"Foreigners! Minstrels! Now a bloody woman!" John thundered. "How long is it before we consider a pig to be a brother?"

"Are you calling me a pig?" Marian bristled.

The meeting of the outlaws at camp was going about as well as Yughi had anticipated. Where Robin considered counsel carefully, Tuck played his own mind games, Alan sat tuning his lute and Will hung his head not wanting to come in until the lines were more confidently drawn, John had picked a side and was now issuing his own perspective in a clear voice that brooked no misunderstanding.

"Back off, woman," John said. "If you don't then I swear I'll-"

He didn't want to complete the sentence but widened his eyes, glaring at the diminutively fierce figure of Marian.

"This is the condition of our arrangement with Lady Bess," Yughi interjected. He had to stand by Marian, but not be seen to coddle her.

"A deal with a whore?" John said. "That we babysit her princess while she benefits from outlaw protection to service cobblers and candlemakers? You're out of your gourd, Byzant."

"He's making prudent decisions and accessing a hidden network of intelligence," Tuck said calmly, choosing his side for the day.

"Prudent! Intelligence?" John said. Yughi believed the faltering note in John's voice was coming sooner and sooner during these discussions. "Where's the prudence in adding yet another responsibility to our growing piles? We are making promises, giving our word to fulfil duties that are nothing to do with protecting the throne.

"They're actions that consolidate our ability to protect the throne," Robin said. "We've been through this John."

"And what happens to our agreement with whore Lady Bess when this one gets her pretty bosom split in twain by a longsword?" John asked.

"You worry about your own pretty bosom," Marian said. "Let me worry about mine."

"She has a point, big man," Tuck said. "You don't moan about having to watch Much the Miller's Son's back and he's about as much use as a sword fashioned from a marrow."

"But, he's a-" John said.

"Don't say it," Scarlet cut in. "Trust me, the wench can handle herself."

"How sweet of you," Marian addressed the thief. "Now if you could stop calling me 'wench' I could stop calling you 'scoundrel'."

Scarlet looked down at the floor, instantly sorry to have piped up, but his job was done. Seeing that everyone appeared to be against him John folded his arms across his chest.

"Fine," he said, although it clearly wasn't. "When she gets killed trying to enact some idiotic ploy don't come crying to me."

Everyone appeared to be fine with that, so they moved on.

"While Yughi has been forging a link in our chain of intelligence," said Robin, "Tuck and I have been talking with a knight, Stephen Malebys, an acquaintance of Tuck's."

"We fought side by side in the Holy Land," Tuck explained. "When we returned I took holy orders, he chose to become a freelance."

"A mercenary," John said. "So will he aid us, or does he demand a fee?"

"He needs money as we do," Robin said. "Any job we do that involves a payout, he will receive a cut. That's not the problem. The problem is, rather that he is currently too deeply in debt to be able to aid us. His own property, a small fort to the south of the Trent, is mortgaged to the hilt and he has no funds to be able to offer his band a wage or safety."

"Let me guess, the Sheriff of Nottingham had a hand in this?" John said.

"Stephen's son, Roger, took a job on behalf of the Sheriff," Tuck explained. "They were to escort a friend of the Sheriff's to Yorkshire, to meet with a Baron. When they got there the friend, who turned out to be none other than Guy of Gisbourne, killed the Baron and his brother and blamed it on Roger.

"As the Sheriff basically owns the courts the son was convicted and Stephen had to buy his son out of trouble. Now the Sheriff has awarded his fort to one of his other friends called Simon Fitz Peter until Stephen pays the mortgage of course. But then a knight without men cannot easily find the work necessary to pay off a mortgage."

"The sheriff certainly likes his methods," Will said. "Same as poor Hal."

"So we need money, not for ourselves," Robin said. "We need to put it back into the thieves of Nottingham and also help out Stephen's cause. Marian, it might help John's sore head about your joining us if you could get us a lead from Bess."

"I'll do it to help, not to prove anything to anyone," Marian said peevishly.

"As long as you do it," said Tuck. "What matters the reason?"

"And John," Robin cut in before any more arguments had a chance to blow up. "It might be a good idea if you were to back up Stephen until he's back on his feet. When we get him his money he will need to build up his forces again, some of his men will have left, some may not be interested. We need you to help him recruit."

"I can do that," John said confidently. Being selected for a job helping a knight find fighting men appeared to mollify the big man a good deal.

"Well," Tuck said. "If that's everything I guess we should get back to patrols and training."