Chapter 99: Wild (1)
Annalise kept her eyes on the man who should have been escorted out by now. He was too drunk and would eventually annoy the other people here. She didn’t see why after what happened to her, no one had come to escort him.
Was it because she was not dressed as lavish as everyone else? She was still by Rafael’s side so there should be some respect given to her to not have a drunk man grab her and get away with it. Had Rafael not intervened, her right hand would have helped the poor bastard to sober up or kill him. Both options pleased her.
"I apologise. Walk in front of me," Rafael said, taking her hand to lead her away from the drunk man before he tried something else. He remembered the sight of her beating Connor to know that this man had annoyed the wrong woman.
"You do not need to apologise for something you did not do and how can I walk in front of you when I do not know where we are going? Please take us there quickly before someone else tries to grab me," Annalise said, continuing to look left and right for any more drunkards.
Rafael noticed she had not yanked her hand away like always, but did not comment on it for her to realise since he could keep a better watch on her like this.
"Sit down right here," Rafael said, leading her to an empty table. Once they claimed a table, the guards would make sure no one else bothered them so they could spend good money.
Annalise happily sat down so she would be still to watch for threats. "This seems to be a place for the wealthy, so why did they let in someone talking about scamming a baron?" She asked. Everyone else was sitting quietly, enjoying themselves with the drinks coming to their tables, but the man who grabbed her was standing around, almost falling.
"It doesn’t matter where you got your money from. As long as you can afford to buy something, they will let you in. Someone with new money who does not know how to watch how they spend it is a good target for a business like this. They will keep giving him whatever he asks for and then charge him for all that he owns. All of the guards are watching him so he doesn’t piss off anyone not drunk enough to ignore him," Rafael explained.
’Well, he pissed me off,’ Annalise thought. The fool was stupid to state out loud that he took money from a baron.
If he was smart, this would be the last place he entered. When he had to leave this place, he would be too drunk to notice anyone trailing him, so any money he carried with him would be stolen. His touchy fingers might also cost him his life if he grabbed the wrong woman in here. Why was his first instinct to take his money and waste it?
"No one else would trouble you here with me. They are too focused on their drinks and flirting with the workers," said Rafael. He scanned the room for the man he was looking for, but did not find him lingering around.
Annalise folded her arms, watching Rafael look for something. She did not think of him as the type to enjoy something like this since many of the knights she had passed by said he seemed to not be interested in being near women or much of a drinker. They were the two things this place offered.