The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 464: Something to share (3)

"There will be plenty of people at home to help me and I can care for myself. How did I go from being worried to now trying not to have you be so worried? I truly believe that we will make this work. One day we’ll look back and laugh at how we struggled but also succeeded at making a long distance work. Trust me," Annalise said, fully confident it would all be fine.

Rafael smiled, no longer wanting Annalise to have to go out of her way to cheer him up. He couldn’t help worrying, but since Annalise was confident, he should be too. It was just a little harder for him because she would get to witness everything.

Lydia was already grown up and not having any other children, Rafael wanted to be around to see all the stages of their child growing in Annalise to the day they would finally be here.

He might not seem like the man to care for it, but Rafael wanted to be around to witness each new change.

He thought now about the palace sending him off to deal with more trouble around the kingdom. It was weeks and sometimes a few months that he was away depending on how strong the enemy was. That was something he could not do at this time.

Rafael wasn’t going to give up on his promise to Tobias, but at this time, he should get to take some time off to enjoy this time in his life. He had given many of his days to protecting the kingdom. If a fight were to end up lasting a month or more, someone else would have to take over.

Now Rafael questioned how his father made this all work when he was in this position. Looking back now, it never felt like River was away from home long even though he was. Rafael remembered his father having to be away for nearly a month, but it didn’t feel long to him.

It might have been thanks to his mother. Beatrice always had something planned to do with Rafael so he wouldn’t notice his father was missing around the house. River would return home and it was like he had left yesterday.

"I can tell that you are still thinking about the future. I don’t mind you being the worried parent and me being the fun one," Annalise said.

"Right," Rafael replied, not believing that was going to happen. "You may end up worrying about our children doing the things you liked in your youth. Now you will see how dangerous it might have been and how stressed you made your parents. I look forward to seeing you change."

Annalise pinched Rafael on his arm. "There was nothing wrong with my youth. It was all fun. I walked away fine. Most of the time."

Annalise could think of a few times she believed she had broken something. "I have nothing to worry about because who is to say that our children will be like me? Good night, Rafael."

"Why are you so ready to sleep now, Annalise?" Rafael asked, laughing at how much she was in denial. "I should have got another carriage for you to sleep in rather than on the ground with a blanket and a tent. We can buy one as we go through towns."

Annalise opened her eyes as there was one more thing they had to discuss. "I hope that you do not plan to treat me as if I am fragile. Carrying a child doesn’t mean that I have suddenly become glass. I don’t want anyone to treat me as if I cannot help myself." ƒгeewebnovёl.com

"It’s because they care for you and would want to help you. Right now I will leave you be, but one day you will be... more pregnant," Rafael said, choosing his words carefully as Annalise glared at him. "You will need help."

"Then but not right now. I want to continue as normal. Forgive me because now I want to go back to sleep," Annalise said, resting her head on Rafael’s arm.

Her tiredness came back and it was hard to fight to keep her eyes open when all she wanted to do now was sleep. She was more comfortable in this position than she was before.

"Go to sleep. We can finish this talk in the morning," Rafael responded, kissing her forehead as he carefully pulled her close.

"You need to get some sleep too. We’ll both hear if someone comes near us," Annalise said, giving in to the tiredness and closing her eyes.

Rafael watched as Annalise quickly drifted off to sleep. He’d bet that she wouldn’t be able to hear anyone outside with how tired she was. He was going to stay awake a little longer and not be fully asleep later to add more wood to the fire when it started to get too small.

Rafael kept himself entertained by playing with Annalise’s hair, something he enjoyed when she slept. He did it mostly when she seemed to be having a bad dream. Her face would relax and she would go back to normal.

Staying awake, he got to think about the future. That there would one day be children like Celine said, running around and it was hard to catch them. He was eager to see if they would be like their mother or him. Or, a mix of their parents.

Rafael looked forward to seeing their personalities grow over the years. To see his children make friendships with the children of his childhood friends.

It was funny how fast his life and the lives of his friends had quickly changed and were continuing to change.

How everything had changed because of the little spy snuggled up against his body. He might have been sitting at home in his study working himself away if not for Annalise. Now he had her family in his life and they would have two children.

Rafael turned to the side to try holding in his laughter to not wake Annalise as he thought of how he wanted to let Celeste know that he was quite able. Though part of him knew she was going to try claiming the sip he took as the magic to make it happen.

Knowing this news now, Rafael started to plan how he could speed up the new manor going up. He wanted his family to be in the home they would spend the rest of their lives in as soon as possible along with getting the knights and their families settled in too.

He hated to think of leaving Annalise at the border, but he’d make up for it by working hard to get the manor built and the town coming together.