The King of Winters

Chapter 38

Andrew

A wind sighed into their room through the open window, rich with the smell of morning mist and rain, but all Andrew Stark could think of was the girl underneath him, her beautiful face, her soft moans, the heat of her, the mouth on his. They moved against each other in the first light of dawn. Joy kissed his ear and he nuzzled her neck burying his face in her thick golden hair. Her sweet fragrance filled his nose and he loved her smell be it on him or on her. Her scent made him move faster and deeper into her, his hand sliding over to her bosom to find a breast, rolling her nipple between his fingers. When she pulled him down for another kiss he spent his seed deep within her womb. 

When he rolled off her to lay on the bed she rested her head against his chest. They had made love twice in the night and now in the morning. He had been in her half a hundred times before but somehow found himself eager for more. He wondered what his father might think of what he had become? Dishonoring a girl and himself by getting in her bed. The northerners had claimed that King Eddard was the most honorable man and what would the honorable King Eddard think of his son. He would be happy that he found Joy and mother too, she would be happy as well. "I love you, no matter what I'll always love you," she had wrapped her hands around him on that day Andrew had left her in that river. Even his father and mother had shared a bed even before they had wed. He has heard that story many times before. Of how Lord Eddard had fallen for the Lady of the Stars. His parents' life had been a happy one and he could have it too. 

"How big is Winterfell?" Joy asked tracing some pattern over his chest.

"Winterfell is big, so big that the men on top of the walls look like small balls from the ground. The Wall is much bigger than Winterfell that it would be like comparing a dwarf with a giant."

She looked as if she thought he was making that up. "Have you seen it?" 

"No, I haven't," Andrew admitted. "But my father has seen it and my uncle lives there. I've heard their stories." 

"How could they build a thing as massive as that?" 

"In legend, Brandon the Builder used the help of giants and mammoths to raise the Wall," Andrew told her. He had heard this story many times before from both his father and Old Nan. "They cut huge chunks of ice from some frozen lake and brought them with the help of mammoths and giants. The children of the forest also helped Brandon to build the Wall." 

"The children of the forest?" Joy raised her head from his chest to look at him.

"Some kind of small magical people," Andrew told her. "They are all dead now." 

"Did they help him to build Winterfell too?" 

Legends said that Brandon the Builder had used giants to help raise Winterfell, but Andrew did not want to confuse her with more tales of giants and children of the forest. Only if I could show her Winterfell . . . give her a flower from the glass gardens, feast her in the Great Hall, and show her the stone kings on their thrones. We could bathe in the hot pools, and love beneath the heart tree while the old gods watched over us.

The dream was sweet . . . but Winterfell would never be his to show. It was lost to the Targaryens now, the seat of the King in the North. He had left it in their hands and ran away for his life. He had left his home for his life.

"If you want, maybe I could take you to Winterfell so you can see it for yourself," Andrew said stroking her hair. "We could go to Starfall as well. The Palestone Sword Tower is the biggest tower I've ever seen. And my mother said that in Oldtown, there's a tower even bigger than the Wall. We can go see it too. We will go to Casterly Rock as well, to see your home."