Theon knew that he had to talk to her about what had happened that night. Their relationship had gone to another level after the events of the night before and he wanted to make sure that she had no regrets in being with him. We're not that far from Winterfell really, if she regrets what we have done, there's no harm done really - no one needs to ever know what we did in that cavern… I could try and steal another horse and send her back on our horse. She might even return by the time Lord Eddard and Lady Catelyn arrive back from White Harbour.
Even as he told himself this, he knew that he was doing a poor job of convincing himself that he could let her go. He was mad with love for her, crazy enough to risk everything to be by her side. Even though they hadn't strictly made love properly yet, the little they had done had not alleviated his desire for her remotely, merely made it burn fiercer. Gods, the mere thought of her moans and sighs as he lavished kisses on her most secret flesh, tasting her had him hardening again, already wanting more.
He knew himself, and how little will-power he would have to resist her charms. There was no way he was going to be able to keep his hands off her for long enough for both of them to get to the Iron Isles and have them wed there. They would have to do it as soon as they got to the nearest town or port.
"Sansa, dearest-" he asked as they cantered past towns and villages, always keeping their hoods up and trying to attract as little notice as possible . There was always the chance that some stray person would recognise either of them and raise the alarm.
"Yes, Theon?"
"We'll stretch our limbs for a bit while we stop. I have something I want to ask you."
The news she was going to take a break from horse-riding came as a welcome relief, but she was rather scared at how serious he was for a change. She glanced at him unsurely as if saying to herself, Is he having second thought after what we did in the cave? He wanted to reassure her, but he didn't know what to think. Will she accept me? I know she loves me, but this is a huge step and we'd be defying her parents the king and the whole world. Would she be able to do that and stay strong?
They stopped at a deserted barn, not keen to be caught trespassing by someone who might report them to her father. She opened the pack of provisions and divided out the little that they had.
"We're going to have to get more supplies, Theon. We're running low." she told him with a worried look in her eyes.
"We don't have much in the way of funds but I'll see what I can do. We have to be careful. We don't know who we can trust and we're still in your father's territories."
"Is everything...I mean...after last night..." she trailed to a stop blushing furiously.
He realised she had probably been fretting about it for the morning. He should have reassured her straight away.
"Do you think badly of me?" she said in a small, vulnerable voice. "-for giving myself to you?"
She looked so scared and unhappy, he knew what he had to do. "C'mere lass." he told her wrapping his arms round her. "Look at me-"
She looked at him with worried eyes. He wanted to smooth that uncertainty from her face. How to ask her for what he wanted- her hand in marriage. Take the plunge. Be brave, she needs you now!
"You know that I love you, don't you dearheart?"
He felt her nod into the comforting wool of his doublet rather than seeing it.
"What we did together, it changes things. Changes things a lot."
She gulped down a sob, trying to hide her distress. "So, does that mean you don't want me now? Now that you got what you wanted?"
"No!" he protested. "Sansa do you really think so little of my affections for you? Gods, I want you so much, I want-"
"What do you want?"
Now or never. Tell her how you feel, Greyjoy! How hard can it be to ask a lass to marry you?
"I want to marry you. Give you my cloak for real."
She pulled back from him a little, with a stunned look on her face. "Marriage?"
"I- I know I'm not much of a match, compared to Joffrey. He's a prince and I- well I cannot lie to you, Sansa. My people are pirates, rebels. We are despised by all right-thinking men. Men like your father and the king. Lord Eddard is a good man, but even he would not countenance me courting you. He rejected me out of hand-"
"I know you're not like that, Theon. Why are you saying these things?"
Gods, her faith in him humbled him completely. What had he ever done to deserve this woman at his side? "You have to know what you're walking into. What you could be giving up."
"I thought you wanted me to marry you?" she observed.
"I do! You know I do, but-"
"You know what this situation with Joffrey has taught me?"
He turned to her, but she seemed as sincere as ever. "What?"
"I cannot be with anyone but you." she said simply. "Do you understand, Theon? You are mine as I am yours and I would risk everything and anything to be yours." she moved into his arms, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips. "Marry me, Theon."
He drew back, looking faintly amused. "I thought I was proposing to you?"
Love made her bold. She looked up at him, a gleam of triumph in her eyes."This is me saying 'yes'"
Seagard
"We'll have to avoid Ser Mallister's men. He's a bannerman of Father's and he's been to Winterfell before. He'll likely recognise me, and he might recognise you as well." Sansa said, anxious not to be caught. "I hope we don't have to stay here long." To be honest, so did he. But this was one of the busiest ports serving Ironman's Bay and they were most likely to find a ship to carry them back to his home. It was a risk, but what could they do?
He knew what she was hoping so desperately for the same thought dominated his mind. I hope we can find a ship to take us to the Isles.
All their hopes were pinned on finding a passage to his home. The danger was nowhere near passed yet.
They went into the more disreputable part of town, searching for a sept. Some little backwater place where they were much more unlikely to ask questions about an errant bride and groom without witnesses, family – or indeed permission to wed.
Sansa pulled her cloak close and huddled closer to Theon. They passed a bevy of drunken sailors who eyed Sansa with interest. Even cloaked and hooded, she was a striking figure - tall slender and fair of face underneath her cloak.
One drink befuddled sailor coming out of a tavern on the docks accosted them with a lascivious gleam in his eyes. Sansa shrank closer to Theon who's hand strayed towards his weapon.
"Cor! She's a prime bit o' rump, ain't she?"
"Come back wi' me, lass. I'll show thee a better time than yon pretty boy 'ere-" he slurred.
Theon glared at the sailor as if daring him to come any closer. She could see just how on the edge he was and how easy it would be for him to lose his temper with this disrespectful man.
"Do you mind? That's my wife you're talking about, thank you." Theon said in his coldest most princely tone. And if his statement was not quite strictly true yet, who was going to know?
"No need to take offence, mate, I'm happy to share." the sailor grumbled, eyeing both of them appreciatively. "-and yer ain't so bad-looking yerself. We could share her, eh? Might be entertaining enough. I can be flexible after a couple of months at sea."
Theon 's hand went to his hilt as he gave the lustful sailor a hard stare. He bristled with indignation and outrage at his proposal. "I won't tell you again. Stay away from us!"
Sansa was afraid they were going to be diverted from their purpose and embroiled in a fight with rough men in a strange town. She pulled him away from the conflict, seeking to soothe her husband before he lost his temper completely and battered the man. "Peace, my love. They know not what they say. Come now -"
The couple were both relieved to find a sept down an alleyway. It was a run-down place with broken stained glass windows and a dented door, but it would suffice.
The septon stared at the couple with bleary eyes. Sansa suspected that was drink she could smell wafting from him in acrid waves. It made her feel a little bit sick to be honest but they couldn't be choosers. They needed to find a priest who would wed them with no objections and no questions asked.
"So will you do it? Marry us as soon as possible?" Theon urged as soon as the priest had reluctantly admitted them both in. "It has to be today!"
The septon rubbed his rheumy eyes, bleary with drink and lack of sleep. Bother these young people, waking him up demanding services, he was thinking, as clear as day.
"Please ser, if it is a question of money, we have some." Sansa urged, trying to keep him on side.
"Why are you all in such a hurry?" the septon grumbled, evidently hungover to the gills. He looked down noticing their linked hands.
"Oh..." the septon's face fell in disapproval. "-please tell me that you two haven't done anything stupid."
Her furious blush and Theon's awkward demeanour told him everything he needed to know.
"You know that carnal knowledge before marriage is a terrible sin?" he turned towards Theon. "Did you seduce this girl?"
Theon took the priest's rebuke. "I want to do right by her. Please, I'm asking you to have mercy on us. Marry us today."
"Have you a cloak for this girl?"
He nodded. "Yes, I have."
The priest wasn't quite finished, though. "I'm going to need real names."
The couple looked at each other in consternation. They hadn't thought about this.
"If I marry you both under false names then it won't be legal." The septon insisted, "-and both your mortal souls would be in great peril."
Sansa and Theon looked at each other, weighing up the risks. It was perilous; if he balked after hearing their true names... But they had no choice. They had to be wed, as soon as possible!
"I am Sansa Stark."
"-and I am Theon Greyjoy. Please wed us, father-"
The septon recoiled in shock. "D'ye know what you are asking of me? Your father will kill me, milady! Both of your fathers will kill me! Oh this is bad." he moaned in horror.
Theon was frantic and losing patience with the septon's scruples. "Once 'tis done there' nothing that they can do about it."
"Please father, we must be wed. I cannot live without him and my family will make me marry someone I cannot bear if we aren't wed."
The septon sighed ground down by her pleading and Theon's insistence. "Very well-" he said, much against his better judgement."Theon Greyjoy, Do you take this girl, Sansa Stark to be your lawful wedded wife?" the septon intoned. "Care for her and protect her, with your sword if necessary, as long as you both shall live?"
Theon nodded as they knelt before the humble altar. "Yes, I do."
"And you Sansa dear do you take this man, Theon to be your lawful husband? In sickness and in health, in wealth or poverty. Till death do you part?"
She smiled at him, sure of her love. "Yes I do, with gladness-"
The septon sighed, unable to dissuade them from their chosen course of action. "-then by the power invested in me by the Seven, I pronounce you married in the sight of the say it after me, milady-"
"With this kiss I pledge my love." they both echoed.
Sansa repeated the vow, her heart swelling. This was all she had ever wanted even if it wasn't the lavish joyful ceremony her girlish daydreams had depicted. She was with Theon, wearing his cloak, handfast and happy and at last she was his.
"With this kiss I pledge my love." Theon said pressing a loving kiss to her cheek. It was done. At last they were finally wed.
"Then by the power invested in me, I pronounce you man and wife. Cursed be the man who tries to pull you asunder." he shook his head in sadness. "I wish you both luck, for you'll need it."
They went back to their humble tavern for the night happy that they had managed to convince the septon to marry them with few questions asked. With the press of some silver into his hands, he even not questioned too hard about their names, which was a stroke of luck. Sansa had fretted that he might betray them if questioned by her father's forces but Theon was surprisingly sanguine about the possibility.
"Gods, we paid him enough money, if he's going to betray us now, let him."
They sat in an alcove at their inn, sharing a bottle of wine and a meal. She was nervous with anticipation and fear, aware of what would come next. Sansa picked at her food, too excited to sit still. Tonight, it's going to happen tonight!
"You should eat, dearheart. You'll need your strength."
The implication and the frankly heated glance he shot her, left her blushing. They were going to do this.
She stood up, eyes bright with excitement. "Shall we?"
His mouth turned up at the corner with affection and more than a little healthy lust. The hunger in his darkened gaze made her tremble with anticipation.
"I'll settle up." he said.
This was probably not the wedding night Sansa had dreamt of. A hole in the wall ceremony, cloaked and hooded in case anyone realised their identities and betrayed them to Lord Eddard and his bannermen. A dissolute drunken septon and a humble wedding breakfast in a run down inn. A wedding bed stuffed with old hay and old rushes on the floor. Yet this was all she wanted.
"I don't want to hurt you, sweetling." he said lowering her down to the bed and kissing her thoroughly. Her arms went up round his neck to draw him closer. The sweet slide of his tongue in her mouth, intimately suggesting new pleasures, the now familiar comforting weight of his body on hers was making her lose her mind.
"You won't... I can take it, I'm brave enough I promise." she said between dizzying kisses. Her eyes were dark with arousal, the blue almost disappeared behind her dilated pupils.
"Do you know what you ask? Sansa this is no game, once we do this there is no turning back."
"I want.." she told him in between sweet kisses. "...to be yours, Theon. In every way possible. Don't deny me-"
He kissed her body with a reverence he'd never had for anything else, pressing adoring kisses to her soft pale flesh, lingering at her collarbone and the hollow of her throat.
Her back arched, eager for more of his caresses and touches. She gasped as he took one hardened nipple in his mouth and sucked gently on it. Her hand slipped around his head, encouraging him to linger.
"Say that me you love me." he gasped, low and inviting in her ear as he ran his tongue down the slender path of her throat ending with a sweet kiss to the warm inviting hollow of her throat.
"I love you, I love you so much, please-" she breathed, driven out of her mind by the contact of skin against skin.
"Tell me if it hurts. I don't want to cause you pain, my sweet-" she could feel him at her entrance, the hot length of him at her soft thigh. His hips moved gently back and forth, accustoming her to his lance, making her want him inside her even more.
"Do it my love, don't spare me-" she groaned, opening up for him as with one thrust he was lodged inside her.
He groaned brokenly. "Gods, it's like heaven. So sweet and smug around me...Oh Sansa, are you?-"
"I'm fine-" she gasped, breathless with the shock of the short sharp pain. Gods, he was so close, so intimate. They'd never been so close. Sansa found that she liked it, him being inside her, almost a part of her. She liked it a great deal. "Just...just stay still a bit. So I can get used to it."
He pressed adoring kisses to her flushed face. "So brave...I'm sorry for the pain. It'll get better, I promise-" he breathed, holding still with a great effort.
"I-I think you can move now." She told him, wrapping one long leg round him to pull him closer. "-just be gentle with me." He smiled down at her tenderly, thrusts building in rhythm and intensity
"Move with me. Just like when we dance..." he punctuated his words with a roll of his hips which made her gasp and cling onto his broad shoulders.
"Good?"
She looked up at him. "Yes, do it again. Don't stop-"
She needed his cock thrusting and surging inside her, she needed his clever fingers between them, rubbing and pressing her nub, bringing her even more pleasure, she needed his voice in her ears whispering ardent words of love and devotion.
Sansa lay back on the cover dazed by the intensity of what she had just experienced with Theon. "-now I understand why they call it 'making love'
A month and a half later...
Finding a passage from Seagard did not prove as easy as the couple had first thought. While they waited they searched for work and tried to make the best of things. At least, the love and passion they indulged in every night made up for the crushing disappointment that they were so close to the Isles and yet so far...
"How much?" Theon said in disbelief as the captain quoted him a price for passage to the Isles. Surely he had to be japing! "Twenty silver stags. Each!" the older man said firmly.
"You couldn't knock a bit off the price? I'm prepared to work my way across." he could hear the pleading in his voice and it never did to sound too desperate, but damn it he was desperate. They needed to get across Ironman's Bay and get to his father's lands as soon as they could. It was vital they were able to leave the Stark territories as soon as possible. This delay was torture-
"That's the best price you're going to get for a trip to the Isles at this time of the year." the captain was unbending.
"There's nothing you can do?"
"Nothing. I'm sorry lad, but a voyage to the Isles 'tis no mean undertaking. They're a fierce bunch there and this time of year the seas are rough and perilous. Whirlpools and waves fierce enough to sink an unwary ship-"
"Damn!" Theon cursed under his breath, seeing his dream of getting to the Isles unimpeded disappearing by the second.
"Why're you two so frantic to get there anyways? The captain looking at him with interest.
The last thing Theon wanted to do was to bring attention to himself and Sansa. Not when they were still under the nose of the Mallisters, who had little love for his kind, and were incredibly loyal to Lord Eddard and the Stark family.
There was no way that they had enough silver to make the journey. Theon privately cursed the extortionate sum they'd pressed into the septon's greasy palm in order to get him to marry them and shut his mouth.
They might be able to earn their way across, but it would take time which was something they didn't have. Not in this town under the eye of the Mallisters and Lord Ned's men on their trail. Sansa would be so disappointed and they were in danger every moment they remained on mainland soil.
"What did they say?" she asked as soon as he reached their humble room in the inn. She was trying to hide it for his sake, but she was as anxious as he was.
He hated to crush her hopes but he didn't have a choice.
"Nothing. No one will take us across to the Isles for less than twenty stags. Each-" he slumped on the bed despondently.
She stared at him with appalled eyes. "That's extortionate! Twenty stags! We haven't got twenty stags, we've barely got eighteen!"
He closed his eyes feeling her disappointment like a brand.
"I know. Oh gods, what a mess. We'll either have to earn it or stowaway and if we're caught stowing-" they'd be dragged off the ship. Perhaps they might even be thrown overboard, depending on the mercy of the captain in question.
"You must not lose hope, Theon. I will stay with you through storm and spring. I gave myself to you, remember?" she said trying hard to console him despite her own bitter disappointment.
"You did, sweetling, that you did. You have no regrets?" he wouldn't blame her if she did.
"No! Theon, we're together and I am far from Joffrey, that's what matters isn't it?"
"I stole you from your family. I ruined your reputation. How can you not despise me?"
She shook her head, holding him close. "I asked you to take me away from Joffrey. I begged you. Please Theon, do not blame yourself."
"Come to bed, Theon." she cajoled him, sensing his disappointment and sense of failure. "Don't fret about what we cannot change right now. Come to me, my love." He settled into her welcoming arms, letting her cradle him.
"Gods, I need you now-"
She heard the anguish in his voice and wordlessly let him sink into the welcoming depths of her body. Not making love just yet, just taking comfort from one another.
"I've failed you-" he said into the flaming mass of her soft hair. "I put my cloak around you and promised to defend you with sword and bow, and yet at the first sign of trouble I've failed you."
She stroked his hair gently soothing his troubled mind. She was the one giving comfort now in their moment of crisis. "No you haven't. You've done everything I asked of you. You saved me, and you married me. How can you think you've failed me?"
"You always believe the best of me darling. Why?" he asked her.
Sansa gave him a gentle loving smile and a kiss stroking his dark shaggy hair away from his face.
"There's love in you, though you try hard to hide it from everyone else, but not from me. All you need is someone to have faith in you and your own will will do the rest."
"I don't know what I ever did to deserve someone like you." he sighed.
The landlord of the Trout and Boots couldn't help but be intrigued by his latest newly-wed couple to enter their doors. Their accents were more cultured and high-born than the young couple. The landlord wondered who they really were and what they were doing in his humble inn, pretending to be a humble couple.
There was something faintly Iron-born in the lad's vowels. The sing-songiness of his intonation slipped through occasion, though he seemed well-spoken enough. No common sailor, this one.
He looked again at him as the couple sat at a booth eating an evening meal. He had the slightly long beaky nose of the Greyjoys, something about his features that he recognised. Those eyes...the boy laughed at something she'd said leaning forward to steal a kiss from the girl. The corner of his mouth tilting up, in a faintly ironic smile.
It had to be! The lad had to be a Greyjoy, he recognised that smirk from the daughter who was always docking and causing trouble, and the girl... He was convinced that this was the Ned's daughter with that fire-red hair and her blue eyes!
What was happening? Had the lad stolen her away from her family? He had a bit of a reputation as a ladies' man, the gossip was. The landlord knew which his side his bread was buttered on. His family had been loyal to the Mallisters and by extension Lord Eddard and his family for generations and the Ironmen were little loved in this part of the world. It was not hard for him to make his decision. 'Tis a shame though, the lass and lad look at each other as if...well, as if they really loved each other...
The landlord sent for his youngest son.
"Jacky, I want you to run to the castle and ask to speak to Ser Jason. Make sure yer see 'im right away. It's important."
"Aye, Dad."
"Just one thing...don't let yerself be seen." he said, nodding over to the couple who were completely wrapped up in each other. "Go out the back way."
Jacky didn't need to be told twice. He scurried away on nimble feet.
Ser Jason was reading his messages from the many ravens and couriers that came to the castle. This latest one from Lord Stark troubled him. To think that his daughter had gone missing taken by an Ironman! It must be Lord Ned's worst nightmare.
He could have told Ned that fostering one of their spawn would be a bad idea from the start, he would have been better off drowning the lad or pushing him off their steep treacherous cliffs, but Lord Ned had always tried to be a stern but merciful man. He'd taken the boy into his household and treated him like a son, given him a chance at a decent life and this is how the boy repaid him! No wonder he wants his hide!
"There's a lad who insists on seeing you. Says it's important. From the Trout and Boots-" the manservant said.
Ser Jason raised his head, his notice piqued. He knew the inn. A rather ramshackle humble inn in an insalubrious part of town but with good ale and food; and quite the thoroughfare for sailors and traders passing through the port. He'd got much useful information from the landlord and counted him as one of his best contacts.
"Let him in."
Jacky bowed at being admitted to Lord Jason's presence. He gazed round the grand yet austere solar with something close to awe. What he wouldn't give to work somewhere like here!
"M'Lord, my father sent me." the lad said bowing low to him.
Ser Jason hastened him up. "No need for ceremony lad. Why has your father sent you to me?"
"It's about the missing girl. The Stark maiden." the lad said.
Ser Jason's ears pricked up immediately. "Aye, what have you heard?"
Jacky wrinkled his snub freckled nose. "It ain't what we heard m'lord. They're in our tavern!"
Ser Jason wasn't sure he'd heard right for a second. "In your tavern?" he said slowly. "They've got rooms at the Trout and Boots?"
"Aye, they got rooms a couple of days ago." the lad confided. "Newly-weds they claimed they were. I think they're planning for a longer stay than they'd first thought for I heard the lass asking for work downstairs and he was heading down to the docks to pick up some casual work. Da thinks they've run out of funds-"
Gods, Ned and Cat are going to be furious when they hear about that, thought Ser Jason. But what a stroke of luck that they can't escape so readily and are stranded in Seagard Town for the immediate future!
"Ye've done well, lad." he reached into a pocket to reward him and his father for their loyal service. "Here, this is for your father and here's one for yourself."
Jacky broke out in a grin as he pocketed the coin. "Thank yer m'lord 'tis mighty generous of you!"
As soon as Lord Eddard and Jory arrived at Seagard with their men to catch up with the guilty pair Ser Jason gave them directions to the tavern and went with them to see that justice was done. "I'll imagine you'll want to capture them both as soon as possible, Lord Eddard."
"Give them no chance to escape."
"They're up here at the moment, I can hear them." the landlord said as they approached the end room. "In there..." he made a disapproving face. "They're at it again."
"What do you mean again?"
The landlord looked mighty uncomfortable to have to say this to Ser Jason's liege lord. What man wants to hear about his daughter and another man sleeping with one another?
"Well, my lord. They're newly-weds or so they claimed and mad in love. They're up most of the night, swiving twice thrice sometimes four times a night." he said reluctantly. "I didn't want to say it, m'lord but ye did ask..."
Ser Jason, Jory and the landlord looked away not daring to look at Lord Stark's outraged face.
"What are we going to do?"
Ned looked uncomfortable. "We can't walk in on them having well...sex-"
"Well she doesn't sound as if she's being hurt..." Jory said dubiously before trailing away, in a failed attempt to be tactful.
The other men swapped a glance. As if thinking the same thing. In fact they sound as if they are quite obviously enjoying every second of their illicit encounter.
"Well perhaps we don't have to walk in right away."
Ser Jason was puzzled by Ned's scruples. "Lord Ned, you wanted proof he was debauching your daughter, what more do you require?"
"I suppose there's some things a father never wants to see with his own eyes."
"Have you the key?" Ser Jason asked the landlord.
The man handed it over. "They you are m'lord. You'll need a lever if they've barred the door as well."
"We'll try to do this with minimal disruption." Ned tried to assure him. "All we want is my daughter safe and sound and for Greyjoy to be apprehended." he sighed, sounding older and more worn than ever. "I just want this entire scandal to be over as soon as possible."
"What if he tries to resist capture? If he was desperate enough to steal your daughter he is unlikely to come quietly."
Ned's hand strayed to Ice which lay in it's scabbard by his hip. "If the lad knows what's good for him, he won't put up too much of a resistance."
Theon and Sansa were falling asleep after making love. She snuggled deeper next to him, feeling safe and secure in her lover's arms. She didn't think it was possible for her to love him more but their disappointment at being thwarted in their escape to the Isles had brought them together even stronger.
He needs me to support him and be strong. I can do that. I can be the wife that he needs.
"Theon?"
He turned sleepily towards her in the darkness, giving her a kiss on her nose. "Yes, dearheart?"
"Have you thought about what we'll do next. If we have children?"
It was very possible. Lady Catelyn had been a fruitful wife and they'd hardly been careful since the wedding, caught up in their attraction and physical desire for one another. "Every man wants sons to carry on his name, but a daughter as fair as you, that would be no bad thing..."
"What would you name our children?" She asked feeling unaccountably pleased that he wanted a life with her and children. When we get to the Isles, everything will be better. Lord Balon is bound to accept us if I bear Theon an heir...
Theon seemed to like the sound of children of their own. Bold young girls like the sister he sometimes talked to her about. Walking by the shore arm in arm and growing old together. Boisterous lads who sailed as easy as riding. he considered it for a moment.
"Harren- a good Ironborn name. A name fit for a king of the Isles. And Dagmer-" he pronounced firmly. "Unless you had any burning desire on what to call our son. You weren't hoping to call him Florian or something?"
"Dagmer?" she asked, leaning up on her elbow and smiling up at him before nudging him hard for his little crack about one of her favourite heroes of song. "- and you shouldn't tease about Florian, it's a perfectly lovely name!" She laid her head against his chest. "Why Dagmer?"
"When I was a child back on Pyke, our old master of arms was named Dagmer Cleftjaw. He was a good man fierce and loyal to my father but kind with it too. He treated me better than my own father did." She knew he and his father had a rather fraught relationship. Balon didn't seem to like Theon all that much, the way he described their relationship it sounded as if there was not that much love between them.
"Since it's important to you, I can work with that, Theon. Dagmer Greyjoy, Lord of the Isles. Has a good ring to it." she murmured, growing ever sleepier. She snuggled by his side, her eyes fluttering shut, pillowed on his bare chest with his arms round her. "Good night, my love."
Theon awoke, alert at the unfamiliar sound. He stiffened, suddenly hearing the key turn in the lock.
"Sansa, wake up!" he whispered into her ear. "Someone's trying to get into the room."
She woke suddenly with a sharp intake of breath.
"What shall we do? We're trapped. How can we escape?" her voice was tight with panic. The pounding on the door grew louder and louder.
"Unbar the door!"
Sansa looked at him in panic, her worst fears coming true. Their idyllic interlude was over and cold hard reality came crashing in on both of them. How on earth would they explain what they'd done to her father?
"It's Jory. My father cannot be too far behind. Gods, he must find us naked as babes!" she threw his doublet at him in a panic. "Quick, get dressed darling!"
Sansa and Theon were hastily pulling on some clothing when the door finally gave. The couple froze guiltily, caught in an unmistakably compromising position. There was no way either of them were going to be able to deny what was going on.
Her father barged through the door, stony-faced. He was followed by the landlord who couldn't meet their eyes aware of his betrayal, Jory Cassel and Ser Jason Mallister and five guards.
"Seize him!" Ned said.
Theon was forced to his knees and struck by an over-enthusiastic guard. He reeled from the force of the blow
Sansa cried out in horror as she saw her lover wince in pain. "Don't hurt him, please don't hurt him Father, I love him. He's my husband." she cried, starting to sob.
Ned shook his head at his guilty daughter and her lover. "Oh Sansa my fair foolish girl. What have you done?" He turned to his men. "We head straight for Winterfell. No lingering. I just want this to be over!"
The guards surrounded them, making sure that Theon and Sansa were separated from each other throughout the journey home. She barely dared to sneak a look over to him but she couldn't help being concerned and scared for them both.
This was all her fault. She was the one who had asked him to run away with her, she had pleaded and begged for him to go with her and now everything had fallen to pieces. Her father was going to be furious with her. Her mother would be so disappointed. She would be in worse trouble than Arya had ever been. The consequences of her actions were just starting to sink in.
I have to be brave. He believes in me. I have to prove myself to be worthy of his trust.
Her hands were bound in front of her. Her wrists ached and itched from under her bonds but she knew better than to ask someone to loosen them. They were probably afraid she would make a run for it. She hoped that he wouldn't be punished too harshly by her father. Would he be sent away in disgrace?
Would she never see him again? Sansa couldn't bear the thought. She loved him and she couldn't let her father and family part them.
He couldn't let himself look at her, knowing that she was going to be in so much trouble for running away with him. Ned Stark's disappointment and righteous anger was going to hard enough to endure as it was but the thought of Sansa being punished was almost more than he could take.
We have to tell him the truth, no matter what the consequence. That is her only hope.
Perhaps if they knew what Joffrey was capable of then they wouldn't be so insistent that she marry him. There was a part of him that wished he had taken what she'd offered that first night on the run. So hard to resist her soft mouth, the slender curves of her body pressed up against his for warmth as they took shelter.
"Don't you want me?" she'd breathed into his ear, and it had taken every single scrap of self-control he'd possessed not to. He knew Lord Eddard would never forgive him if he did. He prayed for some self-discipline when all he wanted to do is take her right there on the forest floor, propriety be damned.
Thank every god he knew they had managed to find a septon who after being plied with wine and crossing his palm with silver, didn't ask too many questions. He hurriedly married them allowing Theon to drape his cloak around her shoulders and anointing them.
In the sight of the Gods we are man and wife, but will Lord and Lady Stark accept it? Will the king?
