The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 430: Uninvited guest (4)

"Father, are you crying? There is water on my shoulder. I thought you wouldn’t want the knights to see you crying," Annalise said, using her hands to shield her father’s face from everyone watching. Moments like this were for her and her mother’s eyes only.

Annalise couldn’t have the knights thinking that because her father was so quick to cry he might be weak. She had overheard many times how men picked on others for crying. That was not going to happen with her father.

"I am not crying," Phillip said as he stepped back with Annalise still in his arms and attempted to close the door.

There was no one outside his home that he was interested in speaking to when Annalise was back safe and sound. They could all return to where they came from now.

Celine stopped the door from closing so they wouldn’t be rude to the guests they had now thanks to Annalise. "Do not close that door again or so help me," she warned her husband. She was close to getting Phillip well acquainted with her right palm.

Celine walked down the steps to hug Rafael since he was part of the family now. Or soon he would be officially. She noticed that this time there were women who didn’t appear to be knights and wondered if Annalise had brought home some of the friends she made.

They were all dressed so fancy so Celine hoped that this would rub off on Annalise who preferred pants. It couldn’t hurt Annalise to dress up more often.

"Welcome back," Celine greeted Rafael. She inspected him for any injuries she would need to fix up. "You’re just in time for dinner, but now I don’t think soup is fitting."

"I would enjoy soup right now after bearing with the cold," Rafael said, not wanting her to change what she was doing just for him.

"How sweet of you. I’ll need to prepare more so your knights can have some. We need to get all of you inside homes so you can warm up. Phillip, we should let them use the empty house not far from here. It has plenty of space for the men and the women can stay here with us. I hope the women don’t mind sharing a bed. Our home is not the largest," Celine said, looking back at it.

Now that they were having so many guests, she had the thought to expand it. It might not be long before there were grandchildren wanting to spend the night here.

"Some can stay in grandmother’s old home. There are plenty of empty rooms there just that there aren’t any beds. We’ll get something soft for all of you to lay on. Rafael-"

"Oh no," Phillip interrupted Annalise. Rafael was not going to be staying here when there were women and his daughter present. He was going to stay in the same place as his knights. "There won’t be any men staying here. All the women will be here and I will take the men somewhere else to rest. I’ll be keeping a close eye on all of you."

Annalise felt the sweet reunion was ruined after hearing she would not get to share her bedroom with Rafael. Her father could not be thinking that she was not sharing a bed with Rafael by now. She wanted to object, but then her father staying with Rafael and the others sounded like a good idea. The two needed to bond with each other more. It would be even better if River was present.

"It is getting late and we could all do with a warm bath. You should take the men to where they are sleeping, but first, I want to introduce you to my friends. Please put me down," Annalise said as her father still had her dangling in the air.

She did miss how her father could easily show off how strong he was by lifting her as if she were paper. Had she not told him to put her down, she might still be held up.

"Heidi, Siena, and Giselle," Annalise called for the three women to come forward. Everyone else had met her father the last time they were there. "They are friends I made during my time away."

Phillip looked forward to getting to know them since Annalise was introducing him to women instead of men. He couldn’t take being introduced to more men like Rafael.

"This is my father, Phillip Woods. The current leader of the border and an excellent warrior. Father, meet my friends," Annalise said, stepping out of the way for them to greet each other.

Siena was the first to make a move as she was the most curious one about the leader. If Annalise hadn’t introduced them, Siena would have been able to point out her father because of the resemblance. There were great similarities between Annalise and her mother, but in Siena’s eyes, Annalise looked more like Phillip.

"It is an honour to be here in your presence," Siena greeted Phillip with a curtsy. It was only now that she realised she forgot to ask Annalise what was the proper way to greet someone.

"It is?" Phillip asked, looking over to Annalise. "Am I well-known over there?"

"When was the last time you had someone from the Castro kingdom standing before you and you didn’t want to kill them? It is seen as a great honour to stand before you and not die so don’t ruin the moment," Annalise said, tapping her father’s hand for him to return Siena’s greeting.

How could her father not think he wasn’t well-known to those from the Castro kingdom? They didn’t know his name, but the fact he existed was talked about.

Phillip shook Siena’s hand to return her greeting. "It is nice to meet you. Is your father or relatives guards?"

He might have ended the lives of a few of them if not all.

"No," Siena said, putting her hand back at her side. "They are businessmen. Carrying on a family business that started long ago, but I might have some relatives who work as guards. I don’t travel a lot to see them. Annalise was kind enough to bring me here to see what the border is like and to meet her parents."

"And what do you think of the border so far? Is it like everything you have heard in the past or did it surprise you how normal we are? That we are not savages?" Phillip questioned, curious about what an outsider thought.

"I think it surprised me. I’ve heard about the people here and the names I won’t repeat, but I wasn’t privy to many stories about you to tell you exactly how surprised I am. I think whatever stories were said about here are wrong. I look forward to getting to explore if you would allow me," said Siena.

There was much for her to see just from taking the path here.

"My daughter trusted you enough to bring you here so feel free to look around. I advise you not to wander off alone because it can be a bit dangerous with the animals and some of the plants we have here. Why are you two still standing back there?" Phillip asked, looking ahead at Heidi and Giselle. His voice sounded a little harsher than he wanted.

"It makes sense," Heidi mumbled as she walked forward to greet Phillip. Annalise’s father was close to what she imagined.

Giselle walked beside Heidi, crossing her fingers that she would not make a fool of herself in front of someone so important. Phillip was like royalty and it felt surreal to be approaching him. "It is nice to meet you, sir."

’Sir? You make me sound old. I am Phillip," Phillip said greeting the two. "But only the women are free to use my first name," he said, looking directly at the group of knights. They weren’t close for the men to address him as Phillip.