Carliene Stark

Chapter 9

Carliene

It all happened too fast. The whole ceremony passed me in a blur, so much so that i couldn't even remember what the priest said, but at the end I was awkwardly holding the Kingslayer's golden hand and there was a crimson cloak with a lion on it around my shoulders. I wished I had payed attention to where they had put my Stark cloak, it had been a beautiful thing and I would have loved to keep it, but they would probably have burnt it by now. The wedding dress was a hideous thing, a light brown fabric with golden lions and flowers all over it. It had long sleeves and showed far too much chest for my taste. The handmaidens had also insisted to pin my hair up in a 'fancy' manner and now I felt like I was wearing a hat made of hair that could topple over at any second. 


There was laughing and music in the hall, even though there were only a few people attending the wedding they were at that point of the evening when they were starting to make quite a bit of noise. I spotted Ser Eron at one of the tables, hopelessly drunk and telling a servant girl on his lap some story of his. The rest of the people I did not know except for the other five Lannisters in the room. As the celebrated couple, Kingslayer and I were sitting right in the middle of the main table. Next to him was his father and his cousin Martyn, while Lady Dorna sat next to me with her daughter Janei. This woman seemed to despise me even though I could not quite tell why. She either ignored me or gave me disapproving glances. 


I looked down at my plate, as I had done for most of the evening. Except for a few potatoes that I had eaten it was completely untouched, I felt sick again and wished to drop dead right then and there. The Kingslayer also hadn't eaten much, the thick lamb steak was still on his plate, though I imagined that being because he was unable to cut it with only one hand and didn't want to risk making a fool of himself in front of everyone. Even though I had wished for this day never to come, now I wanted it to never end, because what would come at the end of the celebrations would be what I had feared most. But Tywin Lannister announced the end of the ceremony far too soon and everyone cheered as we were led out of the room by the royals who were supposed to witness the bedding.

Jamie

"Don't worry child" father said to my new wife. "Our beddings in the south are far more civilised than your traditions in the north" 


Even though she could have seen it as an insult to her heritage, Carliene was too busy getting pale and shaking.


I felt sick. I never wanted to do this with anyone but Cercei, especially not with a child.. a Stark child at that. It was ironic to think that I joined the Kingsgard all those years ago to avoid having to marry her aunt Lysa Tully. And now here we were and I was forced into the life of a lord, with lands and wife and all these things that I never wanted. All I wanted was Cercei and she was miles away. 
We were led into the room where the bedding would take place, followed by my father and aunt and other lords and ladies that would stand to lay witness. 

How fucked up all of this was. She has nothing but despised me and now I was supposed to lay with her. Carliene stared at the large bed like a lamb would stare at a lion stalking towards it. A few young squires and handmaidens came into the room and started to undress us, which was a blessing to me as I would have never been able to undress with one hand and under pressure.

Although I had told myself the whole evening that I would go slow and try my best not to hurt her, when the time came that we were both in our undergarments, I pushed her down into the bed and forced myself inside her, wanting to get it over with. She did not scream or make a sound, witch I took for a good sign, still she was so tight that I spilled after just a couple of thrusts and really wished she would keep true to her promise and drive a dagger through my heart.
But she didn't, only lay there motionless. I might as well have slept with a corpse. Somehow I managed to release tree time, after the third did I only notice that the lords and ladies had left and that the room was empty. Quickly I rolled off my bride and turned my back to her, felling like I had just done a great wrong. Sleep came hard this night, with blurry dreams that let me wake only to feel even more tired. Only at dawn did I fall into a deep, dreamless sleep. I was awoken again by a bed maid that entered to change the sheets. I got up only to realise that my wife was gone. 
 

"Where is Lady Carliene?" I asked the blushing servant. 
 

"She's in your new chambers, having a bath M'Lord" she answered her head bowed. 

As she pulled away the blanked I noticed the big fleck of blood on the sheets and blanked. The servant just ignored it and pulled the sheets off to replace them with new, clean ones. It surprised me a little as I had heard that Carliene had worked in a brotherl in Kingslanding as one of Joffreys many jokes for a while.


How is she, I almost asked her but I held my tongue.