monument of memory - chapter 3
Baelor x OFC, arranged marriage, age difference, slow burn, rated E.
A servant entered the room with a serious expression. “Your Grace’s brother has arrived.” That would be Maekar coming from Summerhall. Baelor stood, straightening his black tunic, and rounded the desk. “I’ll meet him in the courtyard.”
Read chapter 3 on AO3
Preview:
At the table he was seated next to Maekar. He preferred this and was happy to spend time with his youngest brother after a long time apart, but he had forgotten how surly his brother was after long travel.
“Well?” Maekar asked, tearing into a piece of chicken.
“‘Well’ what?” Baelor replied and sipped on his wine.
“Which one is she?”
“Who?”
“Your bride.”
Baelor looked over a couple seats and then nodded. “The woman in the red gown.”
Maekar squinted down the line of people and then seemed to notice her. Ethel’s hair was in a decorative updo tonight, her braids gathered back to resemble the shape of a butterfly. Baelor had been captivated by the complicated updo when he saw her – her handmaidens had done brilliant work. The rich red of her gown, almost blood-like in the low light of the candles, looked good on her – he was used to seeing her in blue, but he did not mind this change.
“When you said you were going to marry a widower,” Maekar said, “I assumed it would be a matronly woman. Not a girl barely out of her mother’s skirts.”
Baelor nearly choked on his drink. “She’s five-and-twenty,” he coughed.
“What, barely ten years older than Valarr?” Maekar clicked his tongue.
“Maekar,” Baelor pleaded.
“I’m simply pointing out the truth.”
“It is not kind to gossip,” Dyanna said from Maekar’s left side and Baelor wanted to drown himself in the wine.
