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Your mind has turned to making something of a statement. You have been groped and stripped and insulted beyond your wildest dreams. Others will fairly assume you have been subjected to worse. You have been the subject of court gossip before, and you do not intend to fall so deep down that pit again. You must look strong. For your own sake. For your own dignity.
Your future may well depend on it. Your lack of ransoming still stings. Your lord father wrote you off even before your false demise, doubtless with your scheming uncle whispering in his ear. In truth, you have no real grasp on the mind of Lord Domeric Duntreow. He was doting yet distant with you in your youth, much preferring to focus his attentions upon your knightly brothers. The distance only seemed to grow after the Rebellion with your father no longer his jovial self. You have begun to consider the real possibility that he may yet see you sidelined in favor of your uncle’s line. Tradition of birthrights being what they are, daughters have still been sidelined before, even those with cause to war for their claims. It may not take much. One more scandalous rumor. More whispered counsel against you. A quarrel. An unfortunate accident. The Rainwood is known for them…
You look at the idyllic fields around you on your ride towards the Mander River bend. The same dangers do not seem to lurk here. If anything, the rolling fields of green and their multitudes of flowering plants have only deepened in their beauty. The smallfolk tiling the fields give curious looks but are otherwise harmless. You need only yield the road twice, once to a bloated wheat caravan and again to a pair of racing lordlings. Ser Leo had a bit of grumbling about that, making idle threats to ride after them, but you pressed on with little incident. A part of you envies your mother her childhood here and understands her melancholy all the better. In recent years, you came to realize that she never truly loved your father. You’d thought some of the due to their gap in age and mannerisms, but you could see yourself begrudging a man who would take you away from these peaceful lands and into the deep wilds.
