The Traitor's Wedding

Chapter 9

It was important that she picked herself up. She knew this. She told herself she had to try, but it was hard. Every day she was up, every time she thought, brought her to memories of Bran and Rickon. It nearly broke her heart every time they came to mind. She thought of what it was like with them, all that they had done as kids.

In her chambers, when Sandor wasn't around, she let herself cry. She didn't want to burden him after the first night he attempted to comfort her. He didn't exactly go out of his way to try to make her feel comforted, but he didn't dismiss her either that first few nights. He did, however, make sure she was eating. She tried to quit eating the first two days after receiving the news, but by dinner of the second day, he yelled at her and forced her to sit at the table until she ate every bite. Not only had she hated how she acted, but she fairly cringed when she thought about how childish she'd probably been. So, she tucked away all her thoughts of Bran and Rickon, only until it was dark at night and Sandor had most certainly passed out.

Out in court, in front of the Lannisters and their puppets, she was withdrawn and quiet. She just couldn't give herself enough energy to really pretend she was happy there. But she made sure to smile at Joffrey when he addressed her and chirped back what all he wanted to hear. While he seemed unhappy she was so withdrawn, he still made it a personal vendetta to make her miserable, even though he was unable to do much to her with Lady Margaery around.

The Tyrell Princess had taken it upon herself to be there for Sansa. She offered condolence to Lady Clegane. Margery tried to sympathize about the situation, as if putting herself in Sansa's shoes could make it easier to understand. Sansa didn't mind the Tyrell girl most times, but when she did try to sympathize with Sansa, the her hands tightened together and she had to fight the urge to snap at the future Queen. She wanted to tell Margaery it was nothing to put herself in someone else's shoes until after she'd lost a sibling. But she bit her tongue and realized it made it all the more prudent to try to act as normal as possible.

Now, Margaery seemed to want to have Sansa with her every day. Whether it was just for a midday meal, all day long, or even just an opinion on some texts, Sansa was bid away from her chambers. At first, it had annoyed her to no end, but eventually, Sansa told herself it was better than being left alone in her chambers with just her thoughts and handmaidens.

This day was no different, except Margaery asked Sansa to sup with her and Olenna Tyrell. That made her more nervous, concerned as she was about the Queen of Thorns. She knew that Lady Olenna had been trying to meet with Sansa since Margaery and Joffrey had been betrothed, but she'd managed to avoid her for some time. It helped Sansa could use the excuse that she and Sandor were newlywed and needed time to themselves. The excuse worked no longer because Margaery told her, "Oh, my grandmother told me the Hound was more than welcome to join us for the midday meal. Please do invite him."

She didn't want to do such thing. While she didn't mind supping with Sandor in front of the Lannisters and Lannister men or going to court when Joffrey asked it, she couldn't imagine sitting down and having a meal with the Queen of Thorns. She could just see how Lady Olenna could be offended by his harsh words and the way he still wouldn't eat his food properly. She had grown used to him using his hands to rip apart chickens (for some reason, that seemed to be the meat he preferred), shove bread, fruits, and vegetables into his mouth, and drowned down as much wine as he could at one time. She found she didn't mind it, but she did mind if he did such things in front of a highly respected House. She told herself that they would have to work on that once they were free of King's Landing.

Thankfully, Joffrey had Sandor training for the day, so she didn't need to make up some other excuse. She knew she was terrible at lying, so it was definitely a good excuse.