Crow felt his face grow warm with embarrassment when Penelope said he needed to stop picking fights with William. He shifted his weight uncomfortably. She wasn’t wrong, but his pride wouldn’t allow him to agree with her out loud. [i]Someone needed to put that old fool in his place,[/i] he rationalized to himself. [i]Besides, if I hadn’t done anything, he might have hurt her.[/i]

While the excuses appealed to his bitterness towards the knight, the more logical part of him knew it had been unnecessary to start a fight with William. If Penelope could easily hold her own in a battle, then she could do the same with the older knight. His response to William grabbing her arm had been purely driven by blind rage, and his argumentative words that followed hadn’t been any better either. He winced as he began to realize that he had acted just as poorly towards William as the knight had been acting towards him.

Crow lowered his gaze to the floor, suddenly feeling ashamed of his impulsive reaction. “Sorry,” he muttered sheepishly. “I’ll try not to let him get to me so much.” Closing his eyes, he took comfort in her touch as she rubbed her hand along his back. He appreciated that she wasn’t mad enough about what had happened to put distance between them. After getting so worked up, it was nice to have someone around to help him calm down again.

When she suggested that they go to sleep, he nodded tiredly in agreement and laid down beside her on the bed, wrapping an arm around her middle to hold her close to himself. Even if the method by which they had managed to share a bed hadn’t been the greatest, he was still glad they had won against William on the issue. Holding her in his arms and laying on a soft mattress was much better than being alone on a cold, unwelcoming floor.

He closed his eyes again and breathed softly against her neck, “Goodnight, love.”