The Knight's Mysterious Maid

Annalise began to lower her hands since Rafael wasn’t accepting her ribbon. It wasn’t fancy like the others she saw, but it was something he could claim to be a charm. She did not know about them before now to have one to give away. "Never mind," Annalise said. "You are to tie it yourself. That is the way it works. With a charm from you, it is extra unlikely that I will be losing today," Rafael replied. He held his sword out for her to tie the ribbon on the handle.

"I am lending you a bit of my strength so you can knock Christian onto his ass. Good luck with your match," Annalise said, tugging on the bow she made to make sure it would not easily come off. "I think they are waiting for you."

"If you get tired you can return to my tent. I don’t expect you to stand around all day. There is a lot of food around the field. Say that you are my maid and you will be fed. If you are turned away, find Edwin. Do not get into trouble," Rafael said, finding it hard to leave her side since he got the feeling something would happen.

"I will be fine. I will go to your tent when I am tired, but I am okay with standing here for a moment to get a good view of what is happening. You shouldn’t keep them waiting any longer. I promise I will not get into trouble," Annailise promised, holding up her hand to show how serious she was about what she promised.

She was going to stand around to watch for a little while and then leave to find Thomas. It was unfortunate that the king was not coming, but they could still make use of the person coming on his behalf. Getting rid of anyone from the palace was good for them.

Rafael reluctantly left Annalise alone since he had to go and get the competition started. He wasn’t worried about her. It was the people around her who were staring at the two of them, trying to figure out his relationship with Annalise. They concerned him so he had to try to see Annalise as often as he could throughout the day.

Annalise was able to take care of herself, but it didn’t help him to stop worrying.

Annalise waved goodbye to Rafael and then she placed her hands behind her back. Thanks to her wanting him to beat Christian, she had given away the one thing she was using to stop her hair from blowing around in the wind.