I swear by all the Gods I know, I own nothing. Ah, I wish I could take credit for the complex and intricate story George RR Martin has created, BUT I CAN'T!
Chapter 1::: Winterfell
7 years after Eddard Stark's execution
The Great Hall at Winterfell seemed to grow colder when the doors opened. Robb could see Adriena stiffen from the corner of his eye. His wife was not pleased that they had to see Walder Frey once again and neither was he, but there was no choice in the matter. Walder Frey had a right to a trial.
The man in question hobbled in, cane in hand and a disdainful scowl on his weathered face. What few knights that were still loyal to him were gathered around him in a protective barrier, swords at the ready. When he stood before the dais where the King and Queen sat on their stone thrones, he called out, "I fail to see why I'm the one on trial."
"Lord Frey, you are accused of carrying out an attack on the people of Hoff and attempting to murder your Queen's family." Robb bit out tensely. The cruel and sudden attack on Adriena's home wounded Robb some, but wounded Adriena more. Much more. One of her sister's boys had been slain; another sister's husband had been gravely wounded and was close to death and countless others had been murdered, robbed and raped with their homes burned and their forest half destroyed.
As he spoke out the indictment, over a hundred Hoff villagers marched their way to Winterfell, to receive refuge. Others went to the closer villages just outside their forest, but as Adriena's noble family marched to Winterfell, many of their friends marched with them. Some stayed behind, to rebuild, but where their homes once stood was too burned to restore their village to its former glory, not for at least a few more years.
Lord Frey's expression formed into an even more hateful one before he sneered out, "I see no queen here! Only a savage whore!"
"Silence!" Robb shouted, lurching to his feet. In the war with the Lannister's Lord Frey had insulted Robb Stark's bride's honour many times but never in Robb's presence. Robb had an army; Walder Frey had a few hundred knights, most of them in Robb's army. Robb had gone to the Twins too quick for Lord Frey to change that. In the face of death and dishonour, he was forced to bend his knee to the man who'd broken the oath he swore, leaving a wound that festered with each passing year. Each year he watched Robb Stark's peasant wife big with child, each time he was called to feast with them for some bloody thing, each time there were words carried by the wind, each time his own sons and grandsons scolded him for mocking their king and his wife, it cut the knife deeper into his pride, no matter how much prosperity the Young Wolf had rained down on him and his.
As Robb's loud and angry shout bounced off the cold stone walls, Walder Frey's men jumped and drew in closer to the old man and darted their eyes around nervously. Many of their eyes settled first on Hallis Mollen, captain of Robb's personal guard, and then they settled on Ser Symon Oakwood, the Queen's fierce sworn shield. He was a big man, thick as a tree, with straw coloured hair and a greying beard. His eye was black and watched strangers closely.
When Adriena and Robb first married, many Houses, great and small, took offence, calling her "Queen Savage", "Peasant Queen", "Wildling whore" and many other cruel names in between. After a hired knife snuck into the camp and tried to open Adriena from gullet to groin, Robb thought it wiser for his wife to have protection when he was off to battle. Symon Oakwood, a friend of Adriena's brother, swore on his life that no harm would come to the Northern Queen so long as he lived and breathed. He failed once and now he sported an empty eye socket to show for it.
"Lord Frey," Robb called hotly. "Do you deny these allegations or no?" Adriena stood up to hear his answer.
"I don't dent it! My retaliation was just!" Lord Frey cried.
"You confess to these treasonous crimes?" Robb cocked an eye brow, genuinely surprised. The Frey's were not renowned for their gall and bravery. Maybe, Robb thought, he drunk a few flagons of wine in his wheelhouse.
"You are no king of mine." Lord Frey spat out. "So I've committed no treason. A man who breaks a solemn oath to bed a savage whore is no king of mine!" Soft grunts of agreement came softly from Lord Frey's knights, though they were wise not to speak aloud. But regarding them, knights marching against Robb and protecting a man that insulted their sovereigns so profusely in their own castle, was like naming a green boy a knight.
The rest of the attendance in the hall, a dozen sworn knights along the walls, a visiting lord from the Barrowlands, his son and the captain of their guard, Bran Stark and finally Maester Kellor, were all shocked into silence before outraged chatter broke among them. No one with the wit of a dog would bite the hand that fed them so kindly and then piss on their honourable keep.
At Robb's side, Grey Wind growled low in his throat at the men.
Robb's jaw clenched but he was too disciplined to insult Frey back like a child. But Adriena was at her wits end.
"You swore your loyalty to him, he remained true to your term of wedding Arya to one of your sons and your grand daughter was married to the heir to Riverrun. You dare insult us after so much blood binds us?" Adriena snapped in her coldest most hateful voice. Her mind was engulfed then, with images of her sister Kimya wailing over the loss of her baby son, then of her younger sister Mary at her husband's side, her belly still small from the child he'd planted within her and then lastly of her village, the wounded and dying laying burned or sliced on the ashes of the forest floor. Adriena's heart ached but also filled with rage and hatred at the one who caused her people so much pain. She would kill him herself if she could.
"That woman is only a granddaughter! I have plenty! And I answer to no wildling Queen nor a craven King." Walder Frey spat. Robb and Adriena seethed silently a moment, before Robb past his judgement.
"Walder Frey, Lord of the Twins, in the sight of gods and men, I find you guilty of numerous murders and high treason. In my name, I sentence you to die—" an angry growling broke out from the knights around Walder Frey. "—and all those who assisted you in this grievous and vile crime are stripped of their land and titles, and are to serve out the remainder of their days on the Wall, to take the black and renounce claims to the Kingdom of the North." by the end, a chorus of outraged voices came from the men around Lord Frey. Really, Adriena thought, what did they expect?
"Oath breaker dog!" and "Deceitful wolf!" and other jabs were called out as the knights and Walder Frey were forcibly dragged from the room and down to the dungeons. They had been stripped of their swords when they tried to put up a fuss, when they saw the unfair difference in their numbers, they grudgingly relinquished their weapons.
When they were gone, Robb whispered to Maester Kellor, "I want ravens sent to the Twins. I want to know why no one warned us."
"It will be done." the Maester replied, bowing as deep as his age would permit before leaving the Hall.
As he left, Bran was half dragged by Hodor, Hallis Mollen took Robb's leave and the Lord Qothaine and his son awkwardly bowed their leave and rushed from the room with their guard. This left only the king and queen with a few of their knights.
"I suppose Annie's betrothal to one of Lord Walder's grandsons is called off." Adriena said quietly as she looked to the back of her husband's head. Robb offered a curt nod before walking off, most likely to visit the godswood. She hoped that Anika's fall-through betrothal gave him some comfort. Gods know he was not too happy to consider marrying Anika off to the descendent of a man as fickle as Walder Frey.
Gathering her skirts, Adriena left the Great Hall without a word.
Sitting in the godswood, under the eyes of the heart tree, Robb Stark allowed the silence to calm his thoughts. The sun shone through the blood red leaves and onto the pond and a soft breeze carried fallen leaves over the forest floor. It was silent here.
Tomorrow Walder Frey would die...for attacking his wife's people. It had been years since he'd broken that bloody betrothal, years since House Frey swore fealty to him. Robb wanted to know why, but the stress the weight of his crown put him under made him too tired to really think.
When Adriena reminded him that Annie's betrothal now did not need to come about, he felt a bit better, but then he remembered the other Houses that would be both calling in outrage at Walder Frey's execution and clamouring for his daughter's hand. Annie was three and already had men falling over their feet for her. The thought filled him with a bitter feeling that would not go away completely.
Many times Maester Luwin and now Maester Kellor had told him in whispers that there were some houses, a handful maybe, the oldest ones that were held with high regard, took his marriage to Adriena as an insult. She had not been known as any Lord's daughter or even a wealthy merchant's daughter. Instead, she was a village's chief's daughter, high ranking but not high enough for the Houses of the realm.
In the final months of the war, Adriena proved her worth to the Lords of the North. Now, nearing the fifth year of relative peace in the realm of Westeros, only a handful of Houses still looked to Adriena as an outsider, as a bug that attracted more bugs.
However, accepting or no, every House loyal to the Starks had taken Adriena for their Queen. They bent their knee to her same as him, they toasted her name when she gave Robb his son; they called her "Queen". But deep down, Robb feared that this was not enough, that there were more lords like Walder Frey, ones that waited until the right moment to strike.
Up in her chambers, Queen Adriena stood hunched over the half empty water basin on her bedside table, spitting up the last remains of her breakfast. Leaning back, sweat on her brow, tears in her eyes and panting, she went to sit on her large bed.
Suddenly, she froze. It was thirteen days after the last full moon...her blood was late. What if—what if...
Her thoughts raced as she stared at her skirt clothed thighs, unseeing. Her thoughts drifted to years ago, when Ed was two, when found she was with her second child. Another baby...her heart had swelled with happiness and love for the tiny thing inside her, even though her belly was small yet and she would never have known it was there but for the absence of her moon's blood. Old Helsa's voice was so far off; her withered old voice meant nothing to Adriena now. Then, three months later, as she sat by the fire reading, a sharp quick pain went through her, and she felt wetness between her legs. It was blood.
She wept for that baby, she wept for the child she'd never hold, the one she'd never name or kiss or hug to her. Robb held her all that night, and once her tears stopped rolling from her eyes she went to sleep against his chest.
Slowly, though it made her feel wrong, that baby's memory began to slip from her, the grief and the fear...almost as if it never had been. But the loss still scarred her heart and for a long time she feared another pregnancy. When Annie grew within her, every ache made her clutch Robb's hand for comfort.
Faced with the possibility of another baby, happiness and a hint of fear settled in her chest. If Robb's seed quickened in her womb and another babe grew inside her, she would love them from the moment she really knew...really knew. If she lost it...her heart would break with Robb's all over again.
Old Helsa always said, "Girl, it's bad luck girl to talk about a babe if you can't see the mum's belly!" even as a grown woman, and a mother, the old crone's accuracy still irked her as well as frightened her.