when he was alone with Annalise. She needed everyone in the manor to open their eyes and know when to stand away from Rafael when he was with Annalise.

This was why she could not live far away from him. She had to be here to keep everything in place since everyone was oblivious to the love story forming.

"I cannot? So, you’ve found out about it," Christian said, smiling ear to ear as his entertainment was growing. Where was Logan to throw him into the mix and make this more fun?

Beatrice covered her mouth, stunned to learn that Christian was aware of Rafael liking Annalise. "How could you not tell me?" She asked, lightly tapping his arm. "I tasked you with telling me what Rafael is up to and you kept the most important news from me. How could you betray me?"

"I’m sorry. I had to pick between angering you and having Rafael want to kill me. Whenever I tell him about liking her, he denies it so I thought I should wait until he admits it. Hopefully, this will pass because the more I speak with her, the more I don’t like her for our commander-"

"You watch your mouth," Beatrice said, wishing she could twist his mouth to get him to take back his word. Annalise was just fine for her son. She did not wait this long for Rafael to show interest in a woman that she liked just for the opinions of others to ruin it.

She already had to deal with Logan potentially getting in the way of Rafael courting Annalise. Rafael was the type to back off if Logan seemed to have a better chance. Why couldn’t she be blessed with a son who had easy relationships and she did not have to worry about him getting married? Why did life seem to torture her so much?

River pulled Beatrice away from Christian to protect him. Speaking of not liking Annalise for Rafael when Beatrice was enjoying this was asking for death. "There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with her. What matters most are his feelings. From what I saw, I might have been in the presence of my future daughter-in-law. Then again, with how shy he is acting it might not happen soon."

"I said that because she is a strange woman. Do you know she challenged Rafael to a duel and he accepted it-’’

"What!" Beatrice unintentionally yelled. "He said no! The son that I have properly raised said no to her, right?"

Christain stepped back, looking to River for help.

"You should answer her," River said, keeping his hold on Beatrice.

"They went down by the river to do it in private. We do not know how it went, but she doesn’t look injured. I think I heard someone calling me," Christian said, pointing over his shoulder to where no one awaited him. If he stood here with Beatrice, death would be waiting for him.

Now that he thought about it, Christian realised that Rafael might make his life hell for revealing what he did with Annalise to Beatrice. He wasn’t thinking about it in the moment and managed to do something that was normal for Michael to do.

Beatrice stepped out of River’s hold and started walking in the direction Rafael was taking Annalise. "He must have lost his mind to do such a thing," she said.

"It was wooden swords if it helps. I am out of here," Christian muttered, leaving to find somewhere to hide for when Rafael would learn it was him who told Beatrice what seemed like it was meant to be a secret. He tried to think of a way to place the blame on one of the other knights. Specifically Michael.

Beatrice grabbed a handful of both sides of her dress to hold it up slightly to get to Rafael faster.

"Beatrice," River said, catching up to her to stop her. "We should just leave them. If she did challenge him to a duel, there has to be something between them that only they understand. Do you really want to disrupt their conversation to scold him for having a duel with her?"

Beatrice looked ahead at Rafael standing with Annalise. "I hate it when you are right. It is bad enough that I have to worry about you and Rafael. I don’t want to add Annalise to that list. I will leave it to another day only because they look like they are enjoying themselves right now."

"You can hold onto it for now and scold him later on. Even if it is a year later. I think it is time for us to leave so we do not make him uncomfortable because of what we know. I need to get you back inside our gates before trouble comes looking for us," River said, holding her hand to calm her.

Beatrice stared at River’s chest which she had a better view of from where she stood now. "You need to find a shirt quickly before other ladies stare at you, but you are to take it off the moment we get into the carriage."

"Yes, my lady."

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