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She barely listens to the Septon as he speaks. She repeats the words they want to hear when she's told to. She doesn't look at the boy in front of her. Once, her mother told her that weddings are never for the bride and groom. They are for the common people to have something to cheer for. They are for the houses that rejoice, thinking of all the goods that will come from it. She told her princesses rarely marry for love, though love could grow between the spouses with time.
"Don't you love Daddy?" Jaehaera had asked, heartbroken
"I love your father, my darling love."
And Daddy must have loved her too. She remembers often finding them sharing the same bed in the morning, snuggling against each other. He offered her many bugs for her collections, he always made sure she had all she needed for her embroideries and sewing. She cannot ask him now.
Her father is dead.
Her mother is dead.
Her brothers, whom she certainly would have married, Jaehaerys first before his murder, then Maelor, are dead.
Her uncle Aemond, who loved reading her stories, is dead.
Her uncle Daeron, who sent them toys from Oldtown, is dead.
Her great-grandfather Otto, who snuck them candies when her grandmother wasn't looking, is dead.
Criston, her grandmother's knight and friend, who always found ways to make her giggle, is dead.
Her grandmother is barely alive : she looks at her and sees the ghosts of the people she lost.
"Your marriage to your cousin Aegon will completely stop the war." One of her ladies told her. "It will heal the wounds of the war. You are a hero, Princess."
Jaehaera is young, only eight, but she knows when someone lies.
She isn't a hero, she isn't even a person now, she is just a title.
Her father should have given her away at the altar.
Her mother should have sewn and embroidered her cloak.
She obeys because no one will defend her now, not even her grandmother, too lost in her grief.
She obeys because that's what she has been taught.
They want her to be queen. A queen she shall be, then.
She just hopes she won't be for too long.
She understands better now why her mother jumped from that window.