"Your Grace, the Lannisters have sent you a message" Roose Bolton stormed inside the tent where Robb stood along with his mother and her new sworn sword, Brienne of Tarth. He delivered them a box and Robb looked at both of them, apprehensive.
"After the Greyjoy's betrayal now we hear from the Lannisters?" Robb asked impatiently. What could the Lannister possibly want at that moment? Tell them that they had allied with Theon to destroy him? "What do they want?"
"Your Grace, the message isn't from Tywin Lannister, it came from the Capitol" Lord Bolton explained as he showed them the King's sigil. Catelyn and Robb exchanged a worried look. Catelyn's heart was pounding hard against her chest. Her daughters were being held hostages in King's Landing, they were at the Lannisters' mercy. To hear news from there wasn't something that she was eager to. However, the anxiety she felt from not knowing anything about them disturbed as well.
Robb opened the box and stepped behind, making sure that there wasn't any sort of viper or something else that would hurt him. But he wasn't watching out for psychological pain, which was what the box really brought.
He looked confused when seeing nothing but white fabric inside the box, he touched it and once he took it out, he realized, just as everybody else, that it was stained with blood. Catelyn brought her hands to her mouth out of shock. Robb took out a nightgown, ripped and torn apart. By then, Catelyn's eyes were in tears. What had they done to her daughters?!
"What is the meaning of this?" Robb asked as his voice emanated fury and hurt. He looked at the box and he found a letter with Joffrey Baratheon's seal on it. He showed it to his mother, whose heart was breaking by the second.
"Read it!" Catelyn asked at once, with her voice trembling and her tears streaming down her face. Brienne watched out with a bitter taste in her mouth. From what she had heard, the Stark girls were just that... girls and the rumours had it that every time their brother won a battle, they were the ones to pay the price. "Read it at last!"
Robb broke the seal with fury and preoccupation due to what the letter could say about his sisters. He hadn't heard about Arya at all, which troubled him. Sansa and Lilia were the ones he would hear about. How Sansa was still betrothed to Joffrey but how he would cast her aside for Lilia.
He often found himself thinking about what Lilia would have done had she been by his side. She would be treated as the sister to the King and she would have stayed at Winterfell, or so he would command though he knew she would follow him wherever he went. How would she deal with Theon's betrayal and how would she handle the bannermen who questioned his authority so many times.
He was sure that the people would treat her as the Queen. And part of him wished that she had the opportunity to be the Queen instead of him being the King. Lilia would play the part just fine and men would see themselves forced to bow to her since she would not take bad behaviour lightly.
He took a deep breath while looking at the words without really reading them as if he was getting ready for his execution.
"You might be confused as in the reason why I send you this. Think of it as a present for this nightgown belonged to one of your sisters. Both of them are true beauties, but you know where my preference lies. She's a fine woman, your sister Lilia, I look forward to having her in my bed more often. My men are of the same opinion, but when you take an oath which involves being celibate, you'll settle for anything really, even a wild animal. You should have seen as she begged me to stop, as she fought me off. She gave in, eventually, but it was too late. She has a wild tongue, I had to make sure she learnt how to control it, which I believe I did. Confess your crimes of treason and surrender and I will stop tormenting her, I will make her my Queen. Or maybe next time, I will send you her corpse. Joffrey Baratheon, the first of his name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynares and the First Men, Protector of the Realm and Lord of the Seven Kingdoms" as he finished, Catelyn fell on her knees and Robb ripped the letter in a million pieces. He pushed the maps and the war plans off the table as he screamed in tears, then he grabbed his sword and stormed outside the tent, with Catelyn following him and Greywind joining soon after with the same unhappiness as Robb.
Greywind was a direwolf but he had felt angsty on his sister, Winter Rose. He had felt how she would weep next to Lilia, just as he had felt how Lady had been put to the sword. He understood Robb and he was ready to do whatever it took to help him.
"Robb, Robb!" his mother screamed as she chased him to the cage where they were keeping the King's Slayer. As he got there, he punched the man, who smirked as he spat blood.
"Do you know what this is?!" Robb screamed as he showed Jamie the bloodied sheet Joffrey had delivered him. Jamie decided to keep his cocky attitude and make some witty remark like he always would.
"A bloodied sheet. Did you take some girl's virtue for the first time? Or was this the first girl you ever laid with?" he mocked the King in the North who wasn't in a mood for Jamie Lannister's comments. "Even so, I don't see why you would show this to me"
"No, but your nephew and son did!" Jamie was a bit confused as in why Robb Stark would bring him a bloodied sheet and say that it was Joffrey's for a moment, but then realization washed over him and his features changed drastically. "Your son raped my younger sister, he beat her and made his men take turns raping her!"
"She is to be his wife ..." he was cut off once Greywind growled at him. Robb made sure his direwolf stayed out of the conversation, which he did, even if the urge to kill the man was in him.
"He raped my sister Lilia! And even if it had been Sansa, that doesn't mean that he gets to rape her!" Jamie's walls fell down as he showed how bothered he was all of a sudden. Catelyn realized right there that the Kingslayer held a secret and that he was keeping it from the world. Robb, on the other hand, stood there, looking at him. Then, he figured what his mother already had. "You have feelings for my sister"
"I don't know where you got that idea from..." he tried to defend himself but the King in the North knew better than that. He remembered how he was the one who was there for her sister when Bran was pushed from the window, even though he had been the one to do it. He remembered how she would look at him and how her cheeks would get flushed when their eyes met at her name day's banquet.
"And she had feelings for you as well" Robb stated, catching Catelyn out of guard. She never had that impression about them but the truth was that she had been too busy during those days and Robb had been the one to see them together. "I should kill you"
"Robb..." Catelyn tried to catch his attention but he blocked it. Her heart was broken just to think of what her eldest girl was enduring. She had her honour taken away and she had to face the people who had done that to her every day. All she wanted was to have her girls next to her and hug them both.
"I won't kill you today" he stated and turned to Roose Bolton. "Send a message to Tywin Lannister with... this"
"Yes, Your Grace" the bannerman did as he was told, grabbing the sheet and taking it away.
"Whatever Joffrey did, my father had no part in," Jamie said, catching the attention of the Northern King. "Lannisters don't act like fools and what Joffrey did was foolish"
"But he's going to take responsibility for it," Robb said before he left the tent, leaving Catelyn with Jamie.
"What your bastard son did to my daughter will not stand. He will pay the price" the woman claimed and left him alone to his thoughts. Jamie was upset with what Joffrey had done and confused with the things he had been accused off. Then again, would that matter when both of them will probably be dead before the war was over?
Catelyn ran after her son, who had gone to the place where he used to think. Just like the day they received the news of Ned's death, he was yielding his sword against the tree as he cried.
"He abused her," Robb said in tears for his sister. She had always been his best friend, ever since she was old enough to remember life, she was there, just like Jon was. Robb didn't know how Jon would react to this, but he was furious and also hurt that they had done such thing to his beloved sisters.
Robb loved all his siblings, but out of the five of them, Lilia was the one he loved the most. He truly loved Lilia, purely. It wasn't the kind of love that would want him to lust over her, it wasn't the kind of love the Lannister twins shared. No, it was something much deeper than that.
Lilia wasn't only his sister and his best friend, Lilia was his safe place. Whenever he needed to talk to someone, whenever something was bothering him... he would go to her. They would solve it, she would always find a way to help him out. She would always have the right words or the comfort of her maternal warmth, even if she was not a mother herself.
Lilia used to have feelings for Theon and Theon loved her. She never fully understood how much the boy loved her, but Robb did. For a split second, he thought about sending it to Winterfell, sending it to him. But Theon was a traitor and Robb was curious on what Lilia would think if she had been there to see what Theon had done to their family... her family.
Now, she was with those lions who were capable to do that to her. How could have they done that to his own sister? A sweet, kind and overall, fascinating girl. She didn't deserve to live the life she was living, she shouldn't have to endure such torture from the Lannisters.
Robb admired his sister, if it had been him in her place, he would have killed himself. He knew he wouldn't be able to live with himself after that.
"I want him to die a painful, slow, agonizing death"
"Oh, my son!" Catelyn hugged her son. Robb was her firstborn, for some time she only had him. Then, she was blessed with a girl, a beautiful dark-haired girl. She remembered the day she was born, the first time she held her daughter. Catelyn cried when she looked at her perfect, little baby daughter. She was so sweet and so strong... those were traces that never left her. Her baby girl was a survivor, more than any of her children. "We will get back your sisters and once we do, you will kill him... the whole pack of them"
"What for now?" he said as he cried and Catelyn touched his hair. His hair was long and falling in front of his forehead.
She always watched from afar how Robb and Lilia were close. When Lilia was born, Robb could barely walk but he would go to the nursery every day to look at his beloved sister. She was taken back to the feasts they held at Winterfell, where he would dance with her. First, when they were children and later on, when they were grown. They would always dance happily and to see their smiles of joy warmed Catelyn's heart.
She knew that Robb kept Lilia's secrets just as well as she kept his. She knew that long before she had learnt of her daughter's encounters with Theon Greyjoy, Robb already knew. Robb would help them since he saw Theon as a brother and worth being with his sister.
Catelyn missed those times dearly. She missed watching her children playing in the courtyard, she missed sewing with Sansa and Lilia. Lilia... she would sew clothes for Robb on many occasions. Most of the times, she would sew cloaks similar to the ones Ned would use.
Flashback on**
"What are you doing, Lilia?", Catelyn asked as she watched her daughter sewing by the fireplace. She wore a dress similar to her mother's since she wanted to be like her when she grew up. Lilia didn't look at her mother for a second, she was too focused on her needle. Her stitches weren't perfect, but they were good enough for a seven-year-old girl.
"I'm sewing a new cloak for Robb. I've just given one to Jon since his was getting small and old. But I decided to make Robb a new one too and give it to him as a gift. So, don't talk to me, Lady Mother, I must concentrate!", Catelyn was hesitant for a moment at the mentioning of the bastard. Nevertheless, she decided not to put much thought into it and she focused on her little girl. She remained silent as she watched Lilia sticking her tongue out and biting on it as she focused on her stitches.
The wood being consumed by fire was the only sound in the room and after a few minutes, the little girl looked up with a huge smile on her face. She was missing some teeth, which made her somehow even more adorable.
"It's beautiful, Lilia" the little girl's smile increased when those sweet words got to her. "When are you going to give it to him?"
"NOW!" the little girl ran with the cloak on her hands as Catelyn followed her daughter. She looked for Robb and she found him training with Jon and Theon Greyjoy, who was showing off his new skills cockingly. She rushed over to them and once she got closer to them, they stopped.
"Lilia, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with Septa Mordane being humble and obedient?" she watched as her daughter's face fell and she showed her disliking towards the woman. She noticed someone next to her and as she looked, she found her husband standing there with a short smile. Ned was a cold man, but he was loving and kind. She realized that on their wedding night and ever since then, she had began falling in love with him.
"I came by to give you this but perhaps I'll give it to Theon instead" the little girl said threateningly as Robb smiled to her. She gave it to him and as he looked at it, his eyes got brighter. "Do you like it? I did it myself!"
"I love it! Thank you so very much, Lilia!" a tear streamed down Catelyn's face as her son hugged his sister after putting on the cloak and dropping the other one on the floor. "I shall wear it every day! I would make you a dress but..."
"I don't want you to make me a dress, you silly!" her little laughs filled the room and he rotated with her as they both giggled. "You can teach me how to ride a horse though"
"I will!" Robb agreed excitingly. Catelyn was not that thrilled about the idea but as she thought about intervening, she felt her husband's hand on hers.
"You've done well" Ned pointed out at the two. "So well that when I look at the three of them, I see myself with Brandon and Lyanna"
Flashback off*
Catelyn held back her tears of sadness and nostalgy as she put her hands on her son's shoulders and looked him in the eye.
"Now we show them what Starks are made of and we show them what it is to see the ones they love in pain"
Now, you must be tired of me but now that I've been saying something at the end of each chapter I guess I had to say something about this chapter.
I have a confession to make, I WAS NEVER EVER EVER CRAZY ABOUT ROBB... until I wrote this chapter. I like him but I'm not mad about him, he's not my bae, you see?
Nevertheless, onto the chapter. There were people on last chapter's comments saying that they were eager to know how Robb would react to what happened to Lilia and there it is - Robb was angry, sad, devastated.
Lilia was Robb's favourite sister and favourite sibling over all. He always admired her and cared about her very much and their relationship is one of my favourites in the whole book.
Also, we get to see what Catelyn thinks as a mother. One thing that I hated about the series is that they made Catelyn look like a bitch. Was she a bitch to Jon? YES, 100% YES! But that's not the only side to her. She loves her children and would give her life for them, she is fierce when it comes to them.
Lilia is not Catelyn's favourite child... or daughter. Though she never says so in the book, its obvious that Catelyn's favourite child is Bran and after Bran, Robb.
In this chapter, we see how Lilia and Robb behaved as children and how much they were connected. Catelyn gets emotional about it and so does Ned, though he doesn't show it as much as she does.
Well, let me know if you'd like to see more of Lilia's childhood since I guess it's still a mistery and there is much to say about it.
Hope you've enjoyed it, bye!