Love is not always enough.

Princess Elia's words were haunting Lyanna's thoughts.

With this kiss I pledge my love.

The vows she had spoken on her wedding day jostled for position as well in Lyanna's mind. At the time, she had uttered those words without much thought, eager for the ceremony to be over. Stannis had spoken the same words almost grudgingly, 'love' coming out of his mouth as a harsh bark. He was not looking at her when he finally pulled her for the kiss, his eyes fixed on something else behind her.

Or someone else?

Lyanna's eyes strayed to her husband, sitting at the table writing a letter to Maester Cressen. Telling the maester to prepare Storm's End for visitors, she assumed. Lyanna's father had decided to visit Storm's End on their way back to Winterfell. "There is something I need to discuss with you, Stannis. And King's Landing is not the right place for it. Ravens are not to be trusted either, not for this matter," her father had said.

"Who were you looking at, when you were kissing me on our wedding day?" Lyanna blurted out the question suddenly.

Stannis turned around to face her. "Was I looking at anyone? I don't remember."

"You were looking at something behind me. Or someone."

"How could you tell? Your eyes were closed."

Had her eyes really been closed? She did not remember that. Before she could protest, her husband spoke again. "Do you know what your father wants to discuss with me? He's being very mysterious about it."

"No. I asked him, but he said it is between you and him, that I should not worry myself. That it is not my concern." Lyanna could not keep the bitterness out of her voice, the memory of that conversation with her father still rankled. I am no longer a child, she wanted to say to her father. I am a married woman now, about to be a mother. And Stannis is my husband, it is my concern. But the habit of a lifetime stayed her tongue in her father's presence. She wondered if she would ever grow out of that.

Her husband was clearing his throat, looking nervous. "What is it?" She asked gently.

"It wasn't too bad, was it? The feast. You did not have such a bad time?"

"No," she lied, but then thought better of it. "I don't know. It was …"

She struggled to find the right word to describe the experience.

"Strange," Stannis found the word for her. Lyanna nodded. "Yes, it was very strange. Almost … surreal, in fact."

"Did … did Princess Elia ask her brother to leave the two of you alone?"

Lyanna shook her head. "No, Prince Oberyn wanted to find Lord Connington to congratulate him on a hard-fought match."

Stannis and Rhaegar had both looked surprised when they came back to the table to find Lyanna sitting beside Princess Elia, the two of them the only ones left at the table. "Don't look so worried, Lord Stannis. I have not been mistreating your wife," Princess Elia had said with a smile, her tone almost jesting. But Lyanna noticed that the princess was not really looking at Stannis when she said those words, she was looking at Rhaegar. Her eyes, in stark contrast to her tone of voice and the smile grazing her lips, were grave and solemn.

"We've been having a pleasant conversation, haven't we, Lady Lyanna?"

"Yes, my princess," Lyanna had replied.

The looks passing between Rhaegar and Elia haunted her too. She could not decipher them. She resolved not to spend another moment thinking about it.

Now that truly is not my concern. Not anymore.

Something else struck her suddenly. "Did you speak to Lord Connington?" Lyanna asked her husband.

"No. Why?"

"He is your bannerman. You should congratulate him."

"He didn't win," Stannis said blithely.

"Yes, but he fought so hard," Lyanna replied.

"He doesn't need praises or well-wishes from me."

"What's wrong with giving it anyway? Perhaps we could invite him to dinner, once we're back at Storm's End. Father always gives a feast to celebrate when one of his bannermen wins a tourney. It's probably not suitable to hold a feast since Lord Connington lost the final match, and a celebratory feast might only remind him of that. But we could invite him to dinner instead."

Stannis' attention was back to the letter he was writing. "I don't think that's necessary," he shrugged.

Lyanna lost her patience. "I'm trying my best to do my duty as the lady of Storm's End, and you're not really helping!"

Her husband stared at her with a shocked expression on his face. "I -"

"Is it because Jon Connington is a close friend of Prince Rhaegar? Is that why you refuse to do it? Refuse to even show him some common courtesy?

Stannis looked appalled. "Of course not. That never even crossed my mind."

"Then why? What's wrong with showing courtesy to one of your own bannermen? Is that not part of your duty as lord of Storm's End?"

"There is too much falseness in the world already. False courtesies, false praises, false everything. I loathe it."

She knew that look of stubborn and unyielding determination on her husband's face. "It does not have to be false," Lyanna said gently.

It will take me the rest of our lives together to make him see that, probably.

Her husband did not reply. He changed the subject instead. "What is your impression of the king?"

Lyanna hesitated. "He is your father's cousin. I'm not sure -"

"Be honest. I want to know what you really think."

"He terrified me. His demeanor, the things he was saying. After all, we and Prince Oberyn were merely guests at that table, and for him to speak the way he did about his own family with us there was very strange. And it was as if he wanted things to be tense and uncomfortable, as if he wanted us to … to quarrel."

Stannis nodded. "He wanted to make things as uncomfortable as possible for Prince Rhaegar. His Grace seems to have become very suspicious of his own son. The work of that eunuch, no doubt," he scoffed.

Lyanna spoke before she thought better of it. "This is what he feared before, that his father would no longer trust him."

Silence. Absolute silence greeted her words. It was as if the world had been stripped bare of all its occupants.

It was a while before Stannis finally spoke. "Rhaegar? Did he tell you that? I didn't know you and the prince had a chance to speak alone tonight." His eyes were fixed again on the letter he was writing, his tone unconcerned, as if it did not matter, but Lyanna was not fooled. She stood up from the bed, walked towards him, and put her hand on his shoulder. He did not flinch from the touch, as she was half-expecting.

"No, I did not speak with him tonight, alone or in front of the others," Lyanna said firmly.

Stannis was not looking at her. "Why not? If there is truly nothing there anymore, surely you could speak with him normally, like talking to any other man. The way you spoke to Oberyn Martell tonight."

"Are you doubting me?" Lyanna asked.

"No, I'm doubting what it is you do not want to admit even to yourself," Stannis replied.

She took her hand off her husband's shoulder. "So what? What if I do admit it? Whatever it is that you think I should admit to myself. Will that change anything? No, it will not. It cannot. Except to make us both more unhappy."

He was looking at her now, staring at her incensed and indignant face. "We must always admit the truth, and face it as best as we can, even if it cannot change anything."

"You don't know the truth, my truth," she scoffed. "You think you do, but you don't."

"Do you know it yourself?" He asked, his tone gentler, and sadder, than she had ever heard from her husband.

"I know the vows we said, when we were married. 'Now and forever'," Lyanna replied.

"We also said 'one flesh, one heart, one soul', and we both know that is not possible."

"It is not possible because you're not really trying. I can't do it alone, on my own," she snapped back, her patience running low for the men in her life. Her father, her husband.

Her husband, who was changing the subject yet again. "So when did the prince tell you that? About his father?" He was asking Lyanna.

"At Harrenhal," Lyanna replied.

"He was telling a stranger about that, he was being unwise. No wonder Varys could sow doubts and suspicions about him to the king so easily."

"I don't think he was saying that to anybody who was listening. I was not exactly a … a -"

"- a stranger. That might be so. But if he really needed someone to share his troubles with, he should have told his wife."

"Yes, I see that now. At the time I was … touched, I suppose. You want me to admit the truth? Fine, I will admit this, to you, to myself. He was telling me things I thought he had never told anyone before. Unburdening himself to me, sharing his deepest fears and worries with me. I only knew him for the briefest of moment, but it felt like I have known him all my life."

And I loved him for that. She did not say this to her husband; it would have been cruelty rather than honesty to tell him that, Lyanna thought.

And now it feels like I knew him so much better than I know you. Than I will ever know you. Than you will ever let me know you. She did not say this either, for reasons that she did not understand herself.

"He should have unburdened himself to the woman he vowed to spend his life with. Not some other woman," Stannis replied, his face a carefully maintained blank.

"There is no other woman in your life, and yet you do not unburden yourself to your wife either."

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean," Lyanna was insistent.

"No, I don't," Stannis replied, looking mystified.

"Really? You looked very troubled after you followed the king, and even more troubled after your conversation with Rhaegar. And yet you have said nothing to me, about what was troubling you. To your own wife."

"You did not ask."

"I need you to want to tell me. To want to share your troubles with me. I don't want you telling me only because I insisted, and it is not in you to lie."

"It's not so … simple."

"Why not?" She was waiting for his answer. I don't want to worry you. It is not your concern. She thought she would scream out loud if her husband said that too, as her father had often done.

"I don't really know and understand the situation myself. Not yet. If I tell you, it is only my own impressions and speculations so far. It wouldn't be fair to those people, since you cannot ask them yourself and ascertain the situation for yourself."

"Tell me anyway. Maybe the two of us together, we can understand things better."

Stannis looked like he was considering it, his face frowning with concentration. Lyanna waited. This felt like the moment that would determine the rest of her marriage.

I have told you things I never told anyone. I have bared my heart to you, all my flaws and failings and weaknesses, I have told you all of that. How are we to survive if you will not reciprocate?

Maybe he can't, a voice whispered in Lyanna's head. Maybe it is not in him to unburden himself to anyone, even his wife.

Then we are lost, she despaired.

Her husband took her hand, and they walked to the bed together. They sat at the edge of the bed, their feet almost touching, her husband's hand still grasping Lyanna's own. "I think there is a storm coming," he began.