Song of Ice and Fire

Chapter Sixteen

"Mother..." I call her, but she doesn't look at me. Her eyes are casted down on her growing belly. "Mother..."

"What?!" He snaps at me angrily and her tone forces me to take a step back. I look at her with wide eyes, pain spreading inside of me. "What do you need, Bianca?!" She sighs tiresomely and looks away from me down on her stomach with loving eyes.

"N-nothing." I whisper in a low voice and look down on my hands. "Sorry to... I will go..." I murmur and shut the door behind me, while I run out of her chambers.

"Mother is here." Robb informs me and I nod, not taking my head up from the book I have been reading. "Bianca... she wants to see you." This catches my attention and I stand up, following him.

He leads me in the main hall, where Lady Catelyn stands in the middle surrounded by Lords. She smiles at them politely and the smile disappears the second her eyes land on me.

Her steps are slow, but firm, holding authority in them. She stops in front of me, her eyes piercing my soul and clenching my heart. Standing in front of her makes me feel small and weak, as if I have been only a little girl, reaching nothing in my whole life.

Her gaze holds hatred, shame, anger and something more I can't name, or how can I? I know no more the woman in front of me. And she doesn't know me. The bitter expression makes its way on her wrinkled face and she raises her hand.

I watch each of her movement carefully, follow her hands. She reaches for a single lock on my face and pushes it back, then lingers her hand near my face. No one says a word, everyone is watching and question hangs in the air. What is she going to do?

At first I hear sound, I can't feel it, just hear the loud slap echoing in the hall. Then the burning sensation comes to my cheek. The pain rises from insides and not from the cheek, which was slapped. I look up at her, just to find her gaze as cold as ice.

"You have brought shame upon us with your behaviors." She says to me with authority in her voice. "I am ashamed to have daughter like you." She sneers at me and I smile, with true genuine smile, which seems to surprise her.

But it doesn't stop her from slapping me on the other side of the face. Her hand is hard, cold and scarred. The blood starts oozing from the corner of my mouth and I smile with a smile only mad person can pull off.

"Mother!" Robb yells at her and stops her before she lands another slap on my face. I look at her, not once breaking eye contact with her. "What are you doing?"

Neither of us says a word. We know truth, we don't talk about it. I can see slight fear creeping up on her. Fear that I may speak up. Fear that I may tell the truth about her and Ned Stark.
And I am about to open my mouth, I am about to tell everyone what she did to me. But before I am able even to pronounce a single sillabe, someone wraps his arms around me. His muscles tenses around me as he hugs me tightly.

I can feel his soft breath grazing my skin, his lips wondering over my neck, but not really touching it. It calms me and brings me back to my senses. I look at her, with determination in my eyes, hatred pouring from every single pore on my skin.

"She is shame to us!" Catelyn shouts loudly, her once beautiful features morphing into a twisted one.

"She saved us!" Robb yells back at her, holding her tightly. "If not her, Kingslayer would have killed more of us!" Catelyn stops struggling in his hands, but she still holds same expression.

She doesn't even make a sound, just leaves the hall with her feet softly touching the floor. I look at her retreating form and shiver. Only then I realize that I have been trembling ever since she laid her hand on me.

"Hey, calm down..." Theon whispers into my ear in a gentle voice. "She won't hurt you ever again." He whispers those words again and again. Robb looks at me with pity in his eyes, while others Lords are trying to avoid my eyes.

***

No one looks at me. Neither of them dare to look in my eyes and don't feel guilty about it. None of them stopped her, or how could they? She was their lady.

"What happened in here?" Dad walks inside the great hall with anger oozing from his every step. "Who did this to you?" He tells again when he sees my face. My left cheek is already swelling and blood is still oozing from my upper lip. "Bianca!" I flinch at his shout and the second he notices it he kneels in front of me, kissing my forehead gently and hugging me tightly.

"Shush, princess." He whispers in caring tone, I have been longing for. "I am sorry for shouting at you." I nod and sniffle on his jacket. "Who did this to you?"

"It was me." Her voice is icy cold, her eyes matching it.

"Catelyn?" He asks confused and picks me up, standing in front of mother. "Why would you do this to her?"

"Because she deserved." I have never heard such a cold voice from her before. "She acts however she wishes, disobeying all the rules, running around the castle like a wild!" Her screams fill the hall and makes me flinch even more.

"Don't you dare to even touch her!" Dad tells her in a calm, yet dangerous voice. His misty eyes become darker and he growls. "She is our daughter and I will not tolerate anyone hurting her." With these words he takes me away in my chamber while whispering in my ear that I was safe and she wouldn't be able to land even a finger on me again.

"It's okay." I find myself whispering it loudly. My gaze is frozen on horizon as I have no sense on where I am. I smile at nothingness in front of me and at the memories in my mind. "It didn't hurt... not that it was first time." I add in a lower voice, but it echoes loudly in the silenced room.

"What do you mean it wasn't first time?" Robb is first one to digest the information I have just slipped. I look down at my feet and avoid answering his question. "Bianca...!" His voice is desperate.

"She used to hit me back when I was little." I murmur and shift my gaze away. "It's nothing, really." I whisper but he doesn't believe me. Theon's grip tightens around me and even some of the lords seem angered by that.

"She never used to hit us..." Robb whispers, confused.
Because you are Ned's children, while I am Brandon's. See the difference brother? She loved one when was married to another. I wasn't a child she desired. I was a child on her way. And she did got rid of me... she did throw me from the wall. And she indeed killed me the day when I was sent in Beyond the Wall.