Title: Princess Tamar.
Author: lannamichaels
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga
Series: Part 7 of Liegelord
Rating: G
A/N: Cast list and timeline.
Archives: Archive Of Our Own, SquidgeWorld

Summary: The story of Tamar Vorbarra.



1.

Tamar's mother's secret plan is for none of her daughters to get married. Mama had been married young and hadn't had much choice about it; she's made it clear to all her daughters since they were very young that they won't have to do it too. There haven't been Vorbarra princesses since Tamar's grandmother was murdered, so it's not like there aren't a lot of people who'd like to marry one. But Mama's been clear: only if they want to. There will be no political matches unless the girls specifically ask for one. And Tamar, for one, is never going to ask for one.

Julia might; she's got some ideas of being a Countess, although Tamar had no idea why. What would Julia gain by that that she doesn't already have? And, worse, you get someone else you have to obey. As a Vorbarra, Tamar's only got the Emperor, and her father loves her and she knows how to manage Ivan. Why invite an unknown variable into the mix? Maybe if you fell in love, it might be worth it, but it makes no sense to her to go looking for it in general. What's better about being a Countess that she doesn't have already?

And it's not like they don't have five different good role models of unmarried Vor ladies to mold themselves after. Aunt Alys is always around Mama, and then there's Lady Susan and Carla Vorreedi who know everything there is to know about everything. Mama's ladies help her run the Empire and the District. And only two of them are married. It's just not necessary, Tamar thinks.

She's got her eye on the District financials herself. It's the most Vor option for her, she thinks. The boys have their lives all planned out with military service and marriage and children to continue the Vorbarra line. If Tamar's going to shrug off the typical princesses life plan of marrying for politics, she's going to go the other direction entirely: Vor myth has them born from accountants. So, if that's true, Tamar is going to be the most Vor of any of her siblings.



2.

Aunt Alys is the model of Vorrish etiquette, which Sonia had told Tamar once just means that Aunt Alys knows how to get away with anything. She's who Sonia consulted for her scandalous life plan, so Tamar figures she won't go wrong with asking Aunt Alys, even though Tamar's plan is so much less absurd than what Sonia's doing.

"Are any of you planning on getting married?" Aunt Alys asks.

"Julia is, I think," Tamar says promptly. "And Anna might, she doesn't know. She says she's open to love," Tamar adds with all the dramatics of her nearest sister.

"If she's as open to love as Sonia is, she's also never getting married," Aunt Alys says. Sonia's so open to love, she's fallen in love with a prole. It's all very exciting and can't involve matrimony, so Tamar's got no problem with it.

"It's modern Barrayar," Tamar says. "A whole new world where the boys are forced to get married and none of the rest of us bother."

Aunt Alys hides a laugh. "Well, you won't have too many problems hiding in your sister's shadow. You'll be doing nothing she isn't, and you won't be looking for an outside career. Thank your sister for what she's done for you."

Tamar nods obediently, even as she resolves to never ever do that. Sonia wants a lot of things. None of them are to be thanked.



3.

What mama wanted was for them, who were all free to marry for love, to still fall in love appropriately. Nicholas is the only one to manage that, making a match with the Vorkosigans. The rest of them tried mother's patience.

Tamar falls in love with Celia Vorbarra. It's very inconvenient.

Tamar's always known they have distant Vorbarra cousins. She's only ever met a few; it seems like they've learned to be very careful around her father. They don't stop by often and, when they do, it's all Count Vorbarra this, Count Vorbarra that. But Tamar and her siblings don't have much to do with them.

Anna had met Felix Vorbarra at university and expressed a joking interest in him. Father's reaction had been enough to ensure they'd never make that joke again. None of them are allowed to marry in a way that would be a foothold to a coup.

So Tamar falling in love with a fifth cousin she's more closely related to through her mother than through her father is not the best decision she's ever made. No matter that Celia's a woman. She's low Vor, which is all right after Alexander married a Komarran, but she's a Vorbarra.

A proper Vorbarra, too, not a Vorpatril who got adopted because Emperor Ezar couldn't get it up. That's everything her father's worried about.

Celia's thirty-three. She wears her hair in simple braided buns and likes green dresses in the shade of dress greens. She uses words like she knows what to do with them. She's a proper woman. Tamar's in love.

Mother rubs her forehead when Tamar admits to this. "Marmar," she says, which is how Tamar knows it's bad. Mother hasn't called her that since Galina was born. "There are a thousand beautiful women in the capital, what's wrong with the rest of them that you picked a Vorbarra?"

"Nothing," Tamar says.

Mother sighs heavily. "You can spend as much time arguing with me and your father as much as you want, but I'll tell you right now. You can't marry her."

"So it's like Sonia," Tamar says. That's not that bad. She hadn't expected much. It's just one more way she's like Sonia. Sonia's pretty great, so that's not a problem.

"Not like Sonia," Mother corrects her. "Sonia might succeed in getting permission once she's too old for children. But for you, never. We can't reconnect these branches of the family. Your father can't allow that precedent. That Vorbarra side can't get a foothold in the main branch. I don't even want her staying overnight in the Residence."

Tamar crosses her arms. She and Anna have their own apartment in the capital; Tamar was never going to be able to move in with Celia without having to find somewhere new to live. But she can't even stay? Is that just for appearances or do they think she's a saboteur? "What about other family properties?" Tamar asks.

"Which one?"

Tamar hadn't been planning anything, but she's quick. "I want to take her to the seafront," she says confidently, like she's had this planned for months. "Collect sea shells, go sailing, build sandcastles."

"As long as it isn't the District, you can probably convince me to allow it," Mother says, because after Sonia, she's probably heard everything. And Tamar's not being like Julia, who can't seem to decide if she even likes being Lady Vorlightly or not, and so keeps wandering around Vorbarra properties with her kids and without her husband. And Mother's really busy these days, what with Marina finally pregnant. Mother doesn't have time for Tamar to fight with her about this, not with Tamar knowing how to pick battles away from the one she's been warned away from. If Mother wants to concede defeat on this point, Tamar will take a quick victory that's been granted to her, lose the rest of the battle for now and come back to it later. Wear them down slowly. Tamar's learned that much from Sonia.



4.

Tamar takes Celia to the sea house. She loves it here, sitting on the porch, watching the sunlight turn the waves into sapphires, glinting and dancing. The waves crest on the beach. There's no horizon, just the water stretching out forever. Tamar thinks she may be able to teach Celia to ignore the security.

Tamar supervises the repairs to the northern castle, Celia coming back and forth to visit, bringing her books and music and gossip from the city, and in return, Tamar talks to her about architecture, about plumbing, about water damage, and about foundations. They talk around the shared family history of the place. They're going to need to talk about it more. She can see the fight on the horizon, coming in like a storm across the sea. Still. She's going to avoid it as long as she can.

Tamar visits those Vorbarra cousins and thinks: at least I don't have the worst in-laws of my siblings.

She's not sure what they think of her and she doesn't want to know. Thankfully, Tamar is not the Vorbarra sister who gets ImpSec briefings.



5.

Ever since Tamar was little, she'd walk through their houses once a year with Mother and her ladies and the caretaking staff on the annual inspection, cataloging every single room, what was wrong with it, what might go wrong with it, what needed to be changed, what the budget would cover this year and what it would cover in years to come. Once Tamar was older, she and Anna got put in charge of renovations on Bretrot Cottage together, with the idea that one of them might get it when they married, so they got to decide what color wallpaper to put in and how the furniture should be fixed up. Tamar and Anna had had the worst fights of their lives when it came to upholstery; Anna had won most of them. Tamar had won most of the masonry fights, though.

When Tamar has been dating Celia for eight months, Mother sends her off to supervise more repairs at Bretrot, and lets her take Celia, and then Tamar gets into the newly-worst fight with her life, this time with her girlfriend about how the main family line was treating all these empty Vorbarra properties. It might matter that there's six daughters to dower, Celia says, if more than one of them were getting married at all. These houses should be opened. These houses should be visited. These houses should be lived in. There are plenty of Vorbarras that aren't your Vorbarras, Celia doesn't say, but still manages to say anyway.

"Why don't we live here?" Tamar asks desperately. There's a giant hole in the ceiling and dust in her hair. They're surrounded by the sounds of roofers all paying too much attention to their princess having a screaming match about ancient history, about how Tamar isn't really a member of this family, that Celia has a better right to this, but Celia would never say that, Celia would never say that because she's scared of Tamar's father, but she still believes it, and maybe sometimes, Tamar believes it, too. Tamar had grown up with her Vorkosigan cousins and known enough to know that her place should be like theirs. She's only a princess because a lot of people died. She's only a princess because Emperor Ezar's dick got blown off in the war. "Let's live here, both of us. Together."

"We can't move in here, there's only three and a half walls," Celia retorts and then bursts out laughing at herself, at both of them, and they hold on to each other, clinging, laughing.

When they move in, Tamar brings her desk, her paperwork, and her father's paranoia. Celia doesn't live here in his eyes. He's angrier at her than he ever was at Sonia, the kind of anger he only ever shows the General Staff.

Tamar doesn't care. She'll take her victories from the strategy that has always worked for her: she's a middle daughter. Her parents are busy. Her siblings are either headaches or Ivan.

Tamar is out of sight, out of mind.

It's perfect, for as long as she can manage it.



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