Chapter 18: The Tale Part 2
Sansa blinked to rid herself of her dry eyes, from staring so much at the peeper. "Alright." Sansa deliberated, her form shaking. "My lady...since you've done it before...and I hope you don't mind..." Jeyne had kept her eyes on him, as if to fix him there. "...Kiss him like you would kiss a man."
Jon's eyes shifted to her all of a sudden, as if he had heard that request. Her 'lady-in-waiting' did a little dip curtsey, her voice was somewhat velvety. "As my lady commands." Gods she wished she hadn't said that. Her friend sashayed to him. Jon's face was pale, and extremely severe. This was cruel. He edged around the plant, into her friend's path, and he wiped the hands that had been toying with the soil on his trousers. It's almost as if he knew...perhaps Jeyne was sending him a signal?
Sansa shakily reached for the greenhouse doors and closed them. She turned, resting against the glass, feeling trapped. She must watch. It was her duty to watch the sentence being carried out.
Jeyne moved in on Jon, who stood like a dear in an arrow's line of sight. She stepped to his side, Sansa reasoned she did this so she was not blotted from the view. Jeyne wanted her to watch and learn supposedly.
Her friend reached up to bury one of her hands in his curls, salaciously, the other hand came to his shoulder. Sansa noted his eyes fluttered after the initial shock had wore off. Jeyne claimed his mouth with such force, it made her ladyship jump. Oh gods Jeyne. Jon's hands twitched at his sides uselessly, as her friend relentlessly slid and tugged at his mouth with her own, giving it a good wetting and bruising. Even though this was a boy and girl, this didn't look romantic.
The hand that was at his shoulder slid up to his neck and jaw-line, it appeared her older and wiser friend was trying to manoeuvre his head accordingly with hers. Sansa heard their lips smack, and blinked at the level they were reaching in intimacy.
Careful Jeyne. It was looking a little rough...and impassioned to be harmlessly innocent. Someone could walk by and see them all. Sansa cocked her head as she noted their cheeks hollowing, lumps rolling under the surface. My gods, their mouths are open, and there go their tongues! She remained facing them, despite the urge to bashfully turn away, but she did give herself a break by watching their feet. When odd pants and sensual moans were heard, her head shot up. They were struggling to breathe, why don't they stop?! Their heads kept angling at opposite angles, almost as if each of them were trying to probe a new corner of each other's mouth...or steal air. She caught site of Jon's eyes, they weren't squeezed shut anymore, they were staring...right at her. She gulped, what was worse than awkwardly witnessing this?...Knowing that she was very much part of it, and they knew they had a rapt audience, and Jon seemed to be making sure of that. Stop looking at me.
The young lord's hands came up then, one came to the nape of Jeyne's neck, and the other to her shoulder, stroking. It now looked like he was willingly participating, and yet Sansa felt there was a slight disconnect. He wasn't trying to feel and indulge with his eyes closed, as she would imagine a courting couple would. He was just surveying her, watching this very grown-up encounter. Jeyne was obliviously enjoying herself and humming. Calm down Jeyne, you're not married. Her friend's hand began to wander on her cousin, stroking down his doublet. Sansa followed it at first with fascination, but her fingers splayed teasingly over his crotch, Sansa had to look away, and at the very same moment Jon made a feeble grunt, and prized Jeyne away. Their lips popped, and Sansa saw a thread of saliva break between them. Ew.
"No, please don't do that." He warned, his mouth was bruised, and his eyes were alert and bleary. He appeared to scan the room and the windows, his gaze becoming soft when checking on her still dithering by the doors. She must look out of place. "That was too far, Jeyne. You can't do that, not here."
Jeyne reached forward and walked her fingers up his doublet, playfully. "You liked it...you were hard." He nudged her salacious fingers away.
What was hard?- The kiss?- Well yes it looked it.
"I was not." He rumbled awkwardly, scratching his neck. "You...you can't do that...not in front of Sansa." Her ears and faced burned with the mention of her name. Something was too intimate for her to see, she had known. "Damn it." His voice brimmed with annoyance, he breathed downwards, with his hands on his hips. Was he checking himself? "You're lucky it's cold." He warned, and he turned away from them briefly, wiping his face with his hands. "Gods."
"I'd consider yourself very lucky, my lord." Jeyne countered, sauntering towards Sansa. She couldn't move or speak. "It was a little game that you had the fortune of being part of, we don't normally invite men in our games, besides you didn't bail during any of it...what does that say about you?" She swivelled in her teasing, her skirts flying. "You will have sweet dreams I assure you!"
She felt her friend wrap a supportive arm around her, giving her a chummily shake and squeeze. 'It wasn't my idea.' She thought, but then remembered she had asked her friend to show her. Oh gods.
"So be sure to keep it hush, my keen little lord." Her friend said with mock severity, and she sensed Lady Westerling then gaze down at her fondly. She couldn't look up or smile...this had been weird, nor could she think of the aftermath.
"Don't worry, I will." He said, advancing upon them to get to the door behind them, Jeyne grazed his arm to stall him.
"You're not angry with me, are you, my lord?" She put on an appealing lilt to her voice, making her eyes doey and sad. Sansa had witnessed her friend do this before when asking for second helpings of dessert.
Jon surveyed her friend, then her, his face became absent of the annoyance he had unleashed, he sighed with resignation. "No, my lady, I'm not angry ...at either of yer'."
Lady Westerling beamed, she brought her finger to graze his cheek affectionately. "You're so sweet..." She turned her attentions on her again. "Isn't that sweet of him, my lady?" Lady Stark furtively looked up at him, as his eyes failed to connect. Oh the shame...he wouldn't look at her again, they weren't cousins anymore.
"Yes it is, my lady." It came out of her quiet and downcast. Can they go now? She reached to interlock with Jeyne's fingers, they could go and play patter-cake or something?
She noted Jeyne's other hand reach for Jon's, their fingers intertwined, so the three of them were joined in a curved line. "Let's not waste this." Her voice dripped of honey, and Sansa felt her hand being manoeuvred, and she looked down to see her friend intertwining her own fingers with Jon's. She looked to Jon whom appeared still apprehensive, no surprise there. Sansa tried to wriggle free. "No no no, Sansa, don't be rude!" Jeyne let go and moved behind her to push, forcing her feet to shuffle towards Jon. What is she doing? "Besides... we must seal this pact of secrecy, give Jon something..." Her shoulders were being stroked by her friend. "Those who pass the sentence, have to swing the sword." Surely she wasn't asking her too...? Her gullet clunked, she stared at the doublet in front of her, the chest was rising and falling erratically. "Come on, don't keep Jon waiting."
"-She doesn't have to do anything." She heard him utter above her, their fingers still forced together, his thumb swept her palm as if to soothe her.
"She wanted to learn...why should you complain, Jon?- If any of this is mentioned, people are only going to assume you have tasted her as well anyway." Her friend reasoned, and Sansa craned her neck mortified. Tasted?
She shook her head. "Mentioned?... Who...who is going to tell? - He won't tell, I believe him, my lady." She was trying to shuffle back slightly, squirming under the gaze of her elders. "Besides, I can't do what you just did." Jeyne suddenly raised her arms either side of her, bringing along Sansa's dainty arms with them, she guided her hands to rest on Jon's shoulders. Lady Stark leant back on her friend's front for support, but she still hoped she would fall back out of the greenhouse, and out of Jon's suddenly stormy eyes.
"You can't expect me to do this." He uttered over her coppery head. "She's ten."
So she was not a woman? "Like men really care." Her keeper giggled melodically, and Jon knitted his brows as if appalled by the insinuation. "You were fascinated earlier, perhaps you preferred the tamer kiss?..You had a hard time back there." Indicating to the scene of their crime.
Jon gave a single snort. "Yer' think I'm a lousy kisser? I hadn't kissed a girl before you."
"It showed." Lady Westerling teased. "Perhaps the second time will be a charm? Two novices might fit."
"Or barely notice one another's ineptness." Sansa commented quietly, but it was enough for Jon to grimace.
"Gods, you wound me, Sansa."
Jeyne stroked both their arms. "You're not ripe, yet."
"Who yer' think yer' talking to?" His voice was ludicrous, and it made the youngest girl break into a tinsy smile. His annoyance was funny, and calming. He took a gander at her, and she drowned her smile, and diverted her attention. "Not ripe, my arse!" He finally said to the previous insult.
"Taste the un-ripened fruit." Lady Westerling announced to both. "Go on, you can make a comparison to me." Sansa and Jon caught each other's eyes, and they both looked to their feet bashfully. The eldest girl laughed heartily at the two quivering children before her. Jeyne drifted her hands up to play with Sansa's hair, finger curling the coppery locks at the tips, and neatly placing it at the front, so it was on display. "Isn't she pretty, Jon?"
She didn't dare look up for any trace of an opinion, but she heard him sigh. "Erm..."
Her cheeks reddened under what she knew was a gaze of assessment, she stared at his adam's apple and it clunked. He should not be allowed to give an answer, unless it's about the dress she was wearing.
"Don't you want to caress or plunder that mouth?" She whispered, and neither knew whom she was talking to. But Sansa assumed it wasn't her, so she refused to look at Jon's full mouth. Damn it, you looked...how weird...what's he going to think?. When she braved looking up at him, his eyes were downcast. He had failed too.
She hadn't noticed her friend had drifted away from her back, and was now alongside them, like a referee. She only saw Jeyne when she leaned into Jon's ear. What was the point of whispering? She had said the worst. Sansa sunk her teeth into her lip, thinking about the harmless game of hide and seek they could be playing. A voice brought her from her day-dream.
"Light of my darkness...may I steal a kiss from you?" Jon said lowly, completely entranced.
Sansa woke up in a cold sweat slumped in a chair, she had lost her bearings for a second, but then noted the incense, and...Maggy! She sat bolt upright. "What did you do?!" Sansa was checking she hadn't been mugged, or...violated, she had been out-of-it in front of a stranger.
"Anything good?" The witch asked, an encouraging smile on her face.
Lady Stark stood, enraged. "What was that?!...You can't delude me with chemicals!" She will definitely report her to her father...not mother though...or anybody else for that matter!
"The word is... drugged." Her companion piped, sniffing the bottle herself. "Oh my...and definitely not a delusion, I mixed a memory draft together one crazy night." She sniffed it again, clearly she was addicted. "I call it 'forget-me-not', you know why?" She sang with mirth.
"Please don't state the obvious." Sansa quipped, leaning warily on the back of the chair in front of her. "Gods..." She did a hard blink. "I can smell the greenhouse."
"It's all real, just a different time."
"Different universe?" Sansa chimed hopefully.
"No, this universe, sorry...you can't see into other universes, you can only see what has transpired, what you have lived through." The witch was surprisingly upbeat considering she had an annoyed client whom was the daughter of an important lord.
"I didn't ask for this!" She protested, she stroked her hair back that had fell forward "There was probably a reason I forgot that." She grumbled, and the mystic laughed at her. Why do people always laugh at her?
"But that's very odd." The witch affirmed, Sansa found a finger being waggled at her. "You have let the shadow consume everything...perhaps if this-" She rose the bottle again to sniff. "-is in your system you will remember more happy memories...you are very sad and moody."
Sansa rolled her eyes. "I know how I feel." She said a bit more calmly. "I can't explain it." She wasn't going to, if the witch didn't already know about the bad lord in the godswood through reading, she wasn't going to tell her straight up. The kissing game had preceded the event. "The memory is fresh now...can't believe I would forget something like that." She was in disbelief, this was what Jeyne was talking about, and Jon...Jon. "Gods dammit." Jon was a part of it, he knew about this thing, he was swaggering around aware of it. "No wonder why he is always so smug." Gods, he doesn't know I forgot...he thinks I remember. "But he never mentions it...maybe he doesn't remember either...and he's just...smug naturally?" Sansa leant on the chair again, and it creaked. "This will take some thought...my life has changed."
The witch was just sniffing her little bottle. "It's some good shit, I know."