The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 290: Iris (1)

Celine pulled up two chairs for her and Phillip to sit with Annalise to hear the rest of her story. She wasn’t happy to hear her daughter worked as a maid for a knight, but there was nothing she could do at this point.

Annalise decided to leave out the fact she worked as Rafael’s personal maid. If she revealed that, her mother wouldn’t be able to help her hold her father back.

"It was not as bad as you are thinking. I got to listen to some of his conversations and watch him train his knights. I have memorised the way he trains his knights so I can share it with you. Men from the border came to visit him and the reason I killed two of them was because they spoke of wanting to have their way with the women here," said Annalise.

Phillip balled up his right hand as he had all the more reason to gather his men and storm the border. He had been kind in just keeping them away from their land.

"The king has called Rafael to the palace. I am not certain what for, but we should be prepared if the knights will be coming to the border. We need to come up with ways to keep them away from our land. Setting up more traps and calling upon the other groups to join us," Annalise suggested.

Some of them were spread across the land, creating smaller towns, each with enough warriors to protect them. Together, their numbers would match the king’s men.

"Phillip, perhaps she knows enough to help us. It will be different if the knights are coming here. It is just a hunch, but we should still be prepared and have everyone here. It is a little strange that the border guards have not made any attacks like they always do. It seems they are waiting for something," Celine said, finding it strange now that she thought about it.

Phillip thought it over and then decided, "I will send a message for the others to join us. We will have a meeting to discuss new plans to stop them from getting close to us. Celine, tell the scavengers not to go far out, and start working on more poisons."

"See! And you said no one wants to be near poison, but you need it. That corner is mine, Phillip. Place your weapons elsewhere. Now," Celine said, looking at her troublesome daughter. "What will we do about her? You had us worried sick for you, Annalise. It was dangerous for you to leave on your own, and you took Thomas with you."

"I know. I will accept any punishment there is," Annalise said.

"The future leader ran off without a word to her people. It isn’t just a punishment you will have to do. You need to prove to our people that you are serious about your future position. I expect that you will be involved in our meetings, and should there be war, you will join me at the front. I can not continue to leave you behind. You need the experience of leading before something happens to me," Phillip said, standing up as there was much to do.

He wasn’t getting any younger, and each day he joined in protecting the land, there was a risk he might not return home. Before something happened to him, he was going to let Annalise join him. Training her at home was one thing, but having her fight in a war where you needed to be quick on your feet was another.

Phillip already knew Annalise would make him proud, but she had to convince the people outside whose lives depended on her decisions.

Before Phillip reached the door to leave, he stopped to turn to Annalise. "I will let it be known that you were driven by the desire to get information for us. I expect that it will never happen again that you leave your home without speaking with me or your mother. In our position, it is not easy for us to just leave and do as we want."

"That I agree with, but it is thanks to her that we know the knights might be coming, and she can show our warriors how the knights fight. We have been slacking off because there weren’t many attacks. If Annalise had not left, we would have been surprised by the knights. As your mother would say, it was meant to happen," Celine said, hoping Phillip could properly express that to everyone.

Phillip left without saying another word. He wanted to talk with Annalise to listen to more of how she stayed alive and check for any injuries, but he had to address everyone since they would be concerned about her, and have the scouts go closer to the guards to see what they were doing.

Celine waited until the door was closed to ask, "Is there anything that happened you would want to share with me, but not your father? Any interesting tales? Certainly, you were not gathering information all the time. Did you have fun?"

Celine never left the border to see how the people on the other side lived. She had heard enough from the people who did and from their scouts who went to spy on some people. She had much to do at the border, and since she married the leader, she didn’t think of leaving his side to see if the tales were true.

Annalise stood up to open her bag to show the dresses she returned home with. "You would be surprised to know that I got dressed up a few times. I brought a few of them with me. I won’t wear them here since the style is different from our own. I wish to avoid questions about them."

"Yes, it is different," Celine said, inspecting the dress Annalise currently wore. "I spent years trying to get you to stop wearing pants. I like seeing you in dresses. Is the one you wear now expensive?"

"It is nothing special. It was something cheap I bought to blend in with everyone. You should see the dresses those with status or wealth wear. I still prefer to wear my pants. In fact, I am going to get changed now and go see grandmother. I have missed her," Annalise said as she held up the dress Rafael gifted her for her mother to see.

"Your grandmother was the only one not concerned that you were not home. I would not be surprised if she were the one to motivate you to leave. Go speak with her and then come back for me to feed you. It was a long walk back home, and you need to be full for the work ahead of you," Celine said, getting up to get to start making a meal for Annalise.

Annalise gathered her things and left to go to her bedroom to put down the bags where they would be safe from anyone snooping around.

There was a lot she needed to ask her grandmother right now. She hoped to finally know why their markings were placed on the orphanage gates.

She was waiting to get answers from her grandmother before she would bring it up to her father for him to send a group to check it.