Crow chewed on the inside of his lip as he walked with Preston through the castle corridors. Now that he was leaving for Younis so soon, he didn’t have time to wait for his father to wind down from planning his trip. If he wanted to start courting Penelope, he needed to speak with the king about it today. He supposed there was also the option of waiting until he returned from the northern kingdom, but he didn’t want to risk putting it off any longer. There was a chance that the negotiation would go poorly or that Albin would become even busier than he was now by making arrangements for the treaty he and the Younisian king agreed upon. He was tired of leaving everything up to chance. Today was his opportunity to take fate into his own hands and get what he had wanted since the day he’d accepted the viceroy title.

Planning to eat a quick breakfast and leave right away to seek out his father, he didn’t bother looking around the Great Hall for anyone he knew when he arrived. Instead, he headed for the closest open table to the door, so that he could make a quick getaway if anyone tried to approach him to chat. He had almost made it when Preston’s voice made him stop in his tracks.

“Um,” the attendant started nervously. “Isn’t that the same man who kissed Penelope at the party?”

“What?” the viceroy turned around, caught off guard by the question. He searched the room until he saw the man Preston was talking about. It seemed like Cedric had decided to share a meal with the knight that morning. He narrowed his eyes untrustingly. It wasn’t likely that the nobleman would try to corner her again in broad daylight, but he still didn’t like the idea of leaving them alone after what he’d done to her at the party.

“You’re not going to do anything rash, are you?” his attendant eyed him cautiously.

“No,” Crow replied, straightening his posture. “I’m just going to make sure he doesn’t have the opportunity to force himself on her again.” Foregoing his original plan to just stay long enough to finish his food, he strode over to the table where Penelope and Cedric were seated and slid onto the bench beside the lieutenant. He didn’t particularly like the thought of spending the morning in Cedric’s company, especially when he needed to be in a good frame of mind when he spoke with his father after the meal, but he hated the thought of pretending like he hadn’t seen them even more. So, putting on a false smile, he turned to the knight at his side.

“Morning, love,” he greeted her. “How did you sleep?”