As Crow made his way through the woods, he recited the story he was going to tell Penelope in his head. The more he thought about it, the more his worries gave way to peace. Penelope had made it clear that she trusted him, so it wouldn’t be too difficult to get her to let go of whatever Gavin had told her, and that was if she even believed her former suitor in the first place. The only thing he was still concerned about was if the stubborn knight chose to follow her again.

He shuddered slightly as the image of Gavin’s furious expression appeared in his mind. The knight already had a tendency to tail others, so the thief wouldn’t put it past him to do it one more time. It would be much harder to get Penelope to listen to him while her ex suitor was screaming “liar” in her ear the whole time. He hoped she had been able to get away from her camp alone, so they wouldn’t have to put up with the man’s impulse to get involved in things he should have kept his nose out of.

When he eventually reached the clearing, Crow stood with his back against a tree, forcing himself to stay still despite how tempted he was to pace in anticipation. He wanted to appear as calm as possible when Penelope showed up, so she wouldn’t have any reason to suspect how restless he really was. So, instead of walking in circles around the small space, he contented himself by fidgeting with the hilt of his dagger beneath his cloak. The motion helped to relieve some of the nervous energy inside of him, and the thick fabric of his cloak made it difficult to see in case the knight walked up anytime soon.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait long before he saw a figure step out of the trees. Crow looked up and was relieved to see that it was Penelope. He glanced past her shoulder towards the woods she had come out of, but it looked like she was alone. He narrowed his eyes slightly. Despite the fact that it looked like Gavin hadn’t followed her this time, he didn’t want to take any chances. The knight could have easily followed her without her knowledge again.

Recovering from his moment of suspicion quickly, he stepped away from the tree to meet Penelope halfway across the clearing, grinning at her excitedly. When he reached her, he wrapped his arms around her in an eager embrace and leaned in to kiss her. However, just before their lips met, he paused and looked up again with a frown. “Are we alone this time?” he asked softly, gazing into the trees with a concerned expression and hoping she would mistake his worry about her ex suitor for worry that their moment of privacy would be interrupted.