Chapter 22

The welcoming feast for the royals was to be a grand affair. Cersei had her family on a tight leash. She had her eldest boys meet in Jon's quarters. They had just arrived from the local brothel. She knew it had probably been Robb's idea. She did not need to know any details about their outings. Tommen, her four and ten year old son had lost his virginity today. They must have taken the prince to sample the local wenches. Jon should have known better. Eddard scowled when the boys came back to the fort. King Robert laughed and clapped her children and the prince in the back. She glared at Ned the first time her sons visited that place but he merely shrugged and kept quiet.

Arya and Joanna were getting ready for the feast in Joanna's quarters. She would inspect her children once she was done with her preparation. Cersei was to wear her hair in an elaborate braid; the handmaiden wove pieces of emeralds in her hair. It was beautiful. She smiled at the mirror and put on her green gown. She decided to not wear any Lannister or Stark colors tonight.

"You look as beautiful as when you first came North." Ned said from the door. He trimmed his beard and looked handsome.

"You jest my lord. I am old, I have lines around my eyes, I have marks from all your horrible big children and my teats are sagging."

He smirked and kissed her lips. "I like them just fine." He touched her breasts lightly.

"You would." She chuckled and batted his hands away from her body. "I have to make sure our daughters have not killed each other.

She stepped away from the room and went to Joanna's quarters. The girls were the perfect pictures of little ladies. Joanna wore a beautiful crimson gown that showcased her femininity and outlined her figure as a woman grown. She wore her hair in a braided crown, both girls did. Arya looked beautiful with her grey gown, it accented the creamy of her skin. She was at ease in the simple yet pretty dress. Her youngest daughter almost looked ladylike. Her Stark grey eyes shone when Joanna helped her with a tear shaped pendant. Arya was a warrior but she was a girl too. All girls wanted to be pretty and her daughter as hard headed, independent and fierce was a woman and she wanted to look her best. These rare and precious moments encouraged Cersei; her girls loved one another.

Lady Stark strode in and smiled, "You both look beautiful my girls."

"Mother, come help me put flowers in Arya's hair."

Arya shook her head. "No flowers, I already have my hair in this ridiculous style. Must I suffer through flowers too?"

Joanna rolled her yes. "You have to. Mother make her do it, what will the queen think of us when she sees us?"

Cersei grabbed a bunch of white and red wildflowers. "Your father once said I looked lovely with flowers in my hair. He won a Tourney for me and declared me his queen of love of beauty." Her girls looked attentively at her. "It was the queen's nameday too. Your father undid the biggest crown of flowers and gave me the red and white ones." She cut the flowers from their stems. She put red flowers on Joanna's hair first. Arya very reluctantly helped her and let her mother and sister put white flowers in her hair.

"I don't understand why I have to wear this stupid dress. Joanna is the one who wants to be queen and reign the Seven kingdoms." Cersei ignored her youngest.

Joanna glared at her sister but looked hopefully at her mother. "Has father said anything mother? Will I be queen?" She gasped. Cersei smiled, one of her secretive smiles. She kissed her forehead. Lady Stark had an inkling her daughter would seal a marriage contract tonight. Joanna would enthrall the young prince; she was even more beautiful than her when she was four and ten.

"It is time. Arya please leave your hair in peace. You look beautiful my loves both of you. Your brothers will be waiting for you." She left them and went to get her sons.

Bran was trying to get away from Jon who chased him. Robb and Tommen were speaking about horses. "Robb, you will escort Arya and Jon you will escort Joanna. Tommen and Bran you will behave properly." They all nodded.

"Did you have words with Arya?" Robb queried as they left the rooms.

"As it matters I had. Keep an eye on her." She advised Robb.

Ned waited by the stairs for her. They entered the great hall and welcomed their guests. Once king Robert arrived the feast was a proper celebration. Cersei noted the queen looked perfectly coiffed but looked bothered by the prince's presence. The young man was with his youngest sister Cassana. She was Joanna's age and every bit beautiful. He twirled her and laughed merrily. He looked kind and comfortable with his sisters. Alayne blushed and danced with Jon probably smitten already. Robb was with Arya laughing at something. Joanna and Sansa Arryn were placidly speaking.

She sat with the queen and learned that princess Lyanna was engaged to Wyllas Tyrell. "She is to be married as soon as we return to King's Landing."

Cersei smiled, "I am sure she will love Highgarden." She remembered her teenage years. She had been Sansa Arryn's age when her father married her off to Ned. Political alliances he called it. The Baratheons secured the Reach, they would have loved to have such a claim in the Westerlands but unfortunately for them the apparent heir was a dwarf. Lady Stark smirked, the advisors to the crown surely believed that Tywin would leave everything to uncle Kevan. Almost no one counted Tyrion as heir apparent. Her brother was in his cups with the Greatjon. They made such comical contrast. She glanced at the lower tables and found king Robert drinking ale from some wench's bosom. The queen looked displeased with reason if Eddard even dared to display such behavior she would rip his eyes and tongue from his face.

She searched for him in the crowds and was taken aback to see him with Jaime. They were speaking with the same tension they reserved for each other. She saw as Benjen joined them. Lord Tywin approached Tyrion's table and was possibly arguing with his youngest son because in less than five minutes. The two men disappeared from the great hall. "Your Joanna is quite beautiful." The queen's eyes went to the young girl who danced with the prince. Sansa Arryn did not look pleased.

Joanna was the picture of beauty. Prince Gendry was courteous and a good dancer it seemed. "Your niece does not look pleased your grace."

Catelyn smiled sadly. "She is half in love with the bastard. He of course does not pay her any mind. Lysa was a fool to not take her to the Eyre but truth be told my sister is not fond of her daughter. Sansa takes after me, in looks. She is beautiful and a sweet creature if not naïve. A silly girl dare I say, as we both were when we were so young." Cersei smiled. Joanna would be queen.

The feast was a success. Cersei was happy to boast that her children were perfect that night. Bran did not climb any surface and retired early, as befit of a child his age. Tommen entertained princess Cassana. She could see him blushing from time to time. Robb and Jon were perfect gentlemen and danced with Arya and Joanna. She laughed when Robb and Arya spun in the middle of Winterfell hall. Joanna clapped and smiled prettily at her siblings. Jon and his uncle Benjen laughed uproariously. Robb spun Arya who giggled and danced vigorously. Cersei had never seen her daughter so sure in a dress. She looked wild, untamed, with her hair and the flowers spilling from the pretty hairstyle. Cersei was not the only one watching, Gendry Baratheon watched too. Lady Stark failed to see the heir to the crown looking at her daughter with a strange expression in his face.

Cersei smiled when Ned and the King approached the table. King Robert was in his cups but her husband was sober and somber. "Dear Cersei, make your mule of a husband understand it is an honor to be the Hand of the King." The man sat a little too close to her and rested his hand on her leg.

Ned frowned at his eldest friend. "Remove your hands from my wife." He said with a deadpan voice. Robert Baratheon looked puzzled and the queen looked embarrassed. Ned glared at the king who glared back and then burst out in joyous laughter. "The Quiet Wolf does not share." The king smiled. "Lighten up Ned." The fat king roared and went back to the common hall to his kitchen wench.

Cersei looked at her husband he was not pleased. She smiled and decided to once again establish conversation with the queen who decided to retire. "My queen, a word please."

The queen slowed her walk. Cersei walked with her. "How are you Catelyn?"

The redheaded woman did not smile. She was cold and closed off. "I am fine Lady Stark."

Cersei stiffened. The queen was not the young woman and mother she had once known. She recovered quickly, "I hope you were entertained tonight my queen."

"It was a most delightful feast." She said with a fake smile. "I am awfully tired." The woman then went to her quarters with her maidens in tow.

She frowned. The Tully woman had always been friendly to her. She went out of her way to include her whenever they met. The queen had wanted one of her princesses to be Lady of Winterfell. The sensation that her life would change drastically increased by the second, she walked back to the Hall and watched as her husband laughed with the King. She looked over her children and found Jon laughing with Tyrion. Robb danced with Arya who laughed and twirled. Joanna danced with the Crown Prince. Cersei smiled when Jon held her hand and invited her to dance.

Lady Stark danced with her son. "Nuncle Tyrion says you and father will go South." Her son said with a hallow voice.

"It is likely son." She replied, keeping her smile for all the guests to see.

"You will have to marry and hold Winterfell as yours now. Your father will be the Hand of the King." He nodded and twirled her.

Cersei retired only after the king kissed a wench and slipped one of his hands beneath her skirts. She took Joanna and Arya with her. "Time for us to go to bed." She said as she dragged a laughing Arya while Joanna curtsied and left with them.

"The Prince is so dreamy." Joanna whispered softly. Arya did not say anything and her laughter faded. Cersei smiled at her eldest daughter. "Your father will be the Hand of the King. We will go to King's Landing."

Arya frowned but Joanna took the news with delight. "How wonderful." She babbled about the court and the pleasantries of the south.

"I don't want to go South." Cersei expected such talk from Arya. She was seriously thinking of leaving her in Jon's care. As lady of Winterfell she should stay with Jon but it would not do for her to leave Ned to his own devices. He did not know how to play the game. Cersei did not trust any of her kin to protect her husband. She had Jaime's word of protection but she had to make sure Eddard thrived in King's Landing.

The girls settled in their quarters and she visited Bran's rooms. He was fast asleep and safe. She worried about him. He was always climbing and she was scared to see him fall.

She retired to her quarters and waited for Ned. The first words out of his mouth did not startle her. "Robert wants his son to marry our Joanna." Cersei nodded, she thought the notion would fill her with happiness but it only cemented the feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach. "I have accepted Robert's offers."

"I thought you were reticent on that matter." She said as she divested him of his tunic. "Starks do not do well in the south." He kissed her cheek, bringing her close to his chest. She helped him out of trousers. Cersei was not surprised in the least. Ned would accept, as he had always done when it came to Robert asking for help. Eddard Stark raised his banners and men as soon as Lyanna Stark had been "captured". He won him the throne. Eddard fought in the Greyjoy Rebellion too, even when he had a wife and a son to take care of. Her husband accepted the position. Cersei had half a mind to convince him otherwise, to threaten him, and promise him anything if he remained in Winterfell. This was the king asking but more important than that it was Ned's best friend. Ned could refuse.

"Jon Arryn was poisoned." Cersei did not expect those words out of her husband's mouth.

"Tyrion might have mentioned it earlier. Your lord father advised me against taking the position." He said as he tried to undo her sleeping gown.

"Eddard do not go." She gasped. He could still refuse. The more Cersei thought about it the more sense it made for her husband to not accept the position as Hand of the King.

"I have to." He somberly said and looked at her with big grey sad eyes.

"You do not have to. You have to take care of your family. You will not be able to do so if you go to King's Landing." She replied stubbornly.

"Robert needs me now. I should have helped him earlier, instead I came back North."

Cersei caressed his cheek, "you should not feel guilty my love. You won him the throne. You did your duty; it was time to go back North."

Ned kissed her hands. "He asked me to be his Hand seven and ten years ago. I should have accepted. I should have helped him. You saw what he's become."

Her husband could not bring himself to say the words. King Robert Baratheon was a drunkard, irresponsible, lascivious king; the wrong man to rule the Seven Kingdoms.

He kissed her gently. "I accepted my sweet. There is no turning back now my lioness." She kissed him softly too. She kissed his chest, caressed him. Trying to memorize the lines and scars of his body.

Ned rubbed her thighs, his hands softly made their way to her belly and he sat up with her in his lap. He snaked his fingers in her hair. Her husband smiled when he saw the emerald pieces. "You looked beautiful tonight. I could not keep my eyes away from you." He massaged her scalp and recovered the emeralds. "You are exquisite." Cersei moaned when he combed his fingers through her long curling hair.

"My love." She said when he hugged her and smelled her hair. "You smell delicious. What have you done to me lioness?"

"I love you Ned." She sighed, grasping his member gently, guiding him to her entrance with the practice and ease of years sharing these intimate moments.

Lord Stark gently pushed her to the bed and pulled her legs apart. He touched her; it was amazing; after years of couplings Cersei still so receptive to his fingers, his tongue, his words. She bit his bottom gently, just like he liked it. She pulled on his hair. Ned thrust inside of her and kept a slow rhythm they had discovered they liked. Cersei loved watching her husband become undone inside of her. His eyes became an impossible shade of dark grey; his voice was raspy. Ned chanted her name as he dissolved inside of her. She felt powerful whenever she brought him to world stopping orgasms. Ned stayed inside of her and played with her little button. She felt her thighs quiver as he used his fingers and tried to harden again inside of her.

"Fuck Cersei." He said as he slipped outside of her and teased her entrance with his now hard cock. She whined when he entered her slowly decadently again. She exploded with him inside of her. Ned smiled, he pushed into her slowly, maddeningly slow. "You feel incredible lioness." She bit his jaw teasingly. Her husband pushed and pulled with an increasing gentle force that left her breathless.

Cersei Stark had experienced the many different aspects of this man. At first he had been Lord Stark, the stranger who did his duty and claimed her once or twice per week until she claimed Jon as hers. He had been Eddard, her husband who gave her a son and respected her. He had been Ned, husband, friend and lover who claimed her every night since she gave birth to Robb. A man who studied her body and became proficient in the arts of pleasuring her. Ned had his moods, when she first came to his bed he had been methodical, intent to at least afford her some pleasure in the arranged marriage bed. When the children came, he became more attentive, possessive, giving and when she finally told him she loved him he left no boundaries. She remembered the first time in the spring pools. Ned had not had any boundaries with her anymore. There was no more hesitancy only a burning desire to learn more about each other. This man above her had made love to her in so many different and delicious ways she had a hard time remembering all the nights she had woken up aroused with the mere thought of his hands in her body.

She closed her eyes and kissed him because she would shout and beg him to make love to her again and again. "Ned." She felt her whole body give away to the delicious tingling and heat that her husband provoked in her.