Crow smirked when Penelope rolled her eyes at him. He found it amusing that she was so embarrassed about parts of her past. It was quite different compared to how he looked back on his own life. Though he was secretive, there wasn’t much he kept to himself just because he wasn’t proud of it. Everything he’d been through, good and bad, had made him who he was today. For that, there was little he felt ashamed about. Unless his past actions had hurt someone else, like when he had joined Jaxon’s group or hurt Hazel, there wasn’t anything he would change about the experiences he had endured.

As Letitia spoke up again, the viceroy turned to her with interest. “Really?” he laughed when the servant said Penelope had been feisty as a child. It was hard for him to imagine her acting that way. When they had first met, it had been like pulling teeth for him to get her to bend the rules with her comrades. Even though she’d always buckled to him eventually, her first inclination had never been to side with a thief. He wondered how she had gone from rebel to rule-follower when it seemed like such a stark change.

At the knight’s outburst, Crow pulled her closer to his side with a grin. Despite what she claimed, he could easily picture her fighting with the other children in Bellmare. It seemed to be true too, as she confessed after a bit more prompting from Letitia. It was no wonder she made such a talented knight. She was a warrior from the very start. Feeling a burst of affection for her, he leaned down to press another kiss to her cheek. “They just didn’t know who they were messing with,” he teased her fondly.

As the servant told him about Penelope’s father, he nodded in agreement. It certainly was lucky for him that John hadn’t arranged her marriage sooner. If she had been with someone else when they had met two years ago, they probably would have never fallen in love. It was strange to think that in another life, he might have known what it was like to walk without her by his side. He was glad that things had worked out this way instead, where they could look forward to a life together.

“I think I owe those boys a word of thanks then,” Crow chuckled. “Because of them, the rest of the men in this city missed out on marrying the most amazing woman in the kingdom.” He hugged her again, casting her a wry wink. “And now she’s all mine.”