The whole castle was buzzing, the stone walls of the Twins almost vibrating with the amount of movement going on. From maids rushing to and from all around as they tried to put together what seemed to be the biggest feast they had ever done ever to men laughing and already drinking half of the ale that had been brought out for the wedding. Dahlia could feel the energy about to burst every once in a while, but, at the moment, she didn't particularly want to join in. Having reached the mark of the seventh moon of her pregnancy ten days ago, she had started to feel heavier and more tired everyday. She loved seeing her stomach growing, of course, and feeling her babe kicking against hers or Robb's hand was amazing, but, with how badly she had been feeling over the past few days, she was very much ready to have them in her arms already instead of in her belly.
And, truly, she was starting to grow weary. Catelyn had told her it wasn't common for a lady to feel bad and nauseous so far along in her pregnancy so she had pretty much stayed inside her chambers for the entirety of her stay at the Twins, only having Robb, Roslin, Catelyn and Jeyne coming in and out to keep her company.
Whenever Robb wasn't with his men, he was with his wife. He told her all about his plans of marching to Casterly Rock and how he planned on taking the Lannisters' home from them. As much as Dahlia worried, it was good to see her husband so excited with the prospect, not having seen him like that for quite some time now.
"And the men are on board too." Robb had smiled once as they talked, laying together in their bed one night. "I feel like, for the first time in a long time, we have a purpose. And I only have you to thank, my love."
"You don't need to thank me, love." Dahlia had smiled then, giggling when Robb brushed his finger over a particularly ticklish spot just over her bellybutton.
"Yes, I do." Robb insisted. "This was all your idea. And the only reason we have enough men is because of your agreement."
"Well, I am glad to have been of help." Dahlia shrugged. "Though the one sacrificing anything is Roslin, I suppose."
"Is she, though?" Robb smiled as he turned to his wife with a smile. "Your sister and my Uncle seem to always be together when I see them. They are always laughing and touching whenever they can. I think Uncle Edmure and your sister truly do have a shot at a happy marriage, my love."
"I think so as well." Dahlia nodded with a pleased smile. "She came to me the other day. Only had good words to sing about your Uncle. He seems to have charmed his way into my sister's heart. So much so she told me she didn't even mind if the bedding ceremony took place."
"Is that so?" Robb asked, half amused and half surprised. "Well, in any case, you don't have to worry. No man will touch your sister other than my Uncle, of course."
"I would really rather not talk about this now." Dahlia scrunched up her nose a little, cuddling closer to Robb and smiling when she felt his laughter rumbling through his chest underneath her head.
"Very well." Robb said. "Let me ask you then... Have you been feeling better, my love?"
"Not really." Dahlia shook her head with a worried frown on her face as she looked down at her large stomach. "Your mother reckons it might be the stress. She's worried, of course and says she didn't feel like that during any of her pregnancy, but she says every woman is different, so the gods know what this might mean. Jeyne comes every night with a cup of tea for me. Is some leaf I never remember the name of, but she swears up and down that her lady mother used to take it when she was pregnant and it made her feel better."
"And does it help you, my love?" Robb asked, his concern clear in his tone of voice.
"Some." Dahlia nodded. "But then in the morning I feel awful all over again."
"Have you been resting?"
"It's all I do." Dahlia shrugged. "I lay in this bed all day and all I have to distract me are you and Jeyne and your mother and Roslin... Oh, and the cloak I have been sewing for the wedding."
"You have?" Robb asked, as Dahlia nodded with a smile. "Might I see it?"
"Of course." Dahlia smiled as she sat up on the bed. "I am making the Frey one. The one my sister will wear to walk into the sept. It's over there, if you want to look at it."
Robb stood up from the bed then, covered in nothing but a loose robe as Dahlia took a moment to look him over, appreciating what she had and feeling her body respond to Robb's in a way that was sure to not help with her nausea at all. Robb didn't notice, however, too focused on going to have a look at his wife's needle work to care about much else. When he stopped in front of the cloak that Dahlia had hung up over the door of her wardrobe, Robb smiled, a wave of fondness taking over him when the memories of his own wedding swarmed his thoughts, often too consumed by the war to even care remembering the good moments of his life.
"It looks like yours." Robb said, out loud, as Dahlia giggled.
And it did. It was the same thing, almost and Dahlia was sure she could possibly use her own cloak to cover her sister's shoulders as she walked into the sept, but her cloak had been made by Catelyn and not by her and, truly, she just selfishly wanted for Roslin to have a piece of her when she walked down the isle. So Dahlia had taken all of her free time - that had been quite a lot over the past few days considering even her walks with Jeyne by the river had started to upset her stomach - to make her sister her cloak. And did look like hers. It had the same grey fabric uptop that was sawed into the blue fabric that sprawled out over the grown, like the waters of the river that ran down their bridge. It had the same dark grey towers to symbolize the Twins embroidered over it and, overall, it looked exactly the same as Dahlia's had. Except this one was made by her hands, and not by Lady Catelyn's.
"Well, that means I have done my job well." Dahlia had smiled. "It is supposed to look similar. We are sisters, after all. Of course, it doesn't look the same since your mother's needlework is much more refined but I suppose..."
"It looks perfect, love." Robb interrupted his wife before she could start lightly putting herself and her work down as she usually did. "Is it finished?"
"Not quite." Dahlia said. "It still needs some last details, but it should be done by the morning of the wedding."
"Is mother making uncle's cloak?" Robb asked.
"Yes." Dahlia nodded. "She insisted. And much as I wanted to make my sister's cloak, she wanted to make her brother's. It's weird, though, isn't it?"
"What?" Robb asked, finally looking away from Dahlia's - well, Roslin's, really - cloak to look back as his wife as she sat on her bed with her back against the stone wall behind her.
"My sister and your mother... They will be sisters soon."
At that thought, Robb grimaced a little. Not out of spite or anything like it. It was more a... Weird feeling, only. He nodded then, making his way back to Dahlia and laying down beside her again, as he pulled her back into him so she laid on his chest again.
"It is weird." Robb admitted. "But I suppose that will only serve as a means for me to call Roslin family."
"That's true." Dahlia nodded. "She will be your... Aunt? After the marriage, I mean?"
"That is truly, truly weird, isn't it?" Robb laughed as Dahlia giggled as well. "Does that mean she will be a great-aunt to our children? Or just aunt?"
"Oh, seven hells..." Dahlia groaned, rubbing her temples when she realized that Robb was in the right, asking such a bizarre question. "I can't wait for that marriage..."
A few days and some more hours of sewing after, the wedding had finally come and, as much as Dahlia still wasn't sure she was alright, she felt well enough to help Roslin with her dress and hair later on the day. Of course, Robb was still worried, considering his wife looked a little too pale that day, but, with the huge smile on her face, he couldn't really concentrate enough to talk to her about her worries.
Instead, he just let her go on and in about the wedding and her needlework in her sister's cloak.
"It's the best thing I have ever done, look!" She beamed, as she turned to look at Robb, lifting the cloak up a little as she stood in front of him while he sat at the foot of their bed. "Doesn't it look great?"
"It looks perfect, my love." Robb smiled, happy to see such a good energy oozing off of Dahlia's every pore that morning. "I did not know you were so talented with a needle. I mean, I suppose you did sew up some of my dress shirts and a few of your dresses, but I didn't know you could sew something like that."
"I'm not the best at needlework." Dahlia admitted, still with a smile on her face as she folded the cloak over her arm so that now she could look at Robb while they talked without the piece of cloth in between them. "I wasn't terrible, but I wasn't great either. My embroidery was always a little sloppy. Pretty enough, I suppose, but not very detailed. Margaery has always been better than me. And so has Roslin."
"My sister Sansa used to love needlework." Robb whispered, his voice small and soft as it always was whenever he mentioned any of his siblings. "The first big embroidery she ever did was this direwolf. It was a little sloppy, of course, but the girl was only seven. It was still very impressive for a girl that small to make such an intricate thing. She gave it to me, you know? That direwolf. It was made in a piece of cloth and she was red all over when she approached me with it, apologizing over and over because it was small and ugly and it wouldn't go well in any of my clothes. Still, I took it. I took it and I smiled and I thanked her and I told her it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It wasn't, of course, but it made her so happy."
"I bet." Dahlia smiled gently, moving to sit down beside Robb and grabbing his hand in hers when she noticed all the emotions bubbling up inside him. "An older brother means the world to a girl. Even more than a father, I believe. You are... Our inspiration. We dream of being just like you. Brave and noble and... Strong. Good older brothers are everything a girl needs. You are our first knights and gallant princes. You are what we hope to get when we marry. Or when we have our own sons. So I understand. Why Sansa would have given you her first embroidery. Did you keep it?"
"Of course I did." Robb smiled a little, squeezing Dahlia's hand in his back when he noticed her slightly vacant eyes when she mentioned older brother, probably reminded of Perwyn as she did. "It's in my chambers, back at Winterfell."
"I would love to see it, someday." Dahlia smiled, as Robb chuckled.
"I think Sansa would have my head if I ever showed that embroidery to anyone." He said.
"That's fair, I suppose." Dahlia giggled. "I don't think I'd want anyone seeing my first try at needlework either."
"What did you make?" Robb asked, as Dahlia sighed, looking down at her lap and their intertwined hands for a second before looking back up at her husband again.
"A rose." She shrugged quietly. "I gave it to Margaery. I was probably seven or eight as well. She was around ten and much better at it than me. Still, she smiled when I gave it to her. She lied to me too, much like you did with Sansa. Said it was beautiful and gave me a kiss on the cheek, promising to cherish it for the rest of her life. I'm not sure if she did."
"I think she did." Robb said and, even though he wasn't sure of his own words, the little lie brought a smile to Dahlia's face.
"Maybe." She said. "My second one was much better, though. I gave it to Lady Olenna. She said it was pretty, but I needed to be more creative with it because she almost couldn't stand seeing roses all around her. So I kept trying to make more intricate and detailed embroidery, like a horse, or a sunset or something. I'm not sure any of them truly impressed the old Queen of Thorns, but at least it challenged me to push myself a bit further."
"I remember the second embroidery Sansa gave me." Robb said, his thumb rubbing over Dahlia's finger as the girl turned to look at him with a smile. "It was a beautiful piece of art. An image of me, Jon and Theon sparring one afternoon. Huge too. I hung it up on my wall. She was so proud when she walked inside one day and saw it there, I swear she cried."
"Sansa sounds like a lovely girl." Dahlia spoke up as Robb sent her a small, almost tearful smile. "I can't wait to meet her."
Robb grew silent at that. Dahlia bit her lip, scared she had crossed a line somehow, all too aware of how sensitive the topic of his siblings was to Robb. She was about to say something else - probably about to apologize, if she was being honest -, but, before she could, Robb spun around in the bed a little, so one his knees rested over it in a way that allowed him to look properly at Dahlia when she too spun around to meet his eyes.
Robb was nervous, that much was obvious. The way he kept furrowing his eyebrows, pouting his lips and squeezing her hand in his, all clear signs, and it made Dahlia nervous too.
"After the wedding, I'm riding to Casterly Rock." Robb started and Dahlia sighed, already knowing where this was heading. "And you are staying here."
Dahlia wanted to protest. Oh, how she wanted to protest. She wanted to cry and plead with him not to leave her, but the logical part of her knew she couldn't. Not as pregnant as she was and definitely not with all the sickness that had been plaguing her for the past few days. So, instead, she just nodded, looking down at her lap.
"You know I don't want to leave you here, don't you?" Robb asked then, lifting Dahlia's face by her chin to get her to look at him again, frowning a little at the tears in her eyes. "I don't want to leave you at all, my love, but you cannot ride around with me anymore. Not like this."
"I know." Dahlia nodded, smiling a little at the gentle way Robb cradled her face and wiped her tears away with his thumbs. "I know, my love. It's just going to hurt me to see you go."
"I'll come back." Robb promised then and, even though they both knew he couldn't promise such a thing, neither of them said anything about it. "You know I'll always come back for you, love. And if everything goes according to plan and this little one is a little patient, maybe I can come back in time to be here for their birth."
"I would love to have you here, with me." Dahlia smiled as Robb nodded, pressing his lips to Dahlia's in a gentle kiss as he hummed against her mouth. "I would love nothing more than for you to be the first one to hold our babe."
"Neither would I, my love." Robb whispered, his eyes set on hers as he leaned his forehead against hers. "Which is why I will do everything to come back soon, alright?"
"Alright." Dahlia nodded.
"Good." Robb smiled, pressing another quick kiss to Dahlia's lips, knowing his next words would not sit well with his wife at all. "Now, I intended to send my mother to Seagard for protection, but she insisted she stayed with you until my return. So you will stay here with my mother and lady Jeyne until our babe is born, but, after that, I will send the three of you to Seagard."
"Seagard?" Dahlia repeated, with a frown.
"It is one of the only keeps in the Riverlands still untouched by the war and I intend to keep it that way." Robb said as Dahlia pouted a little. "I will miss you terribly, my love, but I cannot keep you with me after you have our babe. You'll be weakened, you know it, and you will have our child to worry about at all moments. I will have you and them to worry about as well and after we take Casterly Rock, the Lannisters won't hold back in trying to retaliate at me. I cannot have you at arms length like that anymore. Not when I know that the first thing they will use against me is you, if not Sansa. You understand, don't you, my love?"
And, truly, Dahlia did understand. Of course she did, she wasn't stupid. Robb was trying his best to protect her and their child and Dahlia loved him for it. None of that meant that the thought of being away from him would hurt any less, however.
"I cannot bear the thought of being away from you, my love, but the thought that something might happen to you if I don't... That is even worse." Robb admitted and, as much as Dahlia had always known he felt that way, hearing him say it with all the letters made her whole body light up in flames. "The thought that you might... I could leave our child motherless before they can even have the chance to love you as I do and that is something that I cannot allow."
"Oh, Robb..." Dahlia sniffled quietly, falling into her husband's arms as she cried, enjoying his warmth and the way he cradled her so gently as always. "Oh, my love, I... Gods, I love you."
"As do I, my love." Robb whispered back at her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head while threading his fingers through her hair to try and calm her down. "Always."
"I understand what you are doing, Robb." Dahlia said, wiping her tears away as she pulled back from Robb just enough so she could look at his eyes instead. "But promise me. Promise me that as much as you will fight to keep our child from growing up motherless, you will fight to keep them from growing up fatherless. Please, promise me you will do your best to come back to me. Back to us. Please."
"I promise." Robb nodded then, his eyes set on Dahlia's again, not an ounce of insincerity in them to be found. "I promise to do my very best to come back to you, my love. Both of you."
Dahlia nodded then, grabbing Robb's face in her hands and pulling him in for a kiss. This one was anything but gentle. It was strong and passionate and intense, much like the emotions in both of their hearts. It wasn't a goodbye kiss just yet, but it was as good as one, every ounce of love they held for one another pouring into that one kiss, leaving them both breathless and dizzy as they pulled apart, their eyes hazy as they met one another in the middle.
"Then I shall go." Dahlia promised. "I shall go to Seagard with your lady mother and Jeyne and our babe and I shall keep them safe, waiting for your return."
"And as soon as I can, we will ride back to Winterfell, my love." Robb promised. "We will take our home back and our babe will grow on the very walls I did and you will fall in love with it, the same way my mother did."
"Right." Dahlia nodded, a sad smile on her lips as she started to lean closer to Robb again for yet another kiss, but being interrupted by a knock on her door. She groaned, giggling quietly when Robb pressed a kiss to her forehead instead. "Yes?"
"Forgive me, your Grace." The voice called from outside the door and Dahlia didn't need another moment to know it was Jeyne. "I came to see if you are well. Your lady sister means to start getting ready for the wedding soon."
"Already?" Dahlia gasped, looking out of the window to see the sun shining bright, high up in the sky. "Gods be good... I will be outside in a moment, lady Jeyne!"
Robb smiled then, watching as Dahlia stood up from the bed and picked up the cloak she had made before turning back to her husband and leaning in to press a kiss to his lips. A chaste one this time - a see you soon kiss. Robb smiled, but grabbed Dahlia by the arm as he forced her to spin a little and look back at him. They both chuckled when she stumbled, but Robb was quick to steady her with both hands on her hips and thumbs brushing over her stomach.
"If anything changes... Anything at all... You will tell me, won't you?" Robb asked, an eyebrow raising in his forehead as Dahlia smiled.
"I will. I promise." She nodded and, this time, she meant it.
"Good. Because if anything happens, even during the feast, we are heading back here with a maester, aye?"
"As his Grace commands." She teased with a smirk and a little bow, only to squeal when Robb squeezed her sides. "Robb!"
"Go on then." Robb smirked back at her as she sent him a playful glare. "We don't want to keep lady Jeyne or lady Roslin waiting too long, do we?"
"No." Dahlia responded, slapping Robb gently in his arm as he just chuckled and watched her walk away from him and toward the door instead. "No, we really don't."