video | c.fraser

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Is this not about a medical thing, this time? Seems so. Claire's a bit more relaxed than she usually is when using the network, and it might have something to do with that glass of wine in front of her.]

It's my fifty-first birthday this weekend. Do I win the award for most elderly amongst us refugees?

It's hard to believe I was in my late twenties when I first came to Olympia. Stasis is... strange, to say the least, but I'm sure any of us here for an amount of time realize that.

[Now, let's see who's going to be a smartass and make a grandma comment. She's waiting. It's there, in her smile. Do it.]

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[reek]

[ When has he ever done anything wisely? He’s never been married. He’s never even felt that type of love for one person, let alone multiple.

But he neither confirms nor denies, even though he most certainly was saying exactly that. ]

You did say I could ask a question you wouldn’t like.

[nineteenfortyfive]

I did. Because you can always ask me anything, even if you're doing it to try and be a pain in the arse.

[If it wasn't her, and if she hadn't spent so long perfecting the art of bottling up any emotions regarding her marriage, she might actually be upset.]

[reek]

It did work, didn't it?

[ Theon has made plenty of cruel jokes in his day, but he doesn’t mean this one cruelly. He’s made a note about Claire’s husband habits, and he’s found something about them humorous. If she shared more about herself, perhaps he would know more about the entire subject and have reason not to jape. ]

Lords of the greenlands don’t like ironborn traditions.

[ Why would they? Ironborn tradition consists largely of reaving, stealing from the mainlands when trade could be established just as easily. But Theon is still bitter at the way he was treated just for who he was, and that will never wear off. Ramsay dug his claws in deep, but so did the Northmen. ]

But I feel like they would have changed their tune about saltwives if it had come from someone else.

[nineteenfortyfive]

Nobility and men of wealth could have a wife and as many mistresses as they could manage. Just the one wife.

[Claire's quiet for a moment. Not upset, just contemplative. He brought this up, but she doesn't think he actually cares too much about her marriages. Yet she decides to talk, settling her gaze on the waves.]

I loved both my husbands. I planned to spend the rest of my life with Frank, and it would have been a happy one, I think. I never imagined I would... go so terribly off track. I never wanted to marry Jamie. But I had no choice, and... I ended up loving him more than I loved anyone else. I'd never felt anything like it.

So, when I thought he was dead, and I went back to Frank, I tried to get him to leave me. To dissolve the marriage. I said terrible things to a good man that refused to go because he ended up loving Brianna as his own. He didn't want to lose her. I loved him still, but it was a broken love, then.

[She looks back to Theon with a wry smile, if not a little sad.]

I don't think too many husbands would want me if they had to go through that.