As she spoke, Crow could feel Penelope growing more and more distant from him again. He frowned. Just when they were finally beginning to get along, too. He wondered what he done to push her away this time. She was so back and forth with him that he couldn’t read what she was thinking at all. It seemed that it would be harder than he thought to win her trust enough for her to inadvertently give him an opportunity to escape.

He followed her to the room and crossed his arms, leaning against the doorframe as she put on her armor. It was amazing how different she looked when she wore the metal suit, but now that he knew what she looked like underneath it all, he couldn’t quite see her as the big, intimidating knight he thought she had been before. If anything, it was almost cute how small she really was behind the layers of armor. He bit his tongue to keep from smiling.

“Finished?” Crow asked when she looked to be about done putting on her gear. He waved a hand, gesturing for her to exit the room first. “Come on, then. I want my breakfast.”

Once the knight had stepped into the hallway, he trailed after her, closing the door behind them. It was frustrating how he had made so little progress to gain her trust after all the effort he had put in during the first day of their travels together. [i]Maybe I should have taken my chance to run after all,[/i] he thought bitterly as he remembered the alleyway he had spotted earlier.

For a while, they both said nothing as they walked, but eventually Crow had to ask the question he had been thinking about since the previous night.

“What made you decide to become a knight?” he said, breaking the silence. “I’ve seen very few women knights in my life, and none of them were as beautiful as you. Why would you choose the life of a soldier when you could have easily married and had a family?”