The Knight's Mysterious Maid
Chapter 43: No more games (1)

Chapter 43: No more games (1)

Laura never once looked back when she heard the screams coming from inside the carriage she was in a moment ago. Annalise had a love for scaring others, and now Delilah had found it out. All that mattered to Laura was the fact that she had gotten her money.

Laura slowed down when she noticed Annalise was standing by the front door, also listening to the screams with a smile. She made no attempt to hide the money Delilah had given her. "Why are you here?" she asked since Annalise had said she was going back to work.

Annalise folded her arms and looked away from the carriage, where Delilah was doing a funny dance on the outside while the coachman circled around her, to Laura, who held a heavy purse. "I wanted to see if you were smart enough to empty the dress before you gave it to her," she said.

"You wanted to mess with her-"

"And why would you carry out my plans when I was not in sight to know whether or not you would shake out the dress? You should have used my not being around to get rid of whatever was in the dress so that you could keep whatever relationship you had with her. I mean, it is nice to see that you know not to get on my bad side, but you should know she will now be angry with you as much as she will be with me," Annalise explained.

She wouldn’t have gotten angry if Laura had emptied the dress before giving it to Delilah.

"Should I go out there to get the dress? I am sure she wouldn’t want it now that I have killed her curiosity," Annalise said, looking back at Delilah on the verge of stripping out of her dress. Some of the knights walking by had stopped to help her. The dress could still be washed and looked just as good as when it had been given to her.

Annalise looked at the stairs when she heard footsteps of someone coming down, and before the person could be where they could see her, Annalise picked up a broom that was laying on the floor and started to sweep.

Rafael came down from the second floor with Giselle right behind him. He couldn’t spend another second alone with her in his study. She had gotten too close to his table, and if possible, her dress seemed to be going further down her shoulders.

Giselle was trying to seduce him, but in the end, he felt annoyed. Nothing was seductive about interrupting his time reading letters from the border and the palace. He had managed to get rid of Delilah, but now there was another young lady stuck to him. Like something sticky on the bottom of his shoe.

Rafael rested his hands in his pockets as his eyes went to Annalise, who was already back at work. If she had asked, he would have allowed her to take the day off. He then looked at the maid beside Annalise, who hid something behind her back when she noticed him coming.

By now, he wasn’t surprised to find Annalise near where something was going on. He had wiped away what happened the night he returned, but she had done many things since then to capture his attention. From the snake and now whatever was happening.

"Shouldn’t you be doing work?" Rafael questioned the maid, who was just standing around watching Annalise. He didn’t know her name, but he was certain he saw her face before he had been sent out to fight an enemy of the king.

"I," Laura began, and then she looked at the broom Annalise had picked up. Annalise was acting like this was her job when it wasn’t. How had Annalise gone from talking to her casually to now sweeping before the young master, acting like she was working? "I was sweeping, but she took up my broom-"

Rafael ignored what she was saying when he heard a scream, and looking out in the direction of the gates, he saw Delilah with her coachman.

"Has she finally lost her mind? Why is she jumping around like that?" Giselle asked, covering her mouth to hide from Rafael that she was laughing at Delilah. "Should we have her taken to that special place where the others who have lost their minds go?"

Giselle could hardly wait to spread around how Delilah was acting like a fool before Rafael. Screaming and lifting her dress as she hopped around. Who is unladylike now?

Rafael contemplated going back upstairs and pretending like he hadn’t seen whatever Delilah was doing. Enough time had passed for her to have either gone to the training grounds to find Christian or gone home. He thought she had gone home like she said she would.

His eyes went to Annalise one more time as he started to walk out the front door to help Delilah. Rafael noticed a smile that quickly disappeared when she bit her lip. Her lips trembled like she was at her wit’s end from trying to hold back her laughter.

Rafael tore his eyes away from Annalise to Delilah, who was like a deer when it finally noticed he was there and ready to pull his arrow.

Instead of running to him for help like he would expect her to do, Delilah tapped the coachman’s arm and said something Rafael couldn’t hear, and then hurried back inside the carriage. The coachman didn’t spare a second to help her get inside the carriage and close the door behind her. Instead, he ran to the front of the carriage and prepared to leave.

Rafael made no attempt to speed up or run after the carriage to stop it to see what was wrong. Something else had caught his attention.

Aside from the sight of dead insects decorating the ground, there was a white dress that was similar to the one Annalise was holding up not long ago. Now he knew why Delilah had been in such a hurry to leave.

Rafael picked up the now dirty dress, which had now lost the pure white clean color it had when Annalise brought it to him. Rafael dusted off some of the dirt and turned around to take it back to its former owner to see what had become of it.

"Bugs!" Giselle exclaimed, running behind Annalise to use her as a shield.

Annalise looked up at Rafael, who easily towered over her. His body reminded her of a fit stallion. She smiled, hoping to show that she was innocent.

"Come with me."

Three simple words made the smile vanish as quickly as it had appeared.

"Your broom," Annalise said, holding out the broom for Laura to take. She followed Rafael to the small library. Why was her luck so bad that he had to leave his study now? She would have gone out to pick up the dress after Delilah finally left to make it look like this never happened.

Annalise entered the library with her head down so she could avoid looking at him. Rafael had a way of looking at her like he could see straight to her soul. It wasn’t too pretty in there, so she wished to avoid him taking a peep.

"Close the door," Rafael said since they didn’t need anyone listening in to their conversation. He watched her move around, refusing to lift her head to look at him. She had been so bold the other times. Why was she acting shy now? "Snakes now beetles. Is there ever a time when you are not scaring someone? Oh, my mistake. You don’t want to claim that the snakes were your doing."

"Did she make you give the dress to her?" Rafael asked, tilting his head to get a good look at her face. "I can’t get mad at you if she tried to take something that does not belong to her."

Annalise looked up. "What?"

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