Crow flinched and closed his eyes as William prepared to punch him. However, the strike never came. He looked up again to see that Penelope had captured her comrade by the arm and was now restraining him. Not wanting to lose his opportunity to get away from William, he slipped away from the wall and stood closer to the center of the room so he would have more options if the knight came after him again.

As Penelope began chiding William for the fight, Crow winced. In his anger towards the knight, he had completely forgotten that they would get kicked out if they drew attention to themselves. He hoped none of the other patrons of the inn had overheard the commotion. Since there were so few lodgings in this part of Younis, it was unlikely that they could find anywhere else to stay for the night, and he didn’t want to keep moving without getting some sleep first. Between all the travelling and fighting with William, he hardly had the energy to stand upright anymore.

He was about to go lay down on the now unprotected bed, when Penelope said something else that caught his attention. [i]She was used by a nobleman before?[/i] He glanced at her curiously. She had never mentioned anything about that to him before. By the context of her statement, it sounded like she had been with another man romantically at some point and been deceived by him. He felt a pang of annoyance to know that someone had had the audacity to abuse her affection like that.

[i]I suppose there is one thing I can offer her that a nobleman can’t,[/i] he mused, feeling a little better about their relationship now. [i]I may lie to get what I want from strangers, but I would never play with her heart like that.[/i]

When Penelope finally turned away from William and came over to ask if he was okay, he nodded, “I’m fine.” In truth, his head still pounded from the older knight’s punch, but it was nothing compared to William’s injuries. He looked over at the knight, unable to hide a smug grin when he saw the other man nursing his broken nose. It was quite clear which of them had come off worse in the fight, and even though Penelope had technically saved him from getting beaten up by her comrade, he was proud that, for once, it wasn’t him.

“You’re both going to regret this,” William growled as he wiped blood off of his upper lip. “You’re both acting like I’m the bad guy here, but I was only trying to keep you from throwing your lives away.” He looked at Crow and Penelope in turn. “You’re going to end up hanged, and you’re going to lose everything you’ve worked for. You just wait and see. This little romance of yours is going to tear you both apart.”

“Thanks for the input,” Crow said dryly, putting an arm around Penelope’s shoulders. “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind the next time we [i]sleep together[/i].”

William curled his lip at the thief’s bawdy comment, “I can’t wait to see you standing on the gallows, cur.”

“Don’t hold your breath,” Crow rolled his eyes. He hesitated for a moment before adding, “Oh, and by the way.” He took a sharp step towards the knight, causing him to flinch reflexively, and smirked. “Looks like [i]you[/i] finally learned [i]your[/i] place.” Taking Penelope by the hand, he walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge, letting out his breath in a tired sigh. After such a long day, he was ready to get some much needed sleep.

He pressed a kiss to her cheek and leaned against her shoulder. “I’m glad all of that is finally over,” he whispered into her ear.