The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 417: A woman unlike any other (1)

Another day passed by in Lockwood and now it was time for Annalise to enter the court to discuss the truce. After spending a day with Rafael’s friends whom she now felt had become her own, Annalise entered the court not feeling worried about what would happen today.

She was not worried on the trip here to Lockwood and a day with supportive people helped her to be more relaxed.

Rafael was the only one at her side at the moment as the knights couldn’t enter. They were to travel with few people so should a fight break out, no one would be outnumbered by the knights. The only person to accompany them was the duke who was yet to arrive.

As Annalise walked into the court, she noticed how many people were looking their way. Her way.

It was no surprise that they would all be curious about someone from the border. None of them had ever seen one of her people unless they had been exposed for living in this kingdom and captured. Even then Annalise had a feeling that people were pointed out to be from the border when they were not but no one listened to them.

Annalise stared right back at those watching her because she was just as curious of what the people who ran to the king and complained about her coming here weeks ago looked like. She hoped to run into them today and have a word about that. They were not to stay at home today and hide from her after they pushed back her speaking with the king.

Annalise looked down at the hand Rafael was holding after he had given it a tiny squeeze. She thought the people in the court were still in great danger even though they said the knights or her guards could not come.

She was courting the commander of knights. The man who led the largest number of knights in the kingdom and her future father-in-law was the past commander. River still had his connections sprinkled through the palace. She was well protected without her guards.

"Sir Rafael," a man greeted Rafael as he walked to them before they could go further into the court.

Annalise didn’t miss how she was not addressed or a glance spared her way. Certainly, they had to know her name by now. She was an important guest from the enemy land. No matter their being afraid of her, she was still someone to be acknowledged. Royalty if she followed their foolish rules.

Annalise smiled, not offended by how they were starting off. If they wanted to play this game, she would take part in it. Not acknowledging her would not break her. They would soon find out that they had never met a woman like her.

Rafael leaned forward so the man could hear what he was going to say clearly. "And Lady Annalise Woods. Address her."

Not only was Annalise like a princess to her people, but Rafael had been showing her off to be his woman. It meant that not only were they disrespecting a royal, but they were disrespecting a future Callahan. The woman who would be the lady of his manor. The woman already considered to be just that.

He had not flaunted his title of commander or used it for anything special, but today felt like a day he was to remind them of how important he was to the palace.

The man gulped, threatened by Rafael’s attitude. He couldn’t possibly argue with a knight in case it were to lead to a fight. His job in the palace didn’t call for him to fight anyone and a knight wasn’t the best person to start with.

They had all been talking about the barbarian coming to the court and how they wished the king would have taken her elsewhere or just imprisoned her if she were someone important. Then they could have something to hold over the leader’s head and finally take back the border.

Reluctantly, the man named Kurt turned to Annalise. She was more well put together than he expected but her clothing was lacking. Aside from her face, she could not compare to how the women in Lockwood dressed. She dressed as if she didn’t know she would be in the presence of the king.

"Lady Annalise," Kurt addressed her and then turned back to Rafael. "Before you enter the room, we have to check that there are no weapons with you. The guards in the room will be the only ones with weapons."

"I am not going into a closed room without a weapon," said Edgar.

Edgar walked over to where Annalise and Rafael stood with Kurt. A weapon was not displayed at his side and Annalise was curious what exactly he might be hiding to protect himself.

"It is a rule made by the members of the court joining the king today that-"

"They are afraid that if Annalise were to take a weapon into the room with her, she would kill them. Say that they are afraid instead of speaking about this bullshit rule. I have always carried a weapon with me and plenty of times witnessed court members having one. Need I remind you that because of my father, I am well acquainted with matters of the court?" Edgar asked.

When his father wasn’t off being a cheating bastard, he spent most of his time in the palace. During that time he would try to drag Edgar along with him which ended in Edgar leaving to go to the palace to play with Tobias and then stopped when Edgar was given his estate.

Kurt wasn’t happy to see the duke. Whenever Edgar was around, there was trouble. From giving threats to exposing one’s secrets, it was never a good day when Edgar Collins came around. "I am only doing my job, Duke Collins."

"I don’t have a weapon on me. I don’t need any should I want to kill anyone in the room. These are my weapons," Annalise said, showing her hands. She was well-trained with weapons like swords but also knew how to use her hands.

With Rafael and Edgar around, if they provided her with a distraction, she could take a weapon from anyone in the room with one.

"Still, I want to see that everyone else joining us doesn’t have a weapon. You should bring them here for me to see that they are searched and nothing on them," Annalise declared.

She didn’t trust that they were all going to be searched for weapons. She had to be suspicious of everything in case there was someone foolish enough to try attacking her. She was still on enemy land and though the king had come to like her and promised she was safe, the same couldn’t be said for the men in his court.

Kurt felt placed in a hard place because he couldn’t bring out men from the court to show that they were not carrying weapons. They were already inside and seated. Besides, the only real danger here for everyone was this woman. Well, she and Rafael because everyone believed he was too smitten by her to forget who he had to defend. Now they had to add Edgar to the mix.

"Let them enter the room without a search," said Mark Wilkerson, a member of the court.