~Elena~

The kitchen was alive with gossip and activity as I stepped into the warm room, more at ease than I'd been in a while, even though no one had noticed my arrival yet. A smile tugged at my lips as I spotted my sister at the sink, elbows deep in water as she chatted with a willowy woman who was missing her front teeth, a large brown cat curled at her feet. The time here seemed to have left her untouched by hatred. Her large golden eyes still shone with laughter, her skin still smooth. She'd traded in her pretty dresses for a brown rag, her necklace I'd gotten her from the market clasped around her neck. Rosette had taken Lucia firmly under her wing, teaching her things she'd have never learned in Dorne.

"Can I help-" a woman's voice stopped short as she looked up from her pan of bread, eyes wide as she took in my haggard appearance.

"Elena?" Lucia called, her eyes wide with concern as she jumped away from the sink, rushing to put her wet arms around me. I winced before I could stop myself, smoothing her hair with a trembling hand as Rosette came to stand before me, eyeing me with a frown.

"What happened?"She asked, though from the look in her green eyes, I could tell she already knew.

"I protected my lady." I replied coldly, having had more than enough of those knowing looks to last me a million life times. A smile broke out across her flushed face, before she motioned for me to follow her to a small table near the back.

"Rest, the trouble is far from over." She replied with a heavy sigh before she turned to my sister. "Why don't you get your sister some wine and the bread you helped make?" Lucia squeaked in excitement before she rushed off to do as instructed while Rosette squatted in the seat before me.

"Thank you for looking out for her." I spoke, to tired to keep up my cold charade.

"She's made the kitchen really come alive. It's been a while since we've had someone down here so full of energy and so eager to learn." Rosette spoke with a weary smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Something's coming isn't it? I can feel it in the air. See it in the people." She studied my face then, trying to judge if I was still trust worthy or not, before nodding with a frown.

"There are whispers of a war. The fool King Stannis is rumored to be heading this way with more soldiers and ships than King's Landing can defeat, and with a boy king like Joffery to lead us... Well, we're as good a dead." She replied, a look of sadness crossing her face again.

"How long do you think we have?" I asked as I watched my sister laugh with one of the kitchen women. Rosette sighed, shaking her thick red hair from her face.

"Not long enough. We're sneaking some of the children out of King's Landing. There are some people we trust that will keep them in the cellar away from harms way when the time comes." I knew what she was saying, even though she didn't put a voice to it. She wanted me to send Lucia with the others, and as much as it pained me for her to be anywhere away from me, I knew it couldn't be helped.

"Will you be going with the others?" I asked as a lump of sadness built in my throat. Rosette nodded as she searched my face again.

"Keep her safe. I must remain here, with Sansa, but I cannot ask the same of her." I finished as tears pricked at my eyes.

"You're a good girl Elena. Don't let this place beat you." She whispered as she stood and patted my hand before walking away to be replaced by my sister who brought wine for me and water for herself. Chatting happily about the bread and how Potato, the cat, was really a female who was expecting kittens, and Rosette promised she could keep one. I won't let this place beat me. I thought determinedly as I smiled at my younger sister. I have to stay strong for Lucia and Sansa.