The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 305: Second chance (2)

Annalise stopped wrapping his body to look at him. She thought her ears were playing tricks on her, but the way he stared at her told her she heard right. "You’ll forgive me already?" She asked, needing him to repeat it.

"Do you want me to continue being angry with you?" Rafael replied. "I can-"

"No!" Annalise replied, raising her hands to stop him. "You already said you would forgive me if there aren’t any more lies so you can’t take that back now. No more lies between us," she promised.

That wouldn’t be hard since she hadn’t lied to him a lot when it came to their relationship. The biggest lie had been her identity and now that was out in the open.

"Who is Thomas to you?" Rafael asked, still stuck on the fact she said he wasn’t her brother. He remembered when he first spotted the man and thought he liked Annalise. Hearing that they weren’t siblings, he went back to thinking there were some feelings there.

"Men," Annalise rolled her eyes. He could ask about anything else, but he wanted to speak about Thomas. "He is my friend. I have known him forever and since we are to be honest, I must tell you that he was the first man I was ever intimate with. The only one besides you. It didn’t mean anything. I was just curious about sex and he was open to doing it with me."

"I see," said Rafael, understanding the look he received that day.

Thomas probably considered Annalise to be his because of the sexual connection they had along with being friends, so when he saw another man around her, he was ready to send them away. It was good to know he wasn’t Annalise’s brother so he was aware of what Thomas’s gaze meant.

"There’s no need for you to start plotting on Thomas. We’ve already had a conversation about nothing happening between us. Does your jealousy mean we are back together or am I just forgiven? That wasn’t exactly clear," Annalise said, poking at the bandage she created to see if it would come undone with some movement.

Rafael’s blood was already turning the white shirt red, but it wasn’t as bad as before when a lot of blood was oozing out of his wound. He needed to rest for now while she would ride out to get him to a doctor.

"It is both and I am not plotted on his life. He has nothing for me to be jealous of, but it is good to know I might need to watch my back around him. Men don’t give up on crushes so easily," said Rafael.

"Please do not make me regret this decision," Rafael pleaded with her after a moment of silence fell on them.

The heartache she put him through of feeling used was not something he wished to experience twice. He didn’t know if he would have it in him a second time to forgive her if there were more lies about who she was.

His feelings were not meant to be toyed with after he had finally opened his heart to be with someone. He could not stomach any more lies from Annalise though he didn’t think it could get worse than seeing her ride toward him as he did today.

Rafael had been honest with Annalise from the start so it was only fair she gave him that same respect. Going forward, they needed to communicate with each other more.

"I won’t. It appears we still need to work on trust and I am not angry with that. Now, if you wish for us to be together as I want to be with you, please help me try to end this war. I love a good fight, but it is time this war comes to an end. I don’t know how many of my people will listen to me after riding off with you, but I will try to get them to hear me out," said Annalise.

"My knights will follow whatever I say, but I have no control over the border guards. If I do manage to convince them to not attack, you still need to convince the king and the people in the court to sign a truce. My friendship with him won’t do much for you," Rafael said, needing her to understand that he wouldn’t be enough to end this.

What he could do was protect her with his knights.

"I know there will be a long road ahead of us. We just need to try to get both sides to hear each other out and realise that this war is draining for both sides. It’s been so long since we all sat down and talked. This would have never started if your king didn’t try to get us to bow to him. To force us to follow your rules," Annalise replied, getting to her feet now that his wound was bandaged up.

She knew that the current king was just following what a previous king who was long dead wanted, but since war wasn’t working out well for them, why not stop declaring the land to be called his and for her people to act like the rest of the kingdom?

Annalise would have not an issue with allowing others to come onto her land just as she had travelled to land belonging to the king if they were not called wild because she didn’t want to follow foolish rules.

Her people had knowledge to offer the king just as the king would have something to offer them. The only thing stopping that was the king going after something that did not belong to him and asking that they stop their ways.

"I know a few old men who won’t be happy to hear your demands, but Tobias will hear you out. He wants this war over with just as much as you do. Get your father to stop trying to kill me and I will request the king hear out your demands," Rafael promised.

He wanted this to end well and as soon as possible so he could have her back by his side. Rafael was curious if she planned to continue her path of being a leader here or returning to the manor with him. They lived far away from each other which made their relationship more complicated than it already was.

One of them had to sacrifice something important to them to be closer to the other. It was an important conversation he would bring up in the future, but as of right now, he wanted to enjoy being near Annalise again.

They had enough problems to deal with already so for right now while it was just the two of them, he just wanted to sit with Annalise and listen to what she did during her time away from him.

Rafael groaned as he moved to get up from the rock he sat on to go to the patch of grass growing inside the mouth of the cave. The pain he felt earlier might have come from the movement of the horse making his wound uncomfortable and pushing out blood. He needed a moment to rest before getting on his horse again.

Annalise rushed to his side to help him get down to the ground. While he rested, she was going to ride back to get her father and a doctor from either side. The knights would help her once they saw her face. To them, taking care of Rafael would be more important than arguing with her.

"I-You!" Annalise exclaimed as she was pulled down to the ground with him to lay beside him. "I need to go back to stop them from killing each other and get you a doctor."

"Just give me a moment and we will go back together," Rafael answered.