The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 500: A seat at the table (3)

Celine couldn’t wait any longer for Phillip to be finished with his weird greeting to River and went around them to greet Beatrice. "It is nice to finally meet Rafael’s family. I’ve been looking forward to seeing the people responsible for such a good young man."

"Oh, dear. You’re going to make me blush," Beatrice said, touching her cheeks. "I’ve been looking forward to meeting you too. Annalise is a special woman and I’m more than happy she is the one Rafael is settling down with."

"We are to be wedding planners I hear. I hope you have some spare time for us to sit and put some ideas together. I can’t wait to start looking for dress styles for Annalise to wear. I’ve longed to see her in a wedding dress and now the time has come," said Celine.

"I know a few dressmakers here who can bring us some dresses to start getting an idea of what you want while you’re here. You can visit my home so we’ll have a quiet space to work. Then there’s the baby. We have so much work to do as grandmothers," Beatrice said, but she looked forward to it rather than feeling it burdened.

"Yes, as grandmothers we have to stick together. We can stick together and start making plans or get to know each other. I don’t know what our husbands are doing," Celine said, looking at Phillip and River still standing together holding hands.

Phillip was nice with the greeting but Celine couldn’t understand why he was still holding River’s hand and squeezing it. She didn’t care to bring herself to make Phillip let go of River’s hand as she was more interested in speaking to Beatrice.

"Lydia, please come sit next to me," Annalise said, pulling out the chair to her right for Lydia to sit. "Father, please let go of his hand and stop trying to prove that you are stronger."

Lydia went to Annalise so they could sit together. Before she got up onto the chair she looked at Phillip smiling at River. She had overheard Celine speaking of being worried about Phillip seeing River again but it seemed the two of them were friends so why was anyone worried?

Phillip squeezed River’s hand once more and then let go so he could join in sitting down for dinner. He was surprised to see that Celine had chosen to sit beside Beatrice so he was left with sitting by River or on the other side of the table.

River quietly went to the end of the table to sit as Beatrice would be too busy with her new friend and family to be focused on him. He didn’t mind it as she needed someone to speak to these days since she stopped spending time with the women in town.

"I’m sorry that I am late," Siena said as she entered the room.

Behind her was Logan who felt a bit awkward joining the family for their dinner, but Siena invited him with Annalise’s permission so he was here to sit with them. He couldn’t say no when Siena so kindly asked him to sit with her so she would have someone to talk to when the family would get lost in conversation amongst themselves.

Rafael took his seat at the head of the table with Annalise to his right and his mother to his left.

"Soon we’ll need a bigger table with how fast this family is growing and the friends you are having over. I never thought I would see the day Rafael’s table would be so full. I hope to see us needing to run around for more chairs in the future because you have so many guests," said Beatrice.

This was a nice change from what she saw a few months ago.

Their family of three was getting so much bigger after being just her, River, and Rafael since Nicolas passed. The knights were considered family too but this was a little different.

"The food will be served shortly," Mavis announced. She planned for the family dinner to go smoothly since it was the first one. There was no room for error tonight and luckily, Annalise wasn’t working for her anymore so there shouldn’t be any errors.

Mavis found Annalise’s parents to be just as crazy as her and for the time being, she would stay quiet unless she had to inform everyone about their food.

"We worried all for nothing. Our parents are getting along quite well," Annalise said to Rafael.

She knew their mothers would instantly get along, but she held her breath for a moment when her father greeted River. Annalise thought it would have been a bit hard for the two to speak since at one point in time they were trying to kill each other.

"We can hear you, Annalise. We know how to behave so our children who are engaged don’t have to worry about us not being able to be a family in the future. Give it a bit more time and the past will be forgotten," Celine said, referring to River and Phillip.

They might have a lot in common to one day bond and become closer.

"Then, does that mean you are open to letting them spar so I can watch?" Annalise asked. Her childhood dreams were close to happening with her father and River being around each other. She could finally get a better look of what the fight in the past might have looked like.

"No," Celine said, sticking to her words that there were not to be any fighting even if it was to just play around. "Your father has already promised me that he won’t touch any swords. This family doesn’t need to be doing some kind of fighting all the time."

Beatrice loved Celine even more for saying this because now she had someone around to join her in telling Rafael that he needed to take some more breaks.

"I didn’t promise that I wouldn’t use my hands," Phillip said, raising his glass of water to Annalise.

Celine welcomed Phillip to do it because then he would have to prepare himself to sleep alone at night. She needed at least one week without seeing her husband using a sword or his hands to fight anyone. This was the most relaxed she had ever been since becoming his wife as she didn’t need to worry about him being wounded or worse.

Annalise noticed how calm her mother was and said, "I don’t think you should take the risk, father."

"Dinner is served," Mavis said as she came back into the dining room with a line of maids behind her bringing out dishes and jugs with drinks.

"I will help you put what you cannot reach on your plate," Annalise whispered to Lydia.

Annalise then looked at the maids she once worked with setting the dishes down on the table. Her attention turned to the two families sitting with each other, slowly falling back into small conversations as they started to get to know each other.

Annalise couldn’t help but smile because of what running off to this manor had led her to end up with. She couldn’t be more grateful for the new family and friends she had now along with the man beside her.