“I’m glad you understand,” Crow smirked at Penelope before looking over the table to see what other dishes he could try. Though venison was his favorite type of meat, that didn’t mean he was going to restrict himself from enjoying all the other elaborate foods the kitchen staff had prepared for him. He refilled his empty plate with cooked vegetables and a white meat that looked like it had come from some type of bird—maybe a turkey? Whatever it was, it smelled delicious, so he intended to try it.

Since he had been bedridden and unable to eat for most of his stay in the knights’ camp, his appetite had grown sizably, and he guessed he would be able to finish off his current plate as well as perhaps one more small helping after that. After all, he needed to put back on the weight he had lost during that time. He hadn’t dropped that much in just a couple weeks, but it was still enough to be a bit noticeable on his already lean frame. He preferred to be at his fittest, which meant keeping up a healthier weight than what he had come down to since his injury in Jaxon’s camp.

In addition to the fancy food, Crow also noticed that a dish had been set out with a blood red liquid in it. Curious to find out what it was, he leaned a little closer to see if he could catch a whiff of it. When he did, he noticed that it smelled like fruit. [i]Is this wine?[/i] He wondered, eyeing the mysterious drink with interest. He knew about wine from what others had told him about it, but he’d never seen it before in person. Peasants in the outer villages were far too poor to afford anything more than ale, mead, or small beer, and since he had never been a heavy drinker to begin with, he’d never felt compelled to steal any alcohol like this from nobles.

However, there was nothing stopping him from tasting it now.

Picking up one of the goblets on the table, the thief dipped the cup into the dish to fill it with the strange liquid. He studied it for a moment longer before finally lifting it to his lips to take a small swig. The wine was surprisingly tart, which caught him a little off guard because of its sweet smell, but it wasn’t bad. Overall, the flavor just reminded him of grapes, which he supposed made sense since he’d heard that that was where the drink came from. It was definitely richer than ale.

Crow’s attention was drawn from the wine when he heard Penelope speak up from across the room. Turning to look at her, he smiled softly, finding her interest in the library amusing. It was something he couldn’t appreciate in the same way that she could, since he was illiterate. The most he could do was look at the unique patterns on the spines of the books or search their pages for pictures that he could understand, but the words that painted the paper was beyond his knowledge.

At her following words, his smile faded. She always looked so defeated when Abraxas’s name came up. He hadn’t been able to understand it before, but after losing both Charles and Simon, two thieves he had cared about quite a bit, he had a bit more empathy for the knight.

Standing up from the table, he made his way over to where she was standing and wrapped his arms around the small of her back. He held her gaze for a moment before leaning down to press a gentle kiss to her lips. “It’s crazy that he’s offering me a job at all,” he sighed when he pulled back again, trailing one hand up the length of her back as his eyes wandered to the shelves of books. “You’d think my father would want to choose someone who could read at least one of these languages, wouldn’t you? I mean, I know I have a knack for picking up oral speech, but I don’t see how that’s enough of a reason for me to be qualified for a position like this.”

He frowned slightly as he turned back to the knight, “Even if I took the job, there’s so much I don’t know how to do… It’s a bit overwhelming.”