Swamped

You decide to let her lead the conversation for now. If you're going to figure out how to sway her, you'll need to see where she's doubting first. And the more in control she feels, the more noticeable her doubts will be.

"Well. What do you think we're doing?" you ask pointedly.

"I'll admit, my first thought was that it was some sort of romantic rendezvous. I didn't take Eighth for the type, but it was the first thing I could think of that might cause such drastic changes in behavior."

She's shifting her eyes a bit on 'first thing'. So maybe she's not so eager to talk about the second. Well, maybe you can play along for a little while and see what that tells you.

"So, what, you're jealous or something?"

"Not at all. If I ever had any attraction to Tom, I'd have given up on it long before now, what with how obsessed he is with that thing."

"That thing you're helping him with," you note.

"Are you suggesting something?"

"Nah, not me," you say. "Just, you know how people can be. You find this nice fellow, he's kind of gruff and not really interested in you, but he's got a project he's keen on and you help him with it to get close to him. I'm not the sort to spread a rumor like that, mind, but there's plenty of knights who are."

Penelope's glaring hard at you.

"Well, it isn't like that. And if I seriously thought that's all it was, I wouldn't care. Frankly, I'd be happy for the break."

You're not seeing any signs she's lying. Though, after spending much of the day with Eighth, you don't think he'd be disappointed.

"Then what do you think it is?"

"That's just it," she says. "I can't think of anything else. But I'm very sure it's not that. So that's why I'm asking you."

She definitely can think of something else. She just doesn't want to tell you what it is. Which, with what you already know, makes you suspect it involves Ash. Seeing as the knights who work with him don't like to talk about what they do.

So, you'll need to work out what it is. Luckily, you don't need her to tell you the truth directly. You just need to lead her in the right direction so she's forced to talk about it, and then you'll figure out if she's lying.

Now, how can you do that?