Joli nods and grins at Balfor.  "It's actually very good-- not as good as my festival stew, but... well, it's maybe<em>as </em>good."  She sips a bit more, stifling the yarn she was about to spin without meaning to do so.<br/><br/>She listens to the lady speak, her ears attentive and her smile wide.  The woman's elegant bearing and provocative dress reminded Joli of a woman from her past, though not uncomfortably so-- thankfully, Lorraine's appearance is dissimilar enough to assuage any sting that the memory might have, at least for the moment.  Instead, it lifts her spirits, and she looks upon this moment with a sort of quiet excitement and reverence as it stirs those memories of admiration and comfort deep in her heart...<br/><br/>Sadly, the feelings aren't purely admiring, and come with a different tinge than those she'd experienced as a stick-thin, tow-haired young girl-- there is a slight sting of bitterness at being in the presence of a worldly woman, while here Joli sits wearing a man's armor over a body that, by comparison to the voluptuous lady's, might as well be that of a stable-boy.  Regardless, she is eager to dismiss it, eager to enjoy the company.<br/><br/>She hears Alchfrid speak about being bought in the wilderness, then hears him correct himself with the very same sentence, and is suddenly incapable of feeling more than dumbfounded.  She looks back to Balfor and repeats her earlier sentence, perhaps more mechanically than before, as if she's lost her train of thought so profoundly that she can't recall having said it already.  "It's actually very good...er, stew..."<br/><br/>Looking back to Lon, she smirks lopsidedly and then returns her gaze to the others.  She's a little perturbed that she might have misjudged the gender of the smooth-faced youth, "Raine"... now, she's uncertain about that fact, even.   Maybe it would be harder than she thought to chase down a room to share... she could ask Lorraine, but feared the derision of rejection, no matter how well-intended, from a high-born and probably wealthy lady.<br/>(edited for clarity)