Two

Silence

"Lie still and don't resist. It will hurt more if you do. Try not to cry, unless he wants you to."

Merryn nodded at her stepmother, grateful for her advice. Her father's wife knew what she was talking about; Merryn felt nothing but sympathy for her. She knew what kind of a monster her father was and she couldn't even imagine what his poor wife and been through. Just like all of his wives.

"No, my lord, please…"

Merryn closed her eyes, she couldn't think about that now. Yet her mother's screams were all she heard. Her mother had begged her father to stop. He hadn't, not before she had stopped screaming. Stopped moving. Stopped breathing. Silence. He had cursed and left her bedchamber. She had been lying naked on the bed, still bleeding.

Merryn had been in the closet, staring at her mother until the servants had taken her body away. She didn't know how long she had been in the closet before coming out. Her mother had told her to stay hidden until her father would leave. Merryn wasn't supposed to be in her mother's chamber, her father would have been angry if he would have seen her.

She had been 5, a quiet child who had only spoken to her mother. After that day, she hadn't spoken a word. After that day, she had become invisible. She had hoped to stay like that, trusting that no man would want a woman who couldn't speak. That man wasn't supposed to choose her. Yet he had. After tonight, she would be his property. He could do whatever he wanted to her.

Beatings had been a part of her upbringing, that wasn't what she was afraid of. As far as she knew, all men were violent toward their wives, it was normal. A wife's duty was to please her husband any way she could. Her only chance was to be adaptable. Thankfully that was a skill she had learned here. She knew how to handle men and she doubted that northern men were much different.

What she needed to do was to observe him and find out what he wanted. Despite of what most people thought, she wasn't stupid. But what if he was like her father? What if he would torment her, no matter what she would do? Then she would just have to find a way to cope and try to find ways to make her life tolerable. Just like she had done here.

But here she had her sisters and nieces. She would miss their company. Would she ever see them again after the wedding? If she had understood correctly, Lord Stark was on his way to war and she assumed that he would take her with him. The thought made her nervous; she had spent her whole life here. She startled when the door suddenly opened and two maids, Jana and Fay, came in.

"Be strong," her stepmother said quietly and left.

The maids started quickly to prepare Merryn for the wedding. First they prepared a bath for her; Jana added flower oil in the water.

"You will smell nice for the lord, my lady," she said smiling.

Merryn felt a lump in her throat, but she tried her best to smile, the maids were clearly happy for her. They probably thought that she should be grateful to get married. Such honor wasn't truism for the daughters of Walder Frey. Their House wasn't the most respected one and their father had tried to get rid of his daughters by offering them a very generous dowry.

Merryn had heard that Lord Stark on the other hand was forced to take one of her father's daughters if he wanted to cross the river. That was another reason for him to make her suffer; she doubted that he would have ever willingly married a Frey. It was likely that he would one way or the other make her pay for her father's ultimatum. At least he hadn't chosen Shirei. Why had he chosen Merryn?

"She would make a good wife. Knows her place and keeps her mouth shut."

Perhaps that was what Lord Stark wanted. A wife who kept her mouth shut.

"The bath is ready, my lady," Jana said.

Undressing felt unpleasant, all Merryn could think about was that she would have to soon do it in front of a man. Her body wouldn't belong to her anymore, he could use it however he wanted. The thought made her shiver, but she forced herself to calm down. She bathed, wore her wedding gown, held still when Fay brushed her hair and Jana pinched her cheeks to give them more color.

A part of her was still hoping that this was all just a bad dream. Everything had happened so fast, she wasn't in any way prepared for this. Once again she thought about her mother and wondered if she had been as scared before her wedding as Merryn was. How had she managed to get through her wedding night? Merryn would have given anything if she would have been here now, guiding her. Not that anyone could really help her, she was on her own. Deep down she was terrified, but she was determined not to show it. Somehow she would make it through this. At least so she hoped.