The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 476: Growing family (3)

"You can relax. This will be like a normal conversation so there is no need to be nervous. It will end before you know it," Thelma said, taking her seat at the small desk she used for matters like this. "Please excuse that there isn’t much space in here. The rooms are limited and this is the only one we can spare for speaking with potential parents."

Thelma had assigned all the bigger rooms for where the children would sleep and to store most of their supplies.

"It is fine with us. I will send supplies to expand it," Rafael said, looking around the room which needed repairs.

The orphanage needed to have repairs now before any harsh weather could ruin it and the children would have to be placed somewhere else.

River had offered to buy a home in town with plenty of rooms to house children and store all their supplies properly, but Thelma declined. Sometimes she was too stubborn and didn’t like accepting a lot of help from one person even though they weren’t expecting something in return. She always turned to the palace for help as it was the palace’s duty to help them.

"Thank you, but we’ve already taken so much from your family. We will take care of this by ourselves. Now, I have your papers from the court Rafael," Thelma said, looking through a small stack of papers for the ones with his name on them. "I read through all of it already and it seems perfectly fine. I’m yet to know much about Annalise."

Thelma had enough time to take in all about Iris and Annalise. She was going to try her best to be fair, but she had to ask about the border since she knew nothing about it. She only knew about the dangers on this side of the kingdom to prepare questions to ask how parents would keep the children safe.

What was she to ask about the border without being insensitive?

"Right. I wanted to mention it yesterday, but I feared ruining a good day. Truthfully, I am not from this kingdom. I come from the border. Not a town near the border. I come from the land that your king desperately wanted," Annalise revealed, playing with her fingers as she awaited Thelma’s reaction.

"Rafael already told you, didn’t he?" Annalise asked as Thelma’s reaction felt forced. She had seen better acting in the red light district. "Of course he did," Annalise said, looking to her right at Rafael. "It was meant to be something I shared with you."

"I will apologise on behalf of him. He did it because I sent it to the court for what they have about the two of you and there was nothing to be found about you, Annalise. I thought we might have all been seeing a ghost. Had you told me that you were from the border today, this meeting would have ended now," said Thelma.

She would have gotten up and asked that Rafael take Annalise from the orphanage so no one could say they were hiding someone who came from the border. In the past, anyone hiding an enemy was killed along with the person the guards found. ƒrēenovelkiss.com

If Rafael hadn’t mentioned Nicolas, Iris, and the sign, it would have been a lot harder for Thelma to treat this as if it were normal. Thelma went digging around in Nicolas’s old things he left around and found herself even more confused about her friend.

"Since it has been shared, there is nothing I can do now. You can ask me anything you want to know about the border. It is land foreign to you so I am sure you want to know about what Lydia would expect there," Annalise said, deciding to move on. She would question Rafael about this later.

"I will and please stop me when it feels like I am speaking out of turn and asking foolish questions. I know nothing about that side of the world aside from what I heard from travellers. I doubt those travellers have ever been close to the border also. Please stop me any time," Thelma said because she didn’t want to be rude.

"Now, let’s start with why you picked Lydia to be the child you wish to adopt. I recall that you spent most of your time with her on the first trip you came here," Thelma said, beginning with the questioning. "You didn’t show any signs of wanting to adopt then."

"It would have been a rash decision then and since I was planning to return to the border alone, I wasn’t thinking of taking a child with me. It was only after Rafael and I were officially in a relationship and I started to think about starting a family together that I thought about Lydia again. I couldn’t get her off my mind," Annalise said, recounting the time they were travelling to Lockwood.

"I realised then that I wanted her to be in my life more and I would gladly become a mother for her. I spoke to Rafael about adopting Lydia and he was on board with it. Coming back here and being with her again, I know that it wasn’t some phase that would go away. I love being near Lydia and would love for her to be part of our family," Annalise finished.

Annalise couldn’t tell if her words were enough because Thelma just wrote notes on a paper and then moved on to Rafael.

"And Rafael, you have been coming to the orphanage for many years, but never thought of adopting. I know that it was because you travel a lot, but why now are you thinking of adopting? Is it only because you are doing this for Annalise?" Thelma asked.

Lydia needed a father just as she needed a mother. Rafael couldn’t be adopting her solely based on the fact Annalise had come to love Lydia. He had to be ready to become someone’s father and love Lydia.

"I couldn’t think of bringing any children to the manor because I am rarely home then there was the problem of me not being married so there wouldn’t be a mother figure at home to care for the child. I am now settling down with Annalise and like Annalise, there is a bond I have with Lydia as opposed to with the other children," Rafael answered.

Annalise was the one to think about Lydia more, but after she brought up adopting Lydia, he thought about what their life would be with Lydia in it. He had already started to view her as his daughter and after playing around with Lydia yesterday, he had come to love her more.

"I care for her and it is not just to please Annalise. I would love to take her as my daughter."

"I see. It is good to know you are not just doing this to make Annalise happy. I’ve seen one partner coming to adopt because it was what the other person wanted. It only ends with that person finding it hard to bond with the child as it was not what they wanted in the first place," Thelma said, happy so far with the answers.

However, this was still far from over as there was so much more she needed to ask.

"What do you think makes you fit to be parents for Lydia? Have you ever taken care of a child more than just watching them for one night?" Thelma asked, moving on to the next question.