There's no room for a pompous wedding - for a Queen's wedding - she was told. But soon she realized that her wedding would be in secret. Not even Eddard Stark himself would be there to see his son espouse.
Only Lady Catelyn would serve as witness from his family. And she didn't seem content about it.
Luckily for her, or not, she knew what to expect when she stood before a priest the night after her arrival in King's Landing, inside a small inn. She had seen a glimpse of his wild reddish brown hair and striking blue eyes. His skin was almost as pale as hers, and he looked trapped under the black of his outfit. He was barely older than her but shyer and solemn.
It occurred to her for the first time that he wanted this marriage less than she did. That he was following orders. But everyone had to play under the rules of nobility. It would've been much easier for them to be commoners and married out of love, to do what they wanted.
His beard helped him to make him look like a man but she could tell he was facing the same moment she had during her first wedding.
She didn't pity him. After all, she had been a peon in other people's game and it was only fair that he did as well.
The only thing she could be grateful about was that he was handsome and he seemed rather docile, perfect for her plans.
He said his vows in a monotone voice but boldly looked into her eyes through the ceremony. She replied with her own in a soft, alluring voice with hopes he would believe in her being a very helpless woman despite the stories and rumors about the Targaryens.
He draped the cloak over her shoulders and she became his lawful wife in that poorly lit room with less luxury than she would've hoped for but with his promise of protection.
"You should go to your room," Catelyn Stark said in a hushed voice, probably thinking that the whole thing was not what her son deserved, not what any mother wanted for their children much less when they had ignored every custom.
She alone led them to a room. There was no feast, no commotion and no bedding because that night Robb Stark looked at her with the eyes of a man who felt betrayed, who felt duty was punishment.
"You can choose the side of the bed," he muttered as his eyes fell onto the dancing flames of the fire.
Daenerys stared at him, confused because despite everything she expected a sex starved man. She expected to be abused by a man who had assumed he owned her now. Seeing that he wasn't about to mistreat her, she realized that there must have a reason of his own not to bed her.
"My marriage was brief," she said, carefully moving closer to him. "I know you must have expected a young maiden with her virtue intact and I do apologize if because of my arrival here you have lost a lover." She had to bite back her tongue not to yell at him that she hadn't had a saying in her first marriage, that he hadn't the right to sulk like a child.
His cold eyes, blue like the sea dothrakis were so afraid of, bore into hers. "I lost no lover and, believe me, your virtue is something I couldn't worry less about." He walked around her and put more distance between them, never losing eye contact with her. "And I know you bore a child."
Her chest constricted painfully. One thing was to accept the loss of Drogo but losing a child she had carried inside her was another completely. Mayhap she had underestimated the Young Wolf and he was smarter than to abuse her physically - he would hurt her by opening healing wounds.
"Sleep," he ordered, motioning to the bed. "We need to leave early before news of your stay here reaches the ears of the Spider."
"If he's as good as they say, he must know."
"But he hasn't found a reason to make it work to his favor." He bowed his head. "Just sleep."
And with that, he left the room, leaving her alone once more.
Daenerys didn't know why it hurt so much to be ignored like that when the last thing she wanted was to feel like another man had enslaved her to satisfy his every wish. Probably it had something to do with not knowing what to expect now that Robb Stark showed that he wasn't like most men, that he wasn't about to work as she had thought.
But after a long trip through the Narrow Sea and a wedding, she would gladly fall asleep and continue with her plans next day.
