When they reached the door of the tavern, Crow let go of Penelope’s hand and stepped inside first. He stopped near the entrance, eagerly taking in as much as he could. Truth be told, he couldn’t remember whether this place made good drinks or not. There were some outstanding taverns in the outer villages, but he was fuzzy about which was which. The real reason he was here was for the people. In his experience, the best way to gather honest information was to speak with the men of the taverns. Usually half drunk and rowdy, they didn’t pay much attention to what they said. Thus, they wouldn’t be careful to use filters around strangers.

He examined each of the individual faces in the small room. Fortunately, it didn’t look like there were any men here who might recognize him from his past visits to this tavern. He was relieved about that, since he wanted to avoid the uncomfortable topic of his arrest, but he also noticed one thing that made him frown in annoyance. Off to one side, there were a couple of drunken men eyeing Penelope hungrily. He glanced back at her. She seemed to have spotted them as well and looked visibly uncomfortable. Well, he wouldn’t stand for that. While it wasn’t his main goal, he had brought Penelope here to show her the better parts of the outer villages.

“This way, love,” Crow said, slipping his arm around her waist to guide her towards an empty table. He shot the two men a pointed glare until they turned away, muttering amongst each other. Satisfied that they had stopped their leering, the thief smirked and murmured into Penelope’s ear, “You can thank me later.” He gestured at an old, wooden bench for her to sit down and then took a seat across from her, leaning forward and crossing his arms on the table. “So, not too shabby, eh? I mean, it’s nothing classy, but this place has its own kind of charm.”