FALLEN CROWN | ROBB STARK

Chapter II

The rooms Vitoria and Robb shared in Winterfell were of the warmest rooms the keep had to offer inside the family quarters. They were not the warmest rooms overall, those were reserved for Lady Catelyn (rooms even Vitoria acknowledged were warm, being directly on top of hot springs), yet they were warmer than other rooms and Vitoria was glad that Lord Stark had seen fit to organize for those to be their rooms when they married. The rooms were warm, but not enough to remind Vitoria of Sunspear. Yet, they served their purpose in protecting her from the unforgiving cold.

The cold of the North had often been the cause of illness for her, due to her body struggling to cope with the drastic change in temperature. The maester even believed that was the reason she struggled so much with her second pregnancy before losing the babe. It was the same for her loyal ladies from the Sandship and the Martell guards who had all come north with her. But though she had offered to help them return to the familiar and comforting warmth of their homeland, all of them were far too devoted to her family to leave her alone in what they had all considered to be enemy territory, those who had left had done so because they had been recalled home by Doran or their families - with Doran's permission, of course. And they had left making their displeasure known, willing to stay with her in the cold even though it was damaging their health. Lexa was the only one of her ladies that remained, even if she now had Luna and Rena who slowly she came to trust, despite Lady Stark's despise of the three of them since they were all bastards, never mind the fact that Luna was her niece and that Lexa had been legitimized.

After they finished, Robb rolled off of her and left the bed, typical of him. He found their chambers too warm, and since she usually preferred to hold him close after they lay together, he got up to open the windows before laying back down with her. She propped herself up on her elbows, watching silently as he wandered over to the closed window and opened it, allowing the cool air of the night entrance and she shivered despite herself at the cold wind that filled the room. Despite the strides she had made in embracing her husband's homeland, she did not think she would ever be fully comfortable in the cold. She was a sun of the desert by birth, even if by marriage she was a direwolf fit for the North.

He stayed facing away from her, silent and obviously troubled. Whatever was bothering him, it had upset him enough that he was past the point of pacing, which was never good. Since they had married, she had taken it upon herself to teach him of the southern politics, so he would be ready if the day ever came when they had to go to King's Landing or if they ever went the court her father held at Sunspear. She had also learned his mannerisms, never managing to erase his tells from when he lied, but she was content in knowing it was only she who knew that his left hand twitched when he did so. But, in her experience nothing good came out of him looking into the horizon with almost glazed eyes as he was doing now.

Vitoria frowned when she saw him pass a hand through his hair, a sign of his distress. She sighed and rose from the bed as well, ignoring the ache left in her thighs after the way he had frantically and repeatedly taken her. Her wrists ached from his tight grip, and her scalp tingled from when he'd tugged at her hair. Another sign of his distress. Once, she would have resented him for it. But now, she simply welcomed it as a sign of his trust, knowing she did the same if she needed it and that he did not begrudge for it. He was only so harsh when he was using her body to distract himself from whatever was haunting him. But considering the circumstances of their current situation, she could not fault him for acting so.