Anybody else had trouble uploading chapters? I didn't use to, the site keeps displaying a red message every time I upload- have queried.
Sansa traipsed through the mud in the courtyard. "I suppose you will marry Gilly when the time comes?" Ghost tailed her and Sam, as if eavesdropping.
Sam kept his feet on the move so he didn't sink. "Well we call each other husband and wife, and people have seen us with a baby, so there really is no need. We have lay together, the ceremony will be all pomp and a little redundant...If you ask me."
"But you should pledge..." She was going to say ask for blessings and pledge before the gods, but she didn't know his religion. He might not have shared his family's beliefs, after all his 'wife' was a member of the free folk.
"I made one pledge to the nights watch- I'm still waiting for them to come take my head. When you take a wife, you take the woman away and keep her, that's the old way- before ceremony and grand affairs were made."
"The free folk way." Sansa frowned. "Abduction?"
"It's a little romantic, don't you think, your grace?" Sam looked very sly, curious if a noble lady with an addiction to fairytales would indeed like this.
"Spirited away by a man full of lust?"
"Love." Sam added, with gesture to his heart. "A man's love."
Sansa smiled but shook her head. "It's only romantic if the woman has the tiniest of regard for the man taking her away." She tugged at her skirts. "And if it's a rescue from a place where the woman feels unhappy."
"Aha, I took my wife from a horrid place, and Gilly does actually like me. I suppose our story belongs in one of your books." He heard banging on a shield, and they both looked up to see Jon thrashing someone, their shield was staying firm. "Someone's getting better, that lad normally drops it by now."
Sansa looked wistfully at her husband, the training technique did work. And he looked good when he was-"Don't get too close, he'll ask you next." She warned.
Sam grimaced, looking for an escape. "I think you're right, let's go this way." And he had the audacity to steer the Queen away.
Sansa could walk normal again she found her feet on stone and wood, they got back onto their topic."Did you read fairytales growing up?" She wondered if any noble boys ever took an interest in that sort of thing.
"I read anything available really, I wasn't much into strenuous activities...well there was one..."
The portly chap thought for a moment, and the Queen saw Davos and Melisandre having a heated conversation near the battlements- she tried to read their lips, but it was difficult, one had a foreign accent, so their mouth moved differently, and Davos's beard hindered her from seeing the corner of his mouth. She then heard Sam ask her a question.
"...Did you ever play that, your grace?"
Sansa brought her eyes to him. "What was that?"
"Haven't you heard of it before? Dead fun, one person counts to a number and everyone hides, when the person reaches the specified number they can start looking for the people that are hidden."
Oh he was talking about hide and seek. She felt guilty she had tuned him out. "Oh I know of that game, I haven't played that since I was nine. It wasn't the type of game I normally partook in. All the other children, Arya especially, loved it." She was surprised Sam played such a game, you had to dash about. "Who did you prefer to be, the seeker or the hider?"
"Oh the hider, everybody loves being the hider, you just have to find a place and stay put. Exciting!" She saw utter delight in his face as if reminiscing. "There were two other versions of the game. One you could move to different hiding places while the seeker was looking elsewhere-"
"-Isn't that cheating?" Sansa frowned, slowing to a halt. "It sounds more like a hunt."
"Oh yeah, but it's still fun. The other version you had to assemble at the point where the seeker left to win the game."
Sansa grinned, remembering the last game she played. "I remember Arya tried to steal my hiding space, she squashed herself in and tried to force me out, even then she was angry with me." She tittered to herself. "But I'm sure we were playing a version where we had multiple seekers."
"Oh my." The gent said, keen to know more.
"The seeker had to hide with the hider when they found them, and the rest of the seekers had to find them all." She explained, finding herself missing such innocent games. "A time when hiding was fun, and not about survival." She clasped her hand in front of her to finish. She glanced around to see Davos and Melisandre still arguing, Sam followed her eye.
"Well at least they're talking." He could see the tension in Sansa's face, though women always looked pained or annoyed with something. "Perhaps we should play a game?"
The Queen froze in her tracks. "A game of cards...chess?"
"No, hide and seek."
She heard it, and she replayed it in her mind. Was he mad? "I am Queen, I can't have the small folk seeing me frolic about like a child!"
The gent put his hands up in defence."Merely a suggestion, your grace." She looked about her incredulously, he tried to counter this- "You are Queen, you can do what you like, and they wouldn't care...and the game doesn't involve...frolicking, you just walk about and hide."
He spoke like it was inevitable, as if they were going to play a game. Foolish boy! "So while my Kingly husband trains and warmongers, I'm going to be hiding in cupboards and under furniture waiting for you to find me?" Her hands found her hips. Could this man see it?
"You could be a seeker?"
"It's a big castle, it'll take forever." Why was she using that as an argument, she wasn't going to do it!
Sam looked defeated, but a smile split his face and he clicked his fingers. "More than one seeker." He jabbed in every direction. "We could get a few people involved, it would be a team effort." He leant in order to whisper. "We could give ourselves names, hero names with nouns." People were walking casually by, while this man tried to convince her to lark.
"No, Sam, the more people we involve...the bigger the joke becomes." She was about walk off, but stepped right into Davos. "Woaw! Sorry Ser."
Davos made an open gesture of warmness."Nonsense, your grace, it was me at fault. I should have known from your stance you were trying to make a quick getaway." He noticed the portly gent next to her was a bit sheepish. "Oh dear oh dear, what was afoot?"
Davos always made her smile. "Sam and I were talking about silly little games." Sansa said, the smile still plastered across her face. "Children's games."
"Ah, now I see why you were trying to get away."He said with furrowed brows. "Nothing wrong with a game or two, what could have Sam possibly suggested?"
The chirpy chap was still keen, eyes ferreting between her grace and the ser. "The Queen and I were going to play hide and seek."
"No we weren't!" Sansa turned on him shrewdly, she felt like slapping his arm. But Sam was such a kindly man, she couldn't possibly. She attempted to smooth away her frown while tucking a red strand behind her ear. She looked to Davos, composed and in all seriousness- "Has a raven been sent?" Sam looked too, eager to learn the answer.
Davos slowly nodded, ominously. "Aye, your grace."
She gave him a stiff smile, to show her pleasure, but it expressed her grimness of the whole situation. The red woman was dithering a couple of yards back, unnerving her. "Now we wait." She said to her male companions, and Melisandre bobbed her head courteously, as if she heard.