Cassia turned her gaze up to Theon, who was standing dangerously high on the railing of the nearest staircase, tying the edges of the canopy for tomorrow's wedding celebration. Seeing her eyes on him, he waved his arms around as though losing his balance. Cassia returned a begrudging smirk as he hopped down safely.
"You two need to make yourselves more available. I forget Theon's occasionally useful," Jon joked.
Cassia returned a laugh. "We will try to be more helpful for you, Jon."
Theon rubbed his hands together as he made his way closer.
"Eight years on and you still are not used to the cold?" Jon asked.
"I prefer the sea," Theon answered.
"Rocky, cold beaches to our snowy yet green lands?"
Cassia could sense that Theon was about to question Jon's use of the word "our," so she quickly spoke up. "Oh, not all beaches need be rocky. Some are sandy and cold, taking the best of both."
"If you say so, Cass," Jon returned. "Now, there are still a few things to be set up out here."
"You've turned into the maester of festival, Jon Snow?" Theon asked.
"Yes, so listen here. I need you climbing up that," Jon added, pointing high towards a tower.
Bran began to protest, insisting it would be his job, but Theon was far too interested to give it up. The girls, finished with their lessons, soon appeared, so Cass offered to help Sansa with some of the prettier set up while Arya chased after the boys.
"You do not want to go with them?" Sansa asked in surprise.
Cassia gave her a warm smile, "No, I shall have other adventures with him – them – I'm sure. Today, I shall stay with the girls."
"Just like Adaira?" Sansa asked.
The elder girl chuckled, "Yes, when we can wrestle her back."
She glanced up to see Robb lifting her over his shoulder as she let out a shriek of laughter. He spun her around, only setting her down when she demanded it and pulled her into a soft kiss.
"How can I let you go even for a night?" Robb asked.
Adaira shrugged, "After tonight, you never will have to again."
"Do you wonder a bit? What really does happen after tonight?"
"Nothing will change, Robb. Well, except for the fact that we can lie together with judgment."
Robb wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her close to him. As they looked out over the courtyard and beyond the walls of Winterfell, a small smile came to his face.
"This is going to be ours," he said almost in disbelief. "I've always known it would be, but it's never felt so real."
"I can't imagine that will come too soon. I certainly hope not; I'm in no shape to run this household."
"Yet," Robb reminded her.
"Mmm, or maybe ever. We should try to keep Cass here if we can," she joked.
"We don't have a chance at that, but I have full faith in your abilities."
"Robb!" The yell came from Jon down below.
"What is it?" Robb yelled back with a wide grin.
"We're having a night with the boys!"
"I only just got away with my future wife."
"Well, we'll never get you out of the bedroom after you're married."
"Jon!" Adaira cried, looking around for something to toss at him.
Jon took that moment to quickly disappear underneath the canopy as Adaira let out a loud sigh of irritation.
"What are the chances we can get away?" Robb asked with a mischievous grin.
Adaira looked at him doubtfully, "You think Theon would miss a chance to aggravate us? Or, Jon to tease us?"
"Fair point."
"Hurry up!" Theon called, almost on cue. "We have drinking to do!"
"Do you think there will be drinks at your party?" Robb teased.
"I would love to see what Sansa says after a few."
Robb smirked and gave Adaira another soft kiss. "I will see you in the Godswood."
"You might," she teased with a big smile.
"Cassia, please?" Adaira whined as her older sister practically dragged her to her room. "Just really quick, just to say goodnight."
"No. Custom is custom, and you are not to see him until the ceremony tomorrow."
"But please? I haven't gone to sleep without a goodnight kiss from him in…I don't even know how long! I won't be able to sleep, and then I won't look pretty tomorrow," she whined dramatically, the several cups of wine she had at dinner evident in her obstinacy.
"Again, no. You will be just fine. Come on, let's get you to bed."
The two went for Adaira's room, where Cassia had already promised her younger sister she would stay with her tonight. No matter how excited she was, the younger girl was rife with nerves and was insistent upon spending her last night as a Devenny with her sister, staying up, talking and laughing and confiding as they had when they were children.
The two were sitting on Adaira's bed together, Cassia in stitches of laughter as Daira told a story of their childhood, one from before they had come to Winterfell.
"Do you remember the time that Ryen set you on fire?" Daira asked through giggles.
"Of course I do, but don't put the blame all on him. It was your stories that made him do it in the first place!" Cassia exclaimed, smiling brightly.
"Not my stories, Ser Rendon's!" she objected. "He said he had seen Thoros of Myr fight in a tourney with a sword on fire. Ser Rendon told me that he could not lose with his flaming blade, and I thought the story was fascinating, so I told it to Ryen and Torrett both. So, it is as much Torrett's fault as it was mine, because then Torrett went through the logic of how it would work. I guess Ryen was just tired of his little sister always beating him in swordplay."
"Oh, I will never forget that," Cassia laughed ruefully. "It wasn't funny at the time, but gods, it is now. When he set his practice sword on fire, it took to flame so quickly that he couldn't hold it for more than a minute, and then he threw it to the ground. My skirt was just a little too close. Thank the gods Davian was there to put me out."
"And right after the flames were gone, and Torrett was scolding Ryen, you went up to him with your practice sword and whapped him on the side of the head so hard, his cheek was purple for a fortnight," Adaira snickered, falling onto her back on top of the furs. "I wish they were here to see tomorrow, Cass. I miss them. I know I don't talk about them as much as you do, but I think about them every day."
"I know you do. And I know that if they were here to see their baby sister marrying, they would be very proud and very protective. Poor Robb wouldn't know what to do with all the heckling and warnings they would dole out."
"I wish Father were here to give me away. And Mother, to help me get ready tomorrow."
"You think our brothers would give Robb a hard time, can you imagine our father?" Cassia asked with a raised eyebrow. "You are probably too young to remember, but I still can see it plain as day. It was my sixth name day, and I was so excited, dressed in this terrible pink dress that I thought was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I picture it now, and I can't imagine ever wearing that much puff at once. But all of the nearby families and villages, all the way to Torrhen's Square, came in to celebrate with us, and the Tallharts had a boy a little older than me and one about your age as well.
"Naturally, we danced with these two boys, and at the end of the song, my partner was well-versed enough in courtesy to know that he could only kiss my hand, but yours, all of four years old, kissed your cheek. It was innocent, sweet, and all the women in the room let out little 'awwws,' but our father was not pleased. He swooped you up and seated you at the high table between him and Mother for the rest of the night. The only times he let you down were to dance with our brothers. Meanwhile, he watched very suspiciously as I danced the rest of the night with the eight-year-old Tallhart boy and thought I was in love. Little did I know then," Cassia laughed, braiding her hair down over her shoulder.
"Maybe you would have married that Tallhart boy if the invasion hadn't happened."
"Maybe. I'm glad to have the opportunity to choose my husband, no matter how little my sister approves of the choice."
"I told you, already, I will support you in your happiness, though the road to that support probably would have been significantly less rocky if you were marrying a Tallhart." Adaira joked, adding thoughtfully, "Who do you think I would have married?"
"Oh, probably some handsome Northern lord with an easy smile and a lordly sense of honor," Cassia teased, earning another giggle from her sister.
"Imagine that. Really, though, who?"
"I am being serious," she smiled back. "You look so like our mother, I guarantee all the men who courted her and lost her hand would have sent their sons to try to win your favor. And you, being so like our mother, would have denied all of them until you found a man who captivated your mind, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if that suitor was a certain auburn-haired Stark. The story of your marriage would have been one much like our mother's, I think. The North would have won your heart as well."
"And I don't think you would have married the Tallhart boy," Adaira said knowingly.
"Why is that?"
"Because I don't think many men want a wife who would rather play at swords than stitching, or who have hearts braver than their own. You got lucky enough to find one."
"Theon's heart is plenty brave."
"I didn't say it wasn't," she countered, holding her hands up in defeat. "But I believe in your courage above anyone I have ever known. And I dare him to try to keep up with you."
"Godspeed to any man who tries to tame the Devenny girls," Cassia added with a confident grin, pretending to raise a cup in the air for a toast.
"Hear, hear, sister," Adaira giggled again, mirroring her sister's actions.
After a few more laughs and stories, both girls fell asleep smiling, happy from their reminiscence of days past. They had spent much time talking about life in the Nautic Keep, but many of their tales were of their childhood in Winterfell – of Robb's dashing tendencies even from a young age; of Jon, ever-teasing but always understanding; of Theon's ornery ways, Sansa's caring innocence, and Arya's wild playfulness.
When Adaira awoke in the morning, Cassia was already awake and fussing with something draped across the table in the corner, Sansa to her left and Lady Catelyn to her right. She sat up in bed, trying to get a glimpse of what the three girls were hovering over.
"Oh, Cassia, it is lovely. So perfect for such a lovely day as this," Sansa gushed.
"It looks just like my mother's, if memory serves me right. Even years after they had married, my mother showed it to us so many times…Adaira was enamored by it. I'm just so glad that the seamstresses were able to make it so perfect."
"Make what so perfect?" Daira asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes. Cassia wheeled around, a huge guilty smile on her face as she made sure to keep the table obscured with her figure.
"Get out of bed and close your eyes," Cassia grinned, nearly bouncing with excitement. It was infectious, as her younger sister hurried to her feet. Sansa bounded over, covered her eyes, and led her over to the table that they had just been gawking at. Her voice giddy, Cassia asked, "Are you ready?"
When Adaira nodded happily, Sansa gently pulled her hands from her eyes. Draped across the table was a wedding dress nearly identical to the one Lady Calleah had worn so many years ago on her wedding day, with lace sleeves and yoke, a tightly fitted bodice and a flowing skirt. A silver-grey bow wrapped around the waist of the white dress in place of the pink one her mother had once worn, a symbol of the color of the family she was marrying into.
"Oh, Cass…how did you ever…it's perfect," she sighed, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. Cassia noticed and quickly took her sister's face in her hands.
"No, there will be too many tears later to begin with them now. I knew you would want a bit our parent's love here with you to guide you today, so I wanted you to have this. No crying, we are too excited to see you try it on."
The three girls set to helping Adaira dress in the beautiful gown, tucking fabric here and tightening strings there. Once they spun her around to look in the mirror, she couldn't help the tears from reappearing.
"You look so much like her, Daira," Lady Catelyn said, smiling warmly as she tucked a piece of the caramel blonde hair that was sticking out wildly around her face behind her ear. "I knew your mother, though not as well as I wish I had. Ned and Andrei were always friends, but duty and distance didn't allow our houses to see enough of each other. I know your parents would be proud of both of you girls…just as I am now. Adaira, I cannot wait to have another daughter."
Adaira turned, a wide smile on her face, and hugged Catelyn tightly. She had been so concerned that the woman who had served as a surrogate mother to her for so long now resented her for being the new most important woman in her eldest son's life, and she couldn't help but sigh in relief.
"Now, let's get this dress off of you and get you all ready for your husband. We already drew a bath for you while you were sleeping. Come on, we have much to do," Sansa instructed, pulling the other women from the sentimentality that had settled around them. With a beaming smile, the younger girl added, "And my brother is waiting."