The she-wolf and the lion

Chapter 136 - "And Rhaegar was in on it?"

"And Rhaegar was in on it?" Gerion asks.
"Of course he was, you don't think it was just your grandfathers who wrote secret letters to him, do you?" Jaime asks.
"Mother did too?" Daemon asks impressed.
"She did indeed, they kept each other updated on the tidings in King's Landing and in Winterfell", Jaime says. "While I was being well taken care of in Winterfell, she wrote to the then prince Rhaegar to tell him that I had been freed from the dungeons, that I was a guest of house Stark and that her intention was to marry me, she asked Rhaegar to wed the then lady Brianna Stark as soon as possible, and he did, two weeks after the royal wedding, the first royal wedding I should say, they had Tyrion, a drunk septon, a Pentoshi whore that Tyrion had threatened to flog if she told anyone and a mute servant boy, as witnesses, Tyrion sent me a raven that same night telling me about the wedding, the next morning your mother and I, who'd been planning for our own wedding while I was recovering in Winterfell, had our secret wedding in the godswood at Winterfell, in front your mother's gods, the gods of the north, the old gods. We were married in the light of the seven at the sept here at Casterly Rock when I brought your mother here after months at Winterfell, by that time Rhaegar and Brianna had been truly wed too, in the light of the seven in the sept of Baelor in King's Landing."
"Were you never scared that the plan wouldn't work?" Gerion asks.
"All the time, I was scared the days before the first wedding, I was scared until the day we got word of the king's and queen's true wedding", Jaime says. "I was even scared to lay with your mother until we got word of it, because what if our plans fell through, she'd had to marry someone else and I'd laid with her and gotten her with child, a little lion cub, as strongly as you and your siblings have my features, I didn't want to risk putting a lion cub in her if she had to be married off to someone who wasn't me, that other man could have had the child and possibly even her, killed and I didn't want to risk that, that's why I was scared to lay with her, even though I had laid with her a couple times at that point."
"But after you got word of it you weren't scared anymore?" Gerion asks.
"No, by then I wasn't scared anymore, by then I knew that any child of your mother would be my child, I brought your mother home to Casterly Rock as soon as I could and married her in the light of the seven in our sept here, by then she was likely already pregnant with the first baby that we lost", Jaime says.
"How many has mother lost?" Daemon asks.
"Two or three before it's first quickening, that first time was one of those times and two stillbirths, they are both buried under the oak tree by the clearing in the courtyard, the stillbirths were fully formed or just about fully formed", Jaime says. "I remember the first time so vividly, the child came out just fine, but it was silent, no sound at all, I will remember her screams until my last day, she screamed and battered but I held her, held her tight to me while the women cleaned and wrapped him, our little bundle, the look from Bronn whom I had called for, broke my heart too, we locked eyes, said nothing, we just gave each other a nod, he knew what needed to be done, I remember him saying "crypt, m'lord? or should I take him to the oak tree by the clearing where he was made?" how he knew about that I will probably never know, perhaps he'd seen us making love there."
"Yes, I saw you making love to lady Lyra there, twice, the other little one you had me bury was made there too, I believe", Bronn admits, having come in to the hall silent as a shadow and sat down just as silently. "The loss of those poor innocent little boys was a hard blow for all of us, not just the grieving parents."
"Now I understand why some of our other guards and soldiers call you 'the shadow', captain" Jaime says. "You move like one, dear friend."
"It's a useful skill, sire, especially when dealing with enemies or with secret assignments that you are given", Bronn says gracefully, his black eyes glinting, the secret assignments he's referring to being the burial of the two stillborn lion cubs.
"What else of my conversation with my sons did you hear?" Jaime asks curiously.
"I heard you tell the young lords about the young dragon king's little trick to make sure you were free to marry, and to make sure lady Lyra was free to marry, I knew of it already though, lady Lyra mentioned it to me herself not long ago, a fine trick I must say, I would have hated for it to not work as well as it did", Bronn says.
"So would Rhaegar Targaryen", Jaime says.