Chapitre 24: Chapter 24
Tonight was the perfect night to announce the Prince's engagement to her daughter. It was two days before her husband and her children left for the capital. The Starks hosted an intimate dinner with her family and the royals. Lord Tywin deigned them with his presence this time. He looked sour but the corner of his lips lifted a little when he graced eyes upon Joanna and Arya. Lady Stark wore a white and grey dress, adorned with myrish lace her aunt Genna sent her. She looked radiant. Ned wore his usual attire and had acceded to trim his beard into some semblance of propriety. Joanna was too smart for her own good and had inklings, as what would happen that night. Cersei saw as her eldest daughter joined them in the hall. She wore a golden gown, beautiful as she was. There was no doubt she was the prettiest woman in attendance. The princesses were dressed well too. The queen could be called beautiful when she was not frowning or looking at her husband and prince with disgust. Lady Sansa looked beautiful too. She wore a robin egg blue gown that accented the red of her hair and the blue of her eyes. Arya wore a black dress and her hair was neatly plaited. She looked bothered and bored. Cersei knew that Arya would have given her left arm to be anywhere else. She had recently discovered her little ploys to get around from packing and her meetings with Jon and Robb. Arya Stark had not left her mother's side in four days. Cersei treated her like a well cared for prisoner or so the young woman claimed. Lady Stark had glared and reminded her that she could do with her as she pleased since she lived under her roof, ate her food and trained with her bows, arrows, and swords and used her servants. "You will behave. We had an agreement Arya, you failed to comply, be grateful you will travel with me and not your father. He grows weary of your intents to do as you please. Your father is fair and forgiving to an extent but he does not tolerate outright defiance. What would he do if I tell him about your detours?"
"Mother you wouldn't?" Arya asked softly. "I would, if you disobey once more I will. He will take away all your lessons and I will not interfere." Cersei replied. The girl had obeyed then. Arya was willful but so was her mother.
Cersei smiled at Arya who mockingly smiled back. Her sons were dressed and seated around the big table. Tyrion and Jaime were present as well. Her brothers chatted amicably with Robb and Jon. Tommen and Bran held court with the princesses. Lord Stark gave up his usual place at the head of the table to his long time friend and king. He sat at the right of the head, with Cersei by his side. The Queen preferred to sit as far possible from the king and the prince who would of course be seated at the left of his father. The attendees waited on the prince and his father.
King Robert Baratheon and the crown prince appeared twenty minutes later. The king sat down and the courses started. Cersei glanced at her father who was seated in front of her. The man was inscrutably quiet. He had not mentioned their incident the past week. She acted as if the meeting had never happened. Tyrion told a jape because Jon, Robb guffawed while Arya tried hard to mask her laughter as a dainty cough. Lady Sansa frowned, clearly not amused by Tyrion's japes. Tommen made mooneyes at princess Cassana who seemed delighted by her son. Bran ate his food silently. He did not wish to be here. He would have loved to be in the stables with Rodrick or hearing stories from Old Nan.
The meals and the conversation flowed. The king drank, as was his custom. She noticed that he drank more now and could not be called sober. He had a skin of wine near him at all times. Soon it was time to celebrate the announcements of the night. "Ned has accepted to be my Hand. We depart for King's Landing the day after tomorrow." The king said with a smile. Her brothers and father congratulated Ned with a grim face. Cersei tried to look cheery but she could not deny the fact that her husband was not Hand material. He was too honorable, too good to play the game. He would fail, his honor, his trust and his belief that people had honor would be his downfall.
She kissed his hand. Jaime looked away from that show of affection his eyes were pained but there was no fury anymore only a quiet sadness, a sort of resignation. The king clapped Ned's back and prince Gendry smiled good-naturedly.
"Ned and I have fought together, won the throne and we would have been brothers had my Lyanna lived." Cersei saw Catelyn Tully grip her utensils a little to hard. "We will now join houses. Gendry and Joanna will wed next year after the prince's seventeenth nameday.
Joanna's eyes sparkled with happiness. Cersei smiled well naturedly until she heard the prince. "No." The prince said with deadpan voice. King Robert frowned and so did Ned. Cersei watched as Joanna's face crumbled. "You are lovely my lady and any man would be happy to take you as his wife but I can't." Gendry addressed her daughter who had tears in her green eyes.
Jaime, Robb, and strangely enough Tywin glared at the prince. Ned remained seated and impassive. Jon pushed Robb down, her son rose, no doubt to defend her sister's honor. The heir to Winterfell wore an angry scowl but knew better than to create a scene before time.
Robert bellowed. "What do you mean you can't? You will marry Ned's daughter. There is not a worthier house for the crown." Cersei could was silent as was the rest of the party. The king ranted, her brothers and sons looked as if they wanted to be anywhere else but there. Father looked mildly intrigued while Arya did not look up from her lap.
Gendry remained silent and looked toward the queen's niece. Lady Sansa looked elated; Cersei had the irrational need to throttle the little tramp. Catelyn looked at Robert with flinty eyes. "This is an outrage. Ned, I apologize. He will marry your daughter. He is my son and he will marry your Joanna."
The prince stood up and spoke once more. "I am truly sorry but I can't." He addressed Ned. Robb was on his feet too and so was Jon who for the first time looked ready to kill and had decided to not restrain his younger brother. "I will marry you daughter." He said looking towards Sansa again. Cersei understood then. Gendry Baratheon was not looking at Sansa but at Arya. "I want Arya to be my wife."
Cersei gasped, Joanna left the room in tears. Arya left the hall too. Jon and Robb sat down, their faces shocked. Father's face was back to his usual mix of annoyance and boredom but there was something else. He looked scheming. He stood up left for his quarters no doubt.
King Robert looked at Ned and then at his son. "We must speak privately." Ned nodded and led them to his study. Her sons looked at her for explanations. She could not give them one. "I apologize your grace. It is essential I speak with my girls." She made her excuses and left the hall. Cersei ran after her daughters, fearing the repercussions of this revelation. Her daughters did not have the easiest relationship; they were too different, too stubborn and proud. Something like this could create an abysm in their relationship. She could hear some of the mutterings in the hall.
She went to Joanna's rooms and found Arya outside rapping on the door. "Joanna please let me in." The girl had tears on her eyes and hit the door with all her might. Cersei placed a hand on her right shoulder. "Let me sweetling."
"Joanna, open this door." She used a no-nonsense voice. The young woman did not open the door not until Cersei asked Arya to go to her quarters. "Arya, it is best if you leave for your rooms. I will speak with you later." Her youngest daughter shook her head. "Do as I say." She ordered. "She'll hate me forever." The young girl said with a sad voice.
Cersei had not heard Arya that sad, not since Eddard told an eight-year-old Arya that she couldn't be a knight. The woman knocked once again, "Your sister has gone to her quarters." The door gave away to a crying Joanna who hugged her tight.
"I hate her. I hate her. She ruins everything." Joanna cried desperately.
Cersei remembered long time ago, a tourney. She had been close to Arya's age, perhaps younger when Rhaegar Targaryen visited the Westerlands. The young prince had taken a hold of her and for a few hours she forgot all about Jaime. She believed herself in love with the royal. She had been so happy because at the end of the night she would be engaged to the Crown Prince. He was handsome, young, smart and powerful. She had been crushed by the end of that fateful night. A prophecy had been made and the Crown had rejected her. Elia Martell of Dorne was to be queen. Cersei Lannister cried in the arms of her aunt Genna and then later that night raged and cried bitter tears of heartbreak and failure.
"My poor kitten." She wiped her tears and let Joanna rest her head in her lap just like when she was a little girl and they waited for Ned and the boys to come back from hunting trips. Arya would be busily creating havoc. Joanna was a sweet child, a gentle soul so very trusting, like her Ned.
Joanna sobbed. "I thought he liked me. He likes me but Arya took him away from me. She's horrible and I hate her. I hate her." The girl cried more. Cersei let her cry. When Joanna was exhausted from crying she spoke again. "How is this your sister's fault?"
Joanna stood up from her place in her mother's lap and looked at her with an outraged expression in her young beautiful face. "She knows. All I have ever wanted was to be queen. She knows I love prince Gendry."
Cersei looked at her with sad eyes. "Do you love the boy or the idea of the boy?"
"I don't understand mother. You are supposed to be on my side, not hers but you love her more than me. Don't you?" Joanna said angrily.
Lady Stark hugged her. "I love you as much as I love your sister and all your brothers." Joanna sobbed and hugged her. "Why doesn't he like me? I'm more beautiful. Arya is not even a proper lady why her and not me?"
"We don't get to choose who we love my love." She kissed her forehead. Cersei was still taller than her little girls.
"Let me tell you a story about me and your father." She said quietly.
"Your father arranged your marriage to father. I know that story mother. It does not help in this case." Joanna said stubbornly.
Cersei smiled, "This is not about me and Ned finding happiness and building a marriage and love." She had never told this story to any of her children.
"Joanna, when I was young, around your age. My father promised me I would be queen." Her daughter looked at her with puzzled eyes.
Cersei pulled her blond hair back and dried her tears with a piece of cloth. "My father was the Hand of the King and he hosted a tourney in the Westerlands. He reassured me that at night my engagement to Prince Rhaegar Targaryen would be announced." She remembered fondly, the excitement of that day, not even Tyrion and his antics could put a damper on her mood.
"I waited patiently and enjoyed that day. Everyone in attendance knew. They all knew I was going to be queen. The marriage to prince Rhaegar to me was all Westeros spoke about. The announcement came and I was ready to take my place by the handsome prince when King Aerys announced Elia Martell would be queen. I was humiliated. I felt all the stares and ran back to my quarters much like you did tonight. I don't blame you my love. I know it hurts but it will pass."
Joanna looked at her with sad eyes. "This is different mother. You did not know the your prince. You hardly spoke with him. I love prince Gendry. I thought he loved me too."
Cersei doubted it but did not want her daughter to stubbornly fight her. "I thought I was in love with someone else before I married your father." Joanna frowned slightly. She needed to tell her daughter this because otherwise the little gentle soul would harbor a grudge against her younger sister.
"He was everything I wanted. All I could think of, but forbidden for me. The only man I could never love publicly. I gave myself to him." Her daughter shook her head and removed her hands from her mother.
"It was the biggest mistake I made. I married your father soon after. He knew I was not pure and he remained silent. I was foolish Joanna. I blamed father, I even blamed your father for the loss of my first love."
"I don't understand mother. What does this have to do with anything? Arya stole him from me. She knew I love him. She knew I wanted to be queen." Joanna said mournfully. Cersei thought then she might have said too much. She wanted the young girl to understand about resentment and bitter disappointments but Joanna was set against blaming Arya.
"I don't want you to resent your sister like I did my father. I don't want you to hate your sister. Would you be happy with the prince? Knowing that he longs for another woman. If there is something I know about Baratheon men is that they are obsessive. Robert idolizes your dead aunt because he could never have her. Do you want to be like queen Catelyn?" Joanna gasped. "Could you see yourself living in the shadow of your sister? Think about your life my love. Every time you lay with him, think what it would be like hearing your sister's name in his mouth. Think about when your sister visits and he stares a little too long a little too hard. When the time comes and he cannot stop thinking about Arya under him and finally takes her?" Cersei was brutally honest.
Joanna cried but something in her eyes changed. "Arya would never let him. She's strong and could fight him." She said determined.
"He will be king. You are not a stupid little girl. I did not raise you to be stupid. Joanna he does not love you. He wants Arya and he will have Arya. His father started a war because of a woman he wanted. If he is anything like his father he will find Arya and will not stop. I saw it in his eyes."
Joanna looked at her mother with hurt, sad eyes, and then spoke "The queen's always sad and she looked at Arya with hatred."
"Everyone remarks how much your sister resembles your dead aunt." Cersei answered. "In these past few weeks did your sister try to get to know the prince?"
"No, she avoided him. She spent all her time with Tommen and Bran. Away from Robb and Jon." The blond girl replied, with a shuddering breath, calmer, more rational. Joanna was a lady and wanted to have a household filled with love. It seemed to sink that she would not achieve it with the prince. The girl was smart; she would come to forgive her sister. Joanna Stark was the beautiful sister, everyone said so. She was not used to being passed over Arya but she would understand eventually.
"Your sister is not to blame my kitten." Joanna looked doubtful. "I want to be alone mother." Her daughter said and wiped her face. Cersei kissed her forehead. "Listen to your mother. There will be another man, more handsome and just for you. A man that has no eyes for anyone else but you." Joanna sobbed, it was what she wanted. Cersei could not go to her other daughter until this one was abed and sleeping. It wouldn't do well for ruminate and harbor more ill feelings toward Arya. Cersei thought about how much a young girl could hate their siblings. She had despised Tyrion all her life. Joanna did not look at her again. She undressed and went to bed. The older woman stayed until the girl fell asleep from crying.
Lady Stark went to Arya's quarters. The door was open. She stepped in and heard voices. Arya was by the windowsill with the prince. They were in a heated argument. Cersei remained behind the door. She was able to hear their conversation.
"You are so stupid." Arya whispered enraged.
"M' lady, I'm sorry My lady." The prince apologized profusely.
"I am not your lady. I am not a lady. Joanna is a lady even Sansa is one. I don't want to marry you stupid." Arya said angrily, crying of anger.
The prince remained quiet. "You like it when I kiss you." The young boy said with the confidence that young men in their prime have. Eddard, Jaime, Robert, even Tyrion with his whores had that air of superiority; the knowledge that a female responded well to their touch.
"I do not." Arya said a little higher than intended. The prince shushed her. "I don't think your father or brothers would think well of me if they discovered me in your room."
"Please, please, you have to marry Joanna. It is all she ever wanted. She will make a good wife; give you beautiful children. My sister is beautiful, graceful and would make an excellent ruler." Arya said with a stark honesty only seen in her father and Jon.
"You are correct my lady. She is a proper lady and is beautiful but she isn't you. To me you are more beautiful. I can stop thinking of you; your eyes, I saw you fighting your brothers and I thought you were formidable. I have seen you practice with Tommen, everyday. I had to lie to your brothers to see you." He said sweetly.
"Keep away from me. I'll use Needle on you." Arya said. Cersei heard rustling.
"Then I saw you the first night, in the feast. You had flowers in your hair, and you were the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my life. King Robert says you look like your aunt Lyanna and that she was even more beautiful but that can't be possible because you are more beautiful than any other woman I have ever met." Gendry, first of his name said poetically. The boy had a way with words; it was a wonder since Cersei had scarcely heard him string two sentences together since she met him three weeks ago.
"I don't want to be your wife. I want to be a warrior, fight, and travel. I don't want to be queen."
"I don't want to be king. We could run away. You and me, we can be sellswords and travel the seven kingdoms." Gendry said honestly, desperately, his tone begging.
"Could we go to Braavos, across the Narrow Sea?" Arya asked excitedly.
Gendry laughed. "We can go anywhere. We'll be free, no more houses, no more rules. We'll sleep in ships and alleys. Never come back to Westeros."
"I won't see mother, father, or any of my siblings?" She asked and her voice deflated.
"Well no. I don't think lord Stark will welcome me with open arms after I abduct his youngest daughter." Gendry offered with a sarcastic voice.
"He would kill you. Robb, Jon and even mother would join him." Arya laughed.
"I can't see Lady Stark wielding a weapon." Arya giggled. Cersei frowned; her daughter was not prone to giggles.
She could not hear any more sounds. Cersei made her entrance then. "I am far more progressive than my husband. It would be a shame if I had to call him for this. He would not like to see his four and ten-year-old daughter being so ardently embraced by a boy who is not her kin. I suggest you return to your quarters my prince. I seem to recall they are located in the other side of the castle."
The prince paled and bowed before leaving the room. "How long has this been going on?" Cersei asked as she invited her daughter to sit on the bed by her.
"There is nothing going on mother." Arya said formally.
"I have been too busy, your father, you and your siblings moving to King's Landing have kept me far too distracted." Cersei spoke more to herself than to her young daughter.
"Do you like him?" She asked clearly, her eyes searching for any clues that would make her understand the happenings of tonight.
"No, yes, I don't know. I don't want to be queen. That's stupid, silly, for girls like Joanna. I am not a lady. I can't be like her or you mother." Arya said stubbornly but her eyes, those grey eyes inherited from her Ned told another tale.
Cersei's green eyes bore into her daughter's grey eyes. "But you are a girl. Gendry is attractive, strong, and he's paid attention to you."
"I don't like boys." Arya said stubbornly.
Lady Stark smiled, "So you like girls then." She teased.
"No." Arya said loudly. "I don't want to like him. Joanna will hate me forever. She will never forgive me."
"So you like him then." Cersei said, trying to understand the girl.
"He's fine I suppose. I can't be a knight. Father and you said that I would have to marry eventually." She mumbled, without looking up to her.
The blond woman hugged her daughter. This must be so confusing for her, three moons ago she was only Arya and wanted to defeat knights and see the world and now a prince wanted to marry her. "I don't want to be queen. I don't want to go to King's Landing. I want to run away. I want to be a boy and fight and never care about dresses, princes and households." Arya cried and Cersei wiped her tears.
"You are a woman. A young woman flowered, who is very capable of wielding any weapons but a woman nonetheless." Arya pulled a face. "Do not frown my little love. Embrace your womanhood. Women are more powerful than you ever think my love. We must submit and bear certain humiliations but we are stronger and better equipped than most men. You shall accept the Prince's proposal. I know you Arya and inside all that bravado there is a young woman, a girl who is intrigued by Gendry's words and who likes the boy with the black hair and piercing blue eyes."
"Mother, I don't want to." Arya continued with that obstinate streak of hers. "Well then. Don't marry the prince. Live here in Winterfell until you are old. Your father will certainly not force you to marry nor will I but he will not let you be like the Mormonts or this Brienne of Tarth you like so much. I will not be able to plead for you either. Do not think your father will embrace your antics all your life. He loves you and still sees the little wild girl you once were. You are not a girl anymore; you are a woman. You will not shame house Stark or Lannister for that matter. You will grow old, childless and live by the hospitality of any of your siblings." Arya looked angry. Cersei did not flinch, raise her voice or altered her demeanor in any manner.
The young girl did not say a word. Cersei then took her hands and spoke. "Or you could be queen. You can have power. Rule them all. Queens do not only manage a castle. Arya, little wolf," Cersei kissed her hands. "You would counsel your husband the king. You would rule alongside him; if and only if you play your cards right my love."
"I don't want power." Arya said with a tremulous voice, as if convincing herself. "Besides queen Catelyn does not rule. All she does is knit and scowl." Arya replied, trying to undermine her mother's arguments.
"The queen is weak. She is not like Joanna, you and me. We are strong, proud and were born to be great. You think Joanna is like me but she resembles your father more in character. You do not think you want power but you do. You are a Stark but you are also a Lannister and above all you are my daughter." Cersei kissed her forehead. "I don't want Joanna to hate me." Arya mumbled again.
"She could never hate you. You are sisters, and Joanna is not really capable of hatred." This time it was Cersei who tried to convince herself.
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
MissRias
MissRias Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!
Creation is hard, cheer me up!
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
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