Of Lions, Wolves, and Dragons (Jon Snow)

21. The Wedding

Robb,

It has been so long, I hardly know how to begin.  Both of our live are so different now.  You are married, and I wish you the sincerest wishes for your happiness.  I know that she must be a wonderful woman to gain your affections.  I must confess, though, I was and still am worried about you since I heard of your marriage.  From what I can gather, Walder Frey is not a forgiving man.  I hope you are able to reach some sort of arrangement to appease him.

I do have news to share with you.  Unfortunately, none about Arya.  It does concern what is happening in Sansa's life.  When Stannis attacked King's Landing, the King's forces would not have succeeded without the help of Tywin Lannister's army and the army of the Tyrell's.  As a reward for joining in with the crown, King Joffrey offered the Tyrell's anything that they would ask for.  They asked for Margaery to marry the king instead of Sansa, and everyone agreed that it would be best to end his engagement to Sansa and marry Margaery Tyrell instead.

Sansa was so happy to be released of this engagement.  She was smiling and enjoying life as I had never seen her do before.  She had even discussed plans of marrying Loras Tyrell with the head of the Tyrell family in order to be able to get Sansa out of King's Landing.  This was, unfortuntely, short lived.  The Queen Regent found out about this plan and reported it to Tywin Lannister, who is now in place as Hand of the King.  He arranged for Sansa to marry Tyrion Lannister and Cersei to marry Loras Tyrell.  He has also arranged a marriage for his youngest daughter with the Martells.  Tywin is slowly trying to spread his power out all over Westeros.

I write to you now on the morning of Sansa's wedding.  She is not happy, but Tyrion is not either.  Tyrion feels that it is wrong that she is not allowed to be happy, but Tywin will not listen.  He is too concerned with extending his reach of power.  I do not doubt that Tyrion and Sansa can learn to love each other and make each other happy, I just regret that it even has to happen to begin with.  She is such a sweet, caring girl.  She deserves to be happy and enjoy life.

Robb, I leave you with one last caution.  Tywin arranged this marriage so that Tyrion and Sansa's future children, if they have any, will be heirs to the North.  This leads me to believe that he has a plan on killing you.  Please, do your best to be careful and stay safe.  Do not trust any except maybe those that have always been loyal to you.  I doubt I will learn any more of his plans,  but if I do I will certainly try to share them with you.

Joellyn felt her heart racing.  She had skipped out on practicing with Bronn in order to write this letter to Robb without anyone knowing.  She had told Bronn that she was feeling ill due to her flowering and he did not want to hear any more details, so she knew that he would be leaving her alone.  She only had to get the letter out before Tyrion awoke, and as she tied the letter to a raven and sent it away she finally felt a sense of relief.

She then turned and looked to Tyrion.  This would be the last morning that she woke up sharing a room with him.  He never moved out after healing from his wound and she had enjoyed the extra time with him.  He would now be joining Sansa in her chambers, though, as they were to be married today.

Sansa had not reacted well to the news, nor should she have.  It was devestating for her to learn that she was not going to be able to escape from King's Landing after all.  After Joellyn had managed to get Tyrion and Shae to leave Sansa's chambers that evening, Joellyn held Sansa as she cried and tried, what little she could, to offer words of encouragement to her.

But Sansa was almost beyond comforting, "Joellyn, I know he is your brother and that you love him dearly, and this will mean that we are sisters, but I cannot imagine loving him.  I do not know him, and he is so much older than me."