The next morning, before the party left Brindlewood, Eddard informed Mina that she would be under strict supervision for the foreseeable future. That included riding in the wheelhouse for the remainder of the trip. He also threatened to send her home should she step out of line once more—that included associating with Sandor. She knew he meant it truthfully, and she couldn't bear the thought of being sent back to the north, not now. For the time being at least, being a prisoner in King's Landing still seemed more appealing than being free in Winterfell.
Upon the family's arrival to King's Landing, Eddard was true to his word. Mina and her sisters were promptly ushered to their new lodgings in the Tower of the Hand by Jory, as their father was rushed off to his first council meeting as the King's Hand. The tower that would serve as the Stark family's new home was large and luxurious. The girls shared a long, tiled hallway that ended in a tall, open window on one of the upper floors of the tower. The floor was quartered into four large rooms, one for each of the girls, plus a spare that would be used for storage. Sansa and Arya's adjoining rooms were on one side of the hall, while Mina's room had a door that led to the spare one on the other. Eddard's chambers were situated on the floor below them, and above them was the family's solar.
Mina walked into her new chambers. The room was lavishly decorated with furnishings from throughout the Seven Kingdoms and beyond. She imagined her sisters' rooms looked the same; she would have to go see later. The girl shut the chamber door and lay across her bed, looking up at the intricate, gauzy canopy overhead. With a sigh, Mina ran her fingers over the delicate golden flowers embroidered in the lush, green fabric of the blankets on her new bed. She was so eager to go and explore the Red Keep and the rest of King's Landing, but for once in her life she was going to obey her father—at least for a little while.
Forbidden to leave the Tower of the Hand unescorted, Mina spent the following weeks in King's Landing primarily in her chambers. Sansa and Arya were most often busy with the septa and their daily lessons, so Mina had taken up embroidery as a way to pass the time. She was still rubbish at it compared to Sansa, but she'd already read through her maester's healing compendium twice and she was in need of a new hobby. Some days, the septa would agree to escort the three sisters to places in the city; Mina loved those days spent exploring the city that was so foreign to her, rare as they were.
Mina sat in the small hall between her two sisters as they all ate dinner, their ever-present septa sat beside Sansa. The girls' father was supposed to dine with them, but had yet to arrive. Mina imagined his council meeting ran over again, as they so frequently did. Mina scanned the crowd that had gathered in the hall for mealtime. Most of the diners were from her father's guard, but on the other end of the long, rectangular room Mina could see a handful of the king's men eating as well. When she looked a little closer, she saw a familiar scarred man eating among them. The sight of him brought a smile to Mina's face.
She'd seen him around since her arrival in King's Landing, but Mina hadn't spoken to Sandor since the night he'd found her in the woods. She'd heard from a maid that her father had indeed apologized to the man and thanked him on her family's behalf, but she felt guilty not thanking him in person. If she was being honest, she quite missed the strange little friendship they had formed on the road, but more than anything—for now at least—she didn't want to risk angering her father any more than she already had.
The echoing of boots on the cold, stone floor roused Mina from her thoughts. Her father briskly entered the large room and the members of his guard stood in respect. Mina and her sisters remained seated, the three of them silently picking at pumpkin soup that served as their first course. Things between the three girls were cold at best. Sansa and Arya spoke to each other as little as they could get away with, and Mina tried to stay away from both of them whenever possible. Mina hated it when the girls fought, but she knew getting involved would only make it worse.
"Sit, please, everyone." Eddard sat down at the table across from his three gloomy daughters and began to pull food onto the empty plate in front of him.
"Evening, my lord!" Eddard nodded towards Jory as he bit into the meat the servants had just set in front of him. "Word is we're going to be having a tourney to celebrate your new position—and a big one at that; knights from around the realm are invited to compete!"
"Oh Father, is it true?" Sansa looked up at Eddard, her face filled with the first trace of excitement Mina had seen in weeks. "Please, Father, can we go and watch? I've always dreamed of going to see a real tournament." Mina stared up at her father as well, anxiously fiddling with the end of her braided hair, while waiting for an answer. In truth, she really wanted to attend also, if only for an opportunity to leave the confines of the castle walls for a short while, but she was afraid any enthusiasm on her part would result in an instinctive 'no' from her father.
Eddard looked to his daughters with an air of reluctance. "A tournament is no place for three young ladies such as yourselves, I'd rather not subject you to such a foolish event—surely you three have better ways to pass your time." Mina snorted at that, resulting in a stern glare from both her father and the septa. She wondered what important business he could imagine she did with endless hours she had to pass while locked in her chambers.
"But Father, I want to go! Please?" Sansa whined. It was certainly most unbecoming behaviour for a young lady, but if it got them out of the castle for a couple days Mina was all in favour of her sister's efforts.
Septa Mordane cleared her throat in an effort to gain the attention of the family surrounding her. "My lord, I have been told that Princess Myrcella will be attending the tournament, and she is a lady younger than both Mina and Sansa. Surely if the King thinks the event suitable for his young daughter, it is acceptable for your three ladies to attend?"
With the septa's support firmly behind her opinion, Mina thought it finally appropriate to speak up herself. "Yes Father, and don't you think it would look rather odd if your family chose not to attend an event planned in your honour?"
Eddard sighed as he reluctantly relented. "Fine, fine." He brought his hand to his brow as he so often did when it came to handling his daughters. "I'll make arrangements for the three of you girls to attend, but I'll expect you all to be on your best behaviour, any lapses in judgement and all three of you will be sent away from the tourney grounds and back to your chambers." Mina knew that last threat was directed at her, her father knew how much she hated to disappoint the younger girls.
Before either Mina or Sansa could celebrate their good fortune, Arya spoke up with her opinion on the matter. "I don't care, I don't even want to go to the stupid tournament." Arya never looked up from her plate, but Mina could imagine the scowl that the girl's face wore.
Sansa scoffed at that, "Nobody cares, Arya Horseface, the splendid event can be made only better by your absence."
"Sansa!" Mina whipped her head towards her red haired sister in shock. Sansa was smirking, as Arya's grip tightened around her knife.
"That's quite enough girls! The three of you are sisters and I expect you to act like it." Eddard chided his middle daughter, but let a long glare linger on Mina. She wasn't quite sure why she was catching the blame for this, but it appeared she was nonetheless. Silence filled the hall as the man stood up from his spot at the long table, frustration etched on his face. "Now I'll leave you three to sort this out amongst yourselves, it seems I'm rather not hungry this evening." And with that, he left the large, cold room.
As conversations resumed throughout the hall, Mina wondered how she was always lumped in with her two younger sisters quarrels. She always tried her best to stay out of them, and yet she always ended up in the middle; left to sort all their troubles out while her father went off to do gods knows what.
"I'd rather like to be excused as well, Septa. I'm eager to find Jeyne and tell her all about the tournament!" Sansa stood up with a goofy grin plastered across her face. The septa nodded at this, and the girl frolicked off in search of her friend. The septa's easy agreement irked Mina, she would have hoped for at least an apology before Sansa made her exit.
Mina turned to her youngest sister, rubbing a hand on her back in an effort to make her feel better. "You know she doesn't mean it, sweet girl. She loves you, we all do." Mina watched as Arya brought a hand to one of her eyes trying to bat away a tear. She failed, and it fell with a plop onto the plate below her. At that, the young girl sprung up from the table and ran down the hall and out the doors.
Mina stood to follow her, but the septa bid her to stay and finish her meal. The older woman rose from the table slowly and walked out the way Arya had just moments before. Mina remained in her seat and picked at what was left of her meal. The men of her father's guard surrounded her, but Mina realized she hadn't felt quite so alone in a very long time.
When she had finished her meal, Mina rose wordlessly from the table. The men weren't paying her any notice, and there was no one left to warrant her asking to be excused. As she left the long room, she found herself unescorted in the halls of the Red Keep for the first time since her arrival. And still, she found her legs carrying her in the direction of her chambers, just as would be expected of her. She feared she was getting boring in her old age; had she lost her sense of adventure?
As she began the long walk down the lonely halls towards her family's tower, she noticed a familiar friend lurking in the shadows of a smaller corridor that intersected with the main one. Before she could react, a hand grabbed the collar of her gown, pulling her deep into the shadows.
It was Sandor, dressed in his boiled leather armour. "You've been avoiding me, girl." She was so close that she could smell the wine on Sandor's breath and the musk of his sweat in the hot summer's night. She found the combination intoxicating.
"And you've been doing some drinking, my friend." Mina grinned as she noticed the bottle of wine he held in one hand and took it from him, before drinking back a long swig of the sweet but bitter liquid. She savoured every drop. "Thank you, for that." Mina hadn't had any alcohol since the altercation in Brindlewood, and gods was she thirsty. She didn't realize quite how much she needed it until it was taken away from her.
"I apologize that I—" Mina paused as she heard the familiar voices of her father's guardsmen exiting the small hall and making their way down the corridor. She pressed herself hard against Sandor and the shadowed wall in vain attempts to hide, but the men were too distracted with their talk of the tourney to notice her and her companion.
Sandor took another swig from his bottle as Mina waited for the men's footsteps to disappear before she stepped back and continued. "I'm sorry I never came to thank you for what you did that night in the woods."
"Your father came to me on your family's behalf…"
"Yes, but it should have been me. I'm the one who owes you my life." Mina grabbed back the bottle and took another drink, she'd missed the way it warmed her belly. "My father has bid me to stay away from you. I suppose he thinks you're a bad influence on me." Sandor let out a small laugh at that. He didn't laugh often, but Mina found she was keen of the sound he made when he did. His burned face showed traces of a smile in the dark shadows. She'd missed him. She so badly wished she could go back to how it was on the road, back to when everything was easy, back when they were friends.
"Will you be riding in the tournament then?" Mina had said all she'd needed to the man, but she found herself looking for excuses to prolong the conversation.
Sandor snatched the bottle back and gave a shrug. "Maybe. My brother is."
"Are you and your brother close?"
Sandor chose not to answer that. Instead, he took one last drink of the wine before looking at the empty bottle in disgust. Mina took his silence as a resounding 'no' to her earlier question.
"Well… you should! I'd wager that you could win at the joust or maybe the melee if you tried. I'd cheer for you at least… Here, look!" Mina turned her attention to her long, loose braid and untied the deep blue ribbon knotted on the end. "You can take this as a favour, maybe it's lucky or something!" Smiling, Mina grabbed Sandor's empty hand and placed the ribbon in his palm, curling his fingers over top of it for him. She let her fingers linger over his for a moment; the feeling of his rough skin sent a chill through her spine. Mina watched as Sandor considered her suggestion, turning the ribbon over and over as he did.
Sandor glared down to the ribbon one last time, before balling his hand into a fist around it. "Who the in the seven hells do you think I am, girl? Do you think me some lord or knight?" He'd moved so he was now an arm's length away from Mina. His face was so close to hers and his words so filled with venom. Mina had been angry with the man before, but this was the first time Mina had really been afraid of him. "You think you know so much, think you're such a clever little girl with the world at her command—but you know nothing!"
"Sandor, I—" Mina tried to interject, tried to distract herself from the heat of his angry breath and the tears of hurt stinging at her eyes, but he would not let her finish. Sandor dropped the ribbon on the floor and grabbed the girl's face in his large hands.
"Take a long look at my face, girl." He stared her down without blinking his grey eyes once. "I am not the knight you are looking for, and I never will be. If you want one so bad, I suggest you go and find my dear brother." With that, Sandor released Mina's face from his hands and stalked off down the hallway. When she could no longer hear his footsteps on the floor, Mina relaxed the tension in her body as she fell back against the smooth marble wall. She let herself slide down it to the floor, as tears began to roll down her cheeks.
Sandor woke up the next with a pulsing in his head that was becoming all too familiar. He looked around his drab, unremarkable chambers in the castle barracks for water, but found none. As he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, he remembered what had happened the night before in the hall with Mina. A sense of dread fell over him, settling in the form of a pit in his stomach. He'd only meant to pull her away for a second, just to see her, and hear her silly, little voice one more time—but he'd ruined that terribly. Bugger it all; he reached for another skin of wine to drown it all out.