Marian added a pinch of spices to the wine, before getting a serving tray and a cup. After a moment's thought she added a second cup to the tray. "We don't use that style here, dear. Title and place name. You best address her as baroness Waldgreen. That's her name. As for feeding you and why she might want to see you..." The woman sniffed at the warming wine; satisfied with the smell she moved it to the side of the fire, keeping it warm, away from the direct heat.<br/><br/>"Why would we not show some hospitality to someone in need? We can hardly turn you away and send you back into the cold, can we? And we are a small household here, not like some of the fancy castles in Lancrest I've heard about, where they have officials in command of servants who command other servants. If there's a decision to be made how much hospitality we can offer you, beyond a place by the fire and a chunk of bread, that's for my lady to make."<br/><br/>"And I guess she'll also want to hear what news you have from wherever you came from," Petrus added, back at cutting onions. "News travels slow, especially in winter. We hear little what goes on in the world, once winter sets in."<br/><br/>As far as the two servants were concerned that was very much it, what were to them obvious reasons more than enough explanation for the baroness's interest in the traveler.<br/><br/>It wasn't long before the soldier returned, stating that the baroness would see Mialla now. "I'll take her," Marian offered, placing the wine with the cups on her tray. "I have to serve the wine anyway, and you better go tell Will Warden about the new arrival if he hasn't heard about her from someone else already," she advised the guard.<br/><br/>Marian led Mialla through the door the soldier had used into the grand hall of the keep, a room two stories high and taking up half the main building. The hall was only dimly lit by two torches that cast more shadows than light, the high table at the northern end with five chairs behind it, the two long tables with seating for at least a dozen more, the unlit fireplace and a few braziers all just dark shapes.<br/><br/>They passed through the hall into the other half of the building and down a short, windowless corridor lit by another torch and up a flight of stairs into a small upper-story hallway. Marian balanced the tray with one hand, knocking on one of the iron-bound wooden doors leading off the hallway and entered the room behind without waiting for an invitation.<br/><br/>Beyond the door a room ran along the front of the building, several south-facing windows admitting what light the gray winter day had to offer. The air was cool, but not cold, a fireplace next to the door trying its best to banish the winter chill, as did an iron brazier sat halfway between the door and a desk in a corner. Some shelves were placed around the periphery of the room, holding books and scrolls but also goblets and cups made from copper and silver, and a few less-readily identified items, benches under the windows and a pair of high-backed chairs facing the fireplace provided seating, thick but unremarkable rugs covered perhaps half the wooden floor, and slightly faded tapestries depicting woodland creatures and hunt scenes added a little color to the whitewashed walls. At first glance everything in the room spoke of good, solid workmanship beyond the wealth of the average farmer or craftsman, but none of it displayed any ostentatious wealth.<br/><br/>At the desk, her back towards the door, a woman brooded over several scrolls spread before her, but she halfway turned in her seat at the entrance of the maid and the visitor. She was clothed in a gray dress over a green shirt that showed at her neck and at her wrists, good linen and fine wool, with simple embroidery, also in green, around the neck and cuffs of the dress. Pale green, almost gray, eyes looked at Mialla from a face that showed little sign of age and belonged to a woman perhaps in the first half of her thirties. But what drew the eye more than her face was her hair, straight and falling to below her shoulders it was a red not normally found, a shade that would stand out in any crowd and reflected the light in a way that suggested natural color instead of dye.<br/><br/><div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/4/4e/0013.jpg)</div>"Ah, Marian, thank you." The redhead pointed at the edge of the table with a small gesture of her hand. "Leave the wine here and perhaps our visitor will be kind enough to pour me a cup.<br/><br/>"Mialla, is it?" she asked in a neutral tone, her voice level and casual, betraying less interest than her words. "What brings you to these parts? And after first snow. It's not the time most people would decide to travel."<br/><hr/><em>(OOC: If you like, use the dicebot to make a Knowledge: Nobility check. The name "Waldgreen" or the hair color may have jogged a memory.)</em>