The Love of Jorah Mormont

Chapter 2: A Game of Knights

          She looked up at the shadow that towered over her thankfully it was only her father Henry, "Well Ardin now's your chance to go play before they get bored of being inside." She smiled and ran over to Brendon and Jorah,

"Let's play knights." knights was an easy came that the Quinn's children had played for many years, one child was picked to be the 'evil king' while the others were all valiant knights and the first to knock the other in the mud was the new villian it went on until one child stayed standing or until their mothers shouted at them. With a quick explanation to Jorah the children then decided that since Brendon was the tallest he would be the king, however before they could start Lord Henry stopped them,

"Wait, Knights wouldn't go into battle without shields." Brendon groaned,

"But father shields are too heavy and pointless." His father shook his head,

"A shield could keep you from meeting death it's best you learn to use it." The children ran over to the small rack where their fake swords had hung and each picked up a roughly made shield. Then the game began.

              Henry smiled as he made his way back inside, glancing over his shoulder to watch his daughter as she attacked her brother already having dropped her shield. His wife, Victoria disproved of Ardin playing with the boys but Henry encouraged it, a man with nothing to lose and a sword would not care if you were a man or a woman he'd tried to kill you all the same, he'd tried to convince his wife to let the master at arms train both their daughters in fighting. She'd fought against it even had gone so far as to write a letter to her sister inviting her to bring her six daughters and come stay with them. In hopes that Ardin would, as she had put it "Start acting as a lady instead of a wild animal." Though Ardin was too much like him for it to have done any good, she was incredibly headstrong and fought just as hard if not harder than her brother.

When he arrived in his meeting room his wife and her sister were sitting in chairs wine in their hands, he said, "To what do I owe this surprise." Fiona said,

"Well I just so happened to have been making my way to see how my daughters were faring with their sewing when I looked out the window only to see your daughter fighting out in the yard with that Mormont boy and Brendon the three of them covered in mud." Henry masked his laugh with a cough and sat down,

"Adrin is a tough girl." Fiona said,

"Yes but she is a girl Henry sometimes it's as if you forget that. Don't think I don't know what you were doing before you came inside she doesn't need to be playing around with the boys out there in the mud she needs to be inside with the girls." Henry looked to his wife who as usual sat there whilst her sister berated him for his choices,

"Fiona if you can keep Adrin inside and sewing I'll be glad to see her inside spending time with her sister and her cousins, however that child knows more ways out of this castle than any of hundreds of people who come here.That being said she's not happy sitting inside talking with the girls or working on sewing she's only happy when she's reading or outside playing with Brendon or some of the other boys and I'm not going to force her to be miserable just because we've diluted ourselves to believe that girls will not know what it is to fight with a sword and shield." Fiona's eyes hardened,

"Like I've said many a time Henry if you cannot raise Adrin to be a lady let me show her the way." Henry glared at the woman,

"You will not have my daughter. These are my children and I will raise them how I see fit." This time his wife did speak up,

"Maybe it'd be good for Adrin to have Fiona be in charge of her care." Henry stood up,

"We are not speaking of this I am not going to turn my daughter into a person she does not want to be! Now if you'll excuse me I have to important things to take care of." There was silence for a moment then the two women stood and made their way out of the room slamming the heavy wooden door behind them. Henry slumped in his chair running his hands through his hair, "Insufferable woman."