This baroness’s persistence was really starting to grate on Crow’s nerves. He narrowed his eyes at her slightly in annoyance. She continued to question the nuances of his words and bring in more information he wasn’t aware she’d already had. It made it difficult to lie to her when he didn’t know if she would spring more facts on him that made his explanations obsolete. He would have had a much easier time pushing a fake story on her if he’d known up front what sort of background knowledge she had on him and Penelope. With the way things were turning out now, he had to wrack his brain to come up with a believable way to answer every wrench she threw into his lies.

As Mia leaned closer to him, he shifted uncomfortably, disliking how fixated her dark eyes were on his face. It almost felt like she could read his mind, though he knew such a thing was impossible. He took a slow breath, forcing himself to keep calm. If he reacted visibly to her accusations, his body language alone would be enough to give away at least some of the truth. He clenched his jaw stubbornly. For Penelope’s sake, he couldn’t let this woman find out the real nature of their relationship.

“I find it insulting that you would give a knight credit for [i]my[/i] work,” Crow curled his lip at her hostilely. “Yes, your lieutenant has treated me like an equal, but I’m perfectly capable of escaping from your incompetent guards on my own. I don’t need her or anyone else’s help to take care of myself—and that goes for my escape two years ago too.” He let out an irritable huff. “I did my part by stealing that godsforsaken staff, so I think I quite deserved to have my freedom returned to me, regardless of whether you nobles agree with that or not.”

He turned away from the baroness to look up at the canopy again, “You know what? If you really want to believe your lieutenant is consorting with a thief, go right ahead. She may have been respectful to me during our past encounters, but I have no ties to her strong enough to care what her fate becomes, so it makes no difference to me what you choose to do with her.” He toyed absently with the chain around his wrist, as if growing disinterested with the conversation. “Anyway, I gave you my explanation already, so take it or leave it as you will, because I’m not going to repeat myself.”