The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 418: A woman unlike any other (2)

"But-"

"I will take care of anyone getting upset about it. I also have a weapon on me. She has already said that her hands are a weapon and you can’t be expected to cut off her hands. Leave her," Mark said, seeing this as wasted time looking for weapons. Especially when he overheard his peers in the court saying that they were sneaking weapons inside.

Having a weapon was only fair for Annalise and those with her. Hopefully, it would not come to anyone’s weapons being revealed.

Kurt was leaving this to Mark since there was someone else to take the blame should letting the barbarian woman leave without searching for weapons go wrong.

"I will take them to the meeting room. It is a pleasure to be around to hear this truce, Lady Annalise. I am Mark, a member of the court," Mark said, holding out his hand to greet Annalise.

It was a surprise to have been told he was going to be one of the court men present today and instead of turning down the order, he looked forward to what would come out of today.

"It is nice to meet you," Annalise greeted him, shaking his hand.

Seeing that he was greeting her better than the man walking away from her, Annalise thought that he was less judgy than the others around him.

"It’s been a while since you came into the court, Rafael. I would appreciate it if you could get your father to come back to Lockwood. There is a nice position awaiting him here," said Mark.

"Even if I pass this message along to him, my father will not return to the court," Rafael replied, giving the same answer he did each time someone from the court asked this.

His father had made it clear from the time he passed on his title to Rafael that he would not be returning to the palace to work. It was a blessing for a knight to still be alive at that age after fighting in many battles so River decided to settle down to enjoy his time with Beatrice after giving so much of his time to the palace.

Rafael also had the same plan as his father to settle down after a certain amount of years serving the palace. He was not going to reach a certain age and continue to risk his life.

It was something he planned to do when he was younger since his goal was to give his all to protect the kingdom, but now he was older, his view on it changed. When Tobias would pass on the crown to his son, then Rafael would put down his sword.

He’d keep his promise to be around to aid Tobias during his rule.

"Still deciding to be wherever Beatrice is as usual. I will need to start convincing your mother. Edgar," Mark finally addressed the duke.

"Bastard," Edgar greeted Mark.

Annalise became curious about the sudden tension between Mark and Edgar. Mark was smiling while Edgar appeared unamused.

Mark noticed Annalise was the only one confused by the way Edgar addressed him so he explained, "The duke here is worried that I might become his father. That is why he is so cold to me. I saw your mother yesterday and somehow, she is becoming more beautiful each time I see her."

"Look away from my mother or you’ll lose your eyes," Edgar warned Mark. He’d be damned if his mother were to go with Mark. She’d be going lower after his father which said a lot because of his father’s background.

"Hearing you threaten me only makes me want to be around your mother more, Edgar. You need to get used to the fact your mother is a beautiful woman and now that she is no longer married, there are many looking to court her. Like myself," Mark lied as he truly had no interest in Priscilla, but lied to anger Edgar. "The meeting room is this way. We can’t have you be late, Lady Annalise."

Annalise was the first to follow Mark as she wanted to get inside the meeting room to see who else would be joining them today. She also wanted to sit down and go through the list of things she wanted to talk about.

Edgar and Rafael walked together behind Annalise and Mark.

"One of these days, and I mean soon, I am going to kill that man," Edgar said, already deciding how he would do the job.

"Your mother would be happy to hear that you are out plotting death on men courting her. You should consider that she wouldn’t want a man like Mark. This is your mother we speak of after all," Rafael said since he didn’t see Priscilla showing an interest in Mark.

This was the same woman who was picky when it came to Edgar’s friends though she ended up not having a choice to let Rafael play with Edgar because Rose Collins got involved. After being married to Edmund Collins, would Priscilla want another man involved with the court?

Edgar trusted that his mother would never have an interest in Mark, but he couldn’t help disliking hearing Mark talk about his mother or joking about them becoming family in the future. "I’m still going to kill him."

"Do it when I am no longer in Lockwood and don’t tell Annalise about it. She’s already looking forward to seeing your dungeon so I need to distract her from it till it is time for us to go see her parents," said Rafael.

Edgar was offended that Rafael wasn’t going to bring Annalise to his estate to see his dungeon so he could boast about it. He liked to think his money was well spent on his dungeon and if someone was a fan of it, he would show it off.

Alessandra and Alfred weren’t fond of it so he had to use this moment to brag.

"If the woman wants to see a dungeon, let her. What is wrong with you, Rafael?" Edgar asked, shaking his head because of Rafael’s poor decision.

"You are not of any help," Rafael sighed.

As soon as the truce was taken care of, he would get Annalise far away from Edgar. Edgar was the one person to cheer on all the things Annalise wanted to do so he could be entertained. At first, Rafael liked how well the two were getting along, but now he wanted them to not spend a lot of time with each other.

For his sake and the duchess.

"I’m not a bad influence on anyone, Rafael. Let’s talk about your behaviour when this meeting is over. If you want to strangle anyone, please don’t hesitate to do it. I have a good spot to bury the body if you strangle them to the point of death," Edgar offered. It was the least he could do after being rewarded with a good show.

Rafael didn’t respond because he wasn’t confident that he would not want to strangle someone today. He followed Mark and Annalise into a spacious room and found four men already seated. Two of them he knew right away from Edgar and Tobias’s letters were the ones getting everyone in the palace scared of Annalise’s arrival.

The two reasons they were not to enter Lockwood weeks ago.