Miria had troubled closing the heavy wooden door against the wind. Sleet! So far down the mountains, and on the leeward side. It made little sense. She shook it from her plain brown cloak, looked around the tavern. The men all bore dirty faces and lean bodies, the women either portly or scrawny with none in-between, even a few children hung about, snotty nosed. Miria sneered beneath her hood; the lower class annoyed her, and yet she felt some degree of sympathy for these particular people. The men seemed miners, by their state of grittiness, and she’d heard stories of mining towns in these mountains. By no means were they happy places to live.
Miria brushed away a little sleet from one shoulder then approached the bar. Only there did she lower her hood, then hefted the hard, rectangular case she carried onto it in front of the tender.
“Sir,� she began, and knew that her mannerisms and language were out of place by the expression he gave her. “I am in need of a meal, yet I find myself lacking money. I wonder if I might ply my trade for you in place of it?� Then she opened the case and revealed the shapely, expensive instrument inside.
The man whistled. “Sing for yer supper, eh?�
Miria did not realize the question had been rhetorical until after she said, “Well, I don’t sing very well, sir, but I play decently.�
He grinned, leaned forward, and she closed the case, pulled it close to her, realized how paranoid and offensive the movement would seem. “I’ll tell you,� he said, “you can try, and if the music’s good enough, at the end of the night, we’ll see about a meal.�
Miria did not like the arrangement one bit, as it guaranteed nothing, and she suspected the barkeep would stiff her of the meal if he could, even if she gave the performance of a lifetime. She decided then and there he would get no such thing; she would only play as best she dared, and had no other options, it seemed, with the hour growing late. “Thank you, sir.�
She went across the room, close to the very small fireplace, and as the case took up both hands at the moment, drew a chair away from an empty table with one foot, only <I>then</I> thought of putting the case down to remove her cloak. She finally opened the case, removed dulcimer and hammers, and sat down to play.