Crow was relieved when Penelope suggested they should meet again in three days. Since their last couple of meetings had happened whole weeks apart, he had been thinking that by ‘shorter,’ she had meant five days or so. To only wait three would be much easier to bear. As an added bonus, he wouldn’t have to worry about slipping out of his camp to see her, since she would have more news of the next battle by then. He could use that as an excuse if any of his companions questioned why he was visiting with the knight again.

“That works great for me,” he grinned, already eager to see her at the next meeting though they hadn’t even parted yet. He hoped they would continue to be able to meet this frequently, even if he wasn’t quite sure how they would pull it off. If she didn’t have new updates about the war every time they met, he was going to have to start sneaking out of his camp as well, which was risky since they didn’t have a set curfew like the knights seemed to and every once in a while, someone would stay up later than all the rest.

As Penelope stood from the ground, he followed her lead and sat up as well, taking her hand when she offered it to help him stand up. Using her as leverage, he shifted his weight onto his left foot to give his injured right leg a break as he got up. Once he was standing, he shook his head at her initial question. As far as any of his companions knew—aside from Hazel, of course—he still hadn’t seen the knight in almost a month. Not wanting to use any of their time at this meeting to discuss formalities, he had kept it a secret from them, so he could relax and fully enjoy his time with her.

He was just about to explain this to Penelope, when she spoke up again and said something that made him stiffen: [color=fff79a][b]“Or did Rikki already tell everyone?”[/b][/color]

Before that night, his answer to her question would have been an immediate ‘no,’ but now, he wasn’t so sure. His heart beat faster with nervousness as he realized that, while he had been out of the camp all day, she’d had plenty of time to tell the others that he was seeing the knight romantically. After he had shut down her attempt to ruin their relationship by sleeping with him, he couldn’t help but wonder if there was anything left to keep her quiet about it.

“She didn’t tell them before, but she may have today,” Crow said, his worried green eyes meeting Penelope’s. “After… what happened, I wanted to be alone to clear my head, so I haven’t been back to my camp yet. She could have told them in my absence.” He ran a hand through his hair, suddenly anxious to return to the hideout and find out that Simon and Alistair knew about him and Penelope. “Gods, I hope she didn’t say anything,” he murmured under his breath, shaking his head as he imagined having to face them tomorrow.