Crow smiled when Penelope kissed him on the cheek and reached to lace his fingers with hers as she took his hand. Already, couldn’t wait to spend the day with her. After being forced to keep their distance and sneak around the castle for so long, it was nice to be able to share casual touches so freely again. Of course, they still had to be careful to keep from being spotted, but there weren’t very many people by the river that he could see. It seemed safe enough to relax at least a little bit. He still drew his hood over his head again to keep from being recognized as they walked though.

When Penelope spoke up again, Crow turned to her with interest. Though she seemed to think there wasn’t anything too special about Bellmare, he was sure they could find plenty to keep them occupied. After all, he’d never really explored the inner kingdom before. Even when he’d lived on the outskirts of Colchester while he’d been living with Jaxon’s group, he hadn’t been interested enough to do more than learn the layout of the city for the purpose of escaping from the local knights. Anything she decided to show him now would probably be new.

He returned her smile, finding her enthusiasm infectious as she went on to mention that they could stop by her family’s manor. Knowing she was likely eager to show him the place where she had grown up, he gave her hand a fond squeeze. “I’m sure we can avoid them if we remember to keep a lookout,” he assured her when she brought up her “unpleasant” family, leaning over to press a kiss to her temple. “It can’t be that hard.”

Turning away from her briefly, he let his gaze wander over the buildings on the other side of the river. Since he didn’t know the area well enough to identify which city he was looking at, he wasn’t sure if it was Bellmare or not, but he felt sure they were at least close to the knight’s hometown. He glanced back at her with a playful smirk, “You can take me wherever you’d like, darling. I’m just along for the ride.”