The Emancipation of Rhaegar

Chapter 36

**HEY GUYS! My story has been submitted into the Watty's please vote!!** (sorry I don't usually do this but I will be until the results are announced I've worked hard on this fic and my dreams of being a Wattpad author would be fulfilled) 

Thirty-Six

Rhaegar stood alone in the empty dining room, his ears ringing from the words that the woman if she was even worthy of the title, he had thought loved him as he loved her spewed out moments ago. 

A part of him urged his body to move, to follow after her and beg for forgiveness. Telling him to explain himself and to explain that he had in fact not seen the ring for a little over two years when he and Cersei stopped their late-might meetings. Another part of him however only saw red. How dare she question my integrity and honesty? Rhaegar thought to himself, running his hands through his hair. She was to be betrothed to a Prince and questioning his every move was not in her best interest. 

He decided that it was best he moved from the conversation because he knew that if he was to follow her only words of anger would be spoken. So instead, with the ring tightly in his hand, he made his way to what he remembered was Cersei's room when she last visited. Knocking on the oak door loudly and in an impatient manner, Rhaegar huffed as the door swung open to reveal an unsurprised Cersei smiling up at him. 

"Well, good morning to you too," she said, moving aside to let him in. 

...

Jaime followed behind Arianne as she circled the orange garden for the fourth time. It was not that he was tired, more so that as the sun rose so did the warmth in the air and therefore the warmth in his golden armour. 

"My lady," Jaime started, "can we go inside. Please?" He would have not dared ask another person that very same question but knew she wouldn't care for his informality and disregard for his new rank. 

Arianne turned to him and for the first time he saw her eyes, which were puffy and bloodshot and he felt bad for asking the question. "No," her voice wavered, "the girls will be waiting for me there and I cannot bear to see them like this. I have a strong feeling they'll be greatly disappointed in me." 

Jaime scoffed, he had also forgotten how much she cared what people thought of her. "It was a small argument about nothing, calm down." 

"It wasn't nothing to me. If Rhaegar speaks to me like that before we're married how on earth will he speak to me once we are? I will always be beneath him. A pretty burden he carries around." She sat down on one of the vacated chairs in a huff. "I feel the stupidest woman in Westeros." 

Jaime pursed his lips and sat down next to her. "To be fair, my sister has a knack for getting in the way of Rhaegar and his relationships." 

Arianne turned to him, baffled he would say such a thing about his own blood and that he would address Rhaegar as ... Rhaegar. "But he said they have had no contact." 

"They don't need to. I know she gave you that ring and I know she probably had a servant steal it for her from him, come now do you think he would go against his father the king?" Jaime pointed out, sitting down next to her, glancing up at those who passed every once in a while. 

Arianne sniffed, "well ... I've been thinking-," she threw the current situation out of the window, "why would the king want me, a bastard, to marry the prince?"