She reacted just as instinctively, whirling her body and striking with her hand, twisting his arm up and pinning it behind his back in one of the first and most basic manoeuvres she\'d ever learned. She loomed over him - in an effort to make it not hurt too terribly much - her teeth clenched and her fiery gaze locked on his, her feet balanced on either side of his. Her free hand went to the dagger strapped to the belt beneath her tunic without any extra thought, but she didn\'t draw it.
"I do have an opinion and it has nothing whatsoever to do with how pretty you are or how much you desire to know what lies behind my mask," she spat at him, offended by his words and his aggressive pursuit. Perhaps, if she were not in uniform, fresh from a summary meeting with the King regarding the recently-passed Tournament of the Corn and how Oberon could better play its part next season - perhaps if she were in plain clothes, relaxing at a tavern and in a melancholy mood - perhaps then she might have found his confidence appealing (she was much the same, after all), but not now.
Movement beyond Ridley caught her gaze; she looked up and gave a sharp shake of her head as two of her guards approached at a jog, obviously having seen her and her suitor from their posts within the marketplace. They were only doing their duty so she said nothing to them but they milled about a few metres away, obviously wanting to come to their boss\' rescue but too well-trained to defy her. She looked back at the man within her grasp, wondering if he was enjoying the attention three guards and everyone gawking in their immediate area were giving him and his antics... wondering if he thought she was worth it now.
"My opinion is that I nicely refused your advances and you haven\'t the wit or the ego to take my rebuttal in the spirit that it was meant. I hereby state my case more vehemently; I am flattered by your unique approach but I am not interested in anything you have to offer, is that blunt enough for you?" She could hardly avoid watching him, pressed nose to nose as they practically were, but it was enough to see the nod she expected to come. Already she regretted her harsh treatment of him, the humiliation she was forcing him to suffer by pinning his arm behind his back in the open street but it was a crime to deliberately lay a hand on any of the King\'s guard. At least she wasn\'t arresting him for his boldness.