The King

Chapter Fifteen

Highgarden was in celebration, as it was Princess Margaery Tyrell's seventeenth birthday, and several princes, lords, and ladies of the seven kingdoms were there to present some gifts to the beautiful young lady on her seventeenth birthday. But of all the gifts a noblewoman could give you, there was one that was not gold, jewels, or clothes of the finest quality.

The Lord of House Stark sent a gift, which Margaery was looking at with great affection, for it was a white owl with touches of gold, it was beautiful everywhere you looked, at first as was to be expected from the nobles of the South, they scoffed at such a poor gift, why send an animal and not jewels to a princess like Margaery. But she did not want such things, for why would she want to be given jewelry if she could afford to buy it herself? The only jewel she wore was the one her betrothed had sent her on her previous birthday, a black ruby, very few could get that kind of ruby because of its rarity, and now another gift that was not common, an owl, a most beautiful owl.

The man in charge of bringing that owl was none other than Hector Barbossa, at first he refused as he did not wish to use the pearl as a cargo ship, but then he agreed because someone in his crew wished to meet his brother's betrothed. And Barbossa soon realized how easily the girl could fake what people were looking for and manipulate them, all these little noble children who wanted to destroy Margaery's betrothal were easily manipulated by this girl. A very dangerous woman indeed.

On the other hand, Margaery was not only watching the gift her betrothed sent, but also the man who came to deliver it personally along with a girl of her age apparently, who was looking at her fiercely, perhaps in the north there were women who were more than interested in Harry Stark, in the same way that men were interested in her, In his letter he apologized for not being able to attend her birthday again, but he did not give any hint as to why he was not there, he wanted so much to procrastinate, for the sole purpose of her asking the man in front of her, and no doubt he succeeded, because she wanted to know.

- "My apologies, but may I ask you something" - Margaery was always very polite, although she wanted to demand to be answered, things were not like that, you always had to show politeness and let people see what they wanted, that was the best form of manipulation than any other method, something Barbossa knew, but still he only nodded his head to imply that she could ask her question - "Why didn't my fiancé come?"

- "My brother is very busy, that's why he sent us" - Artemisia spoke for the first time, she wanted to meet her brother's fiancée, ever since Harry told them about his fiancée, both she and Mya wanted to meet her, to know what kind of person she was, and here she was in front of her - "My name is Artemisia Stark, as I said Harry Stark's sister" - Artemisia was always very analytical with people, - "My brother always said, that you were beautiful like the most beautiful rose in a garden" - Those words only made Margaery smile, apparently her beauty caught the attention of the Lord of the Stark House - "But, you have to be careful. ...at any moment you could be pricked by its thorns... the most beautiful roses are the ones with the most thorns."

Margaery stared at Artemisia, once again her betrothed was proving that he was not just an ordinary Lord, which made her all the more eager to meet him.

Artemisia had to admit, her brother was right, Margaery was a beautiful woman and in time she was going to get much more beautiful. But she was also dangerous beyond belief, her brother would rather fight the Lannisters than have a war with the Tyrells, and for that reason, he wished to have Margaery as close as possible, where he could have a certain advantage against the Tyrells who in political arenas were the best.

From a safe distance, Olenna Tyrell was watching what was going on, at first the Stark girl took her distance and analyzed her granddaughter, which was unusual for a Northerner, they don't analyze things, they act, which gave her an understanding that the North was changing, while her granddaughter concentrated only on the owl and the man in front of her. The northern girl was analyzing her, it was very bold of her, to keep her distance and then speak, not many people did that, they always wished for attention to be paid to a place. But just as Margaery was about to speak, an owl flew up to where they were standing, and perched on Barbossa's shoulder, and she stared at the beautiful animal.