Over the course of the following week, Crow did his best to move on from his frustration from his run in with Gavin. Eager to keep the unpleasant memory out of his head, he busied himself by planning and executing a couple of raids for supplies. There wasn’t much that the thieves needed, especially now that they had plenty of money for themselves after selling off the weapons, but to Crow, it was better than sitting around and feeling sorry for himself. So, he organized one raid on the Brerratic knights for food, and another on the Younisian knights for medical supplies, since they didn’t want to take obvious sides.

Keeping busy was helpful for a while, but when the night came for Crow to meet with Penelope again, his reservations came flooding back. He recalled how offended he had felt when her suitor had showed up and how painful it had been to fully realize that there was no hope for him to ever be with her again. He hated to admit it, but Rikki had been right: There had been a small part of him hoping that things would go back to the way they had been two years ago. But that part of him was gone now. He had seen her suitor for himself. Gavin was really courting Penelope, and she really intended to marry him. There was no more room in her life for a poor thief from the outer villages.

Intending to keep their meeting short and to the point, Crow made his way down the main road in Myrefall that led to the tavern. When he arrived at the door, he reached out to grab the handle and then hesitated. What if Gavin had told his comrades about the thief’s meetings with Penelope? He swallowed as an image of knights waiting inside of the tavern flashed through his mind. Unsure of what he might face on the other side of the door, he proceeded more cautiously.

He opened the door, but didn’t enter right away. Instead, he lingered just outside the entrance, tensed to run if he caught sight of anything suspicious. However, from a thorough sweep of the room, he only saw a couple of tables filled with drunken peasant men and Penelope, sitting alone at a table in the back. It seemed to be safe. He glanced carefully around the side of the doorway, just to be sure there weren’t any knights hiding around the corner, before he finally stepped inside.

He made his way towards Penelope’s table, keeping his guard up just in case he had missed anything, and casted one last look around the room before he relaxed just enough to sit down across from her.

“Are we alone this time?” he asked quietly with a slight hint of accusation in his voice. Even though he knew it hadn’t been her fault that Gavin had showed up the last time, he needed to remember that she was a knight too. She was on their side, not his, so he wanted to make sure that there was no one else around to spy on or attack him.