The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 482: House filled with love (1)

Annalise eventually ended up behind Rafael and Lydia. Walking when they did and stopping when Lydia wanted to look at something. She used this time to look through the bag packed for Lydia to see what she had and what they would need from her gifts to bring to the room to help make the room look like it belonged to a child.

Inside were two dresses, one to wear to bed and one for the morning, a toy, and a few other things Annalise couldn’t reach without taking everything out of the bag.

’She must really like ribbons,’ Annalise thought as there were two to match the dresses. She had not seen many of the other girls wearing ribbons as much as Lydia did.

’This is your room. Annalise and I will be over here," Rafael said, pointing to his bedroom.

He then opened the door to the room now belonging to Lydia and let go of her hand so she could explore while he brought some light to the room thanks to how far away the window was from the door.

Lydia couldn’t see much of the dark room, but she knew that it was big. She walked toward the bed that was high up and far longer than her arms if she were to open them wide. If she were to lay on the bed, how would anyone see her?

She placed her hand on the bed, feeling the soft blanket that covered it. It was like when she had fallen in the snow. How was it possible that she would get to have this bed all to herself? It could fit many of the children she shared a room with back at the orphanage.

Lydia put her right foot up, trying to climb up onto the bed. She pulled on the blanket to help pull herself up. The bed was higher than her own which was low so she could easily sit on it. She could get up if she jumped but then it would make her dress rise.

"We’ll need to get you something to step on," Annalise said as she put the bag down and went over to help Lydia. "The beds here are a little higher than the ones at the manor and the one I have at home. Why did everything become higher now that Lydia is here?"

Now that Lydia was present, Annalise was starting to notice how many changes they needed to make to suit Lydia at this home and at the one they had at the border. Everything was high up since no children were ever in this house and because two giant men were living there.

Lydia got up onto the bed thanks to Annalise’s help. Her body sank into the bed as she moved. It was not as hard as she thought it would be. She moved her hands in a circular motion, enjoying the feeling of the bed that belonged to her.

Her attention on the bed didn’t last long as Rafael had successfully brought light to the room for Lydia to look around.

Lydia became distracted by the large mirror and two doors in the room. She had to know what was behind them.

Annalise moved Lydia’s bag to the bed and went around to the right of the bed to open the window to bring a little air into the room as the room had not been used since they returned and maybe since Annalise had used it once during the trip with the Callahans.

Lydia explored on her own while Rafael and Annalise tried to tidy the room. She opened the first door and found a bathroom. Her eyes widened at how large the bathroom was and there was a tub in the middle just for her to use when she wanted to bathe. She wouldn’t need to get into a line.

Lydia didn’t stay in the bathroom long because she was curious about what the other door was for. She already had a bed and found a bathroom. What else was there in the room?

She left the bathroom and opened the second door which revealed a closet for her to put away her clothes.

"I will put your dresses there when we are finished with dinner," Annalise said, standing behind Lydia to look inside the room.

"Mine," Lydia said, pointing to the room.

Annalise smiled, finding it to be cute how Lydia didn’t believe this all belonged to her. "Yes, it belongs to you. No one else will come in here to put their clothes inside or use your bathroom. Are you ready to play or do you want to keep exploring? It is time for Rafael to start making dinner. We can join him if you’d like."

"I don’t know how to cook," Lydia answered. She wanted to start playing so Annalise would like her, but if Annalise wanted her to help with cooking, she could try.

"I can’t cook either. I was just being nice so Rafael would know we thought of him. We can go down to play by the front door so we’d play near Rafael in the kitchen. We don’t want him to be sad that he has to cook while we play right?" Annalise asked.

Lydia shook her head, "No."

She didn’t want Rafael to be sad again after he looked sad earlier. "We can cook. I can hold something," she said, looking down at her hands.

"We can do that, but once there is a fire we should leave and let Rafael take over. We’ll need to wash our hands," Annalise said, holding Lydia’s hand this time. "We can wash our hands in the kitchen."

"You can play. I can get it done quickly by myself. I am not sad," Rafael said, stooping down so Lydia could see his face. "I don’t mind that you didn’t like the toy. You don’t need to like everything that we give you," he said, clearing this up now so she wouldn’t force herself to like something she didn’t or do something she didn’t want to do just to please them.

"You want to play with Annalise, don’t you?" Rafael asked. She was looking forward to playing from the moment they got into the carriage.

Lydia nodded her head. She only had one night to play with Annalise and Rafael to show them that she was fun to keep around forever so she wanted to play.

"Then you can go play and I will come join you when I can. Deal?" Rafael asked, holding his hand out for them to shake on it.

Lydia placed her hand against Rafael’s and shook it. "If I am not fun to play with, will you take me back?"

"No. Why would you think that?" Annalise asked. She looked to Rafael for if he had any idea what Lydia meant, but he appeared just as lost as she was.

"When children go to play, sometimes they come back and sometimes they stay with the people they play with. If I do good, do I get to stay here?" Lydia asked as she wanted this to be her new home or the castle Rafael had somewhere else.

"Oh," Annalise said, now understanding why Lydia was so interested in playing. ’Saying this doesn’t seem any better than telling the child they are in the process of being adopted,’ she thought.

Lydia had somewhat understood that this was a test and if it all went well she could stay. Annalise didn’t want Lydia to think about whether she was getting to stay just yet and trying to prove that she could fit in.

"You don’t have to be good at playing to stay here. You see... Well," Annalise said, not knowing how to explain what was happening to Lydia without revealing they were going to adopt her just yet. "This is hard," she muttered.

"Do you want to stay here, Lydia?" Rafael asked, taking over from Annalise.

’Yes," Lydia answered. She wanted to be here if they’d let her. She could do something around the house so she wouldn’t be useless.

"Then we will let the others know tomorrow, but for now, just enjoy playing with Annalise. Don’t think about having to prove that you are fun to play with," said Rafael.

"Okay! Can we go look around?" Lydia asked, looking up at Annalise.

"Yes. We can go over to the room I share with Rafael. Thank you," Annalise mouthed to Rafael. If he wasn’t around, she didn’t know how she would have made Lydia stop worrying. This was going to be harder than she thought, but luckily, Rafael was around to help her when she was struggling to find answers.

"Tomorrow you can go for a short ride with me on my horse and there are plenty of trees for us to try-"

"Annalise," Rafael spoke up to put an end to her plans. What part of her needing to be careful did she not understand? "You shouldn’t ride your horse or climb trees."

"I was going to let Lydia sit on the horse while I walked beside it, leading it by the reins. We can’t speak of our games around him," Annalise said, putting her finger on her lips to let Lydia know they had another secret.

Lydia mimicked Annalise by putting her finger on her lips. She didn’t know why their games had to be a secret, but it was fun to have secrets with Annalise.