Rikki’s head was spinning. The last three days had been a wild ride for her for many different reasons. On the first, she had finally started getting her hopes up again that Crow had come back to her at last. He had sought her out for comforting and even stopped pushing her away whenever she desired his touch. While she never did find out what exactly had happened on the night when everything had changed between him and Penelope, it had seemed from every angle that one or both of them had ended things. She had pitied him for his heartbreak, but that day had been one of the best she’d had in a long time. It was finally beginning to look like they could be together.

So, when Alistair had come back from their hunting trip with the news that Crow had run off without warning, she had been quite upset. After all, he had to have been going back to Penelope, right? At least, that was what she had guessed at the time. It was why she hadn’t bothered to chase after him. If he was running back to that knight, nothing she could have said would have changed his mind. He was far too hardheaded to listen to reason when he believed he was right. She had thought it best to let him go, so he would get turned down by Penelope and see for himself that he was making a mistake by pursuing that selfish noblewoman.

Apparently, she had been very wrong.

When Hartley had arrived the next day with word that Crow had died taking Jaxon’s sword for Penelope in battle, Rikki had felt like her whole world was crumbling around her. Part of her grief was due to losing both Crow and Simon and feeling like their family was being ripped apart, but most of her pain stemmed from a deep ache of loss and regret. She’d wished she hadn’t been so self-righteous by letting him go, because even though he had learned the lesson she’d been hoping he would, it had come at the cost of his precious life. Thinking about it again, though she knew now that he wasn’t dead, still made her throat feel tight. If she had only tried a little harder to get through to him, she could have stopped him from charging blindly to save a woman that didn’t deserve him. She could have stopped him from getting hurt.

Now, after all of that, she had just learned he was alive and being treated for his wound. Her hands trembled with relief as she laid out the herbs Hazel had set aside for his medicine. Now, she had new resolve to get him back from the knights and be by his side while he recovered from that unnecessary wound. Her heart fluttered with excitement as she clung to the hope that perhaps this incident would be the key that would open his eyes to the fact that he didn’t belong with a noblewoman. If he would just realize what a big mistake he was making, she could still get him to come around. They could still be together. She absently brought a hand to her cheek, smiling to herself at the thought.

[color=fff79a][b]“So, how can we help?”[/b][/color]

Rikki blinked and looked up to see that the two knights had come over to join the thieves in preparing Crow’s medicine. Her eyes landed on Penelope’s face, and she flushed slightly, reminded that [i]this[/i] was the woman who had stolen Crow away from her and nearly gotten him killed. When she had initially seen her, she hadn’t thought much of it, since she had been too caught in the news that the man she loved was still alive. However, now that she’d had some time to process it all, she found it harder to look the knight in the eyes.

Still, she couldn’t just turn her away out of spite. As much as she hated the thought of working with Penelope, she would just have to do it for Crow’s sake.

“I’m just heating up the oil right now,” she shrugged, forcing down her frustration with the other woman to focus on the task at hand. “You can help Hartley and Alistair ground up the herbs over there.” She gestured with one hand at the other two thieves, who were crushing the dried plants she had set out.