Gardens

[Marie]

"I suppose, but would anyone even hire a woman? I mean...I know there are women who sell their..um...female parts. But I am a highborn maid. I could not possibly do that." She reddened.

[Viea Greyjoy]

Jen raised an eyebrow and smiled. "So instead you will sit in your room and make pretty little things when you are asked." She said, only mocking a little. "Sell those pretty little things and you may surprise yourself."

[Marie]

"I hate sewing!" Alys shuddered. "I like riding and archery. I can't sell that. Can I?" She looked at Jen in hope.

[Viea Greyjoy]

Jen shrugged. "Maybe, if you are good enough I suppose." She said.

[Marie]

"I'm not so bad," Alys remarked. "Though whether I'd be good enough for someone used to hiring knights and mercenaries I don't know."

[Viea Greyjoy]

"Well it sounds like you will be stuck here then." Jen said with a shrug. "What are you actually good at?"

[Marie]

"Talking to people, short blades, riding and archery," said Alys with some pride. "I think I write tolerably well too. But I was not raised for adventures, because ladies are not. I was lucky to be allowed to learn archery and short blades."

[Viea Greyjoy]

"Speaking and writing..." Jen said with only the smallest of eye rolls. "Mayhaps a scribe?"

[Marie]

"Perhaps but that's not very adventurous, is it,?" Alys demanded. "Do your people even know how to write?"

[Viea Greyjoy]

Jen looked amused by the question though she stayed quiet for a while.

"How else would we read where we want to raid." She asked with a small smile. "I know many on your land that cannot read and write, maybe some illiterate lording wants a little girl that he can dictate to."

[Marie]

"Perhaps. I might think about it," she mused. "But I'd rather come sail with you. I don't want to spend my whole life sitting behind a desk. After all, I'm not a maester."

[Viea Greyjoy]

"You would only rather that 'cause you are bored." Jen said. "I'm not in the habit of letting bored children play on my ship."

[Marie]

"I am not a child," Alys retorted. "I told you that. I am old enough to have a husband and children, if I wanted."

[Viea Greyjoy]

"You said you are 18..." Jen said. "When I was your age my son was 2 and I still sailed before that."

[Jennalynn Hightower]

/////

Lady Jennalynn walked the gardens, enjoying the different colors and smells that the large array of flowers were a part of the garden of the Hightower. The gardens at the Red Keep was a wonderful place, but it was nothing like this, this was one of the more beautiful places she had been to in her short lifespan so far, and that made her wonder how her future home in the Stepstones would look like; would it be a cold and barren place or a warm place where a lot of seeds would find root? She stopped and took a seat at a stone bench, feeling overwhelmed for a moment.