Fortune had been kind of Flora Lordell. She was nobly born. She never had to search for shelter or worry about where her next meal was coming from. The only time she ever experienced grief and loss during her sixteen years of life was when her favorite dog died. She lived in a cheerful house, just above the neck of Westeros. Her father used to be a favored banner-man of the Starks, until the death of King Robb and the Starks ceased to exist. She should have been content with the easy hand the Gods handed her, but she wasn't.
Her opportunity to shed her former life and take on a new one, like a crab who deserts his shell when it is no longer suitable, came to her at dinner on an unusually warm winter day.
"Do you remember Jon Snow, Lady Flora?" Her septa asked while filling Flora's chalice with watered down wine. "The base-born son of Eddard Stark?"
The Bastard of Winterfell? She remembered him. Her family had last visited Winterfell several years past, when the late King Robert called on Lord Stark. It was then that Jon Snow almost kissed her in the stables, only to stop himself when their lips were just about to meet. It would have been Flora's first kiss, and she could still feel Jon's breath on her skin. Of course she remembered the base-born son of Eddard Stark. But she dared not say as much to her septa. "Yes. I remember some of him."
"He is now Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. A great honor, for one born immorally."
It was meant to be simple gossip. The Night's Watch did not affect House Lordell much. It was only an interesting piece of information meant to be passed off as conversation. But Flora found herself still thinking of it days later.
She shut herself into the Maester's library one afternoon. As the youngest of four sons and two other daughters, it was easy for Flora to disappear without others taking notice for some time. She scoured the shelves for all books related to human anatomy and medicine. They all contained information she already knew. When she was a child, she proudly proclaimed that she wanted to make and sell medicines, only to be laughed at. But that did not defer her interests.
Suddenly, she realized that she wasn't alone. Maester Luca, old and faithful, sworn to serve Harpwood Keep until his last day, loomed in the doorway, studying Flora with some amusement.
"Reading anatomy again?" He noted, "You already mastered that subject some time ago. You mother has asked me to tutor you in High Valyrian."
"I don't want to learn High Valyrian." She snapped, her eyes never wavering from the yellowed pages of the book.
"What is troubling you child? The only time you drown yourself in your studies is when you're fretting about something."
She gave Maester Luca a wary smile. The old man knew her better than nearly anybody else. He was the one who pulled her from her mother's womb, taught her letters and numbers when she was only three, and everything else she had learned since then.
"Nothing troubles me. I'm just…I'm wondering why I couldn't have been commonly born."
Luca laughed, then silenced when he realized she was serious. "You were born into great privilege, Flora. You should be thankful."
"Privilege? My only purpose in life is to marry a man also born in privilege and him privilege children until I die in the birthing bed or a cease to bleed, whichever comes first. That doesn't sound like privilege to me. I'm not better than a well bred horse."
Luca shifted uncomfortably where he stood. He was arguably one of the most learned men of the north, had read all five thousand books in Harpwood's library, but he became awkward and uncertain when faced with the feelings of others. "Now Flora, you know that isn't so…"
Flora interjected his thought. "If I were a commoner, I could join the Sept or be a midwife or a whore. I could do anything I wanted."
He flinched at her bawdy talk but was not taken aback. Of all the seven Lordell children, Flora was the most head strong and outspoken. "You will be a great lady someday." He crossed the room and pressed a hand to her shoulder. "You will be the head of a magnificent house, and all the priests, midwives, and whores will have to answer to you."
Flora nodded and smiled sweetly, feigning belief. She never believed she was destined to be some great lady, not for a second of her life. But it was useless to try to convince anybody otherwise. "May I take these books to my chamber, Maester Luca? I promise I will return them."
He gave his assent and Flora scurried from the room with an armful of books, but she had no intentions of every returning them. For that night, she was going to leave Harpwood Keep without a backwards glace. She was going to join the Night's Watch.