Crow knitted his brow slightly when Penelope told him that she’d had some difficult conversations. This was the first time he was hearing about them, so he listened attentively as she went on to describe her argument with Rikki. At first, he felt a twinge of frustration with the female thief for treating the knight so hostilely. He didn’t want Rikki to keep trying to get between them when he had already told her time and time again that he wasn’t going to leave Penelope for her. It was irritating to know that she was still up to her usual antics and holding onto the hope that he would change his mind. As soon as he was well enough to get back to his camp, he intended to give her a piece of his mind.

However, in the next moment, Penelope surprised him by saying that Rikki had actually seemed to listen to her. He hadn’t expected that the knight’s words would have gotten through to his stubborn friend, especially when all of his efforts to convince her hadn’t worked. Still, he disagreed with what Penelope had said to get through to the other thief. No matter what anyone thought, he was firmly convinced that the knight was better for him than Rikki ever could have been. He and the other thief were simply too similar to work well together. Penelope came from a different world, and at times it was hard for him to understand her, but it was their differences that made him so glad that he was with her. She challenged him to become a better man in a way that Rikki, in all the time they’d lived together, never had.

With the other thief, secrets and independence were a normalcy, and he often felt like she was dragging him down into old habits of living solely for himself that Penelope was forcing him to break. If he had chosen to be with Rikki, he probably would have continued to operate with his own desires at the forefront of his mind, while she would have done the same by looking out for herself. The only difference would’ve been that they’d have chosen to be exclusive instead of sleeping around. Perhaps they would have gone on to get married as well, but he couldn’t imagine that they’d work well as a team as long as they both had separate agendas to keep. So, even though it might have looked strange to anyone on the outside, he was much happier with the knight who was different from him.

Feeling a burst of affection for her, Crow held Penelope’s hand a little more tightly as she went on to tell him about her conversation with Gavin. He wasn’t too surprised to find out that her former suitor had finally come to terms with their relationship. The knight had been acting much more tolerant of him than he used to, so the thief had suspected for a while now that something had changed between them. However, he wasn’t sure why she was so concerned about the lack of space between herself and the other man.

When she finished speaking, Crow smiled at her amusedly. “You have no reason to apologize, love. I’m always going to be here for you, and that includes listening to what’s going on in your life. Besides,” he looked up at the canopy. “It’s not like I’ve got anything better to do in this oh-so-entertaining tent.” Giving her hand a playful squeeze, he turned back to meet her gaze again a bit more seriously. “I don’t think you should concern yourself with Gavin. He obviously thinks he’s in a good enough place to sit around guarding the man you left him for all day, so I say leave him be unless he starts to cause any trouble.” He shrugged. “Space or not, he’ll work through it on his own in his own time. It’s not your job to force him to heal, so pushing distance between him and us will just make it worse. I’m sure he’ll come around eventually, anyway… He seems hardy like that.”

The thief blinked and reddened slightly as he added with a groan, “Please don’t tell him I said that.” He hadn’t realized until this point, but he’d developed a bit of a respect for Gavin since the knight had started treating him more kindly. He supposed the admiration had always been there to a degree, but since the other man had been at his throat with constant accusations before, it had taken a while for him to admit that he respected Gavin’s heart for the villagers of their kingdom as well as his tenacity to do what he thought was right, no matter what anyone else said about it. But, of course, he had a reputation to uphold, so he wasn’t about to let the other man know he held such thoughts.