The Crossed Rose - GoT - R.S.

Walder Frey

"You are the King." Dahlia said. "You have every right to dismiss my advice."

"I shouldn't, though. You are way smarter than I will ever be."

"That's not true."

"Yes, it is." Robb smiled a little when Dahlia giggled. Reaching a hand over, her placed a lock of her hair behind her ear before allowing his free hand to rub over Dahlia's stomach. She was reaching the fourth moon now and, even though he saw her everyday, Robb could see that her stomach was growing nicely to accommodate their child inside. "I thought you would be angry at me."

"Me?" Dahlia asked.

"What, with the way you did not speak to me at all after the execution." Robb shrugged, his voice sounding small as well, almost sounding as a child, waiting to be scolded by their Mother.

"I was not angry." Dahlia shook her head. "I was never angry at you, I was just... Frustrated."

"With me?" Robb asked, causing Dahlia to shrug.

"Also." She admitted. "I was frustrated you didn't heed to my advice again. I was frustrated when I saw Karstark's men's faces after their Lord's execution. I was frustrated with the world that put me in a situation like that, when I should be the happiest I could be, carrying my adoring husband's child but all I feel is fear in this troubling times. I was frustrated that, for a moment, I lost faith in our cause."

"Do you think we might lose the war?" Robb asked, as Dahlia bit her lip.

"I think killing Karstark was a precipitated move." She said. "Honorable and truthful, but not what we needed now."

Robb nodded then, his eyes moving to the map nearby as he sighed. He should have listened to his wife. He should have listened to his Mother. Hell, he should have listened to his Uncle. But he couldn't. His head was screaming at him. That was not what his Father would have done. He did what his Father would have done. But his Father was dead so that had to mean something, right?

From the Heavens above, Robb truly hoped his Father was proud of him because, taking off Karstark's head, he had just signed his death sentence, it seemed. And his Mother's. And Dahlia's too. And their child's. He just wished, someday, they could all forgive him.

He knew he would never.

"You are right." Robb admitted, as Dahlia turned her head around a little to look at the map Robb had been staring at as well. "The Karstarks are gone. And they took almost half our forces with him."

"Half?" Dahlia frowned. She knew the Karstarks had one of the biggest forces in the whole North by themselves, but half of the army? It couldn't be. Unless...

"You were not the only one who lost faith in our war after the execution, my love." Robb smiled sadly, gently putting Dahlia back on her feet as he stood up to walk around the table with the map and lean against it as his eyes darkened at the sight in front of him. "After the Karstarks, some of the other northern houses marched North again. Tywin Lannister knows what he needs to do to make us unravel. Nothing. Only wait."

Dahlia frowned as she took a look at her husband. Right now, perched over his map of Westeros and under the dim light of the first rays of sunshine in the morning, he looked like a man - every bit the King he was. But underneath... Underneath his stern, cold blue eyes and taut expression, Dahlia knew better. He was still but a boy. Sure, he had turned nineteen already, at some point along the way - Dahlia wasn't even sure when it was that his nameday had happened. Were they at the Crag? Or maybe it was after the battle of the Green Fork? Seven Hells, she realized she missed her own nameday at some point during their ride back to the Riverlands. Maybe it had been the same day of Catelyn's Father's funeral? She couldn't be certain.