The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 222: Family (1)

"Thelma doesn’t dislike you. She is wary about who gets near to the children because there have been a lot of bad incidents here. She is like every mother to their children. You can go play with the little girl as long as you don’t send her running inside screaming about a strange lady," Rafael said, looking past Annalise at Logan and the other knights looking around the area.

"Strange lady?" Annalise muttered, taking offense to his words. She walked toward the little girl and hoped she would be welcomed to stay under the tree instead of having to be anywhere near Rafael.

Annalise whipped her head around the moment she heard footsteps behind her. Rafael was not far behind her, walking in the same direction. "What are you doing? You are supposed to be inside looking around the orphanage. I will not scare any of the children."

"I am looking around the outside to see if it is secure first and then I will go back inside. I told you that there have been incidents," Rafael replied, walking past Annalise to inspect the gates.

There were people who sometimes had no respect for the orphanage and damaged the walls. Then there was the incident with the man who had too much to drink and on his way back home, he ended up at the orphanage, trying to get inside.

"Before I said I wanted to speak to the little girl, you were heading inside. Now you suddenly have to check the outside? Are you really the commander of knights? I am starting to feel like I have been fooled. You cannot hide your motives well and I am more certain now that you are playing a game here," Annalise said.

Annalise knew Rafael wasn’t over his feelings for her and he was trying to do something to get a rise out of her, but she didn’t know what yet. Whatever it was, she was not going to fall for it. Now, she wanted to find out what it was and ruin his plans. The look on his face full of disappointment would be satisfying.

Annalise walked ahead of Rafael so he wouldn’t scare the little girl. She looked on the verge of running away so she wouldn’t have to speak to anyone.

"Hello!" Annalise greeted her with a smile to show she was friendly. "Do you mind if I sit here with you?"

The little girl Annalise guessed to be no more than five shook her head. She then lowered her head to avoid Annalise’s gaze and not look at the large man standing near her.

"See," Annalise said, side-eyeing Rafael since he had not moved on to do whatever he said he was going to do. "You are scaring her. Sometimes he scares me too. He is like a giant, isn’t he? An ugly one," Annalise whispered.

Rafael pretended he didn’t hear what Annalise said and looked at the wooden gates which would need to be repaired before winter would come.

Annalise followed the rope the little girl was holding all the way up to the branch it was tied onto. It looked sturdy for a few more swings, but it should be tied on a bigger branch. "Do you mind if I tie this somewhere else? I don’t want the branch to break and you to fall." freeωebnovēl.c૦m

The little girl looked up at the branches and nodded her head. She let go of the rope so her swing could be fixed.

Before Annalise could take the rope and try to tie it somewhere else, Rafael was quick to take the rope and start moving it. He was taller than Annalise so he could reach a better spot. He ignored the glare Annalise sent him for swooping in and taking over what she was doing.

"Annoying, isn’t he?" Annalise whispered. She wasn’t given a response. "My name is Annalise. What is your name? You can’t speak? Or maybe you don’t like to speak? That is fine. I am a stranger after all. I still think the giant behind us is making you more shy than normal."

Annalise searched her pocket for the last of the berries she was saving for herself. "He looks scary, but he is harmless. You might not believe this, but I managed to push him over today. He is not that strong. Would you like to try one?"

"Are you teaching her to accept food from strangers?" Rafael asked. It came as a surprise that Annalise was good with children after she was so afraid of them approaching her not long ago. He watched the little girl scoot closer to Annalise to get one of the berries.

Rafael figured the little one was new since he hadn’t seen her here during his last visit. He sometimes spent days here at the orphanage with his parents and got to know all the children. There were always new faces when he came and some of the children he last saw were gone because someone came to take them in.

Those who were old enough to work would leave town to find good work and occasionally come back while others would work in the town and continue to live in the orphanage until they found somewhere to live. They couldn’t stay forever since there wasn’t enough space. There were a few boys who travelled to join the Callahan knights and two of them returned with him to protect his family during this trip.

Annalise thought of taking back her offer of the berries, but when the little hand reached over to take one, she couldn’t tell her no. "You shouldn’t take from strangers. I suppose you might not be running away because you saw us greeted by Thelma. Good," Annalise added after the little girl nodded her head.

Annalise wanted to know her name, but as of right now, she didn’t think she would be getting it any time soon. She was curious about how the little girl ended up here and why she wasn’t playing with the other children. Annalise saw a few other girls who were around the same height as her so it wasn’t like there was no one to play with.

Annalise watched as all the berries were taken from her hand and the little girl stared at her as if expecting more. She placed her hand back beside her on the grass. "I don’t have any more berries, but if I come again, I will bring more. If we become friends, will you tell me your name? No?"

Annalise looked back at Rafael with the rope. He was almost finished with tying it on a better branch. "You can go back to swinging now. You know, I spent a lot of my youth in trees. I used to make my mother panic that I would fall since I used to try to climb to the very top. There is nothing better than seeing if you could go higher than you did the day before."

"Sometimes I would come across little birds in their nest or I climbed so high that I got the best pick of the fruits in the tree. If the tree is really tall, I get a good view when I reach the top. Would you like to learn to climb? We’ve got a knight here to help push you up and I will catch you if you fall," Annalise said, holding out her hand again.

She waited patiently for the little girl to answer and took the little hand placed on the palm of her hand as a yes.