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A Knight To His Lady
He misses her.
Jaime finds himself feeling nostalgic for the idyllic atmosphere of Highgarden and the simple fun he had there. There’s not much turmoil in the heart of Westeros for once, so his knighthood becomes a bit tedious. Highgarden takes on the rosy look of the past as he realizes he has no idea, truly, when he will see her again. Nature will decide when they are reunited.
He misses her. After three days, he misses her.
So it is somewhat fortunate when the letters begin to come, two moons after his visit.
Brienne lays out the truth in her first letter in her usual frank manner:
I know you do not care for correspondence, but Lady Olenna believes I should write to you, and has threatened to lock me in my room if I do not do so. I cannot imagine what happenings at Highgarden can possibly be more interesting than whatever you are doing as a knight, but I will dutifully report. Do not feel obligated to write back if you have nothing to say.
She writes about the nobility that passes through Highgarden, and their attempts to gain favor, money, land, or the hand of her foster sister, Margaery Tyrell, the Little Rose. Lady Olenna crushes their hopes more often than not. Brienne chaperones their romantic horse rides and always complains about the snail’s pace they have to travel at and the mind-numbing conversations she has to listen to, while getting a sunburn.
Renly Baratheon visits shortly after him. Brienne clearly adores him, as he was very nice when he visited her island of Tarth, not long before she and Jaime were betrothed by their fathers. It was his suggestion that she go to Highgarden. Jaime might be tempted to feel jealous if he thought Brienne would ever have truly dreamed of a marriage with Renly. In fact, she speculates that Margaery and Renly will marry, writing, It is a savvy match, but it does seem a shame that they will never fall in love.
The Master of Arms begins to train her, even though he begins by doing so quite half-heartedly until he’s seen her skill properly. He decides that his claim to fame will be the Master of Arms who made a woman good at swordplay--he must be a miracle worker!--a characterization that Brienne vehemently contests.
The idea of correspondence made him embarrassingly anxious, but her letters, as long as it takes him to process them at times, become a pleasant distraction on especially grueling days. She’s more articulate and clever than she sometimes is in conversation, and he feels it’s an assurance that she’ll be able to handle herself among their peers when the time comes.
It’s not long after her first letter that she writes:
You may be pleased to hear that my moonblood has come upon me. Lady Olenna has already sent a raven to King’s Landing. Perhaps we will meet again before your drawing becomes too terribly outdated.
He replies, Mayhaps meeting your incredibly handsome fiance hastened it along?
A few days later:
Our fathers have agreed that we will wed upon my fifteenth nameday. So please do not die in the meantime, or you will ruin my nameday.
Unfortunately, they do not wed on her fifteenth name day, because Tarth is attacked by Ironborn forces on its’ eastern side. However, the rebuilding of the ruined city of Morne on that coast means it’s well-guarded by Lannister soldiers and ships, and they are driven back with a quickness.
Not, however, before Jaime had written a very dramatic letter declaring that he would reclaim her island in her name and see her enemies pay.
She matched his dramatic gesture by swearing that she would reclaim it herself, and had caused a panic at Highgarden by attempting to sneak out of the castle with the apparent goal of going to Tarth and literally fighting the Ironborn herself, without much in the way of a plan. Admirable, but very stupid. Are you seeking to die before our wedding, wench?
In the end, it delays them enough that her name day becomes impossible. Her father, feeling especially tender towards his daughter after the attacks on Tarth, insists on pushing the wedding back to Brienne’s sixteenth birthday. Jaime finds himself annoyed with the decision. Brienne is as well, complaining that her father had put his own feelings ahead of his duty to Tarth.
Still, it gives him another year of her letters. She writes that the seamstress had already begun her wedding gown several months before and would definitely have to alter it. I am still growing, and only up and across. She says it is the most fabric she has ever had to use for a wedding gown.
He tries to write back more often, supplying her with as many exciting stories as he can when there’s not much happening. She never tires of hearing stories about Arthur Dayne, or second-hand stories from him.
She writes of a group from Dorne coming to Highgarden, including Oberyn Martell. He spars with Brienne, which Jaime can appreciate, but he also tells her she has beautiful eyes, which he does not. Anyone with their own eyes can see, but it’s Jaime ’ s place to compliment her, even if she never believes it one way or the other.
Martell convinces Lady Margaery to drink champagne with him at night in his solar. Brienne, of course, insists on going along as a chaperone. And then:
Then he pulled out the most salacious book that described physical matters between men and women, complete with illustrations! It showed all kinds of curious things that shocked me in the utmost. Septa Caspian once told me that men sometimes take themselves in hand for pleasure. I had not the faintest clue what that meant, and now I do. How strange are human bodies! It even showed a man and a woman doing it as animals do!
Anyway, did you know they have warrior women in Dorne who fight with spears?
She’s unusually melancholy when she writes on her fifteenth nameday.
We were supposed to be married today, Ser Jaime. I regret that it did not come to pass. I hope you will think as fondly of me then as I hope you do now. Did you know your father wrote to me after I ran away from Highgarden during the Ironborn attacks and threatened that our match can still be broken. Do you think he would do such a thing after so long?
Jaime replies that his father would do anything if it suited his purposes, put nothing past him, but it did not suit him to start all over again with finding a bride.
Brienne writes, Do you think he would have a difficulty? Every maid in Westeros would happily be your bride.
Jaime replies, Then I will fight him until he accepts my choice .
In the same nameday letter, she writes,
You were right the first day we met; I did resent being sent away from my home, and I was angry at my father for rushing another betrothal on me so quickly. I cried often on the way to Highgarden, and Septa Roelle would scold me and pinch me and tell me I should be grateful because it was a better match than I deserved.
As devastated as I felt on learning that I was leaving Tarth, and as distressed as I was on the way there that I would not be accepted, Tarth was a cruel place at times. Perhaps because they knew me my whole life and did not think of me so much as the Lady of Tarth as they did my plain self, the people there were not kind. I did not feel accepted there, and, looking back, I think I would have had to escape one way or the other.
Why do I find it so easy to say these things here? Is it because I know we will be speaking for the rest of our lives, or simply because you are not here to speak back?
Burn this letter!
Jaime replies, No one will disrespect you at Casterly Rock, or I will have their tongues.
Her answer: If you take the tongue of every person who is rude to me, the Realm will fall silent very quickly, Jaime.
There’s a tourney at Highgarden and Brienne causes another scandal when she cuts several inches off her hair so she can stuff it into a helm and sneak into the competition. Her only regret is that she doesn’t win.
I may look more like your brother-in-arms than your bride at our wedding! My maid has been scrubbing rosemary oil into my head most roughly. I think she is vexed that I have ruined her wedding plans for my hair.
Anyway, I beat eight men, which won me much acclaim and bemusement.
When Jaime writes back, he asks, Why not just cut it all off?
I felt somehow that I could not do it to Lady Olenna. I am a reflection on her, and it was an outrageous act. Perhaps she is right and I was being childish, but a tourney right here in Highgarden? How could I not do everything I could to enter? I truly wish she could understand.
She updates him regularly on family politics, which she follows closely, partially as due diligence and partially for another reason:
Visiting lords frequently ask me questions about your father’s decisions, not because they think I, a woman, may have a sensible opinion, but in what must be an attempt to make me look foolish so that your father looks foolish as well. I must deny them the pleasure.
Jaime replies, Did you know Lady Tyrell once told me that you would never be a master of political intrigue? To which she responds that watching a good cyvasse game is much better than playing one.
And only once does she write of someone’s snide comments on their betrothal. Unfortunately, it seems she does so only after a period of solitary distress.
Lady Ashford asked me to inform you that her daughter would love to marry you. She seemed unable or unwilling to accept that you were already betrothed. She wondered, quite aloud, what your father had been thinking and whether Essos was really all that great. Margaery demanded an apology while I simply stood there, unable to speak for some reason. A most horrid sensation.
Even some of the village people make comments. Sometimes I feel compelled to be alone and I will go for an early walk far from the castle. On one such occasion, I encountered some local boys. Not even being a noble lady could stay their tongues. I had difficulty replying once more; they laughed. I wished very much that I could feel anger, or feel nothing at all, but in truth, I felt quite desolate.
Actually, Jaime has had to thrash more than one man for making a joke about his betrothal to the Ugliest Maid in Westeros. They took no comment at all as his agreement, and his protests as cause for further teasing, for the only thing more pitiful than being engaged to her must be actually liking her. Even one or two of his superiors makes a jape, one reassuring him that ugly girls are great in bed, very accomodating.
Finally, he just starts saying, “She’ll be the Lady of Casterly Rock and a Lady of House Lannister. Remember that.” Whether it’s a superior or no. Why should a knight be going around making crude comments about innocent maids, anyway? It makes him burn with resentment and he vows to himself that he will thrash every bad knight he meets, in Brienne’s name. Now , there is someone who respects the vows of a knight, and can never be one.
He writes:
Brienne, you will be a Lannister . Simply remind them that Lannisters always pay their debts, and perhaps that your betrothed also happens to be the best swordsman in Westeros, and perhaps that you could beat them into the ground if you felt like it. Or simply beat them into the ground full-stop!
Signed,
A Knight To His Lady
By the time her sixteenth name day approaches, he has started addressing his letters to My Darling Wench and ending them with that, A Knight To His Lady . Meanwhile, she simply calls him by his name and most often ends simply with Yours, Brienne.
Closer to her name day, he writes, You will have to make good on that promise soon, wench. I suspect the effort to rid you of your maidenhead will be exhaustive .
In truth, he’s somewhat exaggerating his confidence--the downside of his vow to never touch another woman is that...he hasn’t touched another woman. He half-worries that he’s forgotten what to do. He’ll have to trust that Brienne won’t laugh at him. And if she does, they’ll fight about it, then they’ll try again.
She replies, When our eyes meet again in a few days’ time, know that I have been yours since long before that moment, Jaime.