Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/9368279.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Fandom:
      A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire_-_George_R._R._Martin, A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire_&
      Related_Fandoms, Game_of_Thrones_(TV)
  Relationship:
      Jaime_Lannister/Original_Female_Character(s)
  Character:
      Jaime_Lannister, Tyrion_Lannister, Eddara_Tallhart
  Additional Tags:
      Arranged_Marriage, Forced_Marriage, Fluff_and_Smut, One_Shot, referenced
      rape
  Stats:
      Published: 2017-01-17 Words: 2595
****** The Song ******
by Northern_Lady
Summary
     I wrote another Jaime Lannister arranged marriage story with a
     somewhat original character because...well because I am insane. One
     shot.
There had been no real way for Jaime Lannister to avoid an arranged marriage.
Tyrion had warned him that the new Queen would expect him to marry into a
northern house and take his place as heir to Casterly Rock. That, she believed,
was better than punishing him as a kingslayer because it would help to further
unite the kingdom. Jaime had little choice but to agree to her demands. It was
agree or flee to Essos. Three weeks after his agreement Tyrion came to inform
him who the bride was going to be.
“At least tell me she isn’t some young maiden?” Jaime asked as he and Tyrion
sat down to a table and Jaime poured wine.
“She is not. She is twenty four years old. Not exactly of the same age as you
brother but not a child bride either.” Tyrion said.
“And her name?”
“Eddara of House Tallhart. I am told she goes by the name Dara.”
“Do you know more about her than that?” Jaime asked, not wanting to seem too
anxious but unable to quell the worry.
“She is very quiet and does not speak often, not in a bashful sense, but stoic
like many northerners are. I do know that Dara has been lady of Torrhen’s
Square for some years now. She is not accustomed to having a man rule over her.
Her parents and brothers were killed during the war of five kings and she
herself was captured by the ironborn for a time. She has remained unwed by
choice and I am not sure why she decided to accept the queen’s betrothal
arrangement.” Tyrion explained and seeing the look Jaime was giving him went
on. “I know nothing about what she might look like. I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s alright,” Jaime said with a sigh. “When will she arrive?”
“In about two months. The wedding will take place a fortnight after that,”
Tyrion told him.
“So be it,” Jaime nodded, resigned to his fate.
****************************************
On the day of Dara’s arrival, Tyrion brought her to Jaime’s rooms in
Kingslanding. He was staying with his brother in the Hand’s Tower and would
return to Casterly Rock after the wedding. Jaime tried not to pace the room as
he waited. Tyrion opened the door and Jaime was on the far side of the solar
facing a window, he turned and found her standing there. She wore a dress of
brown with green trim, her house colors. The brown, a medium earthy brown, was
almost the same color as her hair. Dara was not particularly tall. She was
probably a good eight inches shorter than Jaime was. And she wasn’t ugly. She
was rather pretty in a stoic northern sort of way.
Tyrion made the introductions and then suggested that the pair of them take a
walk in the gardens. They took his suggestion and went for a walk. Jaime found
that Dara was indeed rather quiet. Not so quiet that she wouldn’t talk to him.
She did answer his questions about her home and her journey to meet him. She
even asked a few questions of her own. However, it was obvious that she would
never be the sort of wife who annoy him day after day with endless prattle.
That might be a good thing or it might be equally vexing to never know what she
was thinking because she never volunteered any information at all.
Before their walk had ended he learned that her favorite flowers were Lupines
because she pointed them out in the garden and calmly told him so. He also
learned that she had no fear of insects like many women often had. A spider
dangled down from a web above her and landed on her arm. She wasn’t even
startled. She simply brushed it off as if it were a leaf.
They walked for the space of an hour, not saying a lot, and certainly not
saying the things they wanted to say most. He wanted to ask her why she had
agreed to the betrothal but that would mean he’d have to tell her that he’d
only accepted to avoid having to leave Westeros. If he did that, he might even
let it slip that he did not expect a happy marriage or even to like her let
alone love her. That might be a little too cruel a thing to say, even for the
kingslayer, so he said nothing at all on the subject.
Before they went their separate ways, Jaime invited her to take dinner with him
that evening.
********************
Because his betrothed was so reticent, Jaime depended on Tyrion to give him any
news of the woman’s activities while they were not together. He wasn’t exactly
asking his brother to spy on her or anything of that sort. He simply wanted to
know information about her well being and interests. He was going to spend the
rest of his life with this woman. More information could certainly not hurt and
at best it could make the difference between living in a tolerable marriage or
a living hell.
Tyrion arrived in his rooms the next morning and Jaime let him in. “I have news
for you brother,” Tyrion said as he entered the room.
“Good news?” Jaime asked.
“I can’t say whether it is good or bad,” Tyrion said, sitting down on one of
Jaime’s couches. “It seems that Dara has an interest in archery. She asked a
servant last night where she might find an armory. She brought a bow with her
and had discovered while unpacking her things last night that it had somehow
broken during her journey south. The maidservant said that Dara seemed a little
sad about the loss of her bow.”
“So she does have emotions.” Jaime commented.
“Of course she has emotions,” Tyrion said. “Just because she is a grim
northerner doesn’t mean she has no emotions.”
“I’m not so sure about that. Even Catlyn Stark was known to smile on occasion.”
“Well have you done anything at all since she has been here that would be
worthy of a smile?” Tyrion asked him.
“I’ve made plenty of jokes. She barely responds. If not for her varied
vocabulary in answering my direct questions I might have mistaken her for a
dimwit,” Jaime said, irritated.
Tyrion sighed. “Give her time, Jaime. She has only just arrived and is probably
rather frightened at the prospect of marriage to a stranger.”
“Why do you suppose she accepted the betrothal in the first place?” Jaime asked
him. “You said yourself that she has remained unwed and refused all offers for
years. What changed? Did the queen threaten her?”
“Her Grace did not threaten Lady Eddara. She sent an ordinary betrothal offer
and the lady accepted it. I can only assume that she refused offers in the past
either because she liked managing Torrhen Square on her own or because she had
no interest in marriage after what the Iron Islanders did to her,” Tyrion
explained.
“Right, I had forgotten about that,” Jaime said. “They very likely raped her
and treated her poorly as a prisoner.”
“Very likely,” Tyrion agreed. “So as I said, just give her time.”
****************************
For an entire fortnight Jaime spent large amounts of his days with Dara
Tallhart. She never learned to really talk with him in all that time but he was
still able to gather little pieces of information all the same. They ended up
practicing archery together. She told him she learned to shoot after her family
died so that she might aid in the defense of the castle should anyone try to
take it again. She was a decent shot and was better in fact than he had ever
been at archery. When pressed about her interests, she admitted that she
enjoyed both riding horses and playing the viol. After that Jaime made a point
to take her riding. He also made a point to have lupines sent to her room.
“It seems that your lady Dara can smile after all.” Tyrion told Jaime late one
afternoon in his chambers. It was two days before the wedding was to take
place.
“Really?” This had Jaime’s interest. “What caused it?”
“The flowers you sent,” Tyrion said. “The servant said that she smiled, just a
little, when the flowers arrived but it was a smile nonetheless.”
“That surprises me, I must admit,” Jaime said.
“Another thing that might surprise you is that she is very good at that viol
she told you she plays,” Tyrion said. “She was practicing in her chambers last
night. Eleven servants gathered outside her door to listen. She had them in
tears.”
“Tears?”
“The song was a sad one. Mournfully sad I am told. If had to guess, I would say
that all the emotion she doesn’t express in words is saved for her songs,”
Tyrion said.
“What am I to do about that?”
“I don’t know. I suppose just listen when you have the opportunity.”
***********************************
Jaime did not expect a happy wedding night. He entered his bedchamber after the
vows were spoken anticipating a frightened bride. She waited for him on the bed
under the covers but she did not look frightened in the least. He supposed she
wouldn’t appear to be afraid even if she were terrified. That wasn’t her way.
Jaime poured himself a glass of wine and turned to speak to her. He wanted to
tell her he would be gentle with her, that she needn’t be frightened even after
what the ironborn may have done but the words left him. Dara was no longer
hiding beneath the covers. She had thrown the blanket aside and was lying stark
naked on the bed.
For a moment he just stared. He hadn’t seen a naked woman in years and her
boldness was entirely unexpected. He removed what was left of his clothing and
joined her on the bed. When he leaned closer to kiss her she kissed him in
return. It was not a gentle maiden’s kiss. She pressed her nude body against
his own and kissed him with longing, with lust. Her hands roamed his body and
she soon found his hardness and began to stroke him slowly. He groaned at the
sensation. She caught his hand as it rested on her breast and placed it between
her legs where she wanted his attention. He willingly obliged. As her own moans
escaped her it became clear to Jaime that Dara had known a man before and she
very desperately wanted a man again. Had that been why she had agreed to
marriage? He didn’t have the presence of mind to think about it any longer. She
had pushed him over onto his back and was climbing on top of him. He groaned
again when she fit him inside her body and began to move up and down his
length. Her face which was so devoid of emotion the majority of the time, was
showing signs of absolute ecstasy. Her rhythm was slow at first but soon became
faster and more frenzied. Jaime knew he wouldn’t last much longer, it having
been so long since he had done this and having been completely unprepared for
this sort of passion. He felt himself let go, his seed spilling inside her and
still she kept moving, her walls closing around him a few thrusts later.
Breathless, Dara fell forward to lie down on top of him. Her head was resting
on his shoulder, her nose pressed against his neck where he could feel her warm
breath. His arms were still around her and he wasn’t willing to move just yet.
And then he couldn’t help it. He started to laugh. “What in seven hells just
happened?”
She lifted her her head and met his eyes, questions in her own eyes.
“I didn’t think you even liked me, or liked anyone for that matter,” Jaime
explained.
Dara moved off of him and curled up next to him, covering them both with a
blanket. “I do like you. I do like people. I’m just not very good at showing
it.”
“Even so, I did not expect either of us to enjoy the wedding night. I expected
you would be frightened...after being captured by the ironborn and all…”
“That was years ago. It doesn’t frighten me anymore.” She said simply. “It
might still, if I had been a maiden when they came to me, but I wasn’t.”
“It sounds like there is a story behind that,” Jaime prompted.
“I was maid of fifteen, Gared was the son of our Master at Arms. Father would
have never let us marry but that didn’t stop us. We planned to run away once he
had saved enough coins from selling furs. Gared was killed when Dagmer Cleftjaw
took my home,” Dara explained.
“So that’s why you refused all the marriage offers over the years? Not out of
fear of being bedded but because none of them were Gared?” He asked her. “Or
was it because you enjoyed ruling a castle?”
“It was because all of them only wanted me for my claim. My marriage offers
came from second born sons and Knights without holdings. I couldn’t be used
like that,” She said sadly.
“You are aware that the queen arranged our betrothal as one of my conditions
for remaining in Westeros?”
“Yes. But you didn’t seek me out to gain a lordship. You agreed to tolerate me
in order to keep what you already had. Yours was the best offer I had gotten.”
“Apparently it was. You did seem rather eager to receive my offer tonight,” He
quipped.
To his great surprise, Dara actually blushed at his words. “Well, it has been
nine years. Eager hardly begins to describe it.”
“And are you still…?” He reached over and rested a hand on her hip, “Eager?”
“Yes,” She breathed.
He rolled closer to her and kissed her again, determined to go more slowly this
time.
*****************************
Tyrion caught Jaime alone late the next day. “I trust it went well...if that
satisfied grin on your face is any indication.”
“It’s not a satisfied grin,” Jaime protested.
“Yes it is. Where is your bride by the way?” Tyrion asked.
“She went to the garden to play her viol.”
“And you didn’t go with her?”
“No, I… should I have gone? I don’t know how any of this is supposed to work.”
Jaime said a little worried.
“I am sure it’s fine. We could go there now. I am curious to hear this music
the servants have spoken so fondly of.”
They heard her before they saw her. The sound was unlike anything either of
them had ever heard. It was ethereal, otherwordly, agonizingly beautiful. This
was not the sort of tunes the minstrels played or anything like what the common
people sang. It was pure emotion turned into sound. Unlike what the servants
had reported, this song was not sad, it evoked a different emotion. It
something between joy and love.
“Tyrion I think your assessment about last night was correct,” Jaime said, a
little in awe over what he was hearing. “It went well. It went very well.”
“Do you suppose her songs will become even more lovely if she decides she loves
you?” Tyrion asked.
“I don’t know how that would be possible,” Jaime said.
“Then maybe she already does,” Tyrion said. He could think of no better
explanation, nor of any better future for his brother than to have a love that
sounded like that.
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