"Might've said he loved you Red, but he didna just run from duty to his Thane. He ran from his duty to defend you too."

For an orphan of no real property or prestige, one might have expected a rough and gruelling childhood for Marhred. Especially after losing a father to desertion, not bravery or mishap. But the people of Grimslade were not spiteful folk, malice for the parent was not visited upon his child and Marhred still found herself wanted, accepted and loved in her own way. It was decided in a communal meeting that she would be fostered by Frithferth, the local armskeeper. He had the means for a child and Marhred was old enough to be a help about his warehouse, but he also had space in his heart to love a child. Which, everyone agreed, was as good a reason as any to adopt one.

It helped that Marhred had such a forthright personality and manner, an eager helper and a strong child who grew stronger and more capable by the year. She practiced with the arms she stored, alone until Frithferth caught her and determined that 'if she were learning, she'd learn it right'. Maerda, the local huntress, would go with Frithferth into the wilds of the mountains to hunt and defend him as he scavenged for materials. Hence Marhred was delighted to know she was allowed to come along too and found a near competitive passion for hunting and contending with the wilderness and mountain weather. 

With this in mind, Marhred's position within the community took on more masculine turns year by year. It seemed natural to both her and Frithferth that this occurred, so when others also started calling her 'lad' and assuming her a boy, neither of them corrected it. 

She wasn't a farmer and the community had enough hunters so enlisting seemed also a natural progression. Her passion for the defence of her people hadn't diminished and she still held a sense of family honour that needed to be re-won. She broke her own horse and took her to be trained in mounted combat with the other recruited boys, both trainers and fellows alike assuming her just another lad bound for battle. Scouting was the natural position for her to take and as she slowly garnered a reputation for a clear head, calm manners and a tempering effect on all her fellows, other positions came too. 

She was a very young recruit when she fought under her Thane in the skirmishes that eventually lead to Lord Eomund's death and the orphaning of his two children. It was in these fights that she first encountered the young Prince Theodred, only a few years her senior but already deep within Rohan's fields of battle. He made a strong impression and when he was given the Second Marshalship and needed his own eohere bolstered, Marhred offered her loyalty with powerful commitment. 

And so within his company she remained, winning her position of confidence through her excellent judge of character and ability to predict the actions of others. She won the prince's trust. Which ended bleakly, to her mind, when after the first few engagements at the fords she was the one Theodred entrusted with a letter to his father, one last beg for him to fight against whatever had him in it's grip and once again lead their people, one last farewell too. 

Through all the cunning she could bring to bare, she so very nearly handed it into Theoden's hands, yet the cunning of Grima was still too great and she was captured at the last. Indeed, she was set to die, named a deserter in a truly genius stroke of irony on Grima's part, before the Three Hunters found their way to Edoras.