personal7

She was beautiful. 

Radiant even, the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen. Garth felt that if he reached out, he could very well touch her, hold her in his arms. Yet, despite being so close, she was still so far away. No matter how much he wished, he would never be able to come to hold her in his arms or taste her lips. 

Besides, she was to be married in little more than a moon's turn. 

Even if she wasn't promised to someone else, he really never had a chance. Princess Cirilla was to be destined for some great lord, not him. Some bastard, even if he had stopped being a flower years ago. 

Watching Ciri down in the courtyard near the fountain surrounded by her ladies, merry Meggett Frey, the very fair Evelyn Cox and Sally Rosby, he envisioned himself her ladies gone, but just her and him, talking amongst the fountain. 

Of little things really, of nothing of true import but these little things that would make the day pass by. They wouldn't even need to talk really, he would have been happy with just her silence. 

He sighed wistfully as reality washed away his day dreams. She was truly a cruel mistress. 

"There he is!" 

Garth nearly jumped out of his skin as a hand wrapped itself around his shoulders, pulling him in close to its own. "The hells are you doing Garth? Missing another lesson? Old Freddy will have words with you." 

Garth frowned as he tried to fight off the massive paw of a hand that belonged to Andrew Goodbrook. Then he remembered that Andrew was stronger than him by far and gave up. "So? I'm more partial to matters of finance than war. The good master will just have to deal with my absence." 

It wasn't like he ever planned to lead any of his future bannermen into battle. The king had an army for that. If need be, he would call his banners, say the words, do the dance, but at the end, lead his men to be led by more martial men than he. 

He would just be happy with himself to count coins and peruse ledgers. 

"What were you staring at anyway?" Andrew asked, looking down towards the courtyard, his eyes squinting to make-out the figures below. 

His heart nearly leapt into his throat. He quickly tried to change the subject and move on to a different topic. "Your lessons are finished then? Where are Alfie and Ed?" He tried to pull away from the edge, taking Andrew with him, but it was like trying to move a statue. 

"They'll be here soon enough," Andrew still looked down at the courtyard before a grin came across his face. "Oh! Now I see! Ha! Brilliant! Which one caught your eye? Was it Evie or Sally? Or perhaps the princess herself?" 

"I don't know what you are talking about." 

Andrew was chuckling to himself. "Of course, you don't. Why don't we get the opinion of our fair friends?" What? Andrew then proceeded to wave his hand to gain the attention of figures that were making their way towards them. "Alfie! Ed! You will never guess what I found our wayward friend doing!" 

Ed took one moment to just glance at him and then over into the courtyard below. "Was he stalking the princess again?" 

Stalking? "I was not stalking!" He hissed as he could feel the redness that was coming to his face. 

Alfie had a look of amusement on his face. "You can just go talk to her, you know you can do that right?" 

"She is promised to someone else!" 

"I didn't say steal her away." Alfie said with mirth. "Do that and you'll annoy father. Father will then probably hunt you down and throw you into the nearest volcano he can find." 

The notion of having the king chase after him caused all manner of colour, the redness included, to slowly vanish from his face. 

"True," Edward was saying, nodding his head. "Dragonstone is just some days journey away by boat. The king will probably do so personally as well. See you to the top of the mount and cast you down with hiw own bare hands." 

Alfie shook his head. "Wouldn't do really. Father will be more partial into throwing him into the Fourteen more than else. Fourteen volcanoes for more times the pain." 

"No-one would willingly journey into the Doom." Garth tried to reassure himself, though it was rather weak. 

"And yet it is said no-one would willingly cross Harren, yet father did." The auburn-haired heir to the throne replied with a wry smirk on his lips. "I wouldn't put it past father. But really now, how have you not gone over that childish affection? You are nearly a man grown, Garth." 

It was not merely a childish affection. It was love. He knew it. 

"I am over it." He lied. 

His lie was weak by the looks all three of them gave him, but they didn't press or tease him on the subject anymore. A sweet relief that Garth found thanking the Seven for. 

It had started innocently enough, from the affection that had grown to become the love he had for the princess. She had been kind to him when he had first come to Riverrun with his mother. He had been the bastard son of a reach lord that had fought against the king in Mern's Folly. 

His trueborn brothers had been captured or died in the battle, his father captured as well. He had sisters who would have been able to inherit, but the king had chosen him. The son of a scullery maid and a noble. 

King Edmyn after exiling the trueborn of the Varners had legitimised him and when he came of age, Longleaf Hall would be his. And Princess Cirilla would be his lady when she and her husband finally settled in Tumbleton. 

Garth knew that Princess Cirilla would never come to love him, but he vowed that she would have no finer bannerman than him. 

As much as he wanted to ignore the pain he felt in his heart, his companions talked about a subject that caused such pain to him. 

"What's the name of this prince anyway?" Andrew asked, scratching at the hair that had started growing around his chin. 

Unbidden, Garth found himself the one to answer the question. "Mors. Mors Martell. He is the younger brother to the ruling Princess of Dorne, Deria." 

"Wonder what it's like to have a woman rule over you." Andrew mused. 

"Probably just the same as having a man rule over you," Alfie replied, a hand throwing his half-cloak over his shoulder. "Women can just be as capable as men. Just look at the Lady Anya. She's held herself well in my father's council." 

Andrew snorted. "Nothing exceptional about her, Alf. She was the first to support his grace during his rebellion. She had to be rewarded in some way." 

"Politics." Was all the prince said in reply. "Though the arrival of the dornish prince means good business for the all the madames and masters that run the brothels. He most likely will bring with him a sizeable retinue of lords, ladies, guards and servants. And you know what they say about the dornish." He finished with an impish smile on his face. 

Edward looked thoughtful for a moment. "I suppose that means you won't be going to Assendra's then anytime soon will you, Andrew?" 

"Fuck off Ed." The Goodbrook scion grumbled. Whatever dark turn of mood that had come over him quickly disappeared as he perked right up, grinning with confidence. "It doesn't matter. I'm a loyal customer and thus shall be treated as such." 

Garth shook his head. "What does your lord father think, spending all of his coin in brothels and on whores?" 

Andrew looked amused at him. "Who do you think took me to Assendra's in the first place?" 

As Garth's jaw dropped, Andrew guffawed as the others watched in quiet amusement. 

"Well hello there little brother!" 

Much to his horror, Garth found himself within the presence of Princess Cirilla and her ladies. He realised that his attention had been taken by the antics of the others and his wallowing in his own self-pity that he had been taken to this place without him truly thinking about it. 

He wanted to blame someone but soon found himself blaming himself for being led so easily. 

Alfie moved forward to greet his sister, smiling some all the way. "Sister, sorry about that. I couldn't see you with all the shining beauty that surrounds you so." He said with charm as he greeted his sister's ladies. 

"Please, my prince," began Sally Rosby with nothing but pleasantry in her voice. "You used that the time before last when you saw us." Meggett Frey nodded her head as well, as she turned to look at the royal prince. 

"What's the problem, my prince, running out of words?" The Frey lady asked with a coquettish smile on her face. 

"None of the sort," Alfie replied as he took each of the lady's hands in turn and planted a kiss on the back of them. "The combined majesty of your beauty just makes it quite difficult for the mind to work. I shall strive to do better, so I hope you will forgive me this one time." 

"My brother," Princess Cirilla began, amusement in the tones and inflection of her voice. "Quite the charmer. I fear I might have taught him a little too well." 

Prince Alfred raised an eyebrow in interest. "You have charm?" 

The princess rolled her eyes and the ladies giggled in a pleasant manner at the jape. 

Garth wanted to strike the prince on the back of his head. The princess had more charm in her little finger than anybody else as far as he was concerned. 

She was so beautiful... 

So blinding... 

"Garth!" He was taken out of his world as the princess called out to him. "Stop standing over there like a stranger and come closer. I swear, with the way you act, some might not believe that we have known each other since we were children." 

He could feel the grins that played on his own companions faces as he stepped closer to the gaggle of ladies and attendants. "Apologies princess," he began as he bowed. "I was just blinded by all the beauty that surrounds me. Perhaps I shall make a painting of it all later, but it would never come to compete with all the sights around me." 

'Or you.' He thought to himself. 

She laughed, her laugh sounded to him like the gentle ringing of bells amongst a light summer day. In the corner of his eyes, he saw Alfie, Andrew and Edward near roll their eyes at him. 

"Please, shall we stop with all this mummery?" Evelyn Cox asked, smoothing her skirts. "Look around you my lords, my prince, there is no audience for it." 

Evelyn Cox might be considered a beauty, but Garth found her personality to be nowhere near as fair as her looks. She was certainly pretty on the outside but might as well have been rotten on the inside. 

Edward looked around for a moment, squinting here and there. "Well, there is some audience... though not the most loyal or attentive of audiences. They just happen to come and go, perhaps we should leave the actual mummery to the mummer's who know what they are doing?" 

Garth wondered when his friend had been able to somehow find himself next to Sally Rosby. He hadn't even seen him move. 

"Actors." Both the prince and princess said with a sigh. They looked at each other and an unspoken conversation happened between the two of them before they both shrugged and looked away. "Never mind about that, but yes, let's do away with the pleasantries. If I have to hear one more compliment about the beauty of my ladies, I fear I shall go mad and pull my hair out." 

"Ser Jon might like that." Her brother said with a nod. 

The princess crooked a brow. "He likes my hair. Considers it the best part of my being." 

Evelyn Cox sniffed some. "He says that now, but wait till the wedding night. He'll like another part of you more than your hair." 

"Ha!" Andrew snorted. "I liked that!" 

The princess laughed. "Oh Evie, must you be so bad?" 

"Only truthful." Was the foul lady's reply to the accusation. 

"And the lady is much better of it." The prince said with half a chuckle. "father has always said its best to have people who tell you the truth, no matter how much you don't want to hear of it. Your honesty is a quality that I wish all the people in the world held." 

"And here I thought the flattery had come to a stop." 

"Some, not all." 

Garth felt awkward in the presence of the people around him. He didn't have the charm that seemed to come out of Alfie and the others. In truth, he felt like an awkward stick in the mud as the young lords and ladies talked amongst themselves. 

Of interesting things that had been going around court. The gossips that he had heard over and over again. Riverrun was the centre of the kingdom, yet with all the nobles that came to court and the happenings there, one would think it was less the centre of power that it was and more a gathering of fishmongers trying to peddle their wares. 

"I'd be wary of the Lady Charlton if I was you, Lord Garth." Sally Rosby was saying to him, her teal eyes looking into him softly. 

She was a gentle soul her. 

"My lady?" He asked, confused. 

The lady's eyes softened some as she looked at him. "Despite your age, you are a lord. Of a good castle and good lands, but most importantly, you have no wife." 

"Nor ties to truly tie your fealty to Riverrun." Meggett Frey pointed out. "A marriage to a riverland House is one way of just solidifying that fealty." 

"Father might have gone about it in a cruel way," Princess Cirilla spoke next. "But he more or less assured the loyalty of House Varner." 

He frowned in thought. "I don't understand princess." 

Alfie placed a hand on his shoulder. "Let's just say that it sort of involves the rest of your family. And anyway, please stop trying to scare my friend, my ladies. Garth is more than able enough, he will be able to take care of himself." 

Andrew came upon him once more without him making a sound and put a hand around his neck. "He might look a bit soft and slow witted, but he doesn't look as dumb as he looks truly. He'll be fine." 

"Then he better hopes the lady doesn't lie down and spread her legs open for him then." Evelyn Cox remarked blithely. Alfie, Andrew and Edward shared a look amongst themselves and laughed then. Something the lady didn't take well. "What is the jape sers? What exactly am I missing?" 

"Let's just say," Edward began with good cheer as he wiped a tear away from the corner of an eye. "Garth's eye has already been taken and it has yet to wander." 

"She must be beautiful," the object of his love said unknowingly of how truthful her statement was. "Then I wish you all the best." 

Even if she did, it was pointless for him.