Crow’s heart was pounding in his chest as he and Penelope kissed passionately in the woods. He wished they could get away from her father long enough to be a little more intimate with each other, but, not wanting to risk the older knight coming after them, he supposed this was good enough for now. Besides, they had the whole trip to find time alone. There was no point in rushing into anything at this very moment when he felt confident that a better time would make itself apparent later on.

He tilted his chin up and sighed softly when Penelope moved to kiss him along his jawline. The touch of her lips and the warmth of her breath made him tremble slightly with excitement. “I love you too, Penelope,” he breathed, turning to kiss her again with equal desire when she met his lips again. In the heat of the moment, he lost all awareness for his surroundings, and he didn’t even notice the third figure approaching from the tree line.

That is, until a furious voice boomed: [color=fdc68a][b]“PENELOPE!”[/b][/color]

Crow felt his heart skip a beat as he whirled around to see none other than John storming towards them with his face contorted in anger. The thief stumbled hurriedly away from Penelope, as if there was still a chance that they could hide the fact that they had been kissing rather passionately just seconds before. His eyes were wide with horror as he watched the enraged man come towards him with his sword drawn. His instincts screamed at him to run from the danger, but he found that he couldn’t, because his feet were rooted to the ground with shock that refused to fade.

[i]Oh gods, he’s going to kill me,[/i] he thought in a panic, staggering backwards as John got closer. The knight had caught him in the act of being rather physical with his daughter who was supposed to be marrying another man in one year. He couldn’t imagine a single way in which this situation could go well.

At John’s sharp question, Crow opened his mouth to respond, but couldn’t find his voice. What was he supposed to say? ‘Sorry you caught me kissing your daughter?’ ‘We’ll try to be more subtle next time?’ ‘Hey, at least she’s not pregnant?’ He certainly wasn’t going to apologize for kissing her. Whether John approved of it or not, he was in love with Penelope, and he was going to be with her.

Suddenly, his panic turned to obstinance, and he met John’s gaze with an unwavering glare. He may have been pathetically outmatched by the older man—he was both heavily wounded and unarmed, since the knights in the camp had confiscated his weapons—but that didn’t mean he was just going to roll over and beg for mercy. “Go ahead and try,” he sneered, tilting his chin up at the knight. “Then you’ll have to explain to [i]my[/i] father why his son never made it to the inner kingdom.”