The Stag and The Frog - (GendryxMeera GOT fanfic) Part 1: Alone

33: The other girl

Talla Tarly woke up early the morning after her wedding. She turned around in the bed to look at her sweet young husband, perhaps to admire his prettiness some more. Because the boy was remarkably pretty. But when she gazed over towards Tyrek's side of the bed she found it empty. He wasn't there.

Talla looked around the room, wondering where he was. Then she waited for a little while to see if he would come back. He didn't.

Wondering where her new husband had gone she put on a robe and decided to go search for him. She walked the narrow corridors of Casterly Rock looking for him with no luck. So when she encountered one of the maids she decided to ask if she had seen Tyrek.

"Have you seen Lord Lannister?" Talla asked.

"He's probably in the girl's room," the maid said and gestured towards a door down the hall.

Talla got concerned upon hearing this, did her new husband have another girl he liked to sleep next to?

So Talla opened the door to the room the maid had pointed her to. And what she found when opening it surprised her.

It was a child's room. In a crib, a little girl was sleeping. All around the room were toys stacked. And on the carpet next to the crib Tyrek was laying sleeping.

Talla knew who the little girl was. Her name was Lady Ermesande Hayford. The orphaned girl that Tyrek had been forced to marry by when he was only 15 years old to claim her family's lands for House Lannister. That marriage had been invalidated since it, of course, had never been consummated. And the little girl was now staying as a ward at the castle. Tyrek had insisted on that when entering his new marriage but Talla had not realized just how attached he was to the girl.

She sat down next to her young husband on the floor and stroked his hair lightly. He started to wake up as she did.

"What are you doing here, my sweet husband?" she asked.

"I never said goodnight to Essie last night," he replied. "She must have wondered where I was, so I wanted to make sure to be here when she woke up."

He started to get up from the floor.

"Sorry, I'll come back to bed with you," he said.

"Tyrek, sit down. I'll stay here with you instead," she replied and patted on the floor next to her.

Tyrek came over and sat next to her. Talla grabbed a blanket and put it over both of them.

"You seem quite used to taking care of the girl," Talla said.

"Essie's been with me since she was a baby. My uncle Tywin forced me to marry her. I had no choice in the matter. I was supposed to be her husband. But what she needed was someone to take care of her. So I did even though I was a child myself. What else was I to do?"

"You could have left her to a wetnurse or a maid. Most boys your age would have."

"I couldn't do that. They wouldn't have cared for her in the same way."

"Sounds like you're basically her father."

"I guess I am... in every way but by blood. It was only her and me for years when we were stuck at Storm's End. She's never been apart from me."

"Well if you're her father, I'll be her mother. She needs one, and you need someone to help you care for her."

"I can't ask you do do that... that was not part of the deal when we married."

"You don't need to ask me, Tyrek. I'll do it happily. She's sweet, you're sweet. We'll be a family."

Talla put her arm around her young husband and embraced him. She had not expected this. For her teenage husband to come with a daughter. But it was a happy surprise.