The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 472: Accepting (2)

Rafael parted ways with Thelma as she needed some time to think about the past with Nicolas and Iris. He played with the children who came to him now that Thelma had left his side, but his eyes were on Annalise and Lydia as they were off in their little world.

Rafael stood back for a moment as he didn’t want to interrupt their moment when they looked to be enjoying each other’s company. From where he stood, he could hear Lydia laughing at something and Annalise following shortly after.

It wasn’t long before Annalise noticed that he was watching them and waved for him to come over to them.

"Why were you stalking us, Rafael? If you wanted to come play with us, you should have just said so. Isn’t that right, Lydia?" Annalise asked, answered with a nod from Lydia. "See, she wants to play with you too. Sit with us in the shade."

Lydia drew nearer to Annalise to make room for Rafael. Behind him were a few of the other children. She didn’t want the other children to come now as they would take over playing with Annalise and Rafael.

"You have little stalkers," Annalise joked as the other children were watching him. "You can go off to play with them if you want or," Annalise hesitated as she saw Lydia frowning. "Bring them here," she decided.

Annalise didn’t want to leave Lydia not playing with the other children. She had to make friends at some point whether it be here, at the border, or the manor. All she needed was a little nudge to get her to play around with the others.

"Come sit down," Rafael told the other children.

They were quick to follow what he said and ran toward the tree to find a seat.

Annalise somewhat regretted it immediately as the children screamed as they ran over to Rafael. She resisted covering her ears so she wouldn’t hurt their feelings. It was at a moment like this that she appreciated how quiet Lydia was sometimes.

"Was I talkative as a child?" Annalise asked herself, thinking back to the past.

All that she could conclude was that she was a normal child like any other. Well, aside from the fact that her parents allowed her to use swords.

"This isn’t so bad, right? They are all your friends," Annalise whispered to Lydia.

Lydia shook her head as they weren’t all her friends. Some were nice, but others were mean because they were bigger. She liked the girls who shared the beds beside her and one of the older girls who had not long been adopted. She was like an older sister taking care of them along with the caretakers.

"That can’t be true. They’ll be your friend by the end of the day. Who wishes to play hide and seek? I will be the one to try finding all of you," Annalise said, watching as all but two people raised their hands. "Those who want to play should go hide. I will count to one hundred and try to find you with Lydia’s help. One," Annalise started to count.

Rafael found this to not be fair as Annalise was going to hunt down all of them. She might start off doing this to be fun, but it wouldn’t be long before she was competitive and tried to find them fast.

Rafael watched as the children ran around in different directions to find the perfect place they thought they could hide from Annalise. "Good luck," he said, laying back on the grass as he was not taking part in the game.

Annalise had gotten her rest inside the carriage as they travelled here but he had stayed awake most of it as someone needed to care for the horses.

All Rafael wanted to do right now was rest. He would like to do it on the warm bed that was awaiting him, but the grass under the shade of the tree would do for now.

"I want to stay here," Lydia said as she was not interested in playing. With all the children hiding from Annalise, she would get to be alone with Rafael. He was always speaking to someone when he came here so now it was her turn to play with him.

Annalise was going to be against it at first, but then she considered that Rafael needed to be left alone with Lydia so they could talk. She had been with Lydia since she arrived so it was only fair Rafael got his chance. Her only concern was that the two were so against being social that they might end up not speaking to each other.

"Then I will go find everyone and come back," Annalise said, going off by herself to find somewhere else to count so she wouldn’t disturb the two.

"Don’t overwork yourself," Rafael reminded her.

Instead of laying with his eyes closed, Rafael sat up so he could watch Annalise run around. Beside him, Lydia sat with hands on her lap, watching Annalise as she walked away.

"Why don’t you want to go play?" Rafael asked, starting a conversation with her. He didn’t blame her as he liked to stay to himself sometimes, but it was a nice day out for the children to play.

"I’m small," Lydia answered.

Rafael had noticed that she was part of the smaller group of children here. There weren’t any babies this time around or no child shorter than her. "We would have asked that they take good care of you. You can’t sit back and not play with the others. Then you’ll always be alone."

"They push to get to the swing and skip turns. Bigger children are mean," Lydia said.

"I was taller than many of my peers when I was your age. As I grew older, I was still the tallest one. Many believed that I might be a bully, but I wasn’t. They only needed to play with me to see that I was nice. Give them another chance. It’s not too late for you to go search for them with Annalise," Rafael said as Annalise was still less than ten steps away from them.

"I will play the next game. I want to stay here," Lydia answered.

Rafael gave up trying to get her to go play for this round as she could play the next one as she said. "I will join you in playing the next game. You can go hide with Annalise and I will try to find you. I’m too tall to try hiding with you. I will give your spot away."

Lydia looked behind them at the tree. "The tree will cover you."

"It would," Rafael agreed.

"And I know other places to hide. You can use them," Lydia said as she had others she could use. She was small enough to fit in places others couldn’t so she wouldn’t be easy to find.

"Then next game you can show me around to where I can hide. We must work together so no one can find us first. Deal?" Rafael asked, holding out his hand for them to shake on it.

"Deal," Lydia answered, touching his hand. She was amazed by how big his hands were compared to her hand. Maybe he was a giant like Annalise said.