On the walk to the Great Hall, Crow could tell that Preston was itching to keep asking him more questions about his relationship with Penelope. The attendant was clearly intrigued with his discovery that morning, and though the viceroy believed he wouldn’t go around spreading word of the fact that they were together, he found his off-and-on staring to be annoying. It wasn’t like there was much more to say. Aside from the more personal details of their relationship, the boy knew pretty much everything there was to it; that they had already been together romantically before, and that they were still together now. He didn’t know what else his servant could want to know.

Fortunately, even though Preston was a bit enthralled by the reveal, he didn’t ask any more questions while they were in the halls of the castle. Crow was relieved that he was sensible enough to keep his mouth shut in front of the palace guards. It would have been bad news if anyone overheard them talking and learned about him and Penelope before they were ready to tell everyone, themselves.

[i]It won’t be much longer though,[/i] he thought, feeling a bubble of excitement well up inside his chest. His reputation around the castle was already improving quite a bit as the other nobles lost interest in glaring at him all day. They were probably still upset that a thief had been given such a prestigious title by their king, but at least he wasn’t at the top of their lists of grievances anymore. With any luck, it would only be a matter of days or weeks before they finally accepted that he was their viceroy.

His interactions with John had been going better too. While he could tell that Penelope’s father still had reservations about letting him court his daughter, they were at least on good enough terms to have a pleasant conversation. He felt hopeful that as long as he didn’t do anything to set the older knight off again, he would eventually come around. The thought drew an eager smile out of the viceroy. For the first time in his life, he had high hopes that he could be the kind of man a father would give his blessing to. He’d never thought something like this would happen for him.

By the time Crow and Preston reached the Great Hall, Crow had been lost in his head for quite a while. He blinked a bit dazedly when he realized they had made it and looked around the large chamber to see if he could find Penelope. It wasn’t long before he spotted her, and he began to step toward her table. However, he paused when he saw that she wasn’t sitting with Naida. His eyes narrowed involuntarily as they landed on Cedric’s back. He knew he’d told Penelope that he wasn’t going to get involved without a reason, but he still didn’t like how much the other man seemed to follow her around.

The viceroy took a step toward her table and then stopped again. As much as he wanted to get between the two, he didn’t want to risk drawing any more attention to his closeness with the knight than he already had. Joining them unexpectedly for breakfast wouldn’t help him keep their secret. So, with a reluctant sigh, he forced himself to look away from Penelope’s table to find another place to eat.

“Aren’t you going to sit with her?” Preston asked suddenly at his side. The short attendant was looking up at him with his head tilted to the side. “I thought you two were planning to meet up for breakfast?”

“We were,” he shrugged, answering the boy in a low voice. “But I can’t go over there while [i]he’s[/i] with her.”

Preston blinked and turned back to Penelope’s table, eyeing her companion with an unreadable expression. “Who is he?”

“Just a friend of hers,” Crow muttered. “But it would look strange if I joined them without a reason.”

“Why?”

Crow turned to the servant with a twinge of annoyance, “Why would I join her for breakfast if we weren’t close? I’m sure he’d like it was strange.”

Preston fell quiet for a moment in thought, holding the viceroy’s gaze with a hint of amusement.

“What?” Crow asked curtly, disliking the boy’s expression.

“Well,” the attendant mused. “He joined her because he’s her friend. Why can’t you join her if you’re also pretending to be her friend?”

Crow stared at him, taken aback by the simplicity of Preston’s solution. Perhaps in his nervousness about getting found out, he’d been acting a little overly cautious lately. There really wasn’t anything strange about joining his “friend” for a meal. Cedric would have to take quite a leap to assume there was anything more going on between them just based on one friendly action.

“I guess you’re right,” he casted the boy a smirk. “I should join my [i]friend[/i] for breakfast.” He turned and made his way through the crowd, eager to spend some time the knight in spite of her company.