Crow frowned as Penelope brought up the point that a servant could come by and open the door to get supplies. He supposed he hadn’t thought about that when he’d led her inside the closet. Even though he knew what the storage room was for, he’d had yet to see any of the castle servants open one, so he had just assumed that the supplies weren’t used very often. Knowing how quickly gossip spread in the inner kingdom, it wouldn’t take long for everyone to find out about them if someone walked in on them now. Just the thought of it made him cringe.

At her following comment, he blushed, suddenly grateful for the darkness that concealed the color in his cheeks. “Yes, well that’s sort of hard to do when I barely have room to stand up straight,” he snorted, glancing over the small closet. If he leaned up slightly on the balls of his feet, he could feel his hair brush against the ceiling, and there were supplies piled on shelves on either side of him. The room certainly hadn’t been made for someone of his stature. In fact, the only reason he hadn’t knocked anything else over was because he had trained himself to be aware of his surroundings. He’d snuck through tighter spaces on raids before. If he wasn’t spatially consicous, he would have gotten caught by a knight long ago and probably run through with a sword.

His eyes wandered back to the mop. It was lucky that no one had been walking by when he’d bumped into that. All it would take would be one curious passerby to pull open the door and—

[i]Pull open the door.[/i]

Suddenly, Crow blinked as he was struck with an idea. He reached for the mop and pulled it down from where it had been fixed to the shelf. Then, moving carefully, he turned and stepped over to the door, searching with his fingers to locate the handle. He smiled to himself and gently eased the mop’s long pole through it, hitching the bottom against the corner of the room, so it stuck in place when he let go. Taking a step back, he looked over his handiwork, pleased to see that the mop was now securely lodged diagonally across the door.

“There,” he nodded, turning back to Penelope with a proud grin. “Now, if a servant tries to open it, the door will jamb, and we’ll have time to get out when they go to get help unsticking it.”