The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 499: A seat at the table (2)

"You should have told me that you were coming with your family."

"Then it wouldn’t have been a surprise that we were coming. My parents will only stay a few days because that was all my father could bring himself to do. I have Ezra taking charge while I am here and my father will take over when he returns," Annalise informed Rafael.

She sat with him in the dining room, watching Lydia occasionally pop up after she came out of a room and walked around to find another.

They were all waiting for Beatrice and River to arrive after inviting them to have one big family dinner for the two families to properly meet each other.

Annalise was prepared for dinner to go good or bad because of their fathers. Two men who once tried to kill each other meeting again.

"Is it just me or does Mavis seem more nervous than normal whenever she looks at me? Is she afraid because we came from the border?" Annalise asked whilst looking at Mavis. "We had started over last time and now we have to do it again. Hello," she waved to Mavis. "See, she’s running away."

"She must still be getting used to you becoming my wife and now Lydia is here so like everyone else she is on her toes, Did anything new happen since the letter you sent?" Rafael asked, placing his hand on Annalise’s belly.

Maybe his eyes were playing tricks on him because he wanted the child to be coming sooner, but he thought her belly looked a little different. Touching it, he couldn’t feel a difference and thought it was just his excitement that had him thinking there were changes.

"There were a few times my parents or Siena had to care for Lydia because I didn’t feel good in the morning. I’ve learned what to avoid as it makes me sick. I wish you could see the progress that has been made with the manor and other homes are starting to go up. I cannot wait," Annalise said, excited to see the new town be finished.

"I’ve been getting letters from people interested in moving there so you might get a few visitors in the coming week. I’ll send some of my knights to help watch over those moving to the border so there isn’t any trouble," said Rafael.

"So far, anyone who came to build a home has been focused on building. Maybe because no one from this side has come to build yet. We’ll see once they start to arrive. I’ve received a letter from the court questioning when our wedding will be," Annalise said, annoyed just from mentioning the letter.

"Since everything is not finished yet I say we wait a little to have the wedding. I wouldn’t mind waiting for the child to come to then have the wedding. We should be able to move into the manor by then even if it isn’t complete. What do you think?" Annalise asked as Rafael needed on board with her plan.

If he wanted a quick wedding so the truce could be signed and she would officially be a Callahan then she would do that.

"We can wait if it is what you want," Rafael answered. His only rush at the moment was moving to the border. When they got married, he wanted them to be living in the same home.

"Did you find Herbert for me? Lydia has been playing with the kitten and when we head back, I want to take Herbert with me. I hope he is still around and didn’t manage to get out of the room. I should look for him now-"

Rafael held her hand to stop her from leaving to look for a spider. "Annalise, for as long as I have been home and someone has been cleaning that room, I have not heard anything about a spider. At this point, you should assume that it is dead. It was a spider. Quite small for anyone to step on and I don’t know about them living long."

Annalise wasn’t happy to hear that Herbert might be dead. "Well, that is upsetting. I will still search the room for him later to make sure we are not claiming him to be dead when he is still alive. Or she."

Celine walked into the dining room to speak to Rafael now that her tour was over. "Rafael, the manor is as grand as Annalise described it to us. I’m glad we tagged along so we wouldn’t miss seeing your home and meeting your parents. Phillip won’t say it, but he is quite interested in your training ground for the knights."

"He can join them in training tomorrow," Rafael said, finding it to be good for the knights to have Phillip around.

"Oh no. If he steps foot anywhere with a sword when this is meant to be a trip with him taking a break, I am going to drag him back to the border or break the sword," Celine said, determined to have a proper rest with Phillip.

Annalise worried for her father after hearing this.

"Grandmother!" They heard Lydia’s voice from outside the dining room.

"My mother is here," Rafael said, getting up from his seat to go to his mother to help with doing the introductions.

The two sides were finally in the same place and this first meeting had to go well especially since Lydia was present.

Rafael exited the dining room and found his mother speaking to Lydia with his father right beside her.

"Oh, I’ve missed you," Beatrice said, bending down to hug Lydia. "I have so many things at my home for you to play with. Why didn’t you inform me she was coming back, Rafael? And Annalise or the fact we finally were getting to meet her parents? We had to rush to find a gift."

Before coming over for dinner after receiving an invitation, Beatrice made a quick stop to try getting gifts for Celine and River. She picked them based on the little information she had.

"Their visit was a surprise to me too. They are inside of the dining room. You can come in and take a seat since dinner will soon start. You have nothing to be nervous about," Rafael said, trying to calm his mother.

"I’ve been telling her that since you invited us over for dinner. We’ll be spending the night here if you don’t mind. Making use of all the time the Woods are here and so is Lydia," said River.

Rafael didn’t mind his parents staying the night. Lydia would enjoy it and once his mother got to talking with Celine, the two might not want to part.

Rafael walked with his parents back inside the dining room. "Mother, father, this is Celine and Phillip Woods. Celine, this is my mother and Phillip you already know my father."

Phillip stared at River, instantly remembering the face from the past. There were a few facial changes with River since he was older, but he was not much different from the man he battled years ago. Rafael was a splitting copy of his father just like Phillip thought.

Phillip left Celine’s side and walked over to River. River followed in leaving Beatrice to meet Phillip halfway.

They stopped at an arm’s length away from each other and just stared at each other for a moment until Phillip held out his hand.

"Truce?" Phillip asked, ready to let go of the past. He was still going to challenge River to a match later when Celine wasn’t watching, but right now he would ease the children’s minds.

"Truce," River agreed, shaking Phillip’s hand. He gave Phillip’s hand a little squeeze after Phillip squeezed his first.

Annalise noticed what they were doing and shook her head. "At least they aren’t trying to kill each other."