The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 285: Lockwood (1)

It took a day’s ride for the carriage to reach Lockwood after the occasional stops for the horses the knights rode on to rest and a few breaks for anyone to relieve themselves. They went straight to the house Edgar would let his mother and father use when they came to Lockwood.

Instead of buying a home of their own in a town they spent little time in these days, they preferred to pay to stay in one of Edgar’s homes. They were always free to stay, but River would make sure to give Edgar money.

They arrived early in the morning the next day just in time for breakfast. After getting Beatrice’s bags down from the carriage, Rafael had breakfast with his mother while some of the knights left to gather supplies since there wasn’t enough food to feed all of them now and they would need food for their travels.

Rafael waited for all the knights to return with the supplies to start cooking their breakfast and then he headed out to the palace in his carriage. His mother was safe and the knights were having a moment to rest or eat so he would use this time to find out why Tobias called him to Lockwood. What was happening at the border for him to be called?

On the ride to the palace, Rafael could not stop thinking about Annalise. If she had safely made it out of town and was close to her family. He regretted not giving a guard to accompany her home so he wouldn’t be worrying now.

Like his mother, Rafael hoped Annalise would take his offer to come to Lockwood to stay with his mother. He would worry less if he knew she was near where one of his close friends could protect her.

After the carriage entered the palace gates and stopped at the bottom of the steps leading up to the palace doors, Rafael opened the carriage door and stepped outside. Before he moved to walk up the steps, he looked to his right where he heard another carriage coming and from the falcon on the flag to the front of the carriage, he knew that it was Edgar.

It was a well-needed reunion since it felt like a long time since he saw Edgar in person.

Rafael watched Edgar get out of the carriage and then held out his hand for someone inside to use to get out. It couldn’t be that Edgar was travelling with his mother so it had to be his wife. He was ready to see the person who worked magic to get Edgar to marry.

"Edgar," he greeted.

Rafael watched as a woman wearing a mask stepped out of the carriage and stood beside Edgar. The mask was a little odd to be wearing, but he wasn’t one to keep up with women’s fashion, and he had seen stranger things during his travels around the kingdom.

He also faintly remembered Tobias writing about a wound in a letter he sent, gossiping about Edgar’s marriage. Rafael rarely paid attention to Tobias’s gossip so he didn’t know much about Edgar’s wife.

"It is nice to meet you, Duchess Alessandra," Rafael greeted Alessandra.

"It is nice to finally meet you, Rafael," Alessandra greeted him with a handshake. She wondered who was taller between Rafael and the twins.

"You look annoyed already, Rafael. How long has it been since you returned home to rest before Tobias called for you again?" Edgar asked, knowing Rafael had to be pissed off to be called to the palace already. He hoped to see Rafael taking his anger out on Tobias today.

Rafael was annoyed, but there was nothing he could do about it. He always asked that Tobias give him a little break for his knights to rest, train, and meet with their families. There were other knights Tobias could call upon to help him, but the king had a special liking for disrupting his life.

He could be with Annalise right now if not for Tobias. Rafael always thought that Edgar would be the one to kill Tobias for whatever reason, but now it was possible that he would be the one to do it.

"Less than a month. I have thought about strangling him for continuing to annoy me, but I was in need of a distraction. I should be angry with you too for denying going to the border and now I am here, but I guess you have good enough reason to stay home. We should hurry inside to get this day with a pain in the ass over with," said Rafael.

Edgar chuckled, entertained by Rafael’s anger. "If you plan to strangle him, do it while I am around. The view is always better when I am not the one trying to kill him."

"Edgar," Alessandra poked him to stop him from speaking of harming the king when they were in the palace. There might be someone to take it seriously and then she would have to worry about a fight starting as Edgar would not go into a dungeon. "You shouldn’t say that here."

"Why? I have said it all my life and there was nothing done to silence me. Rafael and I are close to Tobias. Saying that we wish to kill him is just our way of calming our anger. There are a few times we might have attempted to kill him," Edgar said, watching panic fill Alessandra’s face. "You are too easy to make panic."

"Edgar, I don’t want to end this trip trying to avoid you being thrown into a dungeon. Please keep your thoughts about killing Tobias to yourself or at least wait until you are in a room where no one can hear you," Alessandra suggested.

Rafael watched the exchange, surprised by how Edgar smiled as Alessandra spoke. Edgar’s smile used to mean he was doing something that would have someone fainting, but now his smile was because of his love for the woman beside him.

Rafael almost found it weird to see Edgar in love after how he talked about marriage over the years. He looked away from the two of them as he walked up the steps to go inside.

It was quite unfair that he had to travel far away from Annalise and then have to watch Edgar spending time with his wife.

Rafael looked at a maid waiting patiently by the door when he reached the top of the steps and assumed that she had to be waiting for the couple behind him.

"Duchess Collins," the maid greeted Alessandra. "The queen has sent me to take you to her."

Alessandra let go of Edgar’s hand so she could part from him and join the women gathering in the palace. "I will see you soon," she said, stepping away from Edgar before he tried to grab her hand to make her stay a little longer. "Please try not to harm the king," Alessandra said to Rafael.

She hoped that after she spent time with the women in the palace, she would get to speak with Rafael to find out more about his friendship with Edgar. Alessandra followed the maid to where Hazel was waiting for her.

"I would pay big money to go back in time and tell your younger self that you are married now. Looking at your wife as if she is going far away. Focus Edgar. We have much to do today," Rafael said, starting to walk off to find Tobias instead of waiting around for Edgar to finish watching Alessandra leave.