Where there are people to buy drinks, there are also people to serve them. Taverns, teahouses, inns and other establishments often employ women to take care of the customers. At times, a tavern girl is almost synonymous with a prostitute (under Roman law, a barmaid couldn’t be charged with adultery; sex with customers was considered part of the job), but elsewhere she might be just as chaste as anybody else. Often there is little else that she can do for a living; barren fields, a poor household or familial obligations might keep her in unglamorous work, or she might simply have no skills to offer a potential employer. The barmaid mingles with the rougher elements of society, or at least respectable elements in less guarded, restrained moments, so she might know more than their humble position implies. .