DAENERYS III

"The day was warm, the sun was shining and butterflies danced around the flowerbeds by each side of the tile pathway and the green grass. Dany and Ser Marq were walking on a promenade in the Riverrun gardens, her arm under his as they surveyed the landscape. Around them the willow trees, hedges, ferns and flowers arose in almost every direction, just north of the castle. Lady Minisa's red, white and blue roses were still as beautiful as when she had been little, growing each from their own breed of bush beside each other in the complimentary colors of House Tully.

The red ones were the regular kind. The blue ones were called winter roses, and the white ones as well. She stopped by one of the rose bushes, plucking a white rose from it and sniffing it, taking in the sweet, but dizzying scent. It smelled just like perfume, but still something far more...

Ser Marq slowed down his steps beside her, carefully let go off her arm, and smiled at her.

"It's beautiful. White. So pale and pretty... Just like you, my lady."

Dany lowered her gaze at his words, but tried her best at accepting the compliment.

"Thankyou, ser. … You are most kind."

He smiled again, his eyes as blue as the sky.

"If you would want, we could have them planted at Pinkmaiden. I believe we might have some already, in fact, but if we should find that we do not... I could always ask Lord Hoster for a stickling or two."

Daenerys considered his words, talking already of Castle Pinkmaiden, where they would one day live. She supposed that she liked the offer, even though it felt all so strange, and she still could barely imagine that she would truly live there within a foreseeable time.

"Thankyou, ser. … That would be most appreciated."

He looked at her, strangely, and then tilted his head slightly to the side.

"You don't need to call me 'ser' any more, my lady. We are betrothed. Please. Call me Marq. … If you would like", he added.

She looked at the flower again, seeing how pure and white it was, before putting it back into the bushes, laying it tenderly on top of the other ones and the green saw-edged leaves, resting on top. She hoped that it would stay there, with the others, and not fall down to the ground.

"Thankyou,... Marq", she said. It still felt so strange.

They had only been betrothed for a little more than a moon, but all the same the feeling around the castle had changed much already. Her ladies seemed to be more courteous towards her, just as Edmure, who bowed down with his head a little extra every time he saw her, and sometimes called her "my lady" on occasions, instead of "Daenerys" or "Dany". She supposed that he meant it as an honour or politeness, signalling that she was beginning to be a grown woman, but she was not sure that she was ready for such honours, in truth. She was still only thirteen, and did not know how to rule over a keep, much less how to be married to a man, a man like Ser Marq who was ten years her elder. She would need time, still, and much more time. At least another one or two years, she thought, before she could truly feel ready to marry him...

She saw a tiny little insect, a tiny red and black little skinny beetle with long golden spreats, that was crawling up towards the base crown of a rose flower. It looked almost like a tiny knight, she thought, a knight in armour, trying to get at the sweet nectar inside the rose, and then she laughed inside her at the absurdity of the thought. Then she took courage to her.

"Ser Marq?" She still called him ser nonetheless. It would feel strange to not do so. They still did not know each other. Three or four promenades around the Riverrun gardens during a fortnight's time did not make a marriage. At least not as of yet. And some men and women still called each other 'my lord' and 'my lady' when they were old and greying, and had known each other for many years, even when they had children together, Daenerys knew. She did not know whether her and Ser Marq would be soon – or ever – to cross that particular boundary. At any rate... He replied to her.

"Yes, Daenerys?"

She did not in truth enjoy how familiar he was already getting, but tried her best at accepting it. She had chosen him herself to be her protecter, after all, now and forever. She had done it. She had taken the leap herself, telling herself that it was necessary in her heart and mind. If I look back I am lost. Anything to get out of the grip of old Lord Hoster and his terribe evil advice, and his harking on her to forget about her brother, his hatred towards Viserys and Maldaena, both, and his gross and sudden, terrifying bouts of coughing, all of it...

Yes... She decided, after all, that Ser Marq, for all his small flaws and for their difference in experience and age, would surely be ten times better than staying a prisoner under her Trout grandfather at Riverrun for all time. She decided to tell him that now. Better to plant and plan for a happy marriage at least now than to try and escape from it and fail, she supposed.

"I only wanted to thankyou again, my good ser... For agreeing to marry me when I asked you..."

"But of course, my lady! I was... delighted when you asked me!"

She could tell that he was lying. He had not in fact been delighted, rather slightly shocked, but she knew that he nonetheless loved her – as much as one could love someone that one still did not properly know – and would most certainly love to marry her, even if he had himself perhaps thought her still a little young for it, in truth... Or perhaps he did not. She still was not sure.

"Or... well... You did not truly ask me, my lady. You did not need to. For you already seemed to know that I was planning on asking you. It was... strange in fact. As if you could read my mind, my lady."

She ignored his comments, continuing what she wanted to say. It had been obvious that he would want to marry her. They almost all would, except possibly for Edmure, and that was only – ironically enough – because he was like a brother to her. Elsewise, they had all been flocking for her. She was a Targaryen, after all, as the septa and her brother both had explained a hundred times, although Lord Hoster might try his best and cover up the importance of that to her.

"I only had a question which I wanted to ask you..." She said, brushing her hand slowly across the length of a leaf that she had plucked from the bushes beside and now trailing at its edges in her hand and with her fingertips.

"But of course, my lady", he smiled freely. "Ask away."

She lowered her voice again, wondering if he would still be as happy once she had asked.

"Have you... known other women... my lord?"

"Known other women...?" He said, clearly not understanding what she was truly asking. She would have to do better than that.

"I mean... Have you... been with... other women? Have you...-"

"Oooh!" He breathed out in a sudden realization. And then a sudden pause. "Oh."

He harkled himself, letting his hands run through his long blonde hair which swept itself voluminously, swaggeringly over his pale brow and masculine eyebrows.

His nose was handsome as well, she found, but that was not what she was wondering now. She knew that he looked good, she knew that from the outside, he was all that a knight should be, and she thought surely too that he did try his best to uphold his knight's vows of taking care of and protecting for the weak... But she wondered now in as to the manner of his own personal habits... And what he had been up to in Rosby, for one.

"Well, I... Yes, of course", he said, trying to construe it as something self-evident, which perhaps it was. She did not know about such things still, could only guess, from the way that he and Edmure sometimes talked or jibed about such things. "I have... Yes, I have certainly known several women before, in truth", he said.

"And have you... Been with them?" She said. She then sighed and corrected herself, knowing full well that she would have to show herself to be brave now, before this man who was more than ten years her age. She corrected her posture, pressed her fingers around the plant, and looked up at him.

"I mean, have you layn with them? Have you layn with anyone but me?"

"Oh... You certainly are open-worded, my lady..." He harkled himself slightly, and laughed heartily.

"I only want things to be as clear as they can be before we... When we are to marry."

"Yes... " He harkled himself. "Yes, of course. Well... To tell you the truth, Daenerys, yes. I have done so. Several times, in fact."

"Did you know them before?" She said, and she could feel that she was gliding into dangerous territory now. But still... she must know what type of a man her husband-to-be was, whether he would still be that type of man after they were wed, and what he in turn would be expecting from the things of his previous experiences, and what he would be expecting with her.

"Well, I... Some of them", he said, clearly speaking truthfully, as he held out his hand in the air. "Some of them, yes. Others, no."

She considered his words.

"Only... I don't think that I am quite ready to be wed yet, ser. But perhaps... in a year or two... I... I would not want to be a disappointment to you on account of my youth."

He looked at her with such a look of sweet adoration and seemed almost taken aback by her candour. And yet he steadied himself quickly, and replied.

"I am sure that you will not ever be a disappointment to me, my lady. You are the most wonderful little lady that I ever did set my eyes on. I am sure that I will be very happy by our coupling, when that time comes. But... yes... of course that time must not come altogether too soon, of course. I will gladly give you plenty of time to wait, indeed, until such time that you feel that it would be proper, and that you are ready in yourself to be wed for true."

She looked up at him, with her violet eyes at his blue, trying to show her appreciation.

"Thankyou, ser. You are very understanding."

"But of course!" He said again. "I would not be expecting any more of you. And in time, before the wedding... We may only count on getting to know one another properly in the meantime. Tell me... Are you fond of hawking, Daenerys?"

She did not know what to reply.

"I don't know... Only... I fear I have not tried it, ser..."

Ser Marq smiled. "Ah, but has not Edmure taken you out at least some time? Surely once or twice he must have shown you his birds?"

She had seen them, in truth, but indeed only ever once or twice, when Edmure had brought them out of the falcon coop to let them sit on his shoulder and hand, wearing his thick beige leather falconry glove. And the other time the black one. She did not know why he had or needed two in different colors. She had never asked.

"I have seen them... Once or twice."

"Ah! That is very well then. If you want, I could manage to give you a bird entirely of your own. Or several, if you would like. They are beautiful fowls, falcons, and hawks... You only need to bond together with them properly, for them to not hurt you, and then to keep them on your safe hand. That is all."

She was certain that that could not be all there was to it, but she nonetheless thanked him for his most kind offer. Perhaps she would enjoy the practice of it.

She had always been somewhat curious of Edmure's birds. And many birds in general. Not only that. Even Master Vyman's ravens when she saw them take flight from the towers those few times that she was there to see it in time...

And the swans that at times could be seen to the sides of the Red Fork...

Yes. Dany liked birds, she thought. They were much like the dragons of her house, the old legendary ones that Viserys had told her about, but only much smaller, with beaks, and more feathery. Ser Marq's proposal was a pleasant one, she felt it now decidedly within her heart.

"That would be wonderful, my lord. … Ser... … Marq", She finally said.

And he looked down at her, took her hands into his large, strong gloved ones, and smiled with his handsome blue eyes.

...

Her Lady Rohanne did not have the same good fortune with her suitor, it seemed, when Dany and Ser Marq returned back to the castle some small passing of time later in the afternoon.

She was standing next to her father Ser Robin just now, by the linden trees of the eastern entrance along the River Road, screaming out the top of her lungs how she did not wish to see Ser Emeryck today, but her father chastised her, and hit her, and then he hit her again.

"Shall I have to bloody tie you up for him to get his way with you?" He screamed, furiously, spitting out his words so that the spit flew in the air, his face red with anger.

Rohanne broke then, her voice trailing down into a red sobbing and cries, as she shook all over, crying, screaming, crying, her face red and her tears trailing all the way down her neck and chest. She was clad in her finest green dress, with the green willow of Willow Wood emblazoned on white on a small sigil shield stitched to her chest to show off her father's pride. Dany felt sorry for her. For the first time ever, perhaps.

Rohanne stood still crying, her red hair shaking in the wind and flurry of falling leaves from the willow and linden trees around, as Ser Emeryck came riding up from the gate to the yard some hundred feet away, mounted on his horse in his best armour and with a small honour guard of his squire as well as four guards and two servants.

It was the most that he could muster to show off his riches and pride, Dany thought. He only had a very small keep, from what Dany had heard, and so he had to leave some of the guards and servants behind while he rode to Riverrun to keep watch over it.

He came now, riding on his dark courser, as Edmure came out of the castle behind her to greet his loyal bannerman.

"Ah! Ser Emeryck! You are most welcome!" He smiled. But then he apparently for the first time took a glance and saw the look on Rohanne, and hindered himself from shouting some more. Instead he became moderate in his look, lowering his gaze as he walked down from the steps, passing by Daenerys and Ser Marq, as he saw them only then, and asking them only very quickly whether they had had a good walk, to which they both replied that they had. Then he came up to Rohanne and Ser Robin to ask what on earth was going on.

"What is going on, Rohanne? Are you not pleased to meet with him?"

"No, my lord, I'm not!" Rohanne said, doing her best to gather herself, but her voice falling broken and unsteady all the same, as he tried her best at wiping away her tears.

"Don't look down like that! Look up at your lord when you speak to him!" Ser Robin chided, almost smacking her on the back of her head.

Dany felt truly sorry for her friend and enemy now, as she and Ser Marq watched it all go down from only a couple of thirty or forty feet away.

"But I... - " Rohanne sobbed. "I don't wish to marry Ser Emeryck, father! I don't... I'm sorry, my lord... I'm sorry, Lord Edmure..." She said, fighting for her voice to get through.

Edmure came up to her then.

"Hush hush hush, child... That is okay. You need not be so sad about it. This is only a visit of courtesy, is it not?" He said with worried eyes looking at Ser Robin. Ser Robin replied, his manner short, unphased and blunt.

"In truth, it may be so, yes... But she is a nuisance, my lord, and she must learn her ways. I would have no qualms about leaving her to him as soon as already today, if the grand truth be told."

Rohanne cried out even more at that, as Edmure did his best to comfort her, and hold her in his arms. Rohanne shook, as Edmure cradled her red hair towards the grey of his mail and the red of his Tully trout, standing out on the beige white of his doublet.

"Come, come, Rohanne... Surely it is not altogether that bad to be married off to Ser Emeryck? He is a fine man, is he not? I have certainly not heard anything particularly bad about him."

"But I don't want to be married off at all! I want to stay here!" She said.

"The moment of your staying on here ended in the moment when you shamed us before the King!" Ser Robin growled at her, hitting her hard again. Rohanne cried out even harder at that.

"My lord!" Edmure shouted out, his voice decided. "There is no need for that, surely. She is only a young girl."

"She may be young enough to act a fool..." Ser Robin said, still angry and speaking right to his bannerman without the tiniest flinch in his voice, "but she is certainly old enough to be married. I have seen and heard that all too well."

Edmure shook his head slightly, and looked troubled, as he rubbed at his hair and looked around him, wondering before everyone present what on earth he should do. He was the man's lord, true, but still technically it was Lord Hoster who was the lord, and Lord Hoster still lay sick and resting up in his solar, as he had for the entire day. It was not likely that he would come out.

At that, Ser Robin was an angry and powerful man, who was no doubt a better fighter and swordsman than Edmure, and when it came to his daughter, a man had as much say as his lord.

"I suppose... I suppose that that is your decision to make", Edmure said finally, his tone stiff.

"Indeed it is, my lord. If I and her mother have bred her and raised her, as well as her mother damn gave her life for her and her brother's birth, I reckon she ought to act better than this."

Simbass and Jake were peeking out of the stables far away to the east by the stables hill, Daenerys saw. They looked uncertain. Daenerys wondered if Ser Robin had meant that Rohanne had been tasseling with either one or both of them during the past time. As Dany had understood, she had been coming out to do a little more than riding of late, and perhaps her father had now found out...

"Come on now", Ser Robin said, as he dragged Rohanne screaming in protest towards Ser Emeryck, who was just dismounting by the gate, and looked at her with an uncertain look about his face, but seemed wellbred enough to pretend it to be no big deal nonetheless. He nodded at his soon-to-be good-father across the yard.

"Ser Robin."

"Ser Emeryck!" Ser Robin shouted back. "I had done my best to make her presentable, and for her to not stand here balling, but I fear that she is as glad as can be."

He traversed the courtyard in his grey boots, his green cloak flapping behind him in the wind.

Dany felt that she could watch it no further, even if it was rude Rohanne. She thanked Ser Marq for the walk and excused herself to go back to her chambers for the day. Ser Marq thanked her in turn, as he bowed deep and kissed her chivalrously on her hand. The guards at the drawbridge, one of which was Ser Tristan, Rohanne's far older brother, who looked on his father and sister's red fight with a stoic and clean-shaven face telling nothing, highered their hauberks to let her back through again, as she began wondering about where Septa Merielle could be at this hour. Most like in the drawing room, with the other girls, she supposed.

Just as she was about to walk inside the castle, though, she turned back to Ser Marq, as he was still escorting her to the safety of the keep, even though there were surely no dangers within range, and plenty of guards, at that. They slid into the dark of the gatehouse, verring under its massive shadowy expanse as she looked up at it like she had a thousand times before, and then they strode into the heart of the keep itself.

As they made to separat themselves for the day at last, she reached for Ser Marq's hands once again.

"By the way... Marq... I would love to go hawking with you some day. If you would wish to show me, I mean..."

"Yes, of course! An excellent idea. I will ask Edmure. Shall we say to make it in... three days's time?"

"That would be most suitable, my lord." She smiled.

She took her farewell of Ser Marq, and went into the drawing room to meet with Septa Merielle and her ladies.

"Daenerys", Septa Merielle said. "I thought you would be gone longer."

"I am not wed just yet, septa", she replied, waiting for a scolding to come at her childish jape.

Merielle said nothing in return, though, as Dany sat down on her usual chair next to Melandra Piper.

"If you are to marry him, just think... " Melandra said suddenly. "We would be almost as cousins, Daenerys. For I and Mark certainly are."

"Yes... " She realized again, as she had before but always forgot about, on the account that Melandra did not speak or interact particularly much with Ser Marq, though they were family, on account of their age difference. "You are right, Melandra. … We would."

She liked the idea. She liked her friend Melandra, after all, perhaps more than any of the other of them. Between her, and Ser Marq himself, and his father Lord Clement, and his siblings, the Pipers were a widespread house, and she would do her best to fit into it with her dragons' blood and else.

Dany sat sewing in peace as she imagined the screams and roarings of Rohanne and Ser Emeryck outside, and as she felt the presence of her red dragon somewhere into the next other room. Just calm now, stay calm, my dragon... She thought. We are good. Things are good. Stay for a long time. Yes, stay there for a long time and dwell indeed...

As she finished her sewing, they ate dinner, and Joyce told the stories of the last couple of days which more or less confirmed what Dany had thought of Rohanne and Jake and Simbass. The septa warned her not to spread gossip without proof, but Joyce said that she had seen it with her own eyes, how they had kissed and embraced each other, and then the septa could say little more than to quote some texts of chastity and the Maiden's sanctity virtues from the Seven-Pointed Star.

I wonder if she would have the same to say to Simbass, or indeed to my husband-to-be... thought Daenerys. Still, she was glad, as she went to her bedchamber and Servetta drew up a bath for her while Trea helped her out of her dress for the evening to come.

As she lay back in her bath, with her wet blanket underneath her neck, and feeling the soap bubbles and the softness of the oils on her naked skin, she felt that she was blessed. Ser Marq would make a decent husband, a kind husband, surely, as long as he could hold himself to only her, and in the meantime she would wait for him, and he would wait for her, patiently. Dragonstone would wait. It would always be there, somewhere, she told herself, as Servetta began caressing her silvery hair, stroking it and massaging her scalp.

Yes, she told herself, sinking further down into the bath, for the moment I shall be as most content here. Riverrun. It is my home, for a time more, and not a home that is all that bad, after all. And in three days' time, they would go hawking with her betrothed husband. She thought that she would not be disappointed in the adventure that would no doubt prove to be.

And neither, she hoped, would be Pinkmaiden Castle."