“That soon?” Crow blinked in surprise when Penelope told him when she would be giving her speech. He had thought she would wait longer but, following her gaze to one of the other couples nearby, he could see why she would be doing it now. Apparently, nobles drank just as fast as peasants did. The people dancing around them had begun to look a lot more unsteady, and their movements were slower than before. Around the edges of the ballroom, most of those who were talking idly had flushed faces and had raised the pitch of their voices. It was the perfect time to convince them to support the end of the war before they grew too intoxicated to be of any help at all.

“Thanks,” he rolled his eyes at the knight’s teasing. It wasn’t something he could deny though. Having only practiced for a week, dancing like a tipsy nobleman was the best he could do at this point. “At least it gives me an excuse to stay sober,” he mused with a chuckle. “No one else will notice that I’m not drinking if I look the same as they do out here.” Not that he would have had more to drink otherwise. The single glass of wine that he’d downed all at once had been more than enough to relax him, since he’d already had a few drinks with his siblings earlier. A second would probably make it harder for him to think straight, which was the last thing he wanted in a room full of people he didn’t trust.

To his disappointment, the song went by far too fast. He and Penelope only had a little bit longer together before it slowed to a stop, and he bowed to her in the traditional end to the dance. As they stood across from each other, his eyes swept over her one more time, drinking in the way she looked in her sultry dress before he knew she would be whisked away from him by more “admirers” who wanted to claim their portions of her time before her speech.

A smile softened his features when she thanked him for the dance, but just as he parted his lips to reply, Cedric’s voice made his breath catch in his throat. Absently, he noticed Penelope stiffen as well but assumed she was just frustrated that her persistent former suitor was interrupting them yet again. Not thinking anything more of it, he turned to watch the knight weave through the other dancers to get to her side. The fact that the other man had gotten between them twice now convinced him that he was doing it on purpose. He didn’t even bother pretending to be cordial while the nobleman asked to speak privately with Penelope.

When Cedric murmured an apology to him, Crow said nothing, only tilting his chin up at the knight with open animosity. Whatever game the other man was playing, he knew he didn’t like it. “Good luck with your speech,” he nodded in return to Penelope, though he was too irritable to smile at her either. Watching the two comrades walk away, he waited for them to pass out of his sight before a sigh escaped his lips, and he turned away to join some of the noblemen he recognized standing by the edge of the room.