Her Name Isn't Snow

Chapter 22

After Jon and I broke away, I turned to see Sansa looking at me with tears in my eyes. I smiled as she moved quickly forward and pulled me into a hug. I hugged her back tightly. I thought I'd never see her again. She pulled away and quickly wiped the tears from her eyes as she smiled. 

"Tormund, will you take them inside the Great Hall, please? I'm going to deal with this one" Jon asked, grabbing Ramsay by the collar of his shirt and lifting him up. A tall, big ginger man walks over to Sansa and I. I wince in fear and pain as he places a hand on my shoulder. He guides us towards the great hall where some northern men are tearing down the flayed man banners. 

"We should get you cleaned up, and that can't be comfortable," Sansa says gesturing towards the bit of metal that was around my right ankle. I nod, unable to find my voice. I follow her out of the great hall, Tormund trailing behind us as we move towards the hot springs. 

"You should go see if my brother needs any help," Sansa tells Tormund. He nods and gives me a smile. 

"It's good to meet the woman he hasn't shut up about," Tormund says as he turns to leave. 

I walk closer to the hot spring, smiling at the feeling of the heat and mist it produces. Sansa turned around as I quickly undressed, taking off the ratter dirty dress I had been wearing for months. I walked into the pool and sighed. I was finally warm. The bruises that had covered my body like a blanket were soothed by the hot water.  

"You can turn around now," I tell her, watching her turn around to face me. She sits down by the pool and beckons me to come towards her. 

"Here, let me put your hair up," she says. I move towards her and turn around. I flinched the first couple of times she touched my hair, but I got used to it after a while. She didn't have a man's touch and for that I was grateful. We didn't say much. By not talking we could pretend that it was just another day in Winterfell. Even though we knew we weren't the same as before. After she finished braiding my hair and pinning it up in a bun, she rose to her feet and grabbed my ratty dress. 

"I'll go get you something more suitable to wear," she tells me as she leaves. I move around the pool of warm water, rubbing my hands gently over my body to make sure it's clean. I lean my head back against the bank and close my eyes, slowly bringing the water up to a boil. 

"Rhaella!" 

I jumped and quickly sat up, opening my eyes to see Jon running over to me. 

"What? Has something happened?" I ask, looking around. Were Ramsay's men still here?

He stopped in his tracks and looked at me confused, looking down at the boiling hot pool of water. It was then I understood his fear. I swam back across the pool towards him, resting my arms on the bank beside him. 

"It's okay...It doesn't hurt me like it would most people" I say gently as he moves his gaze away from the boiling water and towards me. 

"Are you doing that? Making the water boil?" he asks, slowly taking a seat on the bank in front of me. He was still so dirty, he had wiped most of the blood off his face but there was still some scattered about his cheeks and brow. 

"Yes," I answer simply, lowering my body temperature, bringing the water back down to its normal temperature. He smiles softly. 

"So you finally got warm then?" he asks. I nod with a small smile. We look at each other awkwardly for a few moments. 

"Would you like to join me?" I ask the words leaving my lips before they can reach my brain. He looks at me a bit startled. 

"Are you sure?" he asks. I take a shaky breath and nod. He starts taking off his boots, I turn around to give him privacy, trying my best to keep my body from getting too warm. I didn't want to burn him. But I was also terrified and nervous, emotions that tended to cause my body temperature to spike. In my mind, I knew Jon wasn't Ramsay. I knew that Ramsay was locked up and would never touch me again, but my body didn't know that.