Post series. A/U Westeros has a thriving magazine publishing business.
Disclaimer; Song and Ice and Fire is GRR Martin's. Fair use.
Jonquil Clegane was searching for her latest issue of Westeros Romances. The door keeper said it had come. She looked every where, even checking the trash and her sisters and mother's hiding places.
She did not want to leave it lying around, her father called it junk and through it in the trash when he saw it.. Luckily he would not throw it in a fire. Her mother insisted it was harmless fun, if you realized it was all make believe. When father was out of the keep, mother would steal her copy and return it before he came back. Jonquil would usually share it with her sisters and sometimes they would discuss the tamer items at diner. Mother never said anything her brother and father made a point of looking bored and disinterested.
Jonquil knew the story of House Clegane, her never named uncle, and a guess how her fathers face was burned. How Sandor Clegane, the Hound, the fiercest warrior in the seven kingdoms, was redeemed and found some peace at Quite Island. Then he married Alyne Stone, a common girl from the Eyre. Jonquil could tell it must have been a love match, and still was. Her mother never talked about her past. Jonquil imagined her mother being swept off her feet in a beauty and the beast romance, marrying for love and finding she had a husband well above her original station.
Four months later she found the issue hidden in her mother's things. It was a double sized issue about The Sansa Stark Mystery. Lady Sansa Stark had dropped out of the sight at the Red Keep, the night King Joffery was murdered at his own wedding, never to be seen again. Several gossipy articles speculated on what happened. - Did the Lanister's or Tyrell's secretly kill her? Was she a courtesan in Bravos? Did she die escaping? Did she own a beauty shop and school in Kings Landing? A wildling Queen? Held captive in some dungeon? A High Lady in Essos? Hiding with small folk in Dorne? Most of the issue was hot romance stories featuring Lady Sansa in different pairings.. Lord Brandon Stark of Winterfell refused to be interviewed, saying the whole thing was an insult to his sister. Every year someone floated a new theory.
Jonquil was reading it when her parents walked in. Lord Clegane yelled "Seven Hells girl that rag is the stupidest thing published!"
"Jonquil," her mother added, "that issue is as stupid as your father says, it should go in the fire!"
Her fathers daughter, she took the offensive. "Mother, why did you hide it, I subscribed with my own spending money!?"
Fire is not a good word to use around her father. "You paid for the buggering thing? Go read it, then throw it in the trash!
She took it to her room and read it twice over. She shared it with her sisters they even discussed the possibilities at dinner the last two nights. The next morning she was rereading as her maid combed her hair. The maid gasped "M'Lady, the girl in that picture looks just like your mother when she first came here. Thank the gods, she made this keep a good place to live."
That night at dinner her sisters again started up discussing the Mystery. After a while Jonquil declared "I have solved the Sansa Stark Mystery!" Her siblings waited for a to make a fool of herself, mother looked nervous and her father said "How so child?"
"Lady Sansa escaped Kings Landing and hid out in the Eyre as a low born girl named Alyne Stone. When she and her friend from Kings Landing found each other they were married, and lived happily ever after at Clegane Keep with their five wonderful children."
Lord Clegane growled. "Weren't no bloody fairy tale!"
Lady Sansa said, "Dear, I think you missed a few things. Yes, I was born Sansa of House Stark, I have no desire to be a high lady. After my parents were murdered, I was held captive, beaten and worse, almost killed. I want none of it! Sansa or Alyne I am Lady Clegane, I have the most gallant and loving husband, a truer knight than any knight, and yes we have five wonderful children. Can we leave it at that?"
