Crow glanced between Penelope and the physician until the latter turned away from her lieutenant in defeat to begin redressing his wound. Since he was unable to sit up on his own, she helped him by bracing one arm behind his shoulder and clasping one of his hands in hers. With her support, he managed to lift himself upright but grimaced as the motion sent a fresh wave of pain through his body. He could already tell it was going to be a while before he recovered from this injury.

As the physician got to work unraveling the bandages around his middle, he leaned back on his hands and looked up to listen to Penelope give him an explanation about what had happened after he’d passed out at the battle. Her voice was a welcomed distraction from the sting of his wound, which seemed to get worse as the noblewoman tended to it. He eyed the woman annoyedly, feeling quite certain that she was being rougher with him than she needed to be.

When Penelope mentioned that Gavin had been one of the knights to help him get to their camp, Crow raised a brow in surprise. Gavin was the last person he would have expected to keep him alive, especially after the knight had caught him working for Jaxon. He was just beginning to wonder if the man had helped him because Penelope had ordered him to, when the physician added something that dismantled that theory. [i]He insisted?[/i] He mused curiously. [i]Since when did he start wanting me to live?[/i]

[color=fff79a][b]“He knows we wouldn’t have found those thieves without the help of this one. He’s just repaying a debt like I am.”[/b][/color]

Now it made sense. Crow frowned slightly and lowered his gaze, pretending to look over the sutured wound in his abdomen as the physician unraveled some clean bandages to redress it. During all the madness at the thieves’ camp, he’d forgotten about everything that had happened between himself and the two knights. He had gotten his hopes up again after Penelope had said she loved him, but he supposed she had just been caught up in the heat of the moment after all. He had still lost her trust. Nothing there had changed.

When the physician finished bandaging his wound, she helped him lay down again, so he wouldn’t accidentally reopen the injury. He was expecting both of the noblewomen to leave again, now that they had seen he was in a stable condition, but instead, he glanced at Penelope in mild surprise as she said she wanted a moment alone with him. Unsure what to expect, he just watched as the physician—whom he now knew was named Jane—left to care for her other patients.

In the next moment, Crow blinked as he felt Penelope throw her arm around him and bury her head against his neck, murmuring about how she’d thought she was going to lose him. Having been certain that she’d wanted nothing more to do with him after he’d lied to her, the gesture caught him off guard. After a moment of hesitation, he slowly lifted his unbound arm to hold her, averting his gaze to look off to the side. Just because she still had feelings for him didn’t mean she still wanted to be with him. Her words to Jane could still have been true.

“I thought so too, but apparently the gods are intent on keeping me alive for some reason,” he said with a faint shrug. Falling quiet for a moment, he bit the inside of his lip. Even though he knew he’d hurt her badly before, he still felt a strong desire to tell her his side of the story.  At least then, if she still chose not to be with him, he could know it wasn’t because of a misunderstanding.

“So…” he started hesitantly, glancing back to meet her gaze with a wistful expression. “Have I earned a chance to explain myself? I promise I won’t lie this time.”