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This is a sort of prequel to the original one-shot, and if you want to find out what happens immediately after this, go to my story The King's Doom.
It could not be. There was no way. But as she counted and recounted, she knew the truth. A moon had passed without bleeding. But war's were stressful, she told herself, there was no way to know. A sickness pervaded her, but again, stress. She could not believe that she was wits child, because that might make it true.
And then what would she do?
Robb could not marry her, even though his honour would dictate it necessary. The war was more important than her child's status. A bastard, she thought, a stain on his honour, the shame of the king. Her child would have no inheritance, and spend their life in the shadow of their conception.
No, no, she thought, there would be no child, there could be no child.
Moon tea would fix the problem, and then it would be like there was never any problem at all. Robb need never know he fathered a child. For she knew he would abandon all oaths to save his child from the fate of his brother.
She could always stay and be his mistress, and he could raise his child and keep his promise. But she knew that situation would help no one. Jealousy would simmer away inside her, bitterness festering until it protruded from where she buried it. And what of his wife? It would kill her to know that Robb still loved another, of that Layla was certain.
The east, she thought, I could always run back to Essos, raise my child there with no knowledge of who fathered them. But what of her step-children? She had sworn to protect them, and she couldn't very well do that if she had fled the kingdom.
It was her thoughts of Willam and Rickard that steeled her resolve, the course of action clear to her.
Of course, she had not predicted the Maester's inability to keep a hold of his tongue. Feeling it necessary to inform Lady Catelyn of her predicament.
"Is it Robb's?" Catelyn asked, though they both knew she needed no answer, for she already knew though she hoped otherwise, "Does he know?"
"You think he'd have let me ask for Moon Tea if he did." Layla retorted, "You cannot tell him. You mustn't."
"And why not?" Catelyn asked, incensed
"He'll marry me, you know he will, and he can't do that." She pleaded, "This is the only way. I wouldn't do it if there was another option."
She knows I'm telling the truth, Layla thought, and she hates me. She'll agree if only not to have me for a good-daughter.
Why didn't I take Moon Tea straight away, she asked herself, because there was none there, and a war to fight, and you tried to forget the night ever happened.
Why did I do it, she mused, because you were lonely and it had been so long and he was so sweet.
Had she been of clear mind at the time she would have realized that Catelyn was careful not to swear her any oaths of secrecy, and would not have been surprised when in no time Robb found his way to her.
He knows, she realized, he knows and he'll hate me for what I was about to do.
But there was no anger in his eyes. Confliction, maybe, but that was no surprise. It seemed that Catelyn had at least kept some of her secrets.
Please review, I'd love to hear your thoughts, and any requests for what one-shot you want to read next