As Crow approached the knights, he could tell that there was a clear tension between them. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at William, his gut reaction being to assume the older knight had done something to set her off. However, as he took in the scene a bit more, it didn’t look like there had been a fight between them. Even though they seemed annoyed with each other, he didn’t detect any malicious glares as there usually were whenever William was around. The thief relaxed again.

“I had to dodge around a few noblemen,” he shrugged at Penelope’s question. “But other than that, there was no trouble at all.” He passed off the reins of the stallion to her as he spoke.

“Let’s keep moving,” William cut in grumpily as he took his mare from Crow and climbed onto the animal’s back. “We still have a lot of ground to cover, so we can’t afford to waste time idly talking.”

Crow shot him a cold look, biting back a sharp retort. What ‘idle talking’? He had only answered Penelope’s question. It was frustrating how the knight criticized every little thing he did, but he forced himself to take a calming breath and keep his irritation to himself. After all, he had promised Penelope that he would try to stop letting William get under his skin so much, and he intended to keep his word to her.

Standing back for her to mount the horse first, he cast a quick look around the street. Everything seemed peaceful, but he didn’t want to let himself forget Aeklora’s warning: Someone was still after them. If that someone was anything like the mercenary who had attacked him and Penelope before, he or she could strike from anywhere at any time. It was an unnerving thought.

Once Penelope was settled down in the saddle, Crow climbed up and took his seat behind her. He wrapped his arms around her middle as they continued on down the road, letting out his breath contentedly, “Hopefully this day will go by more smoothly than the last.”