The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 296: Leader (1)

"How much longer do we have to wait?"

"At a time when we are planning for war, you are asking about who my daughter will marry. She must be here to be a part of this conversation. For her to silence all of you," Phillip replied, looking forward to Annalise putting an end to the topic of marriage.

Phillip already shared his opinion, but they wanted to hear from Annalise. They have all watched Annalise grow from a baby to the young lady she is now to know she would come in here flipping tables or maybe look to flip someone.

"She is of age-"

"It is her decision when to marry," Phillip interjected, not wanting to hear another foolish point. "We’ve all had the choice of when we wanted to get married. You will not pressure my daughter into marrying now."

Phillip was never rushed to marry. He focused on picking up where his late father left off and soon after, he fell in love with Celine. It was only after his marriage that he thought about children and having a future leader to take his place.

Phillip listened to Annalise talk about her dislike of what was said about the princesses in the palace. Being married off to make feuding men happy. Marriage wasn’t on Annalise’s mind and when it was, he wanted her to marry someone who would love his daughter more than he did.

"It is your choice until the leader ups and leaves without telling us, we need to talk about marriage for her!" A man named Odin argued. His son was yet to marry so this was his moment to try impressing Annalise and marry into Phillip’s family.

"All of this yelling," Celeste said as she entered the door, and looked around the room at everyone seated around a table. "I don’t recall my husband’s meetings being this loud and over my granddaughter. I see why I was called down from my home."

Annalise walked behind her grandmother and beside her was her mother who joined them after searching for her to tell her the food was ready. Like her, Celine wasn’t happy to hear about marriage.

Annalise thought of storming in here and telling everyone who brought up her getting married to shut up, but instead of arguing with people doubting if she was going to make a good leader, she brought her grandmother to do it for her. Annalise had a lot of arguing to do in the future when they would learn about Rafael so she was saving her breath now.

Celeste had distanced herself from everyone to have peace and be closer to nature, but that didn’t change the fact she was the leader’s mother and a former leader. Part of Annalise’s love to fight came from her grandmother who was quite familiar with using weapons in her younger days.

"Move around," Celeste said to the man sitting beside Phillip. "This is my seat. I always said to keep it free in case I come down to hear what you are speaking about. Who is the fool bringing up marriage as if it solves everything?"

Celine stared at her husband, mentally asking him to point out who started this discussion. She had not spoken to Annalise about marriage, yet everyone present was having that conversation without her around.

"I did," Odin said, putting up his hand.

"Of course, you did. You were annoying as a child and clearly, you still are as a grown man. Is there nothing better for you to do than try to get your son to marry my granddaughter? You can plan a wedding all you want, but I assure you it won’t be my granddaughter as the bride. You don’t doubt her loyalty. You’re just complaining to try to get your sons to marry. It’s not going to happen," said Celeste.

Not when she was plotting to make Annalise see the Callahan fellow and even if Annalise didn’t already have her eyes on someone, she would have swayed Annalise from falling in love with any young men who were sons or grandsons of the men and women at the table.

"Would anyone be so kind as to enlighten me of why I wasn’t called to a meeting about my daughter?" Celine asked, continuing to stare at Phillip for him to give her an answer.

What made anyone at the table think they could plan her own daughter’s marriage? She was waiting to have another conversation with Annalise about anyone catching her eye.

Celine had long awaited the moment Annalise would be like other daughters and share how she had fallen in love with someone. No one should look to exclude her in talk of marriage when there wasn’t another child for her to experience this with. freewēbnoveℓ.com

She was more upset with Phillip than she was with everyone sitting around the table. He should have called for her the same way he called for Annalise the moment the topic of marriage came up.

Annalise walked over to where her grandmother sat, keeping an eye on Odin. "I am not getting married anytime soon. I won’t marry just to calm your minds about me leaving. Marriage isn’t the answer to everything. It is thanks to me that we have a heads up that knights might be coming to the border and I was able to witness how they train."

"How can we be certain you won’t look to leave again? You left us without a word. Your family didn’t know where you ran off to. We don’t need a leader-"

"I wasn’t your leader when I left. My father was here to lead you while I was away. You act as if I ran away to never come back. I left to learn what their plans for the border were. Still, if you are so interested in marriage, let us follow tradition. Have your sons duel, but this time, against me," Annalise proposed. "I don’t mind breaking an arm or both."

Odin didn’t like her idea. "The men would fight each other to show off their strength and the strongest one-"

"We’re on the verge of another war and instead of coming up with ideas to stop them from stepping foot on our land, you are bothering my granddaughter about marriage. I was the one to send Annalise away from home. I had a feeling something good would come from it. If you have any complaints about me giving her permission, say them now," Celeste said and then waited for their complaints.

Before one of the women could open her mouth to voice her complaint, Celeste said, "Good! We’re moving on. I’ll throw out anyone who brings up marriage again. Don’t let the white hair fool you. These arms still work. Sit down," she said to Annalise and Celine. "We’re here to talk about war."

Annalise preferred to remain standing while Celine found an empty chair to sit down beside Celeste. She was not over how Annalise getting married came up and the second she was alone with Phillip, she was going to give him an earful.

Annalise was thankful her grandmother had come from her home to help her. Some might call her grandmother crazy, but they could not forget that she was still a woman who knew how to use a weapon. Her grandmother was never afraid to pick a fight even at her current age and not many wanted to engage in that fight.

"Did you come up with a strategy for fighting against the knights, father? It won’t be long before they arrive," Annalise said. Rafael had to be drawing close to the border by now.

"Talk about your marriage interrupted our plans for war. If you have an idea, please share it with us," Phillip said, letting Annalise take the lead.

"If you don’t mind, let me be the one to lead our warriors and you are positioned elsewhere," Annalise suggested, starting her plan that would get her close to Rafael.