The Emancipation of Rhaegar

Chapter 2

Two

Lady Lyarra Stark now was not seen as a fierce woman who protected her family, rather the timid and forgiving wife of Rickard. She didn't like the brand that the new babe gave her, a mother who allowed her husband's bastard to be raised by her own, but when she saw those eyes look into her own...Lyarra couldn't possibly allow her to fend for herself outside of the castle.

Besides, she'd think to herself, in a moons time there will be another thing for them to gossip about.

How she was wrong, on one of the many feasts her husband held for the Lord's under him, Lyarra was questioned by the ladies of the North on why exactly she had chosen to keep the foreign babe. She couldn't win them over with introducing Arianne to them so instead, she told them to worry less about others and more about themselves. Reminding Lady Bolton, one of the many who questioned her, that her own husband was known for doing perverse acts with the whores of their town, but people didn't bother her about it.

Lilia, who would be invited to the feasts as Lyarra's lady in waiting would stifle a laugh and continue eating the bland rabbit, finding anything else much too heavy for her Dornish taste.

"You mustn't treat them that way," Rickard told her one night. They had been in bed for some time and neither could fall asleep.

Lyarra laughed at him. "Rickard...she is our daughter now and we can't just throw her out. Especially not now that we've told Lyanna she has a sister," she reminded him. "Besides, I am their Lady Paramount, they can't tell me anything."

Rickard let out a chuckle. "I am the Lord Paramount, you are my wife."

Lyarra rolled her eyes and turned away from him. "If it helps you sleep. You can be whatever you want darling."

...

The years couldn't have gone by faster, Brandon had passed his sixth name day, Lyanna her fourth, Arianne and Eddard their second and Lyarra was soon to be expecting. When she would sit by the fire in the tea room, Lyanna would poke her stomach for as long as her mother allowed her and pull away in disgust when the growing babe kicked back. As if to say, leave me alone.

"Lyanna, go play with your sister," Lyarra told her, fed up with her daughter's poking.

Lyanna turned to her younger sister, who had just begun to walk and then turned back to her mother. "She's boring! I want to play outside with Brandon!"

"In the mud? You don't want that. Why don't you help your brother and sister learn how to walk properly?" Lyarra asked her, putting down her needlework and watching as Ned tried his hardest to walk without the aid of his milkmaid.

Ever so stubborn Lyanna huffed, rolled her eyes and sat down on the rug beneath her feet. "No."

Lyarra tutted and continued her needlework. She felt a sharp pain in her stomach and indicated for the maid to fetch the Maester. It was much too early for both her and Maester Walys' liking for her to feel so pained, so she was bedridden for the rest of her pregnancy.

When Rickard would ask the Maester exactly what was wrong with his wife, he would simply respond by saying, "just a trickster of a babe is all, he likes to move around and it causes her pain."

Rickard would then look back at his sleeping wife and sigh, perhaps four children were enough. He was the one who pushed for another child, hoping for another boy for Eddard to play with. Brandon wasn't exactly the known type to share nor care about playing games, even at his young age.

Just a sennight afterward, Lyarra would give birth to their last son and child, Benjen Stark. She had one chance to wish her husband farewell, thanking him for a sweet life and reminding him to take care of their children.