p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;" align="center"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;"Chapter 1: Lorraine/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"With my arms crossed I stubbornly stared at some of my broken fingernails, ignoring the glare that my Septa was giving me. The carriage swayed as it followed the curve in the road from Bronzegate to Storm's End. She made me ride the carriage for the last day of our journey because, naturally, I couldn't show up dressed as some dirty commoner who had just went out riding in the dirt. I've ridden on Whirlwind for the greatest part of our journey down to the south, which I had no objection to./p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"''Look my lady, Storm's End is in sight,'' my Septa said with an admiring gaze. She probably didn't mind trading the cold of Bear Island for the warm South. Well I did. Even though the people on Bear Island have never been very kind to me for obvious reasons, it was still my home. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"I looked out the window and saw a large keep rising up from the distance, it was situated on a large firm island which was connected to the mainland with a sturdy bridge. The keep was surrounded by walls in which were many houses and a castle which housed the current Lord of Storm's End. Lord Addam Marbrand. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Storm's End was granted to him by House Lannister to hold. His father Damon Marbrand had insisted his son marry someone from the North, someone to patch up the wounds that the war had left behind. Most young ladies had been married off during the war to make alliances, leaving almost none. But because I had spent a year on my presumed deathbed, I had been spared the horror, since they had doubted that I would survive./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"I was surprised that they had decided to marry me off in the first place. Most of the time they tried to keep my existence under covers or pretend that I didn't have these ''unnatural urges'', as they would call them. I grabbed the window latch and closed it to take a deep breath. I was about to lose my freedom today. Within the walls of that keep, my new husband was waiting for me. House Mormont was sworn to the Starks, not the Lannisters. It still pained me when my aunt had told me about this arrangement, how could they change allegiance so easily? Something told me that something more was going on, but they simply chose not to tell me. There had to be a reason, some hidden agenda. Or maybe it was just me trying to convince myself that my family had not gone mad./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"''Are you frightened my lady? You need not worry, I heard he is a decent man.'' I looked up to my Septa with a mocking grin on my face. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"''If he's not, I'll stick my knife between his ri-'' I started but my Septa interrupted me immediately. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"''I will have no such talk! If you do such a thing you will bring the kingdom back to war again, now is that what you want?!'' She disapproved of the manly ways I had, by that I mean not behaving like a proper lady. My Septa wasn't from the North and did not understand the ways of House Mormont. Bear Island was a place where women were taught to fight and fought side by side with the men. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The carriage started to shake, letting me know that we must be riding on the bridge into Storm's End. My Septa straightened the way too tight dark green coloured dress that I was wearing./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"''Lorraine, will you please act like a proper lady for just this once?'' she begged me as the carriage started to slow down. I sighed and nodded slightly. The sooner I would please her, the faster she would leave me alone and give me a chance to sneak away. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"I didn't even bother to check myself in the mirror, I would already know what I would see; green daring eyes, long untamed brown locks falling past my shoulders and an uncontrollable amount of light coloured freckles spread across my nose and cheeks./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"When the door to our carriage opened I made my way outside and squeezed my eyes shut slightly while they were adjusting to broad daylight. In front of me was a stone paved road, leading up to the stairs which gave entrance to the keep. On the stairs stood a neatly arranged line of people; the court of Storm's End that were there to receive me. As I started my walk towards the stairs I saw the man standing in the middle, with red hair up to his shoulders and a slight stubble on his jaw. He had a stern look on his face and had the body that any average young man would have had. Well I had to say that it could have been a lot worse./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"On both sides of the road smallfolk were watching me, whispering to each other. So even here they would talk about me behind my back. I heard words such as ''monster'', ''bear'', ''sick'' and ''skinchanger'' as I passed by. I chose not to reply to them as was expected of a lady. As I approached the bottom of the stairs I caught a glimpse of a young man with incredibly blue eyes, grease smeared on his face and arm muscles that any sane man would be jealous of. When the young man realized he was staring at me for too long he lowered his gaze to his feet and didn't look back. /spanspan lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"I continued my walk up the steps until the ginger haired Lord Addam Marbrand was right in front of me./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" span style="background: white;"'My ladies, it is an honour and a pleasure to receive you at Storm's End,' the man said to me and my Septa, who was standing behind me, and offered his hand to me. As my brain started to calculate which shady line I could throw at him I heard my Septa cough softly. I grimaced and offered Lord Addam my hand. He kissed it quickly. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"''Thank you- my lord.''/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"''Let me be your guide and make sure you settle in nicely. You must be exhausted from the journey.''/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"He wasted no time and walked through the gates in a quick paced manner, which wasn't easy to keep up with in this ridiculously long dress. Seven Hells, how was I going to turn this piece of stern rock into a husband which I could live with?/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"With my arms crossed I stubbornly stared at some of my broken fingernails, ignoring the glare that my Septa was giving me. The carriage swayed as it followed the curve in the road from Bronzegate to Storm's End. She made me ride the carriage for the last day of our journey because, naturally, I couldn't show up dressed as some dirty commoner who had just went out riding in the dirt. I've ridden on Whirlwind for the greatest part of our journey down to the south, which I had no objection to./p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"''Look my lady, Storm's End is in sight,'' my Septa said with an admiring gaze. She probably didn't mind trading the cold of Bear Island for the warm South. Well I did. Even though the people on Bear Island have never been very kind to me for obvious reasons, it was still my home. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"I looked out the window and saw a large keep rising up from the distance, it was situated on a large firm island which was connected to the mainland with a sturdy bridge. The keep was surrounded by walls in which were many houses and a castle which housed the current Lord of Storm's End. Lord Addam Marbrand. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Storm's End was granted to him by House Lannister to hold. His father Damon Marbrand had insisted his son marry someone from the North, someone to patch up the wounds that the war had left behind. Most young ladies had been married off during the war to make alliances, leaving almost none. But because I had spent a year on my presumed deathbed, I had been spared the horror, since they had doubted that I would survive./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"I was surprised that they had decided to marry me off in the first place. Most of the time they tried to keep my existence under covers or pretend that I didn't have these ''unnatural urges'', as they would call them. I grabbed the window latch and closed it to take a deep breath. I was about to lose my freedom today. Within the walls of that keep, my new husband was waiting for me. House Mormont was sworn to the Starks, not the Lannisters. It still pained me when my aunt had told me about this arrangement, how could they change allegiance so easily? Something told me that something more was going on, but they simply chose not to tell me. There had to be a reason, some hidden agenda. Or maybe it was just me trying to convince myself that my family had not gone mad./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"''Are you frightened my lady? You need not worry, I heard he is a decent man.'' I looked up to my Septa with a mocking grin on my face. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"''If he's not, I'll stick my knife between his ri-'' I started but my Septa interrupted me immediately. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"''I will have no such talk! If you do such a thing you will bring the kingdom back to war again, now is that what you want?!'' She disapproved of the manly ways I had, by that I mean not behaving like a proper lady. My Septa wasn't from the North and did not understand the ways of House Mormont. Bear Island was a place where women were taught to fight and fought side by side with the men. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The carriage started to shake, letting me know that we must be riding on the bridge into Storm's End. My Septa straightened the way too tight dark green coloured dress that I was wearing./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"''Lorraine, will you please act like a proper lady for just this once?'' she begged me as the carriage started to slow down. I sighed and nodded slightly. The sooner I would please her, the faster she would leave me alone and give me a chance to sneak away. /span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"I didn't even bother to check myself in the mirror, I would already know what I would see; green daring eyes, long untamed brown locks falling past my shoulders and an uncontrollable amount of light coloured freckles spread across my nose and cheeks./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"When the door to our carriage opened I made my way outside and squeezed my eyes shut slightly while they were adjusting to broad daylight. In front of me was a stone paved road, leading up to the stairs which gave entrance to the keep. On the stairs stood a neatly arranged line of people; the court of Storm's End that were there to receive me. As I started my walk towards the stairs I saw the man standing in the middle, with red hair up to his shoulders and a slight stubble on his jaw. He had a stern look on his face and had the body that any average young man would have had. Well I had to say that it could have been a lot worse./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"On both sides of the road smallfolk were watching me, whispering to each other. So even here they would talk about me behind my back. I heard words such as ''monster'', ''bear'', ''sick'' and ''skinchanger'' as I passed by. I chose not to reply to them as was expected of a lady. As I approached the bottom of the stairs I caught a glimpse of a young man with incredibly blue eyes, grease smeared on his face and arm muscles that any sane man would be jealous of. When the young man realized he was staring at me for too long he lowered his gaze to his feet and didn't look back. /spanspan lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"I continued my walk up the steps until the ginger haired Lord Addam Marbrand was right in front of me./span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" span style="background: white;"'My ladies, it is an honour and a pleasure to receive you at Storm's End,' the man said to me and my Septa, who was standing behind me, and offered his hand to me. As my brain started to calculate which shady line I could throw at him I heard my Septa cough softly. I grimaced and offered Lord Addam my hand. He kissed it quickly. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"''Thank you- my lord.''/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"''Let me be your guide and make sure you settle in nicely. You must be exhausted from the journey.''/span/p
p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"He wasted no time and walked through the gates in a quick paced manner, which wasn't easy to keep up with in this ridiculously long dress. Seven Hells, how was I going to turn this piece of stern rock into a husband which I could live with?/span/p