Here is chapter two. Exciting!
He was gone by the time I woke up, and that was the last I was to see of him for some time.
I sat up and the feel of the covers on my skin reminded me that I was naked. How odd! Sleeping naked at home would have meant waking up with the blood frozen in your veins but this was the south and, as I had to constantly remind myself, everything was different. Anyways, perhaps there had been a man's body next to me all night keeping me warm.
I tried to imagine him leaving, hopping about collecting his clothes before creeping back to - to, well, wherever he slept. Where would his bedroom be? I put him in a little dormitory with the rest of the kingsguard, all of them sleeping under their white cloaks.
That was ridiculous of course - there were two outside the king's door at all times and you'd never put grown men all sleeping in a row like that, but... well it was funny, and it distracted me from other things.
The worst bit had been the beginning - he had to get me "wet" he said. That was the only bit where I felt exposed and embarassed and nervous. After that, it seemed to have very little to do with me. He had climbed on with his eyes closed and kept his head as far away from mine as possible and all I had to do was lie there. It was as if we were in different rooms. It wasn't exactly unpleasant but I didn't see what all the fuss was about, why men chased after it so much. Still, it was over now. If I'd done it once I could do it again, and wasn't it something to be able to say you'd done it? Wasn't I part of some sort of grown-up club now? A married woman who had properly, officially, lain with a man.
A maid came in, she was the one who'd helped me get dressed the day before too, and she did the curtains and asked if I would like a bath.
"Are you to be my maid every day?" I asked. She nodded ."Are you a proper lady's maid?"
She shook her head no. "I served Lady Sara of House Corbray until now," she said.
I was aware that it was a slight, I should have had at least three maids and a lady-in-waiting if my husband was heir to Casterly Rock, but there was no point in kicking up a fuss about it.
"I suppose this has been a promotion of sorts for both of us then," I said. "Is there anything to eat?"
"There was a tray m'lady, but it's gone cold," she said. "Also I am to deliver a message from the queen. She has asked you to dine with her and the children today."
I had slept quite late, I could see that now the curtains were opened, and they ate earlier than we did in the south and so, oh, I had precisely no time to eat before going to see her. And what did one wear to meet the queen? Was it polite to wear one of the dresses she and Robert had given me, or did it make me look as if I had nothing nicer to wear? I was in a towel and the maid, her name was Christa, asked me what I wanted taking out of the trunks and I had no idea. I wanted somebody else to decide, my head almost instinctively turned to the right, the words were there in my mouth - what do you think, mother? But of course she was a hundred million miles away at Winterfell and the pang I had of missing her was only the cover of a very deep well. I couldn't give in to it now or I'd never make it to meet Cersei. "Something out of the trunk from the king," I said. "I like green, if we have any."
