The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 37: Returning gifts (2)

"You can take it if you like it," Annalise offered Cara since Cara was the one to enjoy dresses. freewebnσvel.cøm

Cara imagined herself wearing the dress, but she also knew it would be rude to take the dress from Annalise. Annalise should take it and dress up at least once. They were plenty of festivals soon to come where they got to leave work and have fun.

Cara would not have Annalise wearing the dresses she wore when working to those festivals. Just because they were maids did not mean they should not dress up.

"You should keep it for yourself," Cara rejected the offer. "I always say I want you to be interested in dressing up and this would look good on you. I would be open to wearing it once you have worn it a few times. I have some shoes that would go well with this. I bought them from the shoemaker. Apparently, some lady was throwing them away and his niece who worked as a maid ask for them so he could repair and sell them. You can borrow them if you don’t mind they were worn by someone other than me."

"That doesn’t bother me. It still does not change the fact that I do not have anywhere to wear this. I have no plans to dress up. I would feel better if you take it," Annalise said, pushing the dress into Cara’s hands, but Cara would not hold onto it.

"There will be plenty of festivals for you to wear this dress to. You cannot convince me to take it though I so desperately see myself in it. Put it away," Cara said, taking it from Annalise’s hands to wrap back up so the temptation would go away. She also thought Annalise should put it away since the jealousy in the room was growing and those who liked Rafael would either try to steal or destroy the dress.

Annalise thought of returning it to Rafael. She wasn’t an expert on dresses, but she knew this one cost enough to buy her a handful of the ones Connor had torn. She didn’t think his feeling sorry for her was worth spending so much money. Hopefully, he could send it back and be given his money or give it to Delilah as a gift. Though Annalise thought that would send the young lady crazy if she would ever find out who the dress was meant for.

Annalise had an idea in mind of how to return the dress and see if there was anything odd about Rafael’s study today.

Annalise turned to look at Mavis who was watching her every move already. She walked over to where Mavis stood with the dress in her hands. "Miss Wiggins, can I please go to the young master to return this? It doesn’t suit someone like me."

Mavis looked at the dress in Annalise’s hands. If it was a bit bigger, she would take it for herself. She was a woman who enjoyed spoiling herself like any other. She could also take it to sell to one of the other maids who would love it to fall into their hands or to someone outside of this house. What stopped her was the fact that Annalise would never let her have it and with that, Annalise should not have it.

"Take it to the young master and come right back. You’ll have to make up for the time you missed when you return. I hope no one else needs to be brought any gifts today. You don’t need any more distractions," said Mavis, leaving to check on the maids in the kitchen.

Annalise returned to where she stood with Cara and picked up the blanket to take with her. She didn’t trust that she could leave it here and return to it the same way she had left it. She didn’t want to leave Cara to be the one to keep it safe. The dress did not suite her, but that didn’t mean she didnt want the soft blanket to lay on. The one she bought was not this soft.

"I will be back soon," she whispered to Cara before leaving.

Annalise hoped that Rafael would be in his study now so she had a good enough reason to go there and inspect the outside. The loud noise she heard kept bothering her and if there was someone who visited the study shortly after her, she worried that they might have seen her. She needed to know who they were before they could realise that she was a maid there.

’I hope I am just overthinking this,’ Annalise sighed.

When Annalise reached the foyer, she didn’t know whether to be surprised or not that Delilah was entering the front door. The young woman was determined to make Rafael her husband and would not stop until it happened.

Annalise thought Rafael should just let all the women interested in him fight and the winner would take his hand. It was a fun way of trying to court someone back home. A little blood, wounds, and love.

Delilah’s eyes went straight to what looked like a white dress in Annalise’s hands. She first assumed that the dress was for Beatrice since a maid could never afford it, but then she remembered that Beatrice said she was returning home the morning after the party. Right before breakfast and the time for breakfast was long gone.

Unless there was another woman staying here and Annalise had become their maid?

"Who is that dress for?" Delilah asked, picking up her pace to stop Annalise from going up to the second floor.

She needed to confirm before she meet with Rafael that there was no other lady here. Even though she was on his arm last night, they weren’t married so there was no stopping the other ladies who wanted Rafael from visiting. Using their father’s connections with Rafael to stay here.

Annalise stared at Delilah, wondering when Delilah would understand she could not order around the maids unless they were assigned to her. She was a guest, an uninvited guest, as Annalise would say.

Delilah was not yet the lady of the house that she so dreamed to be. Annalise would have had no issue answering Delilah’s question if not for the tone she used.

The dress was meant for Annalise, but what if I belonged to another guest? She couldn’t just tell Delilah who it belonged to. What was so special about the dress that Delilah had to know about it?

"Answer me," Delilah demanded, starting to feel like there was something strange going on. Why couldn’t Annalise just open her mouth to answer? This one maid was always the one to be difficult. If Annalise was smart, she would try to please her to be rewarded. "Do you need coins to speak? Is that why you never listen?"

Delilah’s frustration grew as she thought back to Rafael holding Annalise’s hand and Annalise wearing his coat. She should have been the one to have his coat placed over her shoulder to protect her from the cold air and hold his hand.

"Lady Delilah," Edwin came down from the second floor to deal with the matter at the front door.