The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 468: Fit to be a mother (1)

Annalise waited to the side for Rafael to finish speaking to the crowd of people who had finally approached him. They were done with exploring and ready to head back to the inn so she didn’t mind Rafael speaking to everyone.

Annalise was able to try another candy from the bag she was holding while Rafael was distracted.

They thought of visiting a doctor or calling one to the inn, but Annalise didn’t want to hear any chatter about what was wrong with her and then the doctor would be hounded for news. They were going to leave as soon as morning came so they could find a doctor elsewhere.

After what felt like an hour of waiting around for Rafael, he finally returned to her side and walked with her back to the inn. It took longer than normal because of how many items they had to lift to the inn.

They had both bought many things as if the knights were with them.

Luckily, they came across someone who was more than happy to offer their carriage to give them a ride back to the inn. The only price was Rafael having to tell stories about his time out at war and if there were any dangers the people had to be prepared for.

Since she was not needed, Annalise leaned her head on the side of the carriage to rest her eyes. She could not fall asleep as the inn was not far away.

It felt like less than a minute since she closed her eyes and already the carriage had stopped.

Annalise opened her eyes and leaned closer to the window to view the inn. It wasn’t as crowded as before when she first arrived with Rafael so they could peacefully go inside without having to be stopped by many people.

All Annalise wanted to do now was eat, get cleaned up, and then go to sleep on a nice soft bed.

"I will help you," Annalise said to Rafael who had come around from sitting with the carriage owner and opened the door. "We should place them at the inn door for now and then carry them inside one by one."

"Okay," Rafael replied, agreeing to go along with her plan.

They moved quickly to not keep Gregory, the carriage owner, from going on his way. With Gregory’s help once more, Rafael and Annalise had gotten all their belongings out of the carriage. They thanked him once more and waved goodbye as he left.

"Well, that settles making a friend we can see again the next time we come here," said Annalise.

"You made friends with everyone selling candy. They all look forward to you coming back to town. Gregory told me where I could find a carriage for a good price. He’ll send the person over with it for us to buy tonight," Rafael said as picked up the bags. "Stay here while I move them to the room. If anyone troubles you, try not to hit them so hard that you kill them."

"I will make no such promises," Annalise answered. Anyone who came up to her looking for trouble had to bear the consequences of their actions.

Even if they were to assume she was helpless, Rafael was not far away so certainly they had already weighed in that they would get hurt one way or the other. Unfortunately for anyone looking to approach her, she was more harmful than Rafael.

It was only that they were in an unfamiliar town with so much attention on them that she didn’t want to cause any trouble that would lead to them having to go to the town guards. That would slow down them going on their way when morning came.

Luckily for Annalise, they were able to carry everything to the room without someone approaching them.

After a warm meal and bath, Annalise retired to bed early while Rafael dealt with buying a carriage and organising their things to make packing the carriage easier when it came time for them to leave. It was nearing midnight when Rafael finally joined Annalise in bed.

Their routine continued for the next two days with stopping in a town to rest and buy whatever caught their eyes to then continue heading toward the orphanage. Now on the last day, Annalise looked around at the familiar land.

It was familiar because they reached the road they had taken before when Annalise went on the trip with all the Callahans.

It was exciting yet nerve-racking at the same time. They had spent many days preparing for this moment but now that it was here, Annalise was overthinking more than normal. She loved that they had a carriage for her to sit in and think about what was coming instead of staying on her horse and not paying attention to what she was doing.

Annalise might have led her horse off the path or fallen off because of how distracted she was now.

"The orphanage is in sight, Annalise."

Rafael’s words added to her nerves.

Annalise looked out the window and up ahead, she saw that they were coming up to the orphanage. Already she could see children playing outside. Annalise looked to the side of the orphanage at the tree where Lydia was last time and didn’t see anyone.

"Rafael!"

"Rafael is here."

Annalise could hear the excited screams of the children eager to see Rafael again. When the carriage stopped, Annalise opened her door to get out. Before she could take two steps away from the carriage, she was surrounded by children.

Some called her name while others were trying to remember who she was. Some of their interest in her went away when Rafael got down from the carriage and greeted them.

"It is good to see all of you again. All of you have gotten taller," Annalise said, stooping down to speak with those who stayed to speak to her.

"Children!" Thelma called as she walked out of the gates. "Don’t bother them when they’ve just arrived. Why are some of your clothes covered in mud?"

Annalise watched as the children ran away now that Thelma was here. It was mostly those who had gotten their clothes stained with mud that ran away so Thelma wouldn’t scold them. Annalise was probably the only adult who wanted to see how they had gotten their clothes so dirty and if it was fun.

Annalise couldn’t join in scolding them because she had taken her friends to roll down a hill.

Thelma eyed the children as she walked toward the carriage. She didn’t have to say anything as they were used to what the look on her face meant. Those who had dirtied their clothes already were going to be in trouble later as it wasn’t noon yet and they had to be sent to get cleaned up.

"It’s good to see you again, Rafael. It’s a little sooner than what we are used to," Thelma said, going straight to Rafael to greet him with a hug. "Have you eaten?"

"Not yet. We came straight here to let you know that we arrived. We’ll go to the house later and cook there," Rafael replied.

Luckily, his family had a home here so he didn’t need to spend the night in an inn. They were here for as long as they needed to stay around the orphanage and get closer to Lydia. They had to give time for Siena to speak with her parents and then travel here to return to the border with Annalise.

Thelma loved that Rafael was at the orphanage again because the children were always excited to see him. The boys loved finding sticks to pretend that they were knights and sometimes a few girls would join them.

Rafael turned around to face Annalise who was off to the side waiting for his conversation with Thelma to be over. He remembered that Annalise thought Thelma didn’t like her.

Rafael held out his hand for Annalise to come to him so she could also speak to Thelma. Once they spent more time around each other Annalise and Thelma would become close. "Annalise has been looking forward to visiting," he said.

"I am aware. I received the letter you sent about Lydia. She is around here somewhere. None of us have informed her yet as we need to check that you will make a suitable parent," Thelma said, referring to Annalise.

Thelma trusted Rafael because she knew him from the time he was a young boy, but Annalise was a stranger to her. She needed to keep an eye on Annalise to see the kind of person she was before decided to let Lydia be adopted.

With Rafael going out to war, Lydia would be left behind with Annalise. There were too many incidents of children being mistreated so Thelma wanted to be careful. She would not allow for any of her children to be taken only to be mistreated.

"I will give you time to rest up and then when you come back I will start questioning you. It will not be easy," said Thelma.

"For us both or just me?" Annalise asked it felt like what was said was directed at her. She didn’t mind being tested because Thelma didn’t know much about her, but they were both going to be parents so Rafael should receive just as much testing as her.