The Knight's Mysterious Maid
Chapter 184: Competition (3)

"You are to tie it yourself. That is the way it works. With a charm from you, it is extra unlikely that I will be losing today," Rafael replied. He held his sword out for her to tie the ribbon on the handle.

"I am lending you a bit of my strength so you can knock Christian onto his ass. Good luck with your match," Annalise said, tugging on the bow she made to make sure it would not easily come off. "I think they are waiting for you."

"If you get tired you can return to my tent. I don’t expect you to stand around all day. There is a lot of food around the field. Say that you are my maid and you will be fed. If you are turned away, find Edwin. Do not get into trouble," Rafael said, finding it hard to leave her side since he got the feeling something would happen.

"I will be fine. I will go to your tent when I am tired, but I am okay with standing here for a moment to get a good view of what is happening. You shouldn’t keep them waiting any longer. I promise I will not get into trouble," Annailise promised, holding up her hand to show how serious she was about what she promised.

She was going to stand around to watch for a little while and then leave to find Thomas. It was unfortunate that the king was not coming, but they could still make use of the person coming on his behalf. Getting rid of anyone from the palace was good for them.

Rafael reluctantly left Annalise alone since he had to go and get the competition started. He wasn’t worried about her. It was the people around her who were staring at the two of them, trying to figure out his relationship with Annalise. They concerned him so he had to try to see Annalise as often as he could throughout the day.

Annalise was able to take care of herself, but it didn’t help him to stop worrying.

Annalise waved goodbye to Rafael and then she placed her hands behind her back. Thanks to her wanting him to beat Christian, she had given away the one thing she was using to stop her hair from blowing around in the wind.

Before she could do anything else, Annalise combed her fingers through her hair and started to braid it so she did not have to be moving it out of her face each time the wind blew it.

"I envy how close you are to Rafael Callahan."

Annalise continued to braid her hair and kept her eyes on Rafael. This person wasn’t the first and only one who envied her being able to walk with Rafael. She knew she might have broken a few hearts when she gave Rafael her ribbon.

She could already hear what they would say when they learned she was just his maid, but was able to give him a charm for his sword.

"My lady is from out of town and has been looking forward to this day-"

"I hope your lady didn’t send you over here to try making me feel guilty that she was not able to spend more time with Rafael. It won’t work since I don’t care about it. She must get used to the fact that he does not stick around to speak to many women. I am only his maid so please let that be enough to not bother me," Annalise said.

She walked off to find a better spot where she could watch the knights and get a good view of the crowd to look for Thomas.

Kayla didn’t like the attitude of the maid and followed Annalise. "I am not here because my lady is angry with you. She wanted to apologise for stepping before you and Rafael."

"A lady won’t waste her time apologising to a maid for something so small and if she would, I would have preferred to see her following me instead of her maid. It is not like she bumped into me and did not apologise. She stood in front of me and I walked around her.. You can tell her that there aren’t any bad feelings about it," Annalise replied.

"My lady is kind so she considers how her actions affect someone. She is not here because she cannot stray away from her escort-"

"Be honest with me. She sent you here to try to get close to me in hopes she would get closer to Rafael. You can tell your lady that I am an expensive woman. If she wants my help to get the chance to speak with Rafael, she will need to get everything I want and I promise you, no matter how wealthy she is, she cannot afford me, so leave me be," Annalise said, walking faster to get away from the maid.

Kayla stopped following Annalise since she had found out what she was sent to check and she was getting too far away from Siena. Siena didn’t need the woman’s help to get close to Rafael, but after seeing Rafael allow this woman to tie something around his sword, Siena couldn’t help but be curious.

Kayla offered to find out who the woman was and now she knew that it was only a maid. There wasn’t a need to be concerned about Rafael already having a woman by his side.

Kayla turned around and made her way back to Siena’s side.

Siena sat on a blanket Kayla had spread out for her amongst a crowd of people. Travis was kind enough to get her a good spot only because he wanted to push her to meet with Rafael.

"My lady!" Kayla called as she ran to Siena.

"Do not run, Kayla. Many are watching us because they do not know who I am. We must not give them something to talk about," Siena said, keeping her eyes on Rafael who walked onto the field instead of paying attention to the people staring at her.

"My apologies. I won’t do it again," Kayla promised. She sat down to the right of Siena and picked up the pink parasol she would need to shade Siena with when it became too hot. "I found out that she is only a maid. She is quite a strange one. She told me that she would be too expensive if you wanted her help to get close to Rafael."

"Did she?" Siena asked, finding it to be funny. Since Rafael was not much of a people person, it matched perfectly that the people around him would not help anyone to get close to him. "That is good to hear. It means no young lady will be able to buy her help."

"You are not upset that she tied a ribbon from her hair around his sword? I was quite surprised to see him allow it when he has turned the ones being offered to him by young ladies who seemed to come from reputable homes. You were not able to give him the one you bought," Kayla said, leaning forward to look at the red charm in Siena’s hand.

"There are plenty of women here looking to give him a charm and some of them will succeed. There is no point in being upset over a ribbon. I am not a child to be bothered by it. I only need to wait for the right moment to speak with him again and offer the charm. Enjoy the show with me for now," Siena said, tapping Kayla’s leg for her to relax.

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