When the old woman said she didn’t remember meeting him before, Crow gave a wordless shrug. He supposed it wouldn’t be too difficult to say that he was a recent friend of Penelope’s. However, as she went on to mention that his face looked familiar, he averted his gaze. It wasn’t a longshot to guess that her memory of him had come from his old wanted posters around the kingdom. If she happened to remember where she had seen him before, there wasn’t much he could do to convince her she was wrong. He just hoped she wouldn’t go running to the guards as soon as she figured him out.

As the servant suddenly mentioned something about a “mystery man,” the viceroy blinked confusedly, casting Penelope a sideways glance. It sounded like she had already told the woman something about him. He wasn’t sure if he should be flattered or concerned, as the news brought him a mixture of both emotions. While he thought it was endearing that she talked about their relationship with the other people in her life, it also made it quite a bit harder for them to tell the servant that he wasn’t who she thought he was.

Apparently, the knight was going to try anyway. He shifted his weight slightly as she tried to dissuade the old woman from the notion that he was her lover. Of course, her efforts didn’t do much to help their case. In fact, the more she tried to argue, the more the servant seemed more convinced that she was right about him. He doubted there was much, if anything, either of them could say to stop her from believing he was the one she had spoken of before.

Even when Penelope tried to change the subject completely, the woman remained steadfast. As she turned to him again, obviously prying for a name by introducing herself, he hesitated. Part of him was tempted to give her a fake name, just to avoid the discomfort of revealing who he was. However, he knew he couldn’t do that. This woman—Letitia, he corrected himself—sounded like she was heavily involved in Penelope’s life. That meant they were probably going to cross paths again in the future. Lying to her now would only put him on bad terms with her, and he didn’t want to start off that way.

Additionally, he supposed there was one out that might still work: He didn’t have to give her a surname. Perhaps if he merely told her his first name, she wouldn’t make the connection that he was the thief-turned-noble who had moved into the castle recently. It wasn’t like his name was that uncommon, after all. As long as she didn’t ask too many questions, he was sure he could play it off.

Turning briefly to Penelope, he offered her a helpless shrug before looking back to answer Letita’s question. “My name is Collin,” he said with a sheepish half-smile. “It’s nice to meet you.”