CHAPTER FOUR
Flower of Winterfell
Alana's POV
"You can't just sell me like I'm some brood mare." I stood before my father as he sat at the painted table of Winterfell. Books surrounded him and candles dripping their wax down onto the mantle. I wanted to clean the mantles terribly. They all were covered in dust and old candle wax. How disgusting must the place get before it's fucking cleaned properly?
My father shook his head and looked at my mother. She swallowed heavily and rose from where she was sitting. Nearly gliding with her steps as she placed her hands onto my shoulders. Tears forming in her eyes as she forced a smile.
"We aren't just selling you, Alana. This was something that had been planned a long time ago. Although for a while your father and I did not agree with Lord Stark's idea of having you move to the North. We wanted to keep you close to us... We had... Tossed around the names of different lords for you. But... After so long it just..." She paused and looked pleadingly at my father. "Robert, perhaps you could explain it better."
Father nodded and then looked at me. "What your mother is trying to say is that not a single one of those other future lords was worthy of you." He paused for a moment and took a sip of the wine sitting on the table. Wiping his lips on his sleeve and then continuing on. "I've known Ned Stark almost all my life. I never loved my own brothers but Ned... Ned was the brother I chose. I was meant to wed his sister, Lyanna, but she was stolen from me. Lucky for me, I got to meet your lovely mother..."
"So you think that you can try to mend the past and rewrite the future by forcing me to wed Robb Stark because he's a Stark and I'm a Baratheon just like how you and Lyanna once were? Doesn't that seem like I don't know... A bad omen? Couldn't this just go down in flames instead?"
Flames are what shot from my father's eyes when I said the name of Lyanna Stark and not in a positive way. My entire life I've danced in the shadow of a dead woman. My mother has lived in her shadow and knew she'd never account to even half the woman Lyanna was in my father's memory no matter how hard she'd try.
"Alana Baratheon," He grit through his teeth. "You will hold your tongue when you speak of Lyanna Stark."
"No." I argued. "I'm not like Mother. I don't need to hold my tongue. Not anymore. Especially since you've signed off on forcing me to wed that monster! He's horrid, father! He chews with his mouth open and slurps from his cup and talks so loud for no reason! He was pissing on the side of the barn and... and-"
"And nothing!" Father rose to his feet.
"Robert," Mother tried to calm him down.
This was unusual. Typically it was father waving me off when I did something wrong and mother yelling and screaming and punishing me. I'd get things taken away as punishment and father would give them back to me. Like my arrows and dagger, mother took them away but father immediately gave them back. She locked up my horse in the stable and said I wasn't allowed to ride until the next full moon. Father cut the locks and took me for a ride in the King's Woods.
Today wasn't one of those days.
"You will wed the Stark boy. You will let him do what happens in a marriage to you and you will fall pregnant within a year. One year I expect a raven that says I'm a grandfather or else I'll completely disown you. You won't inherit even a toe nail of mine; do I make myself clear? Or must I speak Valyrian to you? Or Dothraki? What fucking language must I speak to get through your thick Lannister skull?" Father's face was red with rage.
Mother scowled at him and her eyes held the same amount of rage. "Robert there is no need for this. If she doesn't want to wed the boy then why are we forcing her?"
"The deal is done." Father said to her. "You know how our daughter is... Just wants to be center of attention and throw her little tantrum. By the day of the wedding she'll be swooning for the boy and thanking us graciously."
He turned away and mother rolled her green eyes at me. Father gathered his cloak and slid on his leather gloves. Stretching his hand into them and flexing his fingers. "Now that that's been said, Ned and I are going on a hunt. Someone's got to prepare some damn food for the wedding feast."
He kissed me on the head and walked out, slamming the door behind him. But the moment that door shut I turned to my mother and instantly cried into her arms. She hushed me and kissed my head, holding me tightly and rocking me.
"Shh," She hushed me. "My flower... My little flower... You will be okay I promise..."
I sat down in a chair and she pulled one next to me. I stared into the flames and I swear with the rage inside of me I made them grow larger. Perhaps it was just my imagination but I could have sworn I was controlling the flames.
"Please don't let him do this to me... I hate Robb." I tried to plead with her but it was no use. She held my hands into hers and kissed them as tears poured down her cheeks. Removing the blush she'd powdered onto her own face.
"I was younger than you are now when my father came to get my from my chambers. Told me to pack my finest gowns and all my jewels. I did without a second though, I thought that maybe he was going to take me to live with him at court. That maybe he'd be Robert's Hand to the King or something... Or maybe I was going just for the coronation. Perhaps my brother would be earning a gold medal or something for slaying the Mad King. I didn't know. Not until I arrived at the Red Keep and my handmaiden shoved me into a wedding gown and brought me to the sept. I begged my father... Kicking and screaming... Until I saw Robert at the sept. He was gorgeous, all the girls swooned over him... And he was mine."
She took a deep breath and then continued. Heartbreak falling more into her tired face. It pained me to see my mother like this and pained me even more that the only reason she was sharing such great detail with me about this was because it was now happening to me.
"I am so sorry that you have to go through this. But maybe... Try and get to know the Stark boy. You can't change him but maybe you're just seeing a side of him that he wants you to see. Maybe he doesn't want you to see the real him so he thinks he can just scare you off by being obnoxious... I don't know..." She cleared her throat and nodded. "You are my delicate flower... Do not let that boy break you."
"I won't." I said proudly.
Mother nodded and smiled. Sniffling and blinking away her fallen tears. "If not for nothing someday he'll give you a child. Soon, I hope. It will be the best day of your life and even if you never love your husband you will love that little life you created together. I remember when you were born... Not once did I look up at your father while I was in labor with you. In fact, I pulled you out with my own two hands. Maester Pycelle couldn't believe it, he said he'd never seen a Queen who was so eager to pull their own child from their legs. But I did it, I did it happily. After you were on my chest I looked at your father. Although he wasn't there long. He fainted, actually."
I chuckled softly. "Perhaps if I'm lucky Robb will faint too."
"No, Flower... If you're lucky he will be the one who reaches his hands down there and pulls your child out and bonds with that baby instantly. If you are lucky, he will hold your hand and stay by your side wiping the sweat from your forehead and letting you break his hand as you scream from the pain. If you are truly ever so lucky, he will kiss you after your child lays on your bare chest for the first time and profess his love to you."
I swallowed heavily and looked up at her nervously. "Does he mean it? Do I really have to wed him in 6 days and have his child within a year?"
Mother's eyes shut and she exhaled... Exhausted as though this had been a never-ending battle with her and my father. She nodded and then opened her tired eyes to me. "He told me during our journey north that he came up with a decision and that these were the terms of it. I had no say... I wish I did. Or I'd at least let you court him for a year or so first..."
"I wouldn't want to court him for an hour." I replied quickly.
"You have 6 days... Try to make it worth it." Her voice was pleading, and I could only stupidly nod.
-
"Mother must be out of her mind!" Myrcella shouted loudly as she sat on her bed in the chambers we were sharing for our stay here. Her blush pink gown matching the blush of her cheeks. Her long golden hair touching the top of the bed as she sat. "Do you want me to make that boy's life miserable? Because I'll do it gladly."
I shrugged and began pacing in circles in the room. Occasionally stopping at the fireplace to warm my hands as I still wasn't used to the chill of the north. I missed home... My real home. I hated that this grey and murky place was going to become my new home.
"I wish I was going back to King's Landing with you..." I muttered. "Who am I going to tell all my secrets to?"
She smiled but it was pained. "Sansa is a nice girl."
"She's going to wed Joffrey once they're both of age." I scoffed. "She told me that this morning at breakfast. Mother and Father are clearly busy signing marriage pacts. You best hope they don't sell you to the bastard or the ward."
Myrcella stuck her tongue out and made an icked out sound that resembled a gag like noise. I chuckled to myself and she walked over to the window and looked down to the courtyard. Our chambers had the perfect view of everything from down below.
Robb was training with a sword and soon he walked out of sight and was talking to someone. I could hear his voice but couldn't make out the words. When he came back into sight he had my little brother Tommen with him. He placed a practice sword in Tommen's hand and then held his arms and wrists, showing him where to hold the sword and how to swing it.
Tommen fumbled with it for a little while but Robb stayed patient. He removed his cloak and I couldn't fathom removing any article of clothing in this cold. But then I remembered how his blood must be so thick and used to the cold that it doesn't bother him.
Within no time at all Robb was simply coaching Tommen from the sidelines while he hit the target. First in the belly and then Robb told him to go for the neck. He nicked the shoulder a few times until he finally got the neck. He was then instructed to keep hitting the neck until he no longer missed.
That took quite some time as well. My eyes were glued and not because of Robb. No, never because of him. I was interested in seeing if my youngest brother could actually hit the head on the target. No one ever took the time to train him before like that.
Joffrey had only just learned a few moves but already Tommen had become more advanced and ahead of Joffrey who was 6 years his elder. I chewed my bottom lip as I narrowed my gaze. Watching ever so carefully.
He'd strike. Then miss.
Strike again. Miss.
Myrcella was standing aside me and also cheering on Tommen, impressed with his skills he quickly honed just from being here in Winterfell. Myrcella had muttered something under her breath and then ducked down below the window.
"What?" I asked softly, keeping my eyes on Tommen when I realized Robb was looking up at me with a look of rage and horror in his eyes. It made sense to me why Myrcella had ducked down.
"I said Robb is looking at us!" She stayed crouched below the window. I dropped down with her and sat there.
Together we giggled like sisters do and laughed as we mocked the look on his face. For what felt like hours we laughed and made fun of Robb and how stupid he was. How even he was struggling and then fumbling his sword from time to time.
Myrcella said it was because he knew I was watching him and clearly I made him some sort of nervous.
"Will you send me care packages from home?" I asked Myrcella. "The lemon cakes here are terrible. So dry and lacking on lemon flavor. I miss the way mother made them."
Myrcella smiled. "Oh yes but only if you promise to send me the apple cakes from here! The ones with the blueberries in them! I think I heard Sansa say that Lady Catelyn makes them by hand and not even the kitchen staff has her recipe. Maybe when you marry Robb she'll pass it down to you."
I scoffed and shook my head with a cocky grin on my face. "Oh right and that same day will be the day Father gives Robb the sword of House Baratheon because he feels like it." I rolled my eyes. "What color gown are you going to wear... To my.... My-"
"Don't say it." Myrcella hushed me by pressing a finger to my lips. "I don't feel like having you vomit again."
She was right. I vomited this morning after speaking with my mother and father. All out the window too. Theon Greyjoy isn't too fond of me at the moment because he had just happened to be passing through the courtyard and I tossed my tea and biscuits right out the window and onto his head.
He screamed so loudly that everyone ran outside to check on him and my father laughed so loudly as they were leaving for their hunt he had to change his pants because he pissed himself. Even Lord Stark looked like he bladder grew weaker as Theon cried and complained about his hair and his clothes and the vomit on his head.
"Just tell me what color." I said playfully.
She shrugged. "Mother says we're all going to wear red and gold. Father will be head to toe in gold and she'll be in all red."
"Perhaps she'll let me walk down the isle to The Rains of Castamere or is that too much?" I smirked.
In a coat of gold or a coat of red... A lion still has claws.
Myrcella giggled "The Young Wolf will regret ever messing with the Lioness."