[b]"Surprisingly, professional stonemasons don't tend to offer their services to people without any means of mining stone. Wood's good, lass. Strong, warm, cheap. It does what it needs to do, and I don't hear any complaining. No - your gold will be keeping us eating like kings for the next year. And if I convince you to take off that ring of yours, maybe two."[/b] Ronan smirked. He was surprised that the young noble had thought that 'wearing her ring openly and not mentioning it' would be enough to secrete it from professional thieves. He liked her pluck, though. A bit of harmless defiance made life more interesting - she certainly wasn't the snivelling wreck that many people became, which gave him reason to keep her around. Ronan wasn't an evil man, not really - he'd show mercy to the ones that begged, and if they were friendly enough he might send them on their way with horses intact. But this one looked like she could take some rough treatment. [b]"Come on, I'll show you where you'll be sleeping. I suppose you could call it the king's suite..."[/b]

Ronan led Alianor to what looked like a flat wooden door embedded into the side of the cliff the camp was built around. It had a large iron lock keeping it shut, which Ronan unlocked with a key that hung around his neck. Opening the strange portal, he revealed a reasonably large cave that he and his crew had renovated to act as Ronan's private chambers. It was cosy enough - it was clear that at one point the cave had been a stinking reserve of moss, and probably inhabited by a bear or some other large animal judging by the years-dry bloodstains on the walls and floor. Since then the bandits had done a good job of cleaning up. The floor immediately in front of the door was thatched with thick wheat, which Ronan wiped his boots against before taking them off and laying them to one side. The rest of the cave was lined with pelts of varying shapes, sizes and colours, from small black wolves to big brown bears, which gave the place a soft carpeted feel. There was a heavy wooden desk with some chairs off to one side, a map of the surrounding area lying open on it along with some ink pots. In the far back were scattered pillows which Ronan used as a bedplace.

[b]"You'll be sleeping in here with me. Safer that way - they're lovely lads, mostly, but a pretty woman mincing about the place can be distracting. Besides, if you try to shank me in the night I think I'd probably be able to overpower you. What do you weigh? Not more than ten stone-shares, I reckon. Probably throw you if I had to."[/b] Ronan narrated the potential violence with a dim, slightly disconnected tone of voice. He didn't seem all to worried about the possibility of having to fight or kill Alianor - it was just a matter-of-fact thing to him, something that needed to be said to clear the air and avoid an awkward explanation later. [b]"I suppose I should introduce myself, no? My name is Ronan. Until further notice, I own you. Behave, and you'll have no problems with me."[/b]

Ronan sat down near the pillows, smiling broadly.