Penelope was beginning to fall into a comfortable silence as she lead them through the alley. Though their time alone together would be ending soon, she still enjoyed the simple moments of walking besides him, hand in hand. As he quietly spoke up, she turned to look over at him and returned his frown. She knew it was difficult waiting without any certain end date set. Plus the people around them didn't make it any easier. From Nadia who was pushing for them to be together to women like Elizabeth who were trying to get Crow to court them, both were a struggle in their own way and Penelope wanted nothing more than to tell them the truth.

"Gods I hope not." she murmured softly. "After this party, I'm going to have to face the king so there won't be reason to keep a distance... It'll just depend on my father then." Speaking of the older knight, she wondered if he'd be ready to give his approval of their courtship. Or if he even planned on still giving it. She felt like her father's view of Crow had improved greatly so surely John would give Crow his blessing. Despite feeling rather certain of it, a small part of her couldn't help but worry that perhaps John would still disapprove of the viceroy, especially after the incident with Elizabeth. [i]I should really speak with him..[/i] the knight thought with a small cringe.

Looking back up to Crow, she gave him a soft smile and squeezed his hand affectionately. "I know it's hard... especially now that we finally got a day together but we just need to get through one more week. Even less than that now. We're almost there. After the party, I'll speak with my father about giving his blessing. Then all we'll have to figure out is how to rub it in everyone else's face." she told him with a wink. 

Feeling affectionate, she let go of his hand and instead wrapped an arm around his middle, pressing into his side as they walked. "I suppose in the meantime we'll just have to rely on Naida's dance lessons." she said with a small chuckle. "I'm sure it's only a matter of time before she starts pressing us both to do that again."