Lost / Arya Stark

The Lady and the Baker.

Chapter (8)

- F L A S H B A C K -

"My mommy used to tell me stories about the pretty ladies and brave knights in the castle!" Louise giggled, looking up at the Red Keep, completely oblivious to the horrible ladies and cowardly knights within it's walls.

"The red keep is no castle like the ones in your mother's tales, Lou." Peter reminded his youngest daughter as he entered their small house. His once dark hair, was now greying and tousled. His clothes were old and tattered, yet too hot to be wearing in the warm weather. He smiled softly at his daughter, like he did everyday, but the smile didn't reach his eyes, it never did.

He shuffled over to the large wooden table, releasing the ingredients he held in his arms onto it.

"That's not true, I know it!" Louise whispered happily to me like it was our little secret.  She picked up her favourite doll, a girl with dark flowy hair in a brown dress that resembled herself perfectly, before skipping over to her father and helping him pack away the ingredients he had brought back from his trip to the markets. A routine the two had.

"We're the markets busy?" Adelaide questioned Peter trying to make conversation.

Peter sighed, his face seemed to look more tired and pale then Adelaide had ever seen it. She knew it was because of how much he worked, how much pressure he put himself under.
"Much the same, though people are tense. Most suspect a war is coming. No one wants to spend a minute longer away from their families, making the markets hectic." He kept his voice quiet, not wanting Lou to worry about things a girl her age should not have to worry about. Lou, however kept her attention on trying to make space for the bag of flour to fit in the cupboard.

"A war? Are you sure?" Adelaide tensed at the mention of war. If it were true, her family needed to be at HighGarden and not at Kings Landing.

Peter stopped what he was doing, his pale blue eyes met hers.
"Soon the long Summer will end and Winter shall arrive. There is no saying what it shall bring with it. And I'm not just talking about cold winds. People have been talking, about a girl who rides on the back of a dragon, with hair as white as the snows that litter the North. A girl whom carries the last name of one many dared not speak. She will come for that dammed throne, and who dare stand in the way of a dragon?"  It seemed as though Peter was speaking his thoughts to himself more than Adelaide. His face flushed with anger.

"I too have heard the stories. Stories of which said girl freed slaves from their masters. Punished the evil and gifted the good. If it's true... Perhaps she really isn't her father's daughter." Adelaide wasn't sure if she believed it herself, but Peter didn't need to know that.

Peter acknowledged my words with a sigh as he passed brown bread wrapped securely in cloth to Lou to put into the cupboard, it's smell wafted through the air of the small house.
When the two had finished and Lou had gone to her room, Peter silently dug through his pocket, pulling out a silver coin.

"Take it my dear. You have ensured Lou and I another week at most of food. Let me repay your kindness." Again he smiled, a tired one. I looked at the coin in his frail, shaking hand, then back at him.

"Every week you offer me the same coin, and every week I reply with the same answer. No." I smiled softly, moving to the window Lou looked out of, when her father had arrived. The window gave the perfect view of the red keep, due to it being so close.
That was why it was Lou's favorite spot in the whole house. She would look out at the tall building, imagining pretty ladies dancing in the most magnificent gowns, with their handsome prince whispering compliments in their ear. Lou had been so eager when she first met me, that she drew out a plan on how I could sneak her into the red keep unnoticed.
She still talks of these plans, her latest idea being I hide her under my dress skirts.