As Cedric and Penelope continued to speak to each other, Crow focused on his meal again. Absently, he noticed that Naida seemed annoyed about something, although he wasn’t sure what had gotten under her skin. His best guess was that his sister didn’t want her friend to get close to any other men at the castle, since she was still hoping for the knight to be with him. However, if that was the case, he didn’t share in her concern. Penelope [i]was[/i] already with him, after all, and Cedric didn’t look like he was flirting with her. The parts of their conversation that he picked up just sounded friendly to him.

When the nobleman eventually got up from the table to leave, Crow looked up briefly to watch him walk away. He picked up his drink to finish off the last of it and then turned back to Naida and Penelope as they began to talk. When the knight questioned his sister, he snuck a glance at the princess’s face, curious to hear what her answer would be. She had been in a strange mood since Cedric had shown up, and he wanted to know what she had against the man.

[i]His history?[/i] He wondered, interest piqued. Though he wasn’t usually interested in castle gossip, he found that he did want to know a little more about this particular man. Cedric had been hanging around Penelope quite a bit from what he had seen, and he wanted to make sure there was nothing dangerous about him.

So, when the knight got up to leave, he rose from the table as well. “I should go too,” he announced. “Udolf was pretty upset with me today, so I want to make sure I’m well-rested for tomorrow’s lesson.”

“If you say so,” Naida winked at him knowingly.

Crow shook his head. “I’ll see you later,” he said, turning to walk with the knight toward the door.

“See you!” Naida waved.

For a while, Crow said nothing as he walked with Penelope. He didn’t want to ask her the question on his mind until they were out of earshot of the other nobles in the Great Hall. Once they made it to the hallway, however, he turned to her with an inquisitive look. “So,” he mused. “What was Naida talking about when she said, ‘given his history’?”