Finding Hope - Jaime Lannister fanfic

The arrival of the king

"You always look so beautiful in that dress"

"Thank you, Sansa, but I know we'll find an even prettier one for you"

~ Later that day ~

Liya could feel the thundering of hooves through the ground where she stood. Standing on father's right she was almost in the middle of the crowd that had gathered to greet the King. The sound came closer and closer and soon a great number of horses galloped through the gates and halted before them. Banners were held high, some adorned with a lion others with a stag. Robb, who was standing on her right looked slightly angered.

"What is it?" she whispered to Robb

"Sansa is already eyeing that boy prince and I don't like it one bit" he whispered back grouchily

Liya looked at the two and saw that they were indeed looking at each other, but the young prince's smug-like gaze wasn't appreciated. Scoffing a little she turned her attention elsewhere and saw that a red carriage had entered through the gates, behind it was the King. Liya's first look of King Robert left her slightly baffled, he resembled nothing of the image she had formed from the stories that her father used to tell her. In those, he was handsome and, well, less stout.

Her father beside her slowly bowed and she, the rest of her family, and the others around her followed. Liya kept her head low until her father rose up again, and all again followed his lead.

"Your grace," Liya's father said with a bow of his head

Silence

"You've got fat" the King spoke with no emotion to her father

And again silence fell, but now an even tenser one

But suddenly both started laughing and embraced each other like old friends. Her view of the King abruptly changed as he was not as rigid as she thought he would be. He hugged her mother and ruffled the hair of her youngest brother kindly. Both the King and her father exchanged a few words, but she didn't focus as her eyes fell on the queen that stepped out of the carriage. A beautiful woman dressed in gold-colored fabrics with hair almost as similar. She held her head up high like she was already judging everything and everyone around her. Lia's eyes soon left the queen as the King had approached her and she respectfully bowed before him.

"Your grace"

"Liya is it not?"

"Yes, your grace"

"You look quite like her," He said with a faraway look in his eyes

Immediately she knew that he meant her late aunt Lyanna. They said she resembled her, but not much in appearance, more so in personality. Liya kept smiling politely at the King as he was still looking at her, but now a hint of sadness and longing was in his eyes. Luckily he moved onto Robb and so on, greeting every one of her brothers and sisters.

Liya couldn't help but let her gaze wander over the guest that would stay here for a couple of days. The servants that had traveled with the royal family, the many men adorned in amour some of them members of the kingsguard and she let her eyes settle on the knights. The freshly polished amour and white capes highly contrasted the sober look of Winterfell. Liya mocked their extravagant equipment as if the expensive gold intricate linings and symbols would matter in combat.

"Take me to your crypt. I want to pay my respects" King Robert suddenly said taking Liya's eyes away from the members of the kingsguard

"We've been riding for a month, my love. Surely the dead can wait" The queen told her husband with a monotone voice though fatigue was evident on her face

"Ned" he said firmly and walked away not giving the queen one look

Her father reluctantly left to follow the King to the crypts. The beautiful queen now stood lonesome before them. "Where's the imp?" Liya heard Arya quietly ask from her right. To her surprise, the queen seemed to have heard her and immediately stepped away towards one of the members of the kingsguard that was standing beside the young prince. From her lessons with Maester Luwin, she guessed that he was Ser Jaime Lannister, the head of the kingsguard and the twin brother of Queen Cersei. From this distance she couldn't see if the rumors of his looks had been true, but not that that mattered to her anyway. It was only the rumor of his highly skilled swordsmanship that intrigued her, a good sparring session had always entertained her. Liya looked as the Queen talked to her blond-haired brother.

Though as soon as the queen had come to him she had already stepped away. With the turn of the Queen's head, Liya's eyes met the knights purely on accident. She took in a sharp breath, but as she prepared to breathe it out again her throat constricted keeping her breath locked in. Even though Liya was standing anything but near to him, his eyes felt so close as they seemed to pierce right through hers, making her feel vunerable. His eyes left her face and leisurely started to trail down her body and Liya felt it growing stiff wherever they landed. Slowly the eyes worked their way up again and returned to where they had started. Now, his gaze at her seemed to have softened slightly, giving her a feeling she couldn't decide if she liked it or not. Abruptly the feeling disappeared as Ser Jaime Lannister swiftly averted his gaze. She looked away as well, a little confused as to why she didn't earlier. Seeing that her family had already moved to walk back inside, she followed, keeping her head low to fight the odd urge to glance back at him.

Jaime walked away from his sister's side, towards the gates of the castle, though he did not leave without giving one glance back at the northern beauty that hastily followed her family.

As always thank you for reading

love,

Ann