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LADY JEYNE
a song of ice and fire — AU ✧
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⋆ viii. A Touch Of Grace ⋆
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ENNUI AND monotony were words that's meanings were lost on the sole son and heir of Desmond Redwyne. A thrill seeker whose craving for adventure could never be quite fulfilled, Denys was never without a venture to keep himself entertained. Only two moons had gone by since he and his family had been under the hospitality of the Stark's and already he had arranged a hunt for the men to go on. In this moment, he did wish they would be shooting arrows at Maegelle instead of boars and deers as his eyes were narrowed in slits glowering up at her.
Having challenged and beaten Robb, Theon and Jon, to say Maegelle standing over him pointing a sparring sword in his face was mortifying would be undermining his feelings of wrath dramatically.
"Told you I'm good with a sword." Maegelle said cockily, blowing the strands that hung graciously over her face as she stood a sweaty mess in glorious victory. "Even better than Denys."
"Shut it would you." Denys snapped, swatting away the hand she offered as he pushed himself off the muddy ground. "You bloody cheated, you tripped me over."
"No one likes a sore loser brother." She replied mockingly, infuriating him to no end as she tittered, glancing over to Robb and batting her eyelashes at him as if this whole display was orchestrated to impress the heir. "Beside, all is fair in love and war."
"Aye, that is true." Robb laughed, "If that was a real battle, she would have killed you."
Brushing off the dirt of his trousers, Denys scoffed as he took the sparring tool and shoved it onto Robb with aggression. "Let's see if she would kill you too then."
"Although I reckon she wouldn't kill any boy half as pretty as you." Stumbling back a bit from the force Denys had thrust the sword at him, it dawned on Robb that perhaps he had taken the comment he made as slighting him.
"I hardly doubt I'll be beaten by a girl." Robb parred in return, taking the heavy sword in his band and readying himself into a stance to fight. Jon and Theon stifled the laughter that had derived from the comment when the Redwyne boy sent them a dagger that threatened to end their lives.
"I would not be so certain." Maegelle challenged, her gaze as tantalising as her tone.
Silver swords clanged against each other as the two opponents moved to strike against the other repeatedly, one wielding a weapon weighted heavier than the arm holding it. Locking her leg around Robb's ankle, Maegelle tripped him up taking the opportunity to disarm him while he fell to the ground. With his sword distanced away from him, the boy who underestimating the dirty tricks of the pretty enchanting girl hand no choice but to yield as she stood above him the same way she had been looming over her brother only moments ago.
"Everyone thinks a lady can't fight." Maegelle spoke with an air of thrill, staring down at him with her head held up in high spirits and a smile so summery it could have thawed ice. "I like to discredit that belief.
"Hardly a lady, more like an untamed animal." Denys jibed bitterly under his breath.
Extending her arm out to help him to his feet, Robb took it most gratuitously with a shake of his head, a boyish grin plastered on his face. "I will never the mistake of presuming such again." He replied, Jon clearing his throat exaggeratedly and looking to him with pointed eyes as if to remind him of his closeness to Maegelle that need not be.
"Right, well if we're done and dusted up here it is time for us men should go and prepare for the hunt." Robb announced heavily, distancing himself from Maegelle and patting Denys on the back in an friendly manner which seemed to immediately uplift his soured temper.
"I cannot wait. A good hunt is exactly what I need." Denys exhaled a sigh of appeased relief, stretching his arms behind his back and cracking the bones in his neck and fingers, mostly because he knew how it made Maegelle's skin crawl. "Must you be so insatiable?" She cringed with her lip curling.
"Must you be so maddening?" He snapped back, Jon and Robb running a face over their face tiredly at the pairs antics. There was hardly a moment they were together where they were not spitting insults or snarling at the other. It was a wonder how the only thing they shared was the same last night and a tendency to dote on their youngest sister.
"Come on Denys," Jon said heartily as he threw his arm over the older boys shoulder with care. "Like you said, this hunt is exactly what you need. Let us go get in our armour yes?"
"You're not the only one who needs the hunt." Theon piped up breezily, shoving his hands into his pockets as he winked at Jon and Denys. "There's not enough fresh meat around here, if you catch what I'm saying."
The look of disgust on Maegelle's face mirrored Jon's but before the Redwyne girl could whip out any snarky remark in response, everyone became distracted as the ends of a glamorous dress became ruined gliding along the muddy ground they all fought upon.
Jeyne Grace turns up prettily, bringing about a touch of grace like she did everywhere she went. Holding something peculiar in her hands sheathed by a cloth, Arya at her heel as they attempted to sprint or— in Jeyne's case— waltz away unnoticed by the triage of their nosy brothers and sisters. That was not going to happen.
"Arya, Jeyne," Robb said with raised eyebrows at their lack of acknowledgement of them, "What do you have there?"
"Nothing." The pair said in unison, like a possible interaction or bump in with someone had been perfectly rehearsed in advance, only arousing the suspicions of all those around them. Jon scoffed, shaking his head before he took the initiative to snatch away whatever was in Jeyne's hands. What he had not intended was for the hidden contents to come tumbling out straight away, much to the Redwyne girls' embarassment and Arya's displeasure, Jeyne's cheeks heating up to be hotter than one of Theon's raunchy
nights spent with Ros from the brothel. Nights that he was now deprived off, courtesy of her betrothed. It had made Jeyne's heart swoon when she heard what Robb had done for her, even if it was trivial to any other eye.
"Why do you have so many books?" Jon asked in amusement, tilting his head with a smile of mirth playing on his lips as he met Jeyne's eyes. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, wide eyes as she became flustered, at a loss of explanation.
"None of your business." Arya groaned.
"Tell me now. I know this is one of your schemes again." Jon ordered in attempts to be stern but Arya knew she had an advantage of being so loved by him. "You're just jealous we didn't ask you to do it too." Arya mumbled in annoyance at her brothers bitterness, who found the accusation not to be entirely untrue.
"Well maybe next time you'll think twice about not asking me." He countered but when she said nothing, everyone turned to look at Jeyne, the weaker link of the dubious duo that they all knew would crumble under the right pressure. Maegelle and Denys went to her, "Sweet sister, "Jeyne Grace" they both said simultaneously, snapping their head to each other over the strangeness and the irritation of the other was speaking over them. "I know you will tell us the truth."
Jeyne muttered something incoherent under her breath, though certain words along the line of burning and fire were said.
"Not fathers most behaved child going to burn the sacred books of Winterfell," Maegelle gasped in feign horror as she put the back of her hand against her forehead, even Denys had to laugh at her antics then. "What a scandal. I must tell Lord Redwyne of this."
"I didn't want to!" Jeyne exclaimed, "Arya made me take them, I felt ever so wicked stealing them like that while Maestor Chayle had his head buried in a book. And if you tell father, I'm going to say that you were sparring!" Arya threw her hands up in the air out of exasperation at how easily her accomplice had caved. "Jeyne!"
Maegelle snorted knowingly, folding her arms and Denys chuckled lowly at that bowing his head before he made way to muss up her flower-filled hair in affection. "There is the Jenny I know, ever the tell-tale." Jeyne winced then, realising that she had made the little wolf a sacrificial lamb and offered her an apologetic glance. Arya only waved it off, she liked Jeyne far too much to ever be truly angry with her.
"What business did you even have in burning books Arya?" Robb scolded her. "I wanted to make a fi—" He cut her off as quick as she spoke, "I won't hear it, especially when you've made Jeyne a thief too. Now hurry along before I tell mother."
"Oh please don't be angry with her," Jeyne pleaded to him, "Let her go and I will take these back." Jeyne stopped until she was knelt on the ground, gathering the litter of volumes she hoped were not rarity's since they had been become spoiled a bit with mud and dirt. Robb sighed when Arya had stuck her tongue at him and fled too quick for him to bother pursuing her. He crouched down himself, looking to Jeyne until she would meet his gaze. "You must stop sparing everyone so much, sometimes they deserve the scolding." Robb told her, a mirthful twinkle shining in his eye but Jeyne could not help thinking it was not Arya he did not want her to spare.
"I reckon it could be some good fun if you and I spar Jeyne." All mouths were agape as eyes darted to the source of the voice, Theon laughing in a thinly veiled bitterness. It had been a week since Jeyne had left her chambers and had returned to her day to day life, which also meant the same time had passed since Theon Greyjoy had a whores mouth around his co– Alas, this was the first occasion on which she had seen Theon since he had publicly declared her a whores daughter and his absence from her vision was more than agreeable with her. It had made her return to the public eye of Winterfell all that much easier, all her time had been spent with Jon and Arya and as of late even Robb. That was until now of course, when he so publicly challenged her to a match she had no interest to partake in. Her and Robb were up on their feet now and they had gathered the pile of stolen books off the floor, the heap in their arms as they stood by each other.
"I prefer to stay as far away from swords as I can, lest they be of steel or wood." Jeyne said softly in return. It is you I prefer to stay as far away from as I can, she longed to say. She did not meet the boys eyes because she was certain she would be faced with the same discontent and spite as always.
"I won't hurt you." Theon shrugged, everything about him contemptuous in nature. The facade of friendliness was not lost on Jeyne, nor was it on anyone else. "Too much."
"You won't hurt her because my little sister isn't going to entertain your scorn and even if she did I would kill you if there was even one copper hair out of place on her head." Denys threatened him, teeth bared with only Maegelle's hand on his chest shoving him back preventing him from ripping the Ironborns greasy haired head off his shoulders. "If you don't watch that tongue of yours Greyjoy, you'll wake up one day with your tongue cut out." Maegelle spat in a fiery temper-ladden rage, her temper getting the better of her.
"All I asked for was a little sword battling," Theon feigned innocence, "Didn't know the proposal of a healthy challenge was a crime worthy of amputation threats."
"Fight me." Jon challenged him, thrusting a sword at him with more might than Denys had shoved it onto Robb, so much so that Theon staggered back from the force. "If it's a challenge you want."
Jon had never looked so handsome. Songs of the tales of valiant knights and Dornish swordsmen like Arthur Dayne paled in comparison when the bastard of Winterfell stood there in rage with his darkened raven ringlets falling with droplets of snow gleaming in the mop of blackness and all the features of his face dripping in a fervourous defence, his armoured chest puffed out in his play at heroics.
"No Jon, you mustn't do this for me." Jeyne protested weakly, Robb raising an eyebrow at how her eyes were wet with passion and her voice light and airy in the way a lady swoons over the most handsome knight at tourneys.
"Defending your future good sister, so noble." Theon taunted him, that same smirk plastered on his mouth like there was a joke that only he knew.
"Give over would you Theon." Robb sighed, growing irksome at the ironborn petty hatred for a sweet girl who only cared for flowers and songs that now was extending into poking fun at his younger brother.
"Let him Robb," Maegelle said, prancing over to him in a ditsy display. "It's time he was knocked off his high horse. Though I'm not so sure how one can find so much pride in themselves when there livelihood is being another lords hostage."
"Why you little bi—"
Theon's insult, much to his benefit because it would've ended with Denys' fist in his face, was cut off by the clang of Jon's sword against his feet without even a moments notice. Maegelle had liked that. "See, there's nothing unfair about tripping someone over. Everyone does it." She whispered to Denys.
"Oh you want to play a cheat do you Snow." Theon said through gritted teeth. He bounced back to his feet in an instant, grappling for his steel. He moved to strike straight away but he was too rash and Jon was far more agile than him as he defended the strike with his own sword. Nothing like the children's play she had witnessed in the few times she had seen the servants at home practise, Jeyne thought she would chomp her fingers off to the bone if this went on for any longer. She had considered peeking through the gaps in her finger but she would only look a simpleton. Instead Jeyne watched on edge like everyone else, albeit Maegelle and Denys who were most content with Theon being knocked to the ground repeatedly, while the boys danced on their feet until finally Theon had yielded. Unhappily might she add, a scowl on his face as he shoved Jon and the two of them both stalked off in opposite directions.
Robb sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "Let us return these to the library Jeyne Grace." She nodded and just as they turned to make their leave, she wanted to throw herself off a tower when Denys spoke. "Ensure it is the library you are taking my sister too and not your chambers Stark." Maegelle sniggered.
Jeyne scowled at them, a side of her only reserved for the other two Redwyne's who had bathed her and taught her to ride the horse. When I see them again, they will never hear the end of this.
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viii. | a touch of grace !
LADY JEYNE — a tale of tully blue
& the green of lys
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HOME TO MANY stories of the ancient histories and conquerors, the library of Winterfell had become her most liked place here albeit the crypts. Feasting her eyes on the shelves bustling on the wooden oak how men would ogle at Maegelle's breasts bursting from the seams of her corseted dresses, Jeyne stood stroking the spine of books delicately in a thoughtful choosing of which one she would like to pluck from its' resting place. There were many scrolls too she saw, her fingers itching to reach out for one but she thought against it.
"Best not to disturb Chayle," Robb whispered to her softly, creeping up behind her with the pile of books he had insisted he bring up to help her return them. "He has quite the scare when awoken." Jeyne's eyes fell to the septon, his head resting among unwritten letters and freshly delivered parchments looking yet to be read.
"As does Maegelle," Jeyne hummed, her green eyes of emerald glimmering in gaiety when she looked to him. "I sometimes call my mother to wake her because I am afraid she will slap me the moment I move to lift her bedsheet."
"You won't have to worry about than we share a room." The words slipped from his tongue before he could stop himself, his smile falling away in an instant at the sight of Jeyne's widened eyes. "I didn't mean it like that," He defended with a nervous scratch of his neck, earning a cocked eyebrow from Jeyne who wondered what other meaning there could've been. "I only meant that once we are wed..."
"We will be sharing more than just a room." She said, sobering up from her inclination to discomfort at anything that suggested intimacy in the least. We will be sharing a bed, baths too if that is something he dreamed of and a life.
"Aye, we will be sharing all these books too." Robb joked with a laugh, handing her the books here and Arya had 'borrowed' while she slotted them back where they belonged.
"Do you like to read?" She asked him. Her gaze was light but curious, lip bitten in hopeful intrigue. "I don't hate it," He said. "Maestor Luwin must have had me study through at least half these books when he was teaching me to read. I find it hard to develop a fondness for things I am forced to." I am something you are being forced into, Jeyne thought with a grimace. "My Septa, Septa Daella, she had taught me how to read. I struggled for so long that even the Maestors had given up on me." Jeyne told him with a fondness for a distant memory in her tone, Robb sitting on the table behind him while he looked at her thoughtfully. Like for the first time, he really cared for what she was saying. "She had my mother call Lady Leyla to the Arbour all the way down from Highgarden. Lady Leyla taught me how to play the harp but before that she lifted the words off the page for me with songs."
Robb stared at her with warmth, crossing his arms over chest. He was wearing a red tunic that had become crumpled from how quick he had thrown off his armour plate to the ground to hurry in helping Jeyne gather the scattered volumes off the ground. The heir smelt of leather and woodsmoke, an aura of ardour around him so warm it cooled the chill of his home. He was waiting for her to continue she realised to her delight.
"Music was the only way I felt the world would speak to me, so I learnt the histories of our ancestors and all the kings and queens that came before us through songs. The lyrics soon became stories I had to learn more about like Jenny's Song: The Dance of Dragons: Brave Danny Flint and The Day They Hanged Black Robin. Of course many of these were folklore sung by the common people to ease the sorrows of their fate but not all of them. After Lady Leonette had gone and came, I could scarcely stay away from the libraries and I begged Septa Daella to try and teach me one more time. I learnt so easily then because it was the first time I truly wanted to, the words on the pages were all I had left off the songs."
His eyes were glazed over the same manner she could only imagine hers were, wondering in shame what business Tully blue and Lys green had to be seeping into each other like that. "Jenny's song, isn't that the one about the girl with flowers in her hair?" Robb had asked but it was his eyes that stayed speaking. His fingers reached out to fiddle with the gypsophilas that were tangled in her hair as they crept forward and to any passerby, it was obvious the boy was struck.
"She is said to to have a been strange and lovely girl," Jeyne hesitated, her breath hitching in its stride. "... who loved to wear flowers in her hair."
"I know a girl like her then, though she is more lovely than strange."
Jeyne scrunched her nose up, "Who?"
Robb laughed at her then, removing his hand from her hair as if he had been awaken from a dream. "Perhaps I will introduce her to you someday." Sliding the last book into its rightful spot, he examined the spine of one that seemed to be vintage and old in nature yet still younger than Old Nan.
"The Kings In The North," Jeyne said the books name aloud, looking to Robb peculiarly for his shyness of the pages. "Why do they call Rickard Stark the Laughing wolf?" She asked him.
"For his good nature," Robb said, smiling in pride of himself, "King Rickard was also known to have had quite the sense of humour."
"I always thought it was something more scary than that." Jeyne confessed, her voice low in sudden remembrance of Septon Chayle and his deep slumber steps away from them. Robb pulled the book out of the shelf taking great care with the fragile binding as he handed it to her. "Here," he said, tutting as he quickly lifted it up above her reach, "So long as you promise not to let Arya burn it."
Jeyne became shy at that, a crimson pink colour flooding her cheeks. She nodded. "Would you think me awfully brazen if I asked to borrow some scrolls instead?" It was the rare valyrian content of the scrolls that Denys had told her about that made her long for a peek. Her eyelashes were fluttering and hands clasped together just below her chin with a grin gleaming so bright it displayed all her white perfectly polished teeth as she all but begged him to say yes. "It is not my permission you need," Robb said, watching her smile fade away to show dismay, "...but I am certain my father will not protest. I shall ask him for you."
"Oh thank you Robb, thank you." Jeyne said in glee. Her grin reappeared as quick as it had fled from his sight and Robb could admit he had grown quite of the lady's smile. It was sweet, dripping in a honey more golden than any riches the Lannisters boasted off. The gypsophilas stuck out still while they poked over from the braid running along the crown of her head, the ivory roses and little mauve-lilac hidden away until she turned away in diffidence. In a sigh of amusement, Robb placed the scroll in her hand gently. "It is the least I could do, after how unkind I have been."
"After how unkind you think you have been." Jeyne comforted him with thoughts split from mind to tongue. "Your leniency with me makes me feel all the worse." Robb said with his head hung low. "How is it unkind that you shared with me the truth?" Jeyne said gently, poking him in the chest playfully so that he would look at her. "Even if it was in a drunken slur of confession." She teased.
"We are friends now Robb and our friendship to me outweighs any disturbances of the past."
"I am sorry," He said in solace, smiling at her jest. "I should not have been so cruel to you Jeyne Grace. At least admit I was not the best of gentleman, if only to ease my guilt." Jeyne hummed and it was like the sough of the wind in the canopy of branches, only kinder. "If I tell you I detest you, would you forget your guilt?" Robb nodded like a boy of four. "Perhaps." He said, tongue in cheek. "Alas, it would be a lie."
Robb groaned at that. Jeyne walking away now with the rare parchments of Valyrian in her tender hands, turning to give him one last sweet smile. "People who are cruel oft forget if even to think to apologise Robb Stark."
With that, Jenny of the Arbour gone.
She had found Jon in the stables, amongst the haystack the horses fed on with a sword by his side and a frown of glumness on his face. First, Jeyne had gone to the Godswood in hopes her valiant knight would be there and when she stood in the fallen leaves at the foot of the tree with the face of a man weeping red sap by herself, she had gone to the kitchens. Gage had laughed so heartily when she asked if he had been there she had thought herself a fool, "There's only one reason he ever finds himself here and it isn't Myrah's pretty face, I promise you that." Jeyne had wondered what he meant by that. It was Harwin who had told her where Jon was, talked of his fathers muttering of the Snow boy sulking in his grounds.
"You needn't have been insulted by Theon for my sake." Jeyne muttered softly. She was sat beside him now, pulling at the straws of hay and inspecting their thinness while Jon had his head leant against the rickety stones beneath the low window. "Like he said, you are my future good sister. I won't have your honour at stake." He jested in response, his words free of hilarity.
"My honour." Jeyne repeated with a ring of silvery notes in her tone. "If I'm going to be a Stark, my honour must be protected at all costs. It is a great thing to you wolves isn't it."
"Jeyne Stark." Jon tested the name on his tongue. Jeyne Snow, he dared himself to think. "It sounds so strange. I would stay Jeyne Redwyne if the customs let it, keep the name my father fought so hard to give me." To take the name your father would not fight for, she wanted to hum but she freed him from her pity.
"You're not hurt are you?" Jeyne asked him when he said nothing, her eyebrows settled into a frown as she turned her head to him. He shifted his own gaze to Jeyne then and let the familiarity of her face bring joy back to his lips. "I could have sworn you were there when I knocked Greyjoy off his feet. If anything's hurt, it's his pride." Jon quipped, lightning the twilight cast over him that would stalk him to the ends of the earth.
"I told your brother I understand why he hates me so," Jeyne began, "but I think I only knew why he was so hateful. His disfavour of a girl who comes from faraway remains a secret to me."
"You do not need his favour."
"But Robb loves him so and I cannot begin to know why, yet I do wonder if he will sour our newfound friendship." Jon played the puppet then, "It is good to finally see the two of you grow closer." Somehow, Jeyne didn't believe he meant what he was saying.
"I would not make a blessed marriage of a few pleasant moments," Jeyne admitted, I do not know why I said that when my mind drifts to Robb Stark more than I like, "But at least now we are friends."
"You are still my closest friend here, don't you worry about that changing Jon." Jeyne assured him but the words were more for her own benefit, resting her head on his shoulder. He blew a breath through his nose at that, smiling at the flowers that crumped against the crook of his neck. "I'm telling Arya."
"You would not dare or I should never speak to you again." Jeyne said, her eyelids heavy with the urge to rest as the wintry scent tried to kill her to sleep. "I find that hard to believe." Jon had replied, a trace of smugness in his voice. He pushed the sword away from him with his elbow, keeping himself with something to do so too would not succumb to a tempting aroma, only his was lavender soap and ivory roses. "Oh you are right but do not be so proud about it," Jeyne scolded him, nestling her head on the leather fabric of his clothes. "If I were ever a queen, not that I dream it or it's even likely, I would have you part of my Kingsguard just to have you always close to me." She muttered in a tired daze, closing her eyes as she drifted into sleep. Jon chuckled. "I would protect you til' my last breath, 'Your Grace'."
authors note: sometimes— okay most of the time— i ship jeyne and jon more than her and robb 😭 but that's okay because that's kind of what I was going for in part one anyways. also sorryyyy this chapter was so late, I was just doing up the final touches to the rest of the act and then I wanted to go back and edit the unedited chapters and make a few adjustments to some that I didn't like so that this would be written to perfection (which i haven't even done properly so that can wait yikes) so I can get started on act ii which i am so excited to write but also I haven't even proof read this chapter once so if it's messy and hard to follow I apologise :)
UNEDITED