The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 33: Almost caught (3)

Annalise stacked the letters she read neatly on top of each other and picked up another four from the drawer. She realised these letters had recently been sent to Rafael because the king spoke of Rafael returning. It was why Rafael had not gotten rid of them yet.

"Where are the letters about the border?" She muttered.

Annalise wanted to hear what was really happening at the border. She had to rely on Thomas to tell her anything he found out when they met, but he was gathering information around the town, and it wasn’t always accurate. She couldn’t send Thomas all the way back to the border each time she wanted to know about home, so she had to piece together the stories to try to find the truth.

Annalise looked up from the letters when she heard a loud thud noise on the outside like someone had crashed into a wall or fallen to the floor. Not taking any chances, she gathered the letters and placed them back into the drawer, then closed it.

Annalise moved quickly while being light on her feet, so no one outside could hear her walking around. She went to the window and opened it. As soon as she pushed it up, she heard the doorknob jiggling as someone was unlocking it, but then it stopped.

’No no no,’ she repeated in her head as she stepped out the window, placing her feet on the small wall outside. Annalise sat on the wall to close the windows. If anyone came in now, she would jump and then run away.

Annalise looked to the right, where there was a balcony of another room she could walk to if she was careful. It was better than jumping down into the bushes below and hurting herself. Annalise carefully got to her feet to begin shuffling across the small wall. She was confused as to why no one had entered the room yet.

"Just my luck," Annalise muttered when she realised that the wall didn’t go all the way to the balcony. At this point, she would rather jump down onto the bushes and walk back inside without anyone questioning her.

Annalise sat down to lower how far she would have to jump down and then slide off the wall, falling down onto the bushes where she had found the snake. She hoped there were no snakes where she was landing as she could not deal with an angry snake now.

Annalise yelped when she hit the softness of the bushes. They were so tall and thick that they helped her landing. There was only a small pain in her right ankle, but nothing she couldn’t handle. She had fallen from higher places than this and got up just fine until her mother came to scold her and drag her inside their home.

Her body must have gotten used to the fact that she would always try to push the limit, so it was harder to break. Annalise knew there would be a day when she would fall and seriously hurt herself, but right now she wasn’t worried about it.

Annalise got to her feet and hurried around to the door she used the last time to get back inside. Annalise dusted off her dress as she walked, in case there was grass stuck to her. She was confused as to why she heard no one open the door. It had to be Rafael or Edwin coming to get something, but what stopped them?

"You went for a walk?"

Annalise internally rolled her eyes when she heard the annoying voice. It had to be that he was stalking her, and if he was, he would end up worse than Connor. Unlike Connor, he lived on the estate.

"I told you to rest."

Annalise’s eyes widened when she heard Rafael’s voice. She looked to her right and saw him staring at her like he was not pleased to see her standing before him. The look reminded her of the one her mother gave her when she wasn’t happy with her decisions. Nothing needed to be said as Annalise knew from the look that she was in trouble.

"I didn’t want to be alone in my room, so I went for a short walk. The servant quarters are lonely," Annalise answered. Now she was more curious about who had been the one to try opening the door. It couldn’t have been Rafael, since he couldn’t have returned here so fast unless he was running and didn’t look like he was. Plus, he shouldn’t have trouble entering his own study.

’Someone else was trying to sneak into that room,’ Annalise thought. It couldn’t have been one of her own since they could not get past the guards at the gates and she would have recongised them in the hall. This was another one of Rafael’s enemies. Perhaps one of his knights.

"I can keep you company when I am finished with Rafael. You only need to- What the fuck?" Logan exclaimed when Rafael grabbed a handful of his shirt and pulled him back from Annalise.

Rafael didn’t reply to Logan, who was fuming beside him. He had not yet told Logan about Connor because they had stumbled into Annalise before they got to his study to talk in private. She didn’t need another knight hovering around her now.

"Excuse us," Rafael said, pulling Logan with him.

"Thank goodness," Annalise muttered. Life would be better for everyone if Rafael took Logan somewhere and killed him right now. She wanted this growing interest in her to stop. She was being friendly as she tried to understand their ways and be close to them to get information, but nothing more than a fake friendship would happen.

Annalise saw Logan’s interest in her. She wondered how it was possible that he had come to like her just from watching her stand around in a bush. He was wasting his time and hers. ’I can’t go back up there now,’ Annalise thought as she watched the two men head in the direction of the stairs.

Whoever tried to open the door saved her from having to escape Rafael.

Meanwhile, Rafael let go of Logan when they reached the stairs.

"Some friend you are Rafael," Logan glared at the bastard beside him. He only needed a moment to speak with Annalise. Work his charm so she would spend time with him.

"We are not friends. I am your superior," Rafael replied.

Logan’s mouth fell open. After all the time they spent together, how could Rafael not view him as a friend? "We’re friends, you bastard!"

"Since you’re so desperate to be my friend, sure," Rafael replied, placing his hand in his pocket to find the key to his study.

"You’re heartless, you know that? Everyone says you’re a kind-hearted hero, but I know the truth. I’ve known you for five years but you don’t see me as a friend-"

"Logan, it was said to piss you off. It obviously worked, but not well for me since I have to hear you rambling," Rafael said, regretting his earlier words. "There are plenty of women in town. Must all of you try to have a relationship with the maids?"

"I don’t think all of them could be called relationships. Just a mutual understanding. Only a few have gotten married. What is happening here?" Logan asked, looking ahead at someone laying on the floor. They were right in front of Rafael’s study.