Caelyra: Sister-Wife and Dragonborn

11:The Red Viper of Dorne

"How is she?" Caelyra asked, her lilac eyes a darker purple as a reflection of the  deep sorrow that she felt at the lost of another newly born sibling.

She stood half turned to him, her arms on the stone railing of the balcony they stood on.

She didn't  really  meet his eyes, her eyes instead hovering somewhere behind him as if staring into a void of nothingness, her face blank of any emotion, though he know that she did feel something deep inside by the pain in her otherwise quiet voice.

"She won't  be well for sometime, love," he said, moving  closer to her, his hands lifting to cup her face. "I'm  sorry that you were not let in to see her."

Caelyra sighed, pulling away from him, her feet maneuvering her backwards. "I understand  her reluctance to see me. I am an expectant mother, while she...." She trailed off, taking in a deep breath and exhaling sharply.

Rhaegar  let his hands fell to his sides, wondering  if his next words would anger her, or hurt her.

"Father told me that it is best if we are to leave for Dragonstone and stay there until mother feels better."

Caelyra turned away, her eyes gazing at the far horizon. "So be it then," she said monotonously.

"Love?"

She didn't turn to him again as she spoke, "I should've expected it."

He moved to stand behind her, his arms wrapping around her. "Even so, love...do not blame yourself  for it." He moved a hand to push her hair away from her neck so that he could  press small kisses there, his body aching for her at this inappropriate time. "Mother has lost so many babes..." He trailed off, not wanting  to say something regretful, something that could lead to trouble for him just because  he couldn't hold his tongue.

She turned in his arms to look up at him. "I'..ve been ques..tion..ing it for some time," she said, a look of frustration forming on her face.

Rhaegar assumed correctly, though he didn't  know it, that it was because  of the oftentimes difficulty she had in speaking.
It is to be expected, of course, but it was embarrassing and he felt it also, even if his is only second hand embarrassment. Were it that she was rather still mute.

He shook himself  mentally, schooling his face into an enquiring look.

She didn't say anything,  pushing away from him, her back turning once again  to him.

He sighed, moving to stand by her side. "Why?" he pressed, though he knew  what she was getting at, something he had thought about also, but never voiced it. "Caelyra...." He paused as he trailed off, wondering  if he should warn her that it is dangerous to question some things that happened in  their home. That she could find herself killed for it.

"I know," she muttered. "I shouldn't, but....but I cannot help it. Losing one babe is only an accident. Yet, so many?" She sighed in frustration and shook her head.

He said nothing, the implications of her words hanging in the air between them.

They stood there in silence  for a long time before deciding to get themselves off to bed, exhausted.

They slept fitfully, waking long before  dawn, Rhaegar  taking her once again in his bed, their coupling slow and lazy, their bodies still tired from not sleeping well.

When he later held her, she wondered if it was worth it. Being in his arms like that, naked and sweaty. She did sometimes question this aspect of her life. Of their family tradition of marrying sibling to sibling and/or cousin  to cousin, uncle to niece and aunt to nephew.