When Penelope returned his banter with a sultry offer of her own, Crow grinned. Since it was turning out to be a busier day than he’d expected, he hadn’t been sure if she thought they would have time to be alone. Now that he knew it wasn’t off the table, his spirits lifted even more. It had been a while since the last time they had been able to be together, so he was looking forward to it quite a bit, especially after everything that had happened with Elizabeth. He wanted to get the other noblewoman out of his head and remind himself even more of his feelings for the knight.

As Penelope went on to explain why she had to dress up for the party, Crow shrugged. “Well, if they can’t appreciate you without fine clothes, then that’s their loss,” he asserted. Of course, after going through his titling ceremony two weeks ago, he understood that she was right about having to keep up appearances in front of the other people in the castle. It was the reason why his father’s servants had worked so hard to clean him up into a “respectable” looking nobleman. If he had stood in front of the crowd unwashed and ragged, none of them would have taken him seriously. They cared far more about what someone looked like on the outside than what they were actually like on the inside, as the peasants did. It was frustrating, but if the knight was going to convince anyone, she had to play by their rules.

“I won’t,” Crow casted Penelope an amused look when she told him not to judge her. “I know I’ve been teasing you, but I do understand why you need to do it.” He sighed, letting his gaze wander over the other people in the market. “As much as I hate to admit it, you were right before when you told me you can’t go through life in the inner kingdom without caring what other people think—at least a little bit. Other nobles’ opinions matter a lot more than I thought they did.”

He frowned as he considered it more. He couldn’t even make [i]personal[/i] decisions without getting someone else’s approval anymore. As a peasant, he’d never had to think about how his desires impacted anyone else, but now, he had to work constantly to please the people around him who had a say in his life. He pandered to his father to keep his position as viceroy, he pretended to be interested in shallow conversations to befriend men like Wayne, and he was always walking on eggshells around John, since he had to get the knight’s permission to marry Penelope. With so many people tugging him in different directions, he felt like a puppet, no longer as free as he used to be to live life as he pleased. It was a discouraging thought.

Realizing he had fallen quiet, Crow turned back to Penelope to answer the question he had neglected. “Not particularly,” he mused with a half-smile, still slightly somber due to the things on his mind. “We can go wherever you’d like. I’m sure anyplace you choose will be great, love.”