𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐎𝐃𝐒 | robert baratheon

𝐢𝐯. the battle of the bells

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

Robert was loyal. That was something every member of every noble house and common village in Westeros knew. To his house, to his country and most importantly and most obviously, to his dear wife. So when Pavarti needed to find a place to hide her ailing husband in the walled town of the Stoney Sept, she knew exactly where to hide him.

"A brothel." Robert had chuckled as his wife and one of his stewards helped him into the modest building which bore the name of The Peach. "I have not stepped foot in one of these establishments in a very long time."

"I would hope not." Pavarti said quietly so the Steward assisting them would not hear, looking up at Robert with a twinkle in her eye. "No whore has my talents."

"Of course not." Robert said with a grin before being set down on a wooden stool in the main room where he winced. The wound was healing quickly but it still stung enough that they knew still of its existence. 

Pavarti eyes fell on a gaggle of girls hiding in a corner as the owner of the establishment, an ageing woman with a taste for furs, stepped forward and adressed Pavarti rather than her husband, something that gave her points in the Martell woman's eyes.

 "It is an honour to meet you, my Queen." The elder woman said, bowing deeply rather than curtseying before Pavarti as she took her hand. "You have our loyalty and our secrecy, for as long as you need it."

"Thank you, madame." Pavarti said, smiling kindly at the woman as she brought her up to her upright position. "But please, I am no Queen."

"Not yet." Beth stated, a knowing look on her face as though she knew the very future itself. "Although we are whores, that does not mean we do not see a Queen as she stands before us. crowned or not."

With that, the gaggle of girls behind her curtseyed deeply while a chanting a chorus of 'your royal highness' and 'your majesty' as they did so. The image send a flutter of some unknown feeling through Pavarti. Pride? No, it was something else. Certainty, perhaps. She could not name it just yet.

Robert watched this whole interaction, a silent smile on his face as he watched his wife's expression change. She had been a Queen to him from the moment he laid his eyes on her. That had not changed in all their time of knowing one another and it never would. Crown or not. 

"Thank you, ladies, for your hospitality and loyalty." Pavarti spoke once more, smiling at the women before turning her full attention to Beth. "I ask only that you do not reveal our location and perhaps as well a bed for my Lord husband."

"A bed would be much appreciated." Robert spoke up from where he was seated, making the girls in the room all giggle as their eyes landed on him.

"Of course." Beth said, squeezing Pavarti's hands in her own wrinkled ones. "Whatever you wish, your majesties, we will provide."

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

"It's quiet here." Robert stated, the only light in the room their single candle beside the bed side as he held Pavarti close to his side and they studied the cracks on the ceiling. "Far quieter than home."

"That is because a storm is not raging at every moment, my love." Pavarti said, her amusement evident in her voice but she winced but moments after and making an uncomfortable sound which peaked Robert's attention. 

"What's wrong, my darling." Robert asked, sitting up somewhat as he looked down at his wife. "Is the babe giving you trouble."

"You're son is a true Baratheon, his stags seem to pierce my belly with his every movement." Pavarti huffed, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked straight ahead. "The pressure in my lower belly is unbearable at times."

"Son?"

"No girl would be giving her mother this much trouble so early on ." Pavarti jested. "Why? Do you truly care? Is my husband that much of a man?"

"I am very much a man and you know that very well." Robert stated, moving so his arms encage the head as he hovered above his wife and moved slowly down her body as he pressed kiss after kiss to the skin that appeared through her low cut night gown. "But I care not whether you birth me sons or daughters. As long as I hear you breathe beside me in bed, that is all I want."

Before Pavarti could speak again, she felt her husbands large hands on the smooth skin of her thighs as he moved her legs apart.

"Now I have read about this pressure and I believe I know a way to alleviate it." Robert said as he pressed a lingering kiss to the inside of her thigh, teeth nipping at the soft flesh as she gasped softly. He looked up at her from where he was now at her nether regions, the candle light glimmering in his eyes. "But only if you will allow me, my Queen."

"Please do, my King."

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

They had found them.

The ambitious new hand of the King, Jon Connington, and his forces had taken the town by force and begun to search every house. The residents of the town were still actively helping Robert however, and despite the search, the offered pardons and rewards, the threats and the hostages Connington took and hung in Crow Cages, but they could not find Robert or his Lady Wife.

"We must show ourselves soon." Pavarti said, watching from a window with a cape covering her face as they interrogated Beth in the courtyard below the Sept across the road. "Innocents need not die merely to protect us."

"Do not worry, they won't." Robert said, strapping his armour onto himself. "Word has been sent that Ned and the Tully forces are coming. We won't be alone in this."

"We never are." Pavarti said, pressing her hand to her stomach. She could practically hear the child within her. She did not feel brave in that moment, she felt more vulnerable than she ever had.

Pavarti felt Robert wrap his arms around her from behind, one hand resting on hers upon the swell of her belly as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

"We'll be alright." He said. "We will be victorious."

"I do not doubt that." Pavarti muttered. "I merely fear how many will die because of our victory."

Before either could say another word, Robert's steward burst through the door.

"The town crier has beheld the forces of both Stark and Tully banner men surrounding this Village." The steward said, panting from wherever he had run from. "Battle has begun."

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

Soliders were fighting in the streets and alleys and on the rooftops, and the had septons rung the bells to warn the residents to lock their doors. Battle was fierce, and Jon Connington managed to wound Hoster Tully and kill Jon Arryn's cousin, Ser Denys Arryn with an axe in the scrimmage.

Pavarti had been the one to send her husband out, revealing him from his hiding place in the Peach. She had not been able to watch the battle as she found she needed to prioritise the life growing within her after her fear that morning. Escaping with Ashada on the back of Moondancer, she had been able to leave the Stoney Sept.

She hoped Beth and her girls would survive. She hoped more than would actually survive would.

They had reached a hill in the distance when the first house went up in flames.

"This is the turning point." Pavarti said to her handmaid as the smoke cleared and one army retreated, not one solider bearing the sigil of Tully, Stark or Baratheon. "Robert is the greatest threat to the Targaryen's since Daemon Blackfyre. Aerys cannot ignore him now."

"Not only him, my Princess." Ashada said, resting her chin on Pavarti's shoulder as they watched one wall of the Stoney Sept crumble. "But you as well."

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.