The Knight's Mysterious Maid
Chapter 191: Grandmother? (1)

Chapter 191: Grandmother? (1)

"Is this a game to you, Annalise? To say you want to leave and then change your mind so quickly?" Rafael asked.

Annalise knew how it might have come off that she wasn’t considering his feelings. To say she wanted to leave after his confession, but then turn around and say she wanted to stay was like she was taking his feelings for a joke.

"It is not a game. I don’t want to run away now. If you are upset by it, I will leave. I didn’t mean to offend you. At the moment, I honestly thought that was the best for us since I do not feel the same way. Please forgive me," Annalise said, lowering her head to show how sorry she was.

"There is no reason to ask for forgiveness just like there won’t be any reason for me to send you away. Not when I want to have you near. Forget about the kiss, but I want you to remember my feelings. I will not do anything with you to make you uncomfortable, but I want you to remember that I care for you more than others," Rafael said, turning around to face her now that he composed himself.

"I hope you don’t think you made me uncomfortable with the kiss. The confession was a surprise since I do not see it possible for you to like me-"

"Stop doing that," Rafael stopped her before she could touch her hair. "Why do you always seek to touch your hair? Do you not like it?"

"I love my hair, but sometimes it has a mind of its own and blows in all sorts of directions. I have heard comments about it being wild and dislike that word. I try to keep it pinned or braided to avoid hearing about it. The manor is where I mostly tie it up in a ponytail or sometimes when I walk the market and don’t care about anyone’s words," Annalise answered.

She loved her hair. It was the comments from the people here she hated. She had spotted many women with hair similar to her own, but somehow, she heard the same comment that she looked much different than others.

Rafael wanted to know more about why she hated the word why. With many of the things she did, he might have called her wild in the past, but he wouldn’t mean any harm by it.

"There is nothing wrong with your hair so stop reaching for it. Why can’t I like a woman like you? There is not a single flaw I can find about you. Well," Rafael said as he remembered something. "The spiders and the snakes I happen to not like, but I am crazy to stomach that to be near you."

"My love for spiders and snakes is not a flaw. It is not my fault that you might be secretly scared of both. What I said about you liking me, I meant because of my status. We are far out of reach of each other. You are Rafael Callahan. I am your maid," Annalise reminded him.

Truthfully, she wanted to say that she was the daughter of the man his king wanted him to kill. It wasn’t like she was just anyone from her side who could just throw everything away and run to be with Rafael. She had a responsibility that she one day had to return to before her father would start thinking she might be dead.

Rafael wished Annalise and others around him would stop saying that. To stop putting him on a pedestal with the nobles and other wealthy men in the town or around the kingdom.

"A knight is what I am. That was all I looked forward to. The praises that come with my success are not something I can control. I am close friends with the king so that is part of why my status has changed, but I have not forgotten my humble beginnings. I am Rafael Callahan, a simple man," said Rafael.

"I do not care about status nor do I have any reason to marry a woman with status. I’ve listened to the town talk about my mother abandoning her family. These people will always talk so why should I follow what they want? I will have a relationship with whoever I see fit. As my maid, isn’t it time for you to stop thinking that I care about status?" Rafael asked.

"You are right. I was so worried about your reputation and what others would think. Still, I think we are not suited for each other so please do not question further why I will not return your feelings."

"I will say that you shouldn’t regret today. If I did not want you to kiss me, I would have slapped you, and pushed you away. It was something I wanted, but I cannot do more with you," Annalise said, pinching her hand to focus on the pain rather than her thoughts.

"I had already looked forward to being rejected. Now I need to ask your permission on something. Will you allow me to court you? I won’t change the air around us when you are working, but there will come a few times when I will try to get you to open your heart to me. If you say no, I will not try to court you," Rafael said as he knew when to stop.

He would receive the same looks Annalise gave to Logan if he courted her when she did not like it. He sometimes feared she might one day visit Logan’s room in the middle of the night to kill him.

"Honestly, I would be entertained by the sight of you trying to court me. If your heart can handle the rejection, I will allow it as long as no one catches wind of what you are doing. Some of the maids still think it is me who has feelings for you and seduced you to be your maid. If only they knew," Annalise chuckled, imagining their faces if they were to find out.

Had she indeed been someone who came from a farm and Rafael liked her, she would accept being with him to become the lady of the manor and watch everyone who badmouthed her lose their minds.

"I don’t plan on courting you while we are in the manor. It will soon be time for us to travel a bit out of town so I will do it there. Who is outside creating all that ruckus? I have heard the voices of my knights yelling," Rafael said, ending it with a sigh as there was a headache to deal with outside.

"There are a lot of border guards outside your tent. More than fifty of them it looks like, but I could be wrong. They are taking up a lot of the space outside and I was told to inform you that the captain might want to speak with you. Should I prepare something for the two of you to drink-"

"I won’t be speaking to him today," Rafael interrupted Annalise. "I am a busy man and he should know not to come unannounced. Stay close to my side for the rest of the day, Annalise. You are not to run off as you did earlier."

This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢