Chapter 176: The woman in the manor (1)
Annalise dragged her feet down to the kitchen to enjoy her dinner before having to go back to see if Rafael would need her for something before he went to bed. She spent most of the day having to listen to him try to piece together why it might have been her peeping at knights.
He was teasing her, trying to get under her skin, and it angered her that it worked. She wanted to flip his large body and stick his head down into the mud until he would take back his words, but being the good maid that she was, she smiled and said nothing in response to his words.
"What have you looking so down?" Heidi asked, walking ahead of Annalise to get a good look at her face. "We have more help now so we will get rest more times throughout the day. I will be cleaning the first floor of the knight’s quarters with four other maids instead of two. More will be coming tomorrow."
"Really? I thought it was only one group coming in the evening after the one from this morning. That is what Mavis said. They have hired a lot more than I thought they would," Annalise said, feeling better now that her mind was taken off Rafael.
"We really do need the help with all the knights we have to clean up after and the other rooms in the manor. This is the normal amount of maids the manor would have to help with the knights, but you came at a time when the manor was empty. I think those coming tomorrow will work in the stables, garden, and around the yard. There are plenty of horses to be cared for," Heidi said.
Annalise now wondered where Rafael kept all the horses for the knights to travel with. The ones in the stables were not enough.
"I have good news for you. Beatrice says she doesn’t want to keep me from Rafael when she is here so she asked that I recommend a maid that I am close with to care for her. I suggested you and Cara so the next time she is here, she might call upon you. Are you going to faint?" Annalise questioned because of Heidi’s expression.
Heidi hugged Annalise, catching her friend off guard. She longed to be picked as a maid for a guest and to be considered for Beatrice was great news.
Annalise balanced herself so that neither she nor Heidi would fall. "Um," she replied, not knowing how to handle the affection. Her hand moved to pat Heidi’s back, but then she hesitated.