The Bastard Stag

Chapter 5- The Carriage Ride and No Goodbyes

OK you guys might hate me for this.....

The next morning I woke up to my father clattering around in the other room. He must have been making me breakfast. I stretched like a cat and walked over to my mirror. It was dusty and chipped in the corner, but it had been my mothers one of the few positions that she had left to my father and I.

I went to the mirror and washed my hands and face, brushed my hair and looking down at my hands decided to cut my nails. I put on a pair of trousers and a black shirt that attached itself to my neck with a string of rope.

Barefoot I walked through the door an I put on a dress, just in case Lady Ollena decided to come around today. The dress was a light grey that was tied around the waist with strings so I put on a light blue shirt over it. d to my father. He looked up at me and his mouth turned up into a smile.

"You look so much like your mother." He said to me barely above a whisper.

It was these moments, that I loved. When my father wasn't working, when he wasn't making plans, or was so deep in thought that he didn't have time to look at me. He was standing waiting for my reaction and so I ran over to him and pulled my hands around his waist.

"Dad I'll miss you so much!" I wimpered, "Why can't I stay here with you! I could still become a Lady couldn't I? I could still wear beautiful dresses and eat fancy food, I could still learn to read and write, couldn't I?"

"Oh my sweet girl" he told me kissing the top of my head, "I wish it were that easy. But you have to go with Lady Olena, its out of question! I'm sorry, but it is what it is. You'll understand when you're older."

I pulled out of his embrace only a little dissapointed. I hadn't been expecting him to change his mind, but this had been one of the few happy moments I had with him, did he have to ruin it?

"Lady Olena will be here any minute..." My father said quietly.

I briskley turned back towards my father.

"What!" I shrieked out of surprise and anguish. "You never said anything about this!"

My father looked away dejected. He looked away and without another glance back he left downstairs to work on whatever jewelry he needed to work on. How could he do this to me! I had thought that I had till at least the end of the week!

I calmed myself down by taking deep breaths and drinking some water. I ate the apple and the coarse bread my father had left for me on the table and went back into my room to prepare myself for Lady Olena's visit.

If I was leaving to be a Lady I would at least have to be clean. So I set to work on myself, I scrubbed myself pink from head to toe and put what was left of my scented soap in my hair. When I got out from behind the curtain I brushed my hair while it was still wet and then I put on a dress,the dress was a light grey that was tied around the waist with strings, so I put on a light blue shirt over it. It wasn't a Lady dress, but it would have to do until I got to Highgarden.

I then braided my hair and again it wasn't ladylike but it would have to do. I put on a pair of sturdy black slippers and put my mother's clip in my hair and slipped out of my room and down the stairs to my father's workspace.

I was ready to tell my father off for not telling me earlier until I saw that Lady Olena was already there waiting for me. I stood there for a while wishing I could dissapear or run away but that would be impossible so I stepped into the room. Immediately my father and Lady Olena turned to look at me.

"Well letus go my sweet child." Said Lady Olena, "We must be off it will take us a while to reach Highgarden."

My father looked at me with so much sadness that I couldn't help but feel sad myself. I smiled a small smile, took Lady Olena's arm and was out the door and down the street towards the carriage that would take me away.

It wasn't until I was already in the carriage and through the King's Gate that I realised I hadn't said goodbye to Gendry.