Crow stood up a little straighter at Penelope’s praise for his idea. Whenever she complimented him, it made him feel good, even if he hadn’t done very much. Beside that, he was pleased that they wouldn’t have to worry about being walked in on anymore. It seemed that aside from the king’s treasury vaults, there weren’t very many locks on any of the doors in the castle, so it was difficult to hide anywhere without getting caught. He winced as he remembered the incident with her father once again. There wasn’t space in the storage closet to get away with anything more than kissing, but he was relieved they wouldn’t have to go through the discomfort of that situation again.

Suddenly, another deep rumble of thunder resonated through the small room, drawing Crow from his thoughts. Reminded of the reason why they had come here in the first place, he frowned and moved back to where she was standing, wrapping his arms around her as she buried her face against his neck. He gently rubbed his hand over her back and rested his cheek against her head. “I know,” he murmured, touching a kiss to her temple. “Hopefully it won’t be a long storm.”

Despite his words, he had a feeling the weather wouldn’t be clearing up anytime soon. He glanced back at the door, holding the knight close to his chest as an especially loud clap of thunder made the supply shelves around them tremble. The intensity of it even made him flinch. It was barely afternoon, and the rain outside sounded like it was still coming down hard. From past experience, he guessed this storm was going to drag on for quite a while.

He turned back to Penelope, tracing his hand over her shoulders in thought. Since the weather wasn’t clearing up anytime soon, he wanted to distract her from it. “Have you been getting a lot of support to end the war?” he asked in a gentle voice, hoping that by starting a conversation with her, he would be able to take her mind off the foul storm. “And those lieutenants I told you about—were you able to speak with them about it before they left?”