"Take the irons off of her."
The command was harsh, even to Sarah's ears as she stood up from the bed and saw who had entered her bedchamber. She remained tall as the Queen Regent wandered closer to her, her hands in front of her with a scowl on her face. Two members from the Kingsguard moved tightly around her towards Sarah, turning her around roughly to release her wrists from their constraints.
She grumbled at the pain they caused her as the metal dug into her wrists and was then pulled away from her. Standing tall, Sarah turned back to face the Queen who held a piece of parchment and a quill in her hands.
"Sit at the desk," she commanded and Sarah pulled her chair out and sat down.
Cersei bent over her to rest the items on the desk and then seated herself on the side of the bed, her knees brushing the back of Sarah's chair as she did so. She leant forwards, her hands in her lap as she glowered at the black haired girl and Sarah remained still, wondering what she was going to make her write.
"Now, you can do this the easy way or the hard way," Cersei spoke and looked at the girl, doing her best to weigh her up. No, she did not care for the girl. She wanted to know what it was she possessed that entranced her brother so. She was not the prettiest girl to be seen, nor did she have much of a personality.
Yet Jaime was besotted with her.
"And what is it you wish for me to do?" Sarah finally asked.
"Write a letter to your father; tell him that he is to come to King's Landing and surrender his cause if he would like to see his daughter alive. Tell him that we will have you and his other daughter kept safe with his wife back on Dragonstone where you shall live out the rest of your days alone."
Sarah blinked profusely and dropped the quill which she had picked up. She shook her head and searched Cersei's gaze.
"That is a lie," Sarah responded and Cersei sat up straight, folding one leg over the other. "You have no intention to let me leave alive."
"And why does Stannis have to know that?" Cersei wondered back from the girl and Sarah remained silent. "Write it or suffer the consequences."
"Do you honestly believe that I will write something to lure my father to his death?" Sarah checked. "And my mother and sister are innocent in all of this. I shall not write it."
Cersei sighed and tucked her hair behind her ears before she stood up and looked to the two members of the Kingsguard. Sarah turned her upper body around in her chair and watched on as the Queen Regent clasped her hands to her skirts and nodded to the two men.
"See to it that you change Lady Sarah's mind," she called out to them as she moved over to the door and Sarah stood up, no corner behind her to quiver in as the Queen began to close the door behind her. "You have until tomorrow to write the letter before I come back."
Sarah tried to sweep underneath the two members of the Kingsguard, failing miserably as one of them took her by her waist and held her tightly to him. Sarah screamed loudly as the other one drew his sword and the blade caught her eye before she closed her eyes and waited for the punishment to begin.
...
Jaime had heard word of Brienne of Tarth making her way closer to King's Landing and he had demanded his men to alert him as soon as she made her presence known. He had then gone about seeking out Varys, but the eunuch had seemingly gone into hiding after he had told Jaime that they should speak urgently. Jaime had cursed before bumping into his sister as she wandered back to the Tower of the Hand.
"Brother," she inclined her head, a smirk on her face as she did so.
Jaime knew that look. It was one that told him that she had been up to no good.
"Were you on your way to see your little pet?" Cersei wondered from Jaime and he arched his brow, his hand lazily resting on the hilt of his sword as Cersei folded her ankles together and smiled sickeningly sweetly at him. "She might be a little busy at the moment. She refused to write a letter for me and I had no other option but to punish her for it. You see, she believes she is doing the noble thing...protecting her traitor father...but she is merely speeding up her own death."
"What have you done to her?" Jaime asked.
"Oh, the concern," Cersei drawled out and then ground her teeth together, hissing out as she did so; "Don't worry, she might be a little bruised, but my men may have spared her maidenhead if you're lucky."
"And you would let them hurt her? You let them punish her?"
"I had to," Cersei mocked hurt with him. "The girl had to be taught a lesson. It is scarcely my fault that she cannot obey those who are superior to her. The poor little chit."
"Just leave her alone," Jaime snapped and turned on his heel to walk away from his sister. She remained rooted on the spot, the knowing smirk on her face before she continued to make her way up to see her father, intending to tell him everything about her brother's compassion over the Baratheon girl. Tywin Lannister would set his son straight.
Jaime continued to rush forwards down the corridors until he came to the courtyard where Sarah's room was. He moved down towards the room, the sight of two members of the Kingsguard leaving enough to tell him that he had been too late. He swept past the men, his shoulders knocking against theirs as they inclined their heads out of respect.
He slammed the door open once he had finished with the locks and bolts and stepped into the room. He quickly slammed the door shut again and pulled the only bolt on the door across to lock people out. Once he was inside, it was only then when he looked at Sarah.
The girl was sat on the floor by the side of the bed, panting for breath, her dress was ripped in shreds around her body, her underclothes barely covering her modesty. Jaime's teeth continued to grind together at the sight of her before he reached for the blanket on the bed.
"Sarah," he soothingly spoke her name, noting the cut on her lip and the growing bruise on her eye. No doubt she had more bruises concealed on her body where he could not see them.
He draped the blanket around her shoulders before picking her up from the floor awkwardly, cradling her in his arms. She groaned in pain as he settled her on his lap to sit on the edge of the bed. She gently placed her head on his shoulder as he heard her sobs.
"What did they do to you?" he dared to ask her after a few moments.
"Beat me," Sarah whispered. "They said that they would be back tomorrow if I do not do as they say...that they would break some bones the next time..."
Jaime's grip increased and in turn she gave out a hiss of pain.
"I will try to stop them," he promised her.
She kept silent, not even bothering to snap at Jaime that there was nothing he could truly do. Cersei had her under lock and key which she controlled. She had her beat and punished for her insolence and Jaime had done nothing to stop it. But it was not Jaime's fault. He was not to blame for any of this.
He looked down to her as she remained still, his arms around her in a tender motion as he kissed the top of her head and she kept still against him. It wasn't long before Jaime heard her breathing turn shallower than normal and he noted that she was asleep in his hold. He gently laid her down on the bed, covering her almost bare form with the covers before he left her alone.
"Ser Jaime."
Jaime looked up as two men in red cloaks advanced towards him as he locked the door to her chamber and commanded the guards guarding her to keep anyone out of her chamber for fear of what they would do to her again.
"Yes?" Jaime asked the new men and they stood tall in front of him.
"Your father requests your presence in the Hand of the King's chamber," one responded. "He says to come as soon as possible."
Groaning, Jaime swept by them and moved through the corridors, wondering what could have happened that was so urgent. It didn't take long for him to knock on his father's door and a servant answered to him. Jaime swept past him, his hand nonchalantly holding the hilt of his sword and he arched a brow at the sight of his father sat with Cersei at the long dining table in the centre of the breezy room.
"Well this is cosy," he commented, pulling a seat out opposite Cersei and to the left of his father. He looked between the pair of them and waited for a response.
"Your sister has expressed concerns," Tywin spoke. "Concerns which I hope to put to rest before you leave this room."
"And what concerns are these?" Jaime wondered.
Tywin kept his hands together on his table, looking between the twins. They had both been so close as children, but now they looked as though they could hardly stand each other.
"Sarah Baratheon," Tywin said. "Cersei tells me that you brought her back to King's Landing this afternoon. She is locked in a cell, I trust?"
"After Joffrey had her publically humiliated in front of crowds," Jaime clarified. "And now she has been beaten by two members of the Kingsguard for not writing a letter which would condemn her father to death."
"She will write it," Cersei clarified, "if she wishes to keep her head."
"Her head will remain intact until Stannis surrenders," Tywin spoke back, not once losing his temper with Cersei. "Beating the girl is unnecessary. Stannis will receive word from me and he shall come and bend the knee."
"It is more believable if it is in the girl's scrawl," Cersei protested.
"And he will know that the girl's writing is your words," Tywin retorted. "It doesn't matter about that. The girl knows that she is to lose her life and she is suffering enough for that now. We do not need to be unnecessarily cruel."
Jaime scoffed at hearing that. His entire family was known for being 'unnecessarily cruel.' Cersei and Joffrey particularly enjoyed the notion.
Tywin turned his glare to his eldest son; "The girl is a Baratheon."
"I am aware."
"Yet you were seen with her on the ship back to King's Landing," Cersei inputted. "I asked my men and they said that you seemed very close to her."
"I trust when you say your men you mean your spies?" Jaime asked the rhetorical question. "I made sure none of them hurt her like they taunted to. I did what I was sworn to do; protect the weak in this world. She is not guilty of her father's crimes."
"She may as well be," Tywin spoke back. "But you are not to see her again. Do you understand me?"
Jaime's eyes widened but he remained calm and collected, refusing to let his father see his anger. "And why not? Do you fear that she will cause me to change sides? Have me fly a stag instead of a lion?"
"I fear you will put a bastard in the girl's belly," Tywin bluntly responded and even Cersei winced at hearing that. Jaime kept still, his mouth slightly agape. "You have spent far too much time with this girl for me to suspect that you have not developed affection for her; an affection which will not manifest itself too deep."
Jaime's mouth dried up and he licked on his lips, trying to think of a cocky remark to come back with. He needed something to throw his father off of his scent. If he were not to see Sarah again then he knew trouble would only brew.
"The girl is pleasant," Jaime admitted, "but I have not fallen in love with her like a gallant knight falls for a Princess."
"She is no Princess," Cersei snarled back. "She is a common whore who would spread her legs for you without any hesitation."
"So would many others," Jaime quipped back.
"Enough," Tywin interrupted their sparring. "I do not wish to discuss the girl anymore. She is to remain locked away and neither of you are to go and see her...not to taunt her...not to fuck her...nothing."
Jaime and Cersei regarded each other with hesitance and hatred at the same time. Tywin stood; his hands on the table underneath him as he looked between his children.
"Now, we have a wedding to arrange and I do not want this girl to ruin it. So run along and I do not wish to hear any rumours that she has come between our family again."
...
Sarah was seated in her chamber as the night fell and darkness shrouded her. She had no candle, nor had she been fed that evening. Water was scarce in her jug and her bruises ached on her body. She kept still as the door creaked open.
"I need you to hurry, my dear," the soft voice spoke and Sarah sat up straight then and looked to the man who she believed to be Lord Varys. He closed the door and drew out a gown from his cloak, laying it on the edge of the bed. "Ser Jaime has asked me if I could bring you to him. The guards outside are my little spiders...they will keep quiet...but only for a few hours..."
"Why does he want to see me?" Sarah asked, reaching for the dress and pulling it over her undergarments. She went about lacing it up on her chest, doing her best to make an accurate job in the dark night.
"He did not say," Varys replied. "I believe the Ser Jaime is rather besotted with you. He frets idly most of his time."
Sarah finished with the gown and Varys ushered her from the room. He kept her close by his side and he did not say a word. More than a few moments passed where Sarah wondered if she could trust the eunuch, but she kept mute. She was willing to go on a little faith and Jaime had said that he was working with Varys.
He led her down a stairwell and Sarah looked around it, the candles on the wall burning brightly and showing her the way. It was only when they came down to the bottom did she see him in the open space. She looked around as Jaime made his way towards her hastily. She continued to look around as he placed his hands to her waist and she only then looked to him.
"What is happening?" she worried, her own hands moving to his shoulders and he looked over to Varys who nodded in a mutual understanding.
"I shall be back for her soon enough, Ser Jaime," he inclined his head. "Lady Sarah."
The eunuch left the room as Sarah looked concerned, the open space around her rather vast. She wondered what it was, but then she noted barrels stacked towards the back of the room as Jaime led her towards them.
"It is the storage room," Jaime spoke. "Oats...everything like that. I thought it was the safest place to bring you for a while."
"And why did you bring me?" Sarah wondered as Jaime took her by the waist and picked her up to sit on one of them. A candle was placed on the one next door along with a plate of meat and vegetables and a jug of water. Sarah arched a brow in slight amusement. "For a picnic?"
Jaime rolled his eyes and stabbed a carrot with the fork before pressing it to her lips and feeding her delicately. She closed her eyes at the taste of it and something about the sight of her moaning with her eyes closed and her lips parted caused a stir in Jaime's breeches. He kept silent as he leant his elbow on the barrel and stabbed another vegetable for her to eat.
"I brought you down here because I wanted to speak with you," Jaime said. "My father summoned me to his chamber."
She bit the carrot from the fork and delicately placed her hand over her mouth as she spoke whilst chewing; "What did he want?"
"He wanted to forbid me from seeing you again," Jaime said, "and he told Cersei to leave you alone. He wants you kept in solace until he arranges your execution."
Wincing, Jaime stabbed through the sausage on his plate to feed her a small piece. She took it willingly and without hesitance as Jaime struggled to contain his erotic thoughts.
"Why does he want you to leave me be?"
"He think that there is something going on between us," Jaime said. "Of course if he knew about me with my head under your skirts earlier today then he would not be pleased."
Sarah slapped him across the arm at his comment and he chuckled before she took the fork from his hand and cut into her meat with the knife which had so far been redundant.
"Maybe you should do as your father asks," Sarah urged him. "I don't want you to get into trouble with him, Jaime. It's too dangerous for both of us."
"I know," Jaime complained to her, stepping in between her legs as she wrapped them around his waist and he trailed his hands from underneath her breasts to her hips and then back up again. She shivered at the contact and Jaime bent down to kiss her neck slowly.
"Jaime," she complained to him, "I'm trying to eat."
"And I'm trying to pleasure you again. Can women not multitask?"
"Not when the male is too distracting," Sarah responded and Jaime moved to her lips, but she blocked him as she held the fork there and delicately chewed on a carrot. Jaime frowned at the sight of her and she smirked back before giving up on trying to eat her meal. She didn't feel too hungry anyway.
"Besides, it is too dangerous to do anything down here. Someone could hear us."
"With the way you scream I would not be shocked," Jaime scoffed and Sarah hit him across the back of his head before he finally kissed her again and she gave in, allowing him to dominate her mouth with his tongue as she groaned.
It wasn't long before his hand was pulling at the ties to her dress and then snaking underneath her underclothes. She remained still as she felt it rest on her bare breast, nothing in between her skin and his skin. The touch sent shivers down her spin as Jaime softly caressed her mound and looked to her, wondering if he had permission to go any further. He had done earlier, but he still wanted to make sure she was fine.
"Since when did we go from allies to this?" Sarah suddenly asked him as she went about pulling the gown from her shoulders along with her underclothes until she revealed her bare breasts to him and Jaime inhaled sharply and gulped, staring at them like he had done earlier in between her legs. But the thing which concerned him the most were the bruises on her skin. He looked to them and Sarah followed his eyes to see the dark purple spots marring her skin. She coughed then and felt her mouth dry up.
"You could try to stop staring and answer my question," Sarah responded and Jaime frowned to her, his gaze moving back to hers.
"How can you expect me to stop staring when you present your teats to me?" he wondered, his chest now flush against hers, the coldness of his leather jacket rubbing against her breasts as he took her cheeks in his hands. "But in answer to your question; I don't know when it happened. I don't know how any of this happened...but I do know that I want you in ways I had never thought imaginable...I want you...but I want more than your body as well. I want your intellect, your wit, your sarcasm. Seven Hells, I even want your Florent ears."
He managed to elicit a laugh from her then as his hands moved from her cheeks to the bottom of her gown, pulling it up her thighs until it pooled in her lap and his hands cupped her breasts once they had trailed over her ribcage.
"If you keep talking like that then I may begin to think you're falling for me," Sarah said and Jaime weighed her breasts in his hands before he lowered her back against the barrel and he leaned over her, his mouth coming to her neck as he continued to toy with her breasts.
"Perhaps I may be," Jaime admitted, his lips moving down her neck and Sarah kept still, knotting her hands into his hair. "And I think you may be falling for me."
"Perhaps I may be," Sarah echoed his words as she kept her gaze on the ceiling and Jaime teased her for the second time in one day.
...
A/N: Thank you so much to Guest, smilin steph, malifcbfan1899, CupcakeAndAlice, Lady Syndra and AverageBraavosi for reviewing the previous chapter. I hope to update either later today or tomorrow so please do let me know what you think!