As Penelope answered his question, Crow studied her face with a frown. He’d been hoping to hear that she was optimistic about hearing back from the barons, but she seemed more uncertain about their responses than anything else. If they wanted to change his father’s mind about the war, they were going to need as much help as they could get. It wasn’t like they could bank everything on the party either. The high ranking nobles they invited weren’t guaranteed to side with them, and if most of them opted to finish the battle against Younis victoriously, there wasn’t much they could do to stop the fighting.

When Cedric spoke again, Crow casted him a sideways glance. He was a bit surprised to hear the knight sound concerned about Penelope’s efforts to end the war, since he’d assumed that most nobles in the inner kingdom didn’t care about the affairs of the border. It was hard to tell if the other man’s feelings were genuine though. After everything she had told him about Cedric, he wasn’t inclined to believe the male knight really wanted to participate in the rally. If anything, it was more likely that he was just using the subject as a means to get something else from her later. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

Crow was drawn from his thoughts when Penelope asked him if he was going to have more lessons. He paused for a moment to think, realizing he wasn’t sure what his day was going to hold. While he doubted that his father was going to give him a break this soon, he also wasn’t certain which of his teachers was going to be helping him this afternoon. Most likely, it would be Udolf, since it seemed like John was only going to be guiding his lessons intermittently, but there was also a change that Albin was going to start teaching him about Gorman writing and culture. He tapped his index finger on the surface of the table. For Penelope’s sake, he hoped his father would wait just a little longer, so she would have enough time to earn support to negotiate for peace.

“More lessons for sure, although I don’t know what I’m going to be taught,” he finally replied with a shrug, looking up from the table to meet her gaze. “Hopefully it won’t be anything too dull. I’d rather not further irritate my tutors by falling asleep in the middle of my lesson.”