The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 479: Stay with you (2)

"Are you prepared to cook dinner for us? I can help you cut up whatever you need, but I cannot help with adding any flavour to the food. We shouldn’t scare Lydia on the first night she is with us," said Annalise.

Annalise was paying great attention to any noise on the other side of the door as they awaited Thelma returning with Lydia.

"I will do all the cooking. You only need to keep her busy until dinner is ready. We’ll need to put together a room for her. Perhaps the one you used before," Rafael suggested since it was to the opposite of the room they were using now.

Should anything happen during the night, they would be nearby.

"I-"

Annalise was interrupted by the door opening and Thelma walking in holding Lydia’s hand.

"Her bag is being packed by one of the other children and we just sent off the message to the guards so could you please give us a moment before we let you leave?" Thelma asked.

She trusted Rafael, but she didn’t want to be any different in this process than she was with anyone else. Thelma didn’t want the guards to think that she was playing favourites. That she was being careless because it was someone she knew.

"That is fine," Annalise replied as she stood up to greet Lydia. "Hello."

Lydia didn’t believe when she heard that Annalise and Rafael were back. Then she was surprised by the news that she was getting to leave to play like some of the other children had done in the past. Some had returned the day after while others returned, but went back to play and never came back to the orphanage.

Lydia wondered if she was good at playing games if she would get to play with Annalise forever. She would be good at playing any games if she was the only child around. She had helped Rafael to hide all day but he was too tall to stay hidden forever.

Lydia waved at Annalise to greet her and looked at Rafael.

"Excuse me for a moment. I will check if the bag is finished," Thelma said, purposely leaving Lydia with the couple to see how she would be before they left.

Lydia turned to watch Thelma walk away.

"You have a pretty pink ribbon now,’ Annalise said to get Lydia’s attention. "Do you wear the ribbon to bed?"

"Yes," Lydia answered touching the ribbon which helped to keep her hair in a ponytail. If she took the ribbon out, her hair would fall and be knotted up in the morning. "A friend tied it."

"Is it a friend you made today?" Annalise asked, sitting back down to be near Lydia’s level.

"No. She always takes care of me after bathing because the caretakers ask her to. She is older. Like this tall," Lydia said, raising her hand in the air and tiptoeing to try to show how tall her friend was.

The older children always had to help with bathing and dressing the younger children even when they didn’t want to.

"Where are we going to play?" Lydia asked. She was excited to leave the orphanage.

Other than visiting a church or sometimes going to a school, she wouldn’t leave the orphanage. All their playing was done around the orphanage.

"We are going to play at our home. Rafael and I are taking you there to join us," Annalise answered.

"Oh," said Lydia, curious about what their home looked like. She heard that Rafael lived in a big castle, but when she sat by the tree and looked out at the town, she couldn’t see a castle. "Is it a castle?"

"Castle?" Annalise repeated, looking to Rafael for help because she didn’t know about a castle.

"She must mean the manor. It is not in this town," Rafael answered.

Lydia’s shoulders dropped due to disappointment because she wanted to see the castle. She also wanted to see the palace. Still, she was ready to leave to play with Annalise and Rafael.

"You can take a seat, Lydia. I don’t know how long we will have to wait for Thelma to return," Annalise said, patting the empty chair beside her.

Lydia walked toward the chair to sit down.

Annalise held the chair so it wouldn’t move as Lydia got up. "There," she said after Lydia was seated. "What games do you want to play with us?"

"What games do you like?" Lydia asked so she could do as Annalise wanted in hopes of staying longer. She liked the orphanage, but she wanted to go with Annalise and Rafael. She wanted to see what happened to the other children when they did well with playing.

Do they become a family after?

Annalise couldn’t think on the spot of a game she liked to play that wouldn’t be too dangerous for Lydia to play or too dangerous for her to play now that she was pregnant. The safest game she could think of was hide and seek, but they had already played it during the day.

"Hmm. We could have a drawing contest," Annalise suggested, hoping it was something Lydia liked to do. Annalise had some talent in drawing maps, but if she had to draw a person, she would not win the contest. That would be fun. We can try drawing birds." novelbuddy.cσ๓

Lydia’s eyes lit up because this was something she was good at. She liked when they got to draw and she loved watching birds to know what they looked like. She was good at this so Annalise wouldn’t dislike playing with her. "We have a lot of colours and sometimes go outside to draw."

"That sounds like fun. You’ll have to convince Rafael to draw with us," Annalise said, bringing Rafael into the plan. "Maybe we’ll get to see his funny-looking drawing."

Rafael didn’t pay mind to Annalise thinking he couldn’t draw because she was in for a surprise. He could certainly draw a bird and he was determined to draw his bird better than Annalise’s.

Lydia leaned forward so she could see past Annalise to Rafael more clearly. "Will you please draw with us? Please!"

"I will draw with you. I will also need to find everything we need to draw with at this time because someone didn’t think this through," Rafael said, poking Annalise’s arm as she was the one he spoke of.

All they would have at home was the paper to draw on but nothing more. There wasn’t any paint since his parents didn’t need it and Rafael certainly did not need it.

"Then, how about we go tomorrow to pick out some paints and canvas so we can draw birds and hang them our art on the walls? Then it would be a real contest. The winner’s art will go on the wall near the front door. What do you think?" Annalise asked Lydia.

Lydia wanted to go pick out paint, but if they didn’t do it tonight, then they wouldn’t have a game to play. "If we don’t draw, then what will we play? I won’t get to stay if I don’t play," Lydia said, wanting another game to be played.

"You will still stay with us tonight," Annalise answered, feeling that she was missing something here. "We can think of more games to play while we wait for Thelma to return. We can play games up until it is time for you to go to bed. Deal?"

Lydia nodded her head, cheering up as she had a chance to prove she could be fun enough to stay with them.