The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 282: Moving on (1)

"How long do you plan to follow me without saying a word? As you can see, I am no longer surrounded by knights. This is annoying," Annalise muttered.

She stopped walking so the people stalking her could finally come out.

"My father isn’t going to be happy to know you waited so long before trying to approach me. Come out now and I will keep it a secret," Annalise said, turning around to find where they were.

Just as she heard, four of the men from her home were walking behind her.

Annalise wanted to ask them if they were crazy for following her like creeps when it was early in the day and there were other people around to think they were looking to do something bad to her.

"Just as your father wouldn’t be happy to know that you were walking around with that family," said Ezra, one of the men who would be considered a commander.

"Oh, I am not afraid to tell him that I worked as a maid for them," Annalise replied, not the slightest bit worried about Ezra going to her father. She was going to tell her father about it first so no one could twist the story.

Another man named Jasper, approached Annalsie to take her bags from her.

Ezra knew it was so much more since he had spotted her when she was in the other town. She looked right into his eyes when he stood in a crowd and continued to stay with the knights. "You looked close to the commander. Will you tell your father about that?" He asked.

Ezra was close to Annalise like an uncle. He knew her well, at least he thought he did, so he liked to think he had seen it wrong between her and the knight. His concern grew when he saw that Annalise and the knight were riding alone.

He was going to give her the benefit of the doubt and hear out whatever she had to say about why she was walking around with knights.

"I was his maid. Of course, I would be close to him, Ezra. I am going to tell my father everything about my trip-"

"You’re lying," Ezra interjected. Annalise had been away from home for too long because she was forgetting how well he knew her. He watched her grow from a baby and knew when she was lying since she did it often when her parents weren’t around.

"I am not lying," Annalise replied, partially lying. Her father didn’t need to know exactly how close she was to Rafael. She was helping him to not have his heart hurting by keeping some of what happened a secret. "We need to find Thomas."

"We already found him. I am guessing it was your idea to sneak away from home and being the loyal friend that Thomas is, he followed you. Both of you have your parents thinking the worst has happened. We need to get away from these people," Ezra said, looking around at the people who couldn’t help staring at them. "Why can’t they tend to your own business?" ƒreewebɳovel.com

"It is one woman with four men. They either think that I am some runaway lady finally caught, I owe you money, or maybe this has something to do with the red light district," Annalise answered.

"Red light district?" Ezra asked, puzzled by what it was.

"Oh right. You don’t care to learn about this side. It’s where men and women go to have sex," Annalise said, keeping her voice low to not gain any more attention. She tried not to laugh because of Ezra’s expression. "Isn’t it fun? The things they do."

"It is not," Ezra replied, keeping close to Annalise so no one could get close to her. "They are supposed to be people who judge everything."

’Oh, they do. It’s just when it’s about their desires they turn a blind eye to their own rules. I have learned so much about this place. Before you misunderstand, I do not love it more than my home, but I fulfilled my wish to understand the other side. It is not all bad," Annalise said, taking one last look at the town. "There were people who cared for me well."

"Did you tell them who you are?" Ezra questioned as he knew that was why they treated her well.

"I didn’t. I would have to be a fool to reveal that. Then I would have to kill my way out of this town. Is my mother and father alright? I didn’t mean to scare them and I did leave a note. Besides, my grandmother knew that I was leaving," Annalise revealed.

"Of course she did," Ezra sighed. They could always count on Celeste to encourage Annalise to do something dangerous. "It is no wonder why she wasn’t concerned when we discovered you were gone. Your mother and father are fine aside from the fact that they are worried. Their only child ran off in search of information about the war."

"No matter how good of a warrior you are, it is only you and Thomas here. What are we to do without our next leader?" Ezra asked.

"I’m sorry for worrying all of you, but I had to do this. It is an experience I will never forget," Annalise said, already missing the life she created here.

She walked with Ezra and the others far out of the town, away from most of the homes and busy roads. After a long walk, she met up with the others who already had Thomas. Annalise received several hugs and scoldings for what she did. Then there was a small break to speak of the path they would take back to the border.

Annalise walked away from the group with Thomas to hear about his time in Lockwood.

"It is good to see that you are safe. I was worried something might have happened to you. What happened to Grant? Did you get to meet him?" Annalise asked, curious if their plan worked.

"I was not able to meet with him. His family controls a large portion of the king’s army and it seems like he is planning to use that army against the king. We don’t need to get involved when the king’s subjects are out to kill him. I also didn’t like that I sent you off somewhere with that man. He did not harm you, did he?" Thomas asked, inspecting her for wounds.

"And he is still alive? Rafael didn’t try to harm me, Thomas. You worry for nothing," Annalise replied. She looked back at the others gathering their things since it was soon time to set off for a long journey.

Thomas was relieved to hear this, but he couldn’t stop feeling like there was something missing. "Did something happen between the two of you? You don’t appear happy to be going home."

"I am happy to be going home. I am just thinking about how much we have to travel," Annalise answered. She didn’t want to talk about Rafael right now and hoped Thomas would end his questions now that they were going home. "They’re getting ready to-"

Thomas grabbed Annalise’s hand before she could walk back to join the others. "Did something happen between the two of you? I know you and you don’t look happy. Are you...Are you upset that you have to leave his side?"

Annalise pulled her hand out of Thomas’s hold. He had to be losing his mind to be grabbing her so roughly. "Stop asking me questions about him and just head home."

"Annalise," Thomas said her name softly as he clenched his fists. "Please tell me you did not fall for him."

"What if I did?" Annalise asked, feeling frustrated by his questioning. "It doesn’t matter because I will not see him again so stop speaking about him."