Thane's inquiry produced a wry smirk from Finch. He tilted his head and spat out some apple pulp onto the ground. "Baron Kirchner's manor. You heard of it? Never a more paranoid little lordling in the north. The fool neurotic's fortress. Sheer stone cliffs eleven rods high, moss ridden, stone smooth like virgin's thighs." He raised a finger. "Nothing but two pitons and a hemp rope even skinnier than your cock." He placed the apple in his other hand against his chest, overbrimming with bravado. He paused; cut off from the climax of his hyperbole-laden self aggrandizement. It was something he practiced, something that he was even better at then the actual deeds he described. And he frowned .<br/><br/>She was a strange presence, he should have sensed her entrance, perhaps he was too indulgent in his own crapulent gasconade. It was not a good sign. He instinctively raised his hands to pull his hood up. But paused again as she evoked his name. Stranger still. He let his hands drop and took another bite of his apple, chewing it slowly as he plied his gaze on her, wearing the dusky layer on his face like a mask, looking her up and down, before forcing the brilliant hue of his eyes against hers. Challenging that cool collected facade. Finch had an effect on women; or perhaps to say the Scourge of the Western Woods had an effect on women. Removed from the swashbucklery and the dash and derring-do; the reputation of a tried and true bandit king, in that comfortable rut as an outlaw. Practiced in the art of taking and leaving nothing behind. The stories that vilified him, even more "colourful" than the ones he told himself. But they seemed completely lost or irrelevant to this girl. As if she would somehow be... safe. And it roused an ire in him. He swallowed.<br/><br/>"I... regret not having made their acquaintances." He responded uneasily, unable to read the girl. "Perhaps we can rectify that sometime in the future." Finch pulled the hood up and let his cloak fall, concealing his features and armaments once more. "I am ready, as always. And you shall see that my ability shall far exceed my percentage of the spoils."<br/><br/><br/>~~~<br/><br/><br/>He walked among them, straying to the back of Thane's entourage, on back of a destrier carrying a spear with the cleric's banner. In case there was any confusion. An outrider it would seem, but he kept his gaze on the group and not the horizon. The cleric must have been desperate, to so easily accept Finch's allegiance, not to mention the woman. She stayed by Thane's side with unusual devotion and discipline. Finch had many questions to ask, but the opportunity did not present itself.<br/><br/>He urged his horse into a trot and pulled level with the main party. "Rowan? Is it?" He started quietly looking straight ahead, riding alongside her. "I feel I am at a disadvantage, my dear. I am a rather... private individual. Your family seems to know quite the lot of me. But I am at a loss where such knowledge would come available to you." He turned toward her searching out her gaze. "Stories perhaps? I hear the townsfolk like to crow haphazardly about my various exploits. Is that how you know me?"