The tavern was surprisingly like home.<br/><br/>It was Mary's first thought as she wove through the crowd.  She relaxed a bit inwardly, they seemed to be taking her for a boy.  For the moment.  that just meant she had to be even more careful.  People got oddly angry sometimes, when they learned they had been fooled like that.<br/><br/>"Just how the blazes far south am I?"  She murmured softly...deliberately  deciding not to lower the timber of her voice.  She was not a soprano, thank god, that made things easier.  Quite a few tenors had higher voices than she, or so she had been told.  Lot of sPanish blood in the crowd, she decided.  The Caribbean?  maybe, it was possible.<br/><br/>And she was being watched.  She couldn't quite pin down by who, but the way the crowd was subtly reacting, she was being tracked by somebody.  She found a dark corner, settled in with her back to a wall.  Now who...  One man caught her eye.  Dark skinned, not an Indian, the facial bones weren't right... not Black African  descent either, too European...  her eyes widened and she fought not to stare.  A , a Musselman?  Maybe, maybe.<br/><br/>A tavern girl plopped down a mug of ale and a dish of...some sort of stew, not bad, but they obviously made their money on ale and wine.  She paid without comment, shook her head at the offered change.  She must have gotten it right, the girl nodded in appreciation, but not surprise at the amount of the tip.  And shook her tail as she left, lifted her skirt a bit, giving "him" a flash of calf.<br/><br/>Mary blushed scarlet, to the vast amusement of the salts at a nearby table.  She took some ribbing, grinned at them and shrugged.<br/><br/>"Leave the boy alone."  One of them brayed, "He's just showing good sense, only Christ Himself knows what's crawling around in there!"<br/><br/>That almost started a fight, his mates thought it was funny, the tavern girl cursed him and threw an empty rum bottle at him.<br/><br/>Mary just ducked her head and dug in.  And kept a careful watch on the room.  And that stranger.  Damn, was he easy on the eyes.