Marriage by Obligation

Title: Marriage by Obligation

Summary:

Daenerys is the last female available to marry in the Targaryen family. The death of her second cousin, who was also her fiancé, sends her family into a tailspin. Their large family estate is now passing to a distant male family member, the rogue Jon Snow, who was raised in America. It all now belongs to him, but will he regret accepting Lady Daenerys as part of the package?

Marriage by Obligation is an AU, jonerys one-shot written for the Jonerys Week 2018. I selected the Prompt REGENCY AU for day one (3/4/18).

**I have no rights to these characters, all belong to HBO and Author, George R.R. Martin**

#jonerysweek #jonerys week 2018 #jonerys

^*^*Research: Sex in the Regency Era - BY ELLA QUINN

++o+ The Backstory +o++

Betrothed from birth, Daenerys Targaryen was raised for a very specific purpose: to marry her older second cousin, Aegon, who was the Earl of Dragon Abbey. As a Lady of high status in the Regency Era she was kept very innocent about matters of the heart. ^*^*Young ladies were kept in ignorance of the act of intercourse, until usually just before their wedding. Imagine having no TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, books, or other media exposing you to relations between men and women. In the country they were kept away from areas where animal breeding occurred. Aegon had been very specific on what his expectations were for his bride to be.

Although Aegon and Daenerys were raised in the same estate, they were never close. He was very spoiled and entitled, knowing that he would be the next earl. When Aegon was a young child his mother died, he was very bitter and angry. Especially when his father remarried so quickly. Aegon's father married a young woman from America, a country across the ocean that was very wild and rough. Rhaegar had brought his new bride to Dragon Abbey and they were soon expecting their first child.

Although they were in love, Lyanna did not enjoy her new life in Dragon Abbey. The pressures of being married to the Earl was weighing down on her, all of the social etiquette rules, the expectations and constant social engagements. She also missed her family terribly and didn't feel accepted by the Targaryens. Lyanna missed her home in America, the freedom she had enjoyed her entire life. She dreaded the idea of raising her child in the pretentious environment of British elite.

When her husband suddenly died, Lyanna no longer felt that Dragon Abbey was her home. As a widow and pregnant, she made the choice to return to her family's home to raise her child in the world she knew. She cut communications with the Targaryen family as they did with her.

Daenerys was betrothed to Aegon from birth, always knowing what her future would hold. Four months before the wedding, Aegon suffered a riding accident and died. As there were no living males in the Targaryen family there was a huge dispute as to who be the next earl and inherit all of Dragon Abbey. The women in Daenerys' family were distraught as they no longer had a claim to the only home they had ever known. They knew they would be at the mercy of whom ever was decided to be the new earl.

It was then that the short second marriage of Rhaegar was remembered, and the son his wife had birthed in America. The Targaryens immediately suggested the marriage of Lady Daenerys to the next Earl of Dragon Abbey.

Jon Snow, given his full name by Lyanna as a way to start new, was raised in America alongside his cousins. His mother sadly died during childbirth, so he knew very little of his father. Jon had worked very hard alongside his family, he had always been raised to roll up his sleeves and labor hard, and it was usually a matter of survival. Like most of his family, Jon was very rough around the edges and used to fighting for what was his.