Crow smiled as Penelope kissed him on the cheek and met her gaze as she looked at him. He couldn’t help but stare at her, finding her deep green eyes especially attractive in the early morning light. If they weren’t constrained to a time limit, he would have wanted to lay beside her all morning, taking his time to get up so he wouldn’t have to part with her. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before they were interrupted by Gavin’s sudden appearance, and he was reminded that they wouldn’t be free to have such a peaceful morning during this mission.

He leaned into Penelope’s lips as she kissed him and then moved to get up as well. “He’d better not,” the thief scoffed. “Because I’m not going anywhere until I have something to fill my stomach.” Once they were both up, he headed into the adjoining room, where Gavin and Olivia were already seated at the dining table for breakfast, and off to the side, Zenith was reclining on a blanket with her back against a wall while she instructed her two daughters, who were knitting blankets.

Crow watched the three for a moment with interest. He guessed that Zenith was trying to prepare her family for the upcoming winter. It made sense to him, especially since last year’s winter had been one of the harshest he had seen in the outer villages. The weather had been mostly dry, but he couldn’t remember the last time it had been so cold. If the next winter turned out to be anything like the last, all of the villagers were going to have a hard time getting through it, especially with the ongoing war.

Turning away from the family, he followed Penelope over to the table to join the others. He sat down in one of the open chairs and reached for a plate to fill with food, his eyes flicking towards Gavin. As soon as he had approached, he had noticed that the knight had seemed to have strategically chosen to sit in the chair across from Olivia, so that he and Penelope would be forced to sit on opposite sides as well. Normally, Gavin’s meddling would have annoyed him. However, it was only one meal, and he had already spent the entire night sleeping by Penelope’s side, so he decided it wasn’t worth fighting over it.

For a while, Crow said nothing as he focused on finishing his breakfast. It was almost a peaceful silence. Gavin wasn’t shooting him any dirty looks for once, since he seemed content in having separated the thief from Penelope for the moment, and Olivia was tame enough as well. Unfortunately, the quiet did last long. It was interrupted when the female knight decided to ask, “So, what’s the plan for today?”

“We need to get back to the barons and report our findings—or lack, thereof,” Gavin answered simply with a pointedly cold glance towards Crow.

“Hang on,” Crow narrowed his eyes at the knight. “We didn’t find anything because none of us stayed focused on the task at hand, not because there’s nothing more to be found here. I say we take one more day to speak with the villagers, just to be certain we aren’t missing anything.”

“I doubt we’ll learn anything new if we linger here any longer,” Gavin eyed him suspiciously. “We’re going back today to give our report and come up with a new angle.”

“You sure are quick to give up,” Crow folded his arms over his chest.

“And you were quick to recommend wasting our time in a village that clearly has nothing more to offer us,” Gavin retorted distrustfully. “The more time we waste here, the more time the [i]real[/i] culprits have to prepare another attack. We need to act fast if we want to stay ahead of them. That means not spending precious hours chasing a dead lead.”

Crow curled his lip, clicking his tongue in frustration when he realized that the knight was only trying to rush them because he still believed the thief was attempting to throw them off course. It seemed that Gavin was set on believing that he and his thieves had been the ones behind the murderous raid on their camp, and the lack of a solid trail on Jaxon’s group was only further convincing him that his suspicion was true. He averted his gaze, feeling a pang of annoyance. As long as the knight’s focus was on proving him guilty, it was going to be difficult to get him to focus on looking for evidence of anything otherwise. However, he also knew there was nothing more he could say to change the hardheaded man’s mind, so he didn’t push the matter.

Gavin nodded, seeming to take Crow’s silence as defeat, and turned back to the others. “It’s settled then. Once everyone is packed up, we’ll begin the journey back to our camp.” His hard eyes wandered back to the thief once more. “We’ll catch those criminals yet.”