𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐍𝐄 | Faymont

{ Eliza }

✧✦✧

𝕰liza paused her conversation with her eldest brother, Perseus, as the pair watched their two youngest siblings come back into the courtyard.

The youngest of the Bare siblings, Evin, was covered from head to toe in mud, leading his unruly horse behind him with a frown. Following behind him, and laughing all the while, was the next eldest in the brood, Cayden.

"Why do I feel an argument coming on?" Eliza asked her eldest brother, looking back at the man, who was trying desperately to hide his smile. It was not working.

"Maybe we should stop that?" Perseus asked, both of them watching as Cayden dismounted and continued to laugh at his younger brother. "You sort out Evin and I shall deal with Cayden?"

"For sure, he listens to you more than me," Eliza began to descend the stares, rolling her eyes at the thought.

"That's because he loves his older brother more,"

"No, it's actually because you two share the same headstrong and annoying personality," The elder man shot her a look, placing a hand over his heart as he glared at her.

"Do not act like you don't also share that personality," Eliza hummed, stepping onto the muddy floor and glaring at Cayden.

"Cayden!" The boy stiffened, turning around to catch a glimpse of his two older siblings, a sheepish grin growing on his face. He knew that he did not want to be on the end of either of their scoldings. "Perseus will deal with you. Evin, darling, what happened?"

Perseus steered Cayden away, as Eliza reached up to grab the reins of the frisky horse next to the smaller boy, quickly handing it to a waiting stable hand. Evin huffed, crossing his arms as Eliza sighed and bent down in front of him to push his dark hair away from his face.

"Did you fall off?" He nodded, and Eliza smiled, reaching for his hand. "I see. Come on, let's get you cleaned up."

"Alright," She smiled at his quiet words, leading him back into the stone walls of their home. A wave of warmth swept over them as they stepped inside, and Eliza smiled at the sight of Perseus arguing with Cayden. She guessed that it was something to do with having a bath after his ride, Cayden was not too fond of those.

"Liz!" She turned, looking away from the commotion to face the last member of her siblings. Anceron was only a year or two younger than Perseus, and had not yet reached the same level of maturity as the older boy had. 

He jogged over, shooting her a grin, before he looked down at Evin.

"Why don't you run to your room, little one? Eliza will be up in a second," Evin narrowed his eyes, before reluctantly turning and running off as Eliza looked up at the most troublesome of her siblings.

"What trouble have you been causing? Harassing the servants again?" Anceron rolled his eyes at his sister's words. 

"As a matter of fact, I have not, and I would never do such a thing. I'm disappointed that you would even suggest it,"

"Isn't that what happened with you and...?" Anceron leveled her a glare, as Eliza grinned, stopping her sentence. "I see. What is it that you want?"

"Perseus, you and I need to have a talk," Anceron began to walk in the direction of their chambers, as Eliza hooked her arm through his.

"That does not sound good," He tilted his head, shrugging at her statement. "What's happened? Has someone died? Or is this about the incident?"

Anceron winced, a red flush appearing over his neck and cheek as he shook his head.

"No, nothing like that," He sighed, as they ascended the steps away from the Great Hall. "The marriage proposals have come back, for you. We need to chose which one to accept."

Eliza sighed, chewing on her lips as she nodded at what Anceron was saying.

"It's not all doom and gloom, Liz," Anceron promised, squeezing her hand. "Neither Perseus or I will let you be married off to any old boy. We'll make sure that is's a good match."

"That gives me little to no hope," Eliza smiled, before opening the door to Evin's room. "I shall be in with you in a little bit. Let me just make sure that the only thing Evin bruised was his ego and his knees, and not something more serious."

"Of course," Anceron walked off to locate Perseus, as Eliza slipped into Evin's room and grabbed the dirty clothes from the floor, so that she could place them into a pile on one of the spare chairs. Knocking lightly on the bathroom door, Eliza stepped in and smiled and her upset brother, who was sitting with his arms crossed in the bathtub.

"You're not going to get very clean just sitting still," He looked up at the sound of her voice, watching as she came and sat beside him with a smile on her face. "Want me to wash your hair?"

"Yes please," He replied, in an angry voice. Eliza hid her smile and ran warm water through his dark curls, gently pulling the tangles, mud and small leaves from his head. 

"What happened, darling?" She continued to wash his hair, as the water became progressively more murky. "Is everything alright?"

"No," He pouted, as Eliza pushed his hair away from his forehead to reveal his dark grey eyes. "I fell off and all Cayden did was laugh at me! He wouldn't even help me get back on and he said that I wasn't a true Bare child if I didn't know how to ride!"

"Did he?" Eliza made a mental note to talk to Cayden later. "Well, I'll let you in on a little secret. When Cayden first went riding with me, his horse bolted and Cayden fell into a bog. I made him walk all the way back to camp because he smelt so bad. I fell off my horse and into a bush of nettles, because something spooked the horse. Anceron was too busy trying to chat to a lady one time, and he did not look where he was riding so rode straight into a low branch."

Evin was giggling by the end of it, a grin on his face, as Eliza wrapped him in a towel and pulled him from the murky water.

"What about Perseus?" Eliza sighed.

"Unfortunately, Anceron and I were too young to remember Perseus riding for the first time, and he won't tell us any of his embarrassing stories," Evin sighed, wrinkling his nose and held his arms up for Eliza to pull a shirt over his head. "You are a true Bare, Evin. You're younger than us, so of course you do not know how to ride yet, but it will come. I promise you that."

"Are you sure?" Eliza nodded, leaning down to pick Evin up into her arms. "I hope you're right."

"I know I am right," She placed the small boy down on the bed, rubbing his hair with the towel in her hand, as he looked out of the window. "Now, have a sleep. I'll come and get you when it's time for dinner."

"Thanks, Eliza," She leant down, pulling the covers up to his neck and pressing a kiss to his head. He settled down almost immediately, the riding having tired him out, and Eliza grinned as she left the room. Ducking into Cayden's, she sent the boy a glare, an eyebrow raised in annoyance.

"I didn't say anything that bad," The boy huffed, crossing his arms petulantly. "It's not like it wasn't true anyway."

"You will apologize to Evin when you next see him,"

"No!" Cayden's mouth dropped open in horror at Eliza's words.

"That wasn't up for debate. You will apologize to him otherwise I will make sure that you do not go out riding for a week,"

"What?"

"Two weeks!" He huffed, growling in annoyance as he threw himself on the bed. "So?"

"Fine," Eliza smiled, reaching over to press a kiss to his head. "Get off me."

"Thank you," He rolled over onto his side, as Eliza left the room, heading towards the solar where she thought her brothers would be. Sure enough, she opened the door to reveal Anceron and Perseus sitting by the desk and flicking through letters. "You seem to have started without me?"

"Not at all, Liz," Anceron grinned, pulling a chair up for her. "Just filtering out the responses that said no."

Eliza sat down, as the boys placed the pile of letters into her lap. She wrinkled her nose, before opening the first letter and scowling.

"This one's from Walder Frey and if you make me marry him or any of his sons, I will curse both of you," They nodded as Anceron threw the letter into the no pile. "This one is from Roose Bolton, who wishes for me to marry his son Ramsay, at the boy's request?"

"Absolutely not," Perseus plucked the letter from her grasp, glaring at it. "Ramsay, for one, is the bastard child of Roose Bolton, and two, is said to be completely psychotic. I would never let you be married to such a man."

"A definite no, then," Anceron replied, as Eliza read the next letters.

"The Umbers and the Karstarks have both offered up their sons," Anceron nodded, thinking about it.

"They're good houses," 

"Put them into a 'maybe' pile," Perseus instructed, not being able to find anything wrong with them.

"The Lannisters have also offered up one of their own for me to marry," Eliza replied, showing the boys the letter signed by Tywin Lannister himself.

"Yes, but they could marry you off to the Imp. They haven't truly specified who you would be married to," Perseus pointed out. "And my best guess would be that they are only offering so that our cavalry forces would be theirs to demand."

"It is always good to know that I am only eligible because of our cavalry," Eliza muttered sarcastically, as Anceron grinned and placed the Lannister letter into the 'maybe' pile. The Bare house may not have been one of the great houses, but the cavalry strength that they commanded made them an extremely valuable asset. It was why many wished to marry into the house.

"Three more letters," Anceron pointed out, as Eliza opened the next two.

"This one is from Dorne and this is from the Tyrells," Eliza replied, reading through the two letters. "The Tyrells wish for me to marry their oldest, Willas, and the Dornish would like me to marry the crown prince, Tristan."

"Put them into the yes pile," Perseus commanded. "The Tyrells are a good family and, from what I've heard, Willas is kind and gentle. You'd be well looked after. The Dornish have offered you their crown prince, which is a good match."

Eliza hummed, throwing them onto the furthest pile, before opening the last letter, her eyes widening.

"This one's from the Stark family," The Stark family were notoriously picky about who their children were to be betrothed to, so to have a letter of proposal in her hand was a rarity. "They ask that I should be betrothed to their eldest son, Robb."

"They do?" Anceron asked, as Eliza handed him the letter to read. "Gods above, they are."

"Put it in the yes pile," Anceron put the letter down into the yes pile, as they continued to think. "Well, what would you prefer, Liz?"

Eliza furrowed her brow, flicking through the letters once more.

"Not the Lannisters," She hummed, passing the letter to Perseus for him to discard. "and probably not the Dornish. I don't wish to get caught up in that particular feud, if I can help it."

"You're giving up a crown prince," Perseus pointed out, as Eliza shrugged her shoulders in an unladylike fashion. "Alright then. If I were you, I'd choose the Stark proposal."

"Why?"

"You'd be close to home, married to the Warden of the North, and Father was friends with the family," Perseus pointed out. "Plus, it is a well known fact that Lord Stark is an honorable man, I am sure that his children are the same."

"If that's what you think is best," Eliza felt the nerves begin to build in her stomach at the thought of leaving her home and moving somewhere else. "Then I shall trust your judgement, Perseus."

"I'll send them a letter to accept the proposal,"

✧✦✧

Eliza descended to the Great Hall, Evin by her side, as the boy told her all about the bizarre dream that he had that afternoon. She nodded along, opening the door for the boy to walk through, as the smell of food washed over her.

The remainder of her brothers, and Perseus' wife, Jaena, were already sitting at the table, talking to one and other in a rowdy fashion, and it brought a smile to Eliza's face. 

Climbing over the bench, Eliza sat down by Anceron, who had already placed a plate of food in front of her. She grinned at him, as he sent her a wink, before going back to annoying Perseus over some matter with a local farm.

"Liz, Perseus told me that you had to go through marriage proposals today," Jaena looked comically out of place compared to the remainder of the Bare family, with bright, auburn hair, and a freckled face, unlike the dark curls of the others. "How was that?"

"Supposedly I am betrothed," She replied, tearing off a piece of bread to chew. "to Robb Stark, though I got a couple of bizarre proposals from the Bolton family and the Freys."

"I also got a proposal from the Freys," Jaena shuddered at the thought. "Luckily, my father saw Perseus' proposal first. I dread to think what would have happened if he had accepted the other one."

Eliza hummed, slapping Cayden's hand away from her food in the process. Perseus and Jaena had married nearly five years earlier, soon after their father had died. They had needed to stabilize the family and make sure that they put on a strong front after the death, and Jaena had provided that. She was good for Perseus as well, balancing out his seriousness and stubbornness and it helped that Evin and Cayden adored her.

"Boys, off to bed," Perseus called, having glanced out of the window. Evin was more than happy to oblige, but Cayden was not so sure. However, after Eliza shot him a sharp glare, he retreated back to his room with a grumble.

"I sent the letter," Perseus told Eliza, as the boys turned back to the women at the table. "Hopefully we shall get a response."

"Don't look so glum," Anceron prodded her side, as Eliza glared at him. "You can still come and visit, though you might find that you prefer Winterfell more."

"Or maybe I'll stay so I don't have to see your face ever again," Anceron gasped.

"I am wounded, Liz, wounded,"

"You'll get over it," Jaena laughed, leaning into Perseus' side, as the older man wrapped a protective arm around her waist. 

"The Stark family are a good family," Perseus replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I have a feeling that you will be happy there."

Hiya,

Here's the first chapter and I am completely in love with the Bare family and how they interact with one and other. Anceron brings me great joy, as does Evin and Eliza. 

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx