~*~ A Few Months Later ~*~

I frowned at my husband. It felt weird to call him such, he was hardly the loving husband I had always desired to be married to.

It was as though he was cruel or spiteful towards me, but we were certainly not meant to be. I was certain that if we weren't forced into this marriage we would have never spoken to each other, we just didn't work well together.

We started off on okay terms. We were awkward and uncertain of each other, we rarely spoke and we were just not sure on how we were supposed to act with each other. We were married but we were still strangers.

Just now we spoke, well argued. That was really the only times words were exchanged, they were just words of disgust and annoyance.

Although we were far from getting along, I still took the role of housewife.

Soon after the marriage I was told of how Bard would provide for us both whilst I would take care of the home and children. It was a bit fast to talk of us having children. Of course I knew that would be expected from this marriage but no time soon, and if I could get away with it we'd never have children, not if we forever despised each other, that was no foundation for a family.

Bard was an archer, and it didn't provide a lot of money, not that any jobs in Lake-town provided much money, but at least we had a home, so we didn't have to save up to get one.

If I was allowed to, I would have gotten a job, I had worked since I was young, whether that was working with my Father or the job I had held for the last few years. Just supposedly that was frowned upon within this arranged marriage.

It seemed like a rule my parents had put in, just to disallow me any form of freedom, or as they saw it, any way to screw up this marriage through contact with other people.

Fulfilling my housewife duties, I had to cook the meals. Granted Bard sometimes did cook but it wasn't often and it wasn't like I had much else to do but cook and clean.

Whilst I cooked lunch, Bard was sat at the table finishing off a few arrows he was making. After a moment of silence I finished the soup I had been making and poured it into two bowls. I walked over to the dining table and put the two bowls down along with two spoons and cloth napkins.

"Thank you princess," he said in the snide tone I had become used to since our marriage.

"You're welcome," I frowned.

Since a few days after our wedding, he had begun to call me Princess. It was clear he wasn't using it as a term of endearment and I wasn't a princess by birth. The venom that he held in his voice whenever he called me that made it known of his disdain and dislike for me.

Although it wasn't too hard to figure out why he called me that. My parents had lied to him and his parents of a Prince's desire to marry me, but I had chosen Bard over him. When I spoke to my Mother about her lies, she claimed what she had said was an extension of the truth. All she had told everyone, had fragments of truth lying within them but they were so distorted, the facts were hardly that at all.

Bard ate a mouthful of the soup, before waving a hand in front of his face, and panting as though he was a dog.

"It's hot," I stated.

He drank a mouthful of his water.

"You could have warned me," he frowned.

"I didn't see it necessary. You did just see me remove the pot from the fire, I assumed you were capable of comprehending the transference of heat into the soup," I sighed.

Granted he was pre-occupied focusing on his arrows to notice me cooking the soup but still, it seemed like common sense to presume the soup would be hot, there was steam rising from it.

He let out a grumble of incoherent words, which were likely negative towards me, before he got another spoonful of soup, blowing at it to cool it down, before eating it.

The pair of us continued to eat in silence, other than the sounds of our spoons hitting our bowls. He broke the silence.

"My Mother wants to take you to the market tomorrow," he stated.

"Did she mention why she wished to take me to the market?" I asked.

I liked Eibhlin, she was nice. Well nicer than her son. She seemed to be more of a Mother to me than my own had ever been, and I had only known her for a matter of months. She and Bran regularly made unannounced visits to our home. It wasn't as if I minded too much, at least having visitors meant I didn't have to spend my whole day arguing with Bard.

"No. I spoke with my Father yesterday. He visited me at work, and told me he would come here tomorrow to spend time with me, but my Mother wished to take you to the market. He never elaborated, not that I asked for further information," he shrugged.

"Okay," I frowned.

I didn't really want to have to go to the market with his Mother, even though she was nice, but I didn't like having to go to the market at the best of times. It just wasn't too pleasant there.

"Be nice. You can't be rude to my Mother," he hissed.

"Since when have I ever been rude to Eibhlin? She is extremely kind and friendly, I would never think of being rude to her. Sadly her son couldn't take more after her and be a pleasant person," I frowned.

"I am a pleasant person. You are just a bad judge of character. You are far from pleasant yourself. You are abrupt and rude, and are far from being remotely nice."

"I'm not nice?" I let out an obnoxious laugh, "I cook you three meals a day, and I keep this house clean, so you do not have to. I do my best to keep you happy, but all you seem to do is complain about everything. If you had a positive attitude you might not be so grumpy all of the time."

His frown intensified as he slammed his spoon down onto the wooden table.

"I am not grumpy. But spending ever day with you, could make the happiest person homicidal."

"Don't blame me for whatever dark and depraved things you do in your spare time. I presumed you have a lot, seen as you have way too much spare time on your hands."

The argument continued for a few moments before Bard's hands fell firmly onto the table, pushing himself up from the bench he was sat on.

"I am going to work," he groaned.

"You don't start for another two hours."

"I am not staying here to continue this," he hissed.

He grabbed his bow and quiver filled with arrows before walking down the stairs going out to his small rickety boat.

I stood up from the table letting out a deep sigh. I grabbed the two bowls and spoons placing them in the bowl of water. Using the pent up anger I held within to scrub at them to remove any dirt that was on them.

Arguing with Bard used up so much energy. I didn't want to hate him, but we were so different. We held different values, we lead different lives, we were just never meant to be.

I did my best to try not to argue with him, but arguments occurred everyday no matter what I did, we just couldn't help but argue with each other.

Really I wanted to be able to have a happy marriage but that would never happen. It wasn't fun fighting with my husband, but we could never get along with anything, we would just have to have an unhappy marriage.

I never quite understood how an arranged marriage was of any use to anyone other than for political gain, but this time there was no political gain for my family. Granted Bard were royalty, but it didn't really matter, he couldn't be King if he didn't have a kingdom. Sadly I had no choice but to just go along with it and try to get happiness from anywhere I could with this not so happy marriage.