The Love We Never Had

Chapter Eight - Part Two

At the boisterous laughter to her right, Arya glanced over to see Robert Baratheon engaged in a drinking contest with Ser Richard Lonmouth, and it seemed as if Robert were winning. Arya found herself laughing along with the rest of the hall, until she glanced over at her sister, to see if she were enjoying her betrothed's antics, but found her locked in a gaze with Prince Rhaegar. Arya felt a frown fall on her face until Jaime noticed, and squeezed her hand to try to bring her attention away from whatever it was that was distressing her.

When Arya looked up at him, she was able to force a smile onto her face, but she had this horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach, as if something terrible was going to happen, she just didn't know what. Before she could dwell on her thoughts anymore, she heard a banging come from the head table. It was Lord Whent, he had slammed his goblet on the table, to try to gain his guests' attention. Once everyone was silent once more, he rose to his feet.

"My guests! Welcome! I am honored to have you all here in celebration of my daughter's fifteenth birthday! I especially welcome our honored guests this evening, our Majesty, King Aerys, and his son Rhaegar and his wife Elia. We are most honored you could join us! Anyways, enough talk! Let the music, and the festivities, begin!" Lord Whent raised his cup, as if in a toast, and some of the lower class guests responded with a 'hear hear!' while the rest simply nodded and took small sips of their drinks as the music began to start.

Arya watched as people began to pair up to dance, she specifically noted Ser Barristan Selmy, a Knight of the Kingsguard, walk over to Lady Ashara Dayne, and ask for a dance before she pulled him to the dance floor. When she glanced over at her sister to see if she was going to go dance with Robert, she saw that she was still staring at the Prince seated above them. Arya let a scowl fall onto her face, and she turned to her younger brother Benjen.

"Ben, go ask Lyanna to dance with you, she looks a tad lonely and it doesn't seem like Robert is in any state to ask her himself." Benjen looked at her with mild annoyance before nodding and walking around the table to ask his sister to dance. Glancing at her other brothers she saw that Brandon had wandered off, and with a quick search of the room she saw him talking to the young Prince Oberyn Martell, the younger brother of Princess Elia. And when she looked back a her table she saw that Jon Arryn had wandered over and taken his seat so that he could talk to Ned.

When she glanced up at Jaime she saw that he was already looking at her.

"What?"

"Would my lovely wife care to dance?" Arya felt a bush rise to her cheeks but was nodding anyway, and with that, Jaime hoisted her up, and dragged her to the open space where everyone else had congregated and began to twirl her around the room. Hours passed by with the couple taking breaks so that Arya would not get to tired, but still joining in on a dance every few minutes. Couples around the room had begun swapping partners, and Arya had noticed that Ashara Dayne had danced with Prince Oberyn, and Lord Jon Connington, before Brandon had gone to ask for her to dance with Ned, saying he was to shy to ask himself, and they had been dancing for the last few hours before slipping off together.

It was when it had begun to grow late that Arya heard a soft voice ask a question she did not expect.

"Your highness, I have heard that you are magnificent musician, would you play us a song?" It was that little girl, Sarya, the birthday girl who had asked the question. But what surprised Arya, and everyone else listening, the most, was that Rhaegar said yes. Arya watched as he climbed down from the high table, and made his way over to the musicians in the corner. They stopped playing immediately when he approached, and he spent several moments talking to them, before he sat down on a large crate that was near them, and turned to face his now eager audience. Even Robert and his drinking companions had ceased their obnoxious laughter to hear the dragon prince sing. The song he chose was sad, and haunting, and when Arya glanced over at her sister, who had resumed her seat across from her, she saw that she was crying.

When the song ended, the Prince rose and bowed as his audience clapped for him, before he apparently decided he had enough of the feast, and walked over to Elia to collect her before he led her, and the rest of her ladies, minus Ashara who was still presumably with Ned, out of the hall. Once they had left, the ruckus started up again.

"Ahhh is little Lyanna crying over a pretty song? I thought you always claimed to be to strong for silly things like stories of love and sad songs of heartbreak?" Benjen teased his sister as soon as he deemed it appropriate to speak. Lyanna's eyes quickly dried up as she snapped her fierce grey eyes towards her brother, and before anyone knew what she was doing, Lyanna had tipped her goblet of wine over Benjen's head.

"Lyanna! That is enough! Control yourself!" Arya was snapping at her sister before Lyanna had even set her glass down. Lyanna turned her glare on her sister.

"I do not know what has come over you tonight, and I do not know why you have been staring at the Prince every chance you get, but I think you have had enough excitement for tonight. Brandon!" She called to her older brother, who had been hovering nearby, waiting to see if she needed assistance.

"Please take Lyanna and Benjen to their rooms, they need rest before the joust tomorrow." Arya's tone left no room for argument, and there would be none, as the only married Stark child she was the one who held all of the power when dealing with her siblings, and in this case, she was in fact correct. So Brandon did as she asked, and began ushering his two siblings out of the hall before they caused an even greater scene.

"Let's go to bed too please? I am feeling rather tired." Arya said, much quieter and gentler than she had been talking to her siblings. When she looked up at Jaime he was already nodding, and she allowed him to pull them out of the hall, and into their bed, where she tried to let all of the anxiety surrounding her sister and the Prince go as she fell off into sleep.