Chapter 222: Family (1)
"Thelma doesn’t dislike you. She is wary about who gets near to the children because there have been a lot of bad incidents here. She is like every mother to their children. You can go play with the little girl as long as you don’t send her running inside screaming about a strange lady," Rafael said, looking past Annalise at Logan and the other knights looking around the area.
"Strange lady?" Annalise muttered, taking offense to his words. She walked toward the little girl and hoped she would be welcomed to stay under the tree instead of having to be anywhere near Rafael.
Annalise whipped her head around the moment she heard footsteps behind her. Rafael was not far behind her, walking in the same direction. "What are you doing? You are supposed to be inside looking around the orphanage. I will not scare any of the children."
"I am looking around the outside to see if it is secure first and then I will go back inside. I told you that there have been incidents," Rafael replied, walking past Annalise to inspect the gates.
There were people who sometimes had no respect for the orphanage and damaged the walls. Then there was the incident with the man who had too much to drink and on his way back home, he ended up at the orphanage, trying to get inside.
"Before I said I wanted to speak to the little girl, you were heading inside. Now you suddenly have to check the outside? Are you really the commander of knights? I am starting to feel like I have been fooled. You cannot hide your motives well and I am more certain now that you are playing a game here," Annalise said.
Annalise knew Rafael wasn’t over his feelings for her and he was trying to do something to get a rise out of her, but she didn’t know what yet. Whatever it was, she was not going to fall for it. Now, she wanted to find out what it was and ruin his plans. The look on his face full of disappointment would be satisfying.
Annalise walked ahead of Rafael so he wouldn’t scare the little girl. She looked on the verge of running away so she wouldn’t have to speak to anyone.
"Hello!" Annalise greeted her with a smile to show she was friendly. "Do you mind if I sit here with you?"
The little girl Annalise guessed to be no more than five shook her head. She then lowered her head to avoid Annalise’s gaze and not look at the large man standing near her.
"See," Annalise said, side-eyeing Rafael since he had not moved on to do whatever he said he was going to do. "You are scaring her. Sometimes he scares me too. He is like a giant, isn’t he? An ugly one," Annalise whispered.
Rafael pretended he didn’t hear what Annalise said and looked at the wooden gates which would need to be repaired before winter would come.