Crow shook his head when Penelope said they might be able to have one meal without being bothered. It was frustrating to know that she was probably right in the statement. Before, it had been difficult enough with his sister lingering around and preventing them from having any privacy. At least then, they had managed to steal a few meals alone here and there. But now, with Elizabeth so determined to win him over, he doubted they would have any time to themselves at all until the noblewoman either gave up or he and the knight started courting openly. Knowing that, he was even more grateful that they were going to have a whole day to be together, since it was starting to look like it would be the last time for quite a while.

As Penelope brought up her concern that Elizabeth probably wasn’t going to quit her antics anytime soon, Crow grimaced. He was sure she was right about that too. The thought of dealing with any more surprises from the noblewoman made him taste bile, but there was nothing he could do to stop her since she wasn’t even put off by his open hostility toward her. It seemed that she wasn’t going to give up unless there was a barrier between them that she would be forced to admit she couldn’t get past.

Noticing that their food had arrived, Crow glanced up to watch the servants set down their plates. He frowned when he saw that the boy who had brought his breakfast was unfamiliar to him, wondering once again what had happened to Preston. It was out of character for the attendant to vanish without a word like this. However, he didn’t get the chance to ponder over it for long before Penelope drew his attention with another comment about Liz.

“I have no idea what she’s going to do,” he admitted, lifting a bite of food to his mouth. “I did make it quite clear to her that if she comes to my bedchamber again, I’m not going to tolerate it though. Hopefully she’ll learn that I’m not ever going to be interested in her soon enough.” He chased his food with a sip of water and then froze when another thought came to him.

“Um, speaking of what happened,” he turned back to her with a sheepish look. “I’d appreciate it if you’d tell your father that the rumors about me aren’t true. I don’t know if he still believes them, but when I went to his room this morning to find out where you were, he was pretty mad.”