The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 275: Last day (2)

"I wish I could be around to see their faces when you reveal that you are already taken. They will curse my name though they have never met me, and start searching around to find who I am. You shouldn’t do any training without your armour in the palace. You will distract the women there," said Annalise.

"You speak of me, but what about your hometown? Is there anyone I would need to be concerned about? Anyone who would take your return as a chance to confess their love for you?" Rafael asked, as it was impossible Annalise didn’t leave behind a few admirers.

"There might be a few who might take my return as a good time to propose to me. Many would not believe it, but I am highly sought after. Don’t worry since I plan to turn down any proposals I receive. I don’t have any room in my heart to try liking someone else right now," Annalise answered.

She turned down many proposals from men who wanted to marry into her family, and she would continue to turn them down when she returned home.

"I am still stuck on my idea of making you jealous. I hear it is exciting to see someone jealous. It is not fun for the person who is jealous, of course. There might be so many stories of your presence in Lockwood. New rumours for me to listen to and figure out which is true. It is fun to see how others twist the truth to their liking for gossip," Annalise said, looking away from Rafael to stare at the sky.

She shifted her legs to get more comfortable. Annalise sighed, a little bit frustrated by what filled her mind now. "It is good that we did not go on much longer or I wouldn’t have been able to get out of bed on my own last night."

Rafael stared at her legs. "Does it still hurt? I found last night to be quite tame."

Annalise couldn’t believe that he considered their first time together to be tamed. "What part of that was tamed? How could it be any different than that?" She wondered out loud.

Rafael looked around to make sure no one was near to them. "It is better acted out than being told."

Annalise propped herself up with her arms, still in disbelief that they viewed last night differently. As shocking as it was, she was a little excited to hear what made the night not reach the limit that it could. Last night, she didn’t think he had gone easy on her, but now she realised that he might have.

"You should try to hide your curiosity, Annalise. My mother is returning," Rafael said, looking ahead of Annalise to his mother returning with a small basket in her hands.

Annalise should have known better than he had gone easy on her for their first time together. There were other things he wanted to do to her and other ways he wanted to take her, but he controlled himself. Even when there were moments he got caught up when she said his name, he calmed himself and tried not to be so rough with her.

Annalise closed her eyes to make a wish for Beatrice to say she forgot something so she would go back inside. Why did Beatrice have to come now when her mind was filled with another version of how her night with Rafael could have been?

For someone trying to get the two of them together, Beatrice had awful timing right now.

Rafael smiled, enjoying Annalise seemingly trying to pray to make his mother vanish. He didn’t plan on answering how much more they could have done last night. If she wanted to know, she would have to wait for them to be alone again.

"I found them right on the counter by the door. There are a few left for us to share with the knights or have the cook make us a pie to enjoy before we need to leave. Am I disturbing the two of you? Just say the word, and I will be out of your hair," Beatrice said, looking back and forth between Rafael and Annalise.

She requested they spend some time with her to end the trip on a positive note, but if they wanted to be alone, Beatrice would find something to do while waiting for River to return. Rafael was leaving for Lockwood as soon as they returned home tonight, so he would want to spend some time with Annalise right now.

Beatrice got a glimpse of Rafael smiling as he watched Annalise, who was looking to the sky, and almost returned inside to leave them be.

Annalise wanted to enjoy her last day with Beatrice, so she said, "I was just asking if he sees that the cloud is shaped like a rabbit. You should join me in guessing."

Beatrice looked up at the sky, trying to find the cloud that was said to look like a rabbit, but did not find it. "Maybe I am looking at the sky wrong," she answered.

"Take a seat," Rafael said, taking the basket from his mother’s hands. As much as he would like to spend time with Annalise, his mother would be alone if they went their separate ways to enjoy their last hours in this town. "All of the apple slices are gone."

"Of course, they are with you eating all of them. I might need to go back inside soon to get a few more of them at the rate you are eating them. Let Annalise have some of the berries," Beatrice said, taking the basket with berries from Rafael and handing them to Annalise. "Thank you for not sending me away. I would be bored if I were to be alone, waiting for your father to return."

Beatrice went back to her task of cutting apples for the two of them. "Are we going to continue saying what a cloud looks like? Since Annalise pointed out a rabbit, Rafael should go next."

Rafael reached out to Annalise to get one of the berries in the basket she was given, but she moved it away from his reach to have them to herself.

Beatrice ignored the two of them acting like children, not wanting to share what they had, and worked on the apple in her hands to have enough slices for her son with the village stomach.

Rafael laid down on the blanket since there was nothing he could do but take part in the game. He looked up at the sky, at all the clouds floating by. "I see a ball," he pointed out.

Annalise and Beatrice both looked at the sky to be the one to find it first. Beatrice kept searching for the cloud in question while Annalise quickly lost interest, and slowly turned to look at Rafael. He lacked imagination and picked a cloud that did not have much of a shape.

"Well, I don’t know about you, Annalise, but he made that a little too easy for us. Should we stay here and send him away? I’m sure we would have a lot of fun without him," Beatrice suggested.

Annalise nodded her head, agreeing with Beatrice.