38. Danger Line.
Tyrion Lannister laughed so much that he spat the wine that he was drinking. His shrieks of laugher filled the dining hall and silenced all the people that were having dinner around him. He got all kinds of looks from the people around him; the most notable looks that he got were the murderous glares that Cersei and Joffrey gave him, but he didn't care. His father Tywin was annoyed, as always, but his brother Jaime chuckled in silence so that no one could notice that he also found it funny. Tommen and Myrcella were confused by the fact that their uncle found that situation funny, but they didn't say anything. Tyrion's wife, Shae, maintained a neutral expression.
Tyrian continued laughing for a minute or so, until Joffrey couldn't take it anymore.
"Well, that's enough!"
Joffrey's angry voice just made Tyrion laugh even more. He even slammed his hand against the table, not able to contain himself.
"It's- it's the best case of karma-" Tyrion said with tears in his eyes. His laughter made it difficult for him to speak, and he couldn't finish the sentence without being interrupted by more shrieks of laugher. He did manage to look at his nephew in the eyes though," -that I have seen in my life! Hahahahaha!"
"Stop laughing, you little beast," Cersei hissed, still glaring daggers at her younger brother. "It isn't funny!"
"But it is!" he exclaimed. Tyrion wiped the tears off his eyes with his fingers. He had stopped laughing, but he was still grinning like a devil. He looked at Joffrey. "For years you have been pitying my lovers, and now my wife, saying my poor and tiny cock must be useless... and it turns out... that yours is the one that is defective!"
Tyrion broke into a fit of laughter again. Upon hearing those words Jaime Lannister couldn't help it anymore and he also laughed, even though he did it in a more discreet way. Cersei glared at her twin as well, gaping with indignation. Joffrey's face had become the same shade of red as a tomato. He was holding the fork and the knife in his hands with such fury that his knuckles had turned wife. At his side, his wife made her best effort not to laugh as Tyrion Lannister was laughing, because although she wanted to laugh, it would look very wrong.
Sansa's birthday was going to be in three days, and because the Baratheon, Lannister and Stark families were going to reunite to celebrate the event, the Lannisters had travelled to King's Landing early and they were now having dinner together. Cersei knew that Joffrey and Sansa had gone to the doctor that day, so she had asked her daughter-in-law what the doctor had said. When Sansa had said that she didn't have any problem, Cersei had frowned. Joffrey had glared at Sansa, but before he could stop her she had already revealed to the entire family her husband's fertility problems. There had been a long and uncomfortable silence until it was suddenly interrupter by Tyrion's roaring laughter.
Sandor had been watching the whole scene unfold from a corner of the dining room. He had maintained his expression serious and he hadn't moved an inch from when he was standing, so it seemed as if he hadn't heard or seen anything of what was happening. But inside he was cracking up. He had laughed a lot already hours ago with Sansa before joining Joffrey and the other bodyguards in the car. He had laughed also a lot alone in his room, before the dinner, and now he was enjoying Tyrion's reaction and the satisfied glimmer in Sansa's eyes and Joffrey's furious expression more than he had enjoyed anything in a long time.
"So you can't have children?" Myrcella asked then, interrupting Tyrion's laughter. She was looking at Sansa and her brother Joffrey, and she looked sad.
Sansa shook her head. "No, we can't. Well, I can, Joff can't..."
"Which means that you can't either," Joffrey muttered between gritted teeth.
"Well, of course," Sansa said, nodding her head.
"Will you adopt?" Tommen wondered. Joffrey was the one that replied first that time.
"No," he said, but he gave no explanations as to why he had taken that decision. "Now can we please talk about something else?"
Cersei was the one that changed the conversation to something else, and Tyrion finally stopped laughing, though from time to time he would grin. Sandor didn't pay attention to what the Baratheons and Lannisters were talking about, he had his eyes set on Sansa. He watched her as she ate her dinner in peace, politely joining the conversation from time to time. It didn't escape Sandor how Sansa's eyes were lit up with that same victory that he had seen in them after she came out of the doctor's office. It didn't escape him either that that same glimmer in her eyes was a little bit tainted by a faint shadow of worry that wasn't there before. He wondered what was going on in that pretty head of hers...
After they all finished having dinner they got up from the table and left the dining room. The men of the family went to the lounge to have a glass of whiskey and smoke a cigar while they spoke of what they knew best: politics. Cersei joined them, while Sansa decided to pass. She might be the wife of the Vice President and the sister of the President, but politics weren't her biggest interest. Instead she accepted an invitation from Myrcella and Tommen to spend some time in the gardens of the new mansion. Shae went with them too; politics bored her more then they bored Sansa. In truth they didn't bore Sansa, they just... She didn't feel comfortable with them. She believed politics to be a game in which those who played dirty always won, and she hated how involved her family was in them. She wouldn't be in all that mess if it hadn't been for her family's strong involvement in them.
The four of them took a stroll around the gardens. The early spring night was still a bit cold, but they only had to put on a light jacket and then the temperature was lovely. The sky was dark blue and very clear. There weren't any stars there because of the lights of the city, but that didn't erase the fact that that night the sky was beautiful.
There was a fountain in the middle of the garden, and Sansa, Shae, Myrcella and Tommen sat next to it and talked while they enjoyed the sound of the water. Myrcella and Tommen spoke about anything that crossed their minds, while Sansa and Shae were much more silent, just enjoying listening to the two younger Baratheons. Sansa envied them. Myrcella and Tommen were so young and so innocent... They had no worries in their lives, no mistakes, no regrets... No nightmares. Sansa wished she could be like them again, when her head was full of songs and her world was beautiful and perfect. She wished they never had to go through the same things that she had had to go through. She wished they never had to experience the fear, the desperation, the heartbreak that she had had to experience. The only good thing that Sansa had was that she hadn't lost hope. That was a thing that she could not afford to lose.
"I hope I can visit Garrett someday," Myrcella said then, pulling Sansa away from her thoughts. The mention of Garrett Baratheon had alarmed her. "Our cousin is so cute and adorable! I enjoy seeing him so much, and since Margaery lives here in King's Landing..."
Sansa stood up from the bench where they were sitting. Everyone looked at her with questioning eyes, and she smiled nervously.
"I'm cold," she said. It wasn't really a lie, she was the only one not wearing a jacket, and the air was quite chilly. "I'll come back in a minute."
She disappeared inside the mansion and made her way towards her bedroom. She couldn't stop thinking about Garrett, Joffrey's son that had turned out not to be his son. She wondered what Joffrey would do about that. The baby was just an innocent baby, so Joffrey wouldn't do anything to him... or would he? Sansa believed her husband to be capable of anything. She pitied poor Margaery Tyrell, who had dared to try to fool Joffrey and the shot had backfired.
Sansa didn't know what reasons Margaery had for having had an affair with Joffrey, and she honestly didn't care, but she did wonder if it had all been worth it. Margaery might have had one of Westeros's most powerful men wrapped around her little finger, but now all that she had was Joffrey's wrath fixed upon her.
As she thought about that she reached her bedroom. She was about to enter when she froze at the doorframe.
Joffrey was already inside the bedroom, having left the others in the lounge just like Sansa had left Shae and Tommen and Myrcella in the garden for a minute. In other circumstances Sansa would have gone inside the bedroom without caring the least bit that her husband was already inside, but that situation was different. Sansa's eyes widened with horror when she saw what Joffrey was doing, and she thanked that he had his back turned towards the door and he couldn't see her. Apparently he hadn't heard her approaching either, for he didn't turn around to face her.
Sansa couldn't see Joffrey's face, but she could see his hand... And what he was holding in it.
Joffrey was holding a gun. Sansa had never seen it before, but she guessed that he had had it hidden in one of his drawers. Joffrey was resting his head on his arm, which was pressed against the wall. The arm which hand held the gun was hanging at his side. Joffrey looked like he was thinking very, very hard... And from the way in which his hand held the weapon, with so much strength that his skin was pure white, and the way in which his body trembled, Sansa knew that he was not only furious... He was the embodiment of pure anger, and anger full of hate.
Oh my God, Sansa thought. She managed to stay silent and not even gasp at the sight of Joffrey and the gun. She did not dare to move either. What if then Joffrey heard her, and in his anger he shot her?
Joffrey kicked the wall then, with so much force that his foot left an indentation on it. Sansa jumped, startled, and then she ran away from there. She tried not to make noise, and as she ran down the hallway she looked back to make sure that Joffrey wasn't following her. He wasn't, he hadn't noticed she had been there.
Sansa didn't stop and she ran towards Sandor's room. Her heart was beating so fast that she believed it was going to burst out of her chest, even though she felt that her heart had left her chest and was now in her throat.
She reached Sandor's bedroom. The door was closed, and she knew that he had gone there after the dinner so she knocked on the door quickly.
"Sandor, open!" she exclaimed in a low voice.
Sandor opened the door two seconds later. He was still wearing his bodyguard clothes, and when he saw Sansa there looking so frightened he frowned.
"Sansa, what-?"
She didn't let him finish asking the question, for she pushed him and shoved him back inside the bedroom and she went inside too, closing the door behind her. Once she did so she finally breathed.
"Oh my God..." she murmured, nearly breathless. She put her hand on her chest, feeling a sharp pain in it because of the way in which her heart was beating like crazy. She gulped, feeling her throat extremely dry then. Her eyes were wide and scared. She was scaring Sandor.
"Sansa, what the fuck is wrong?!"
"Joffrey... He-he is in the room... He is angry..." she tried to explain. "He has a gun..."
"A gun? What the fuck are you talking about? What is Joffrey doing with a gun?" Sandor asked, alarmed.
"He... I think he wants to kill Margaery..." Sansa said. Saying it out loud made it even more real and more horrifying, and that horror was reflected on her expression. "Oh my God, Sandor, we have to so something..."
"Do something? Are you nuts?"
"No, Sandor, I mean it," she said it. She was serious, and she locked her eyes on his to let him know that she meant what she said. "We are the only ones that know that Joffrey believed that Garrett was his son. Well, we are the only ones that know and care about what happens to her..."
"I don't care about what happens to her," Sandor rasped, and Sansa gasped.
"Sandor!"
"Sansa, she knew what she was doing. What happens to her is none of our business."
"Sandor, I have seen Joffrey killing people," Sansa muttered, feeling upset. Her voice was severe, and almost angry. She had spoken in that tone to Sandor very few times, and it was always only when something really bad had happened to her. "And you know what he does to people when he wants them dead. Joffrey never gives anyone a quick death... He will probably do all kinds of terrible things to Margaery before killing her!"
"And what are you going to do?" Sandor rasped, frowning. "Tell Joffrey not to chop her to pieces? Forget it."
"She has a son, I can't just stand here and do nothing and let her die!" Sansa cried, suddenly feeling desperate. The feeling of satisfaction that she had felt with the news of Joffrey's sterility had quickly vanished with the knowledge that Margaery Tyrell had signed her own death sentence. Sansa could not look away and just let it happen, she couldn't. She kept thinking about little Garrett, and she thought about when Joffrey killed her father, and she did not want that to happen to that poor innocent child. It would be horrible, and Sansa would never forgive herself if she didn't at least try to do something to stop it. "Sandor, imagine that that was me. Imagine of I had been pregnant when we got the news, and Joffrey was going to kill me, and someone could try to stop it. Wouldn't you want them to stop it?"
"I would be the one to stop it," Sandor rasped immediately.
"Then stop it from happening to Margaret. Please," Sansa begged with years in her eyes. "Please, Sandor, for me... Please... I don't want anyone else to die at Joffrey's hands..."
She continued looking at Sandor straight in the eyes, trying to win that invisible battle that was unfolding in between them that would determine the fate of Margaery Tyrell and her baby...
Of course, as always, Sandor couldn't resist Sansa. He sighed, defeated.
"You are too fucking good," he rasped. "One day it will get you killed."
"But not today," Sansa said, finally smiling, feeling happy and relieved that Sandor had ended up listening to her pleas. "Sandor, thank you..."
"What do you want me to do?" Sandor asked her, and Sansa started thinking and trying to come up with a plan.
"They won't be safe in Highgarden, Joffrey will find them," she realized. "He will find them no matter where they go in Westeros..."
"Then they will have to leave Westeros," Sandor realized, and he sighed again. He wondered how in seven hells he always managed to be in the middle of so much trouble no matter what he did or where he was. "Tonight is my free night, so after I leave and everyone thinks I'm out getting drunk I will go to the Tyrell house and I will tell Margaery that Joffrey wants her head."
Sansa smiled, feeling immensely happy that Sandor was willing to do that for her. She felt a huge weight leaving her chest, and she could finally breath and be calm again.
"Thank you, Sandor," she whispered. She stood on the tips of her toes and gave Sandor a quick kiss on his lips. "I mean it. Thank you..."
Then she left the room; she had been gone for far too long and Shae and the Baratheon siblings would be wondering where she was. Sandor got ready in his bedroom to go out. He changed his bodyguard suit for normal old jeans and a black t-shirt, and then he picked a jacket and hid his gun underneath it before leaving his room, ready to leave the mansion and go do the favor for Sansa. He knew that that was going to be a pretty long and stressful night...
Sandor had gone so many times to the Tyrell residence in King's Landing to drive Joffrey there that he had no trouble finding the way there that night. He was lucky and the roads were almost empty, so it didn't take him a lot of time to get to the house.
He cursed in his mind the entire trip. He wasn't mad at Sansa for making him do that, he wasn't that much of a jerk. He could perfectly understand why she had sent him there to warn Margaery; he knew that if anything happened to the woman Sansa would feel extremely guilty, and even though it wasn't her fault at all, as would feel that her hands were bloody. Sandor could not allow that to happen, he had to avoid his little bird more suffering. What upset him was that Sansa already had enough with her own problems, she did not need to add those of other people to her already big enough and never-ending list. But Sansa had a heart of gold, and as much as Sandor knew that that would end up hurting her to no end at some point in her life, he couldn't say no when she begged him to help her.
The Tyrells were rich, but their house in King's Landing was very modest. Sandor parked the car in front of it and rang the bell of the door. He saw light in the windows, so he knew that the family was awake, but he wouldn't have cared if they had been long asleep. He had promised Sansa that he would safe the Tyrell woman's ass and her baby, and that was what he would do. Besides, he wasn't stupid. He had known ever since they were in the hospital that Margaery Tyrell was doomed. What she had done was not something that Joffrey would ever forgive, and Joffrey always had his revenge on everybody.
He rang the bell several more times until he heard steps approaching the door, and someone opened it. Sandor found himself staring at the annoyed face of Loras Tyrell. He could hear Garrett crying all the way from his nursery.
"What in the name of God do you want at this hour?" Loras asked, visibly upset. The man had recognized Sandor as Joffrey's bodyguard, and he clearly didn't know anything about the real reason why Sandor was there. Of course, how could he even suspect about it?
"Is your sister here?" Sandor asked.
"Yes. What do you want? Or what does your boss want?"
"He isn't my boss anymore," Sandor rasped, and in that moment Margaery Tyrell appeared at the door after coming down the stairs. She was surprised at finding the bodyguard there.
"Sandor!" she exclaimed, raising her eyebrows. She also seemed a bit worried. "What are you doing here? Is everything alright?"
Margaery looked outside the house, behind Sandor. She was probably looking for Joffrey, but of course he wasn't there.
"You need to get the fuck out of here," Sandor rasped, and Margaery frowned and looked at him a little bit confused. Loras did the same, but Sandor was ignoring him.
"I don't understand..."
"Joffrey knows," Sandor said. Margaery must have understood him immediately, because she became extremely pale all of a sudden and her eyes became wide with horror and shock. "You have to leave before it's too late. He's coming after you, and believe me, it won't be pretty."
"Oh my God..." Margaery murmured, too shocked to react in any other way or even move an inch away from the door. Loras was still frowning, not understanding.
"What are you talking about?" he asked Sandor, not getting what was going on.
"Joffrey knows that Garrett isn't his son," Sandor told him. "He found out this morning, and believe me, he's angrier than a wild beast. He will try to kill your sister, I can promise you that."
Loras understood then, and he paled as much as his sister, perhaps even more. None of the Tyrells was really reacting in a productive way, so Sandor tried to make them move.
"You have to leave!" he exclaimed, making Margaery slightly jump, startled. "Now!"
"How-how did he find out...?" she mumbled.
"He's sterile," he answered, and both Tyrells became even more shocked. "Now, I need you to pack whatever stuff you need to take with you, then take your son, and go to the airport. Take a flight out of the country, don't stay in Westeros. Even if you go to the far North Joffrey with find you and rip you to pieces."
"But-"
"There are no buts!" Sandor barked, getting angry. "Do you want to die?!"
Margaret shook her head, and then she did as Sandor told her. She ran upstairs, and ten minutes later she appeared in the door again with only a big bag full of what she needed to take with her, and carrying her baby in her arms. Loras decided to go with her and he ran upstairs as well to pick up a few things and some documents and his passport. Once he was back they all went to Sandor's car.
Sandor was going to drive them to the airport so that they wouldn't have to leave their car there, where Joffrey could find it and know that they had escaped abroad. While they were on their way to the airport Loras made some calls, letting the rest of their family, some of which were in Highgarden and some that had been out of the house when Sandor arrived, to let them know of what was going on. After Loras was done calling his sibling and his parents and his grandmother, the entire car was in silence for a while. Garrett had fallen asleep in his mother's arms and not even he made a single noise. It was all so quiet... The danger that the Tyrells were facing and trying to escape from was palpable in the air, creating and uncomfortable and suffocating atmosphere in the interior of the car.
Sandor was the one that finally broke the silence, once he realized something that he hadn't thought about until that moment.
"You should call the father too, whoever that fucker is," he said, looking at Margaery through the rear view mirror for a moment. "And don't even try to tell me that in the end Renly was the father after all because I won't fucking believe it."
Margaery shook her head slowly.
"No... No, it isn't Renly."
"Well, I don't care who the fuck it is, but Joffrey will. And if he can't find you, he will find the poor idiot and kill him instead of you, so if you care about him call him and tell him to get the hell out of here as well."
Margaret hesitated for a second, and then she took her phone out of her purse and dialed a number. She called some guy named Raoul. Sandor had no idea who that man was, and he had no interest so he wasn't about to ask. He heard Margaery speaking to the man, and explaining the whole situation to him. After some time, they agreed that he was going to leave with them too. Apparently that Raoul dude was back in Highgarden, and he would be meeting Margaery in the destination that she had chosen to flee to: Toronto, Canada.
Once she hung up the phone after whispering a soft "I love you," Loras looked at his sister and asked:
"Who is he?"
Sandor was surprised that not even Margaery's brother knew who her mysterious lover was. Margaret shushed and shook her head.
"Just some guy I met," she told him. "He was sweet, and kind, and intelligent. And I like him very much..."
"Then why did you lie?" Loras asked. "Why did you continue seeing Joffrey? Why did you tell him Garrett was his child?"
"When I started seeing Joffrey I did it because it was convenient," Margaery explained. "He seemed like an easy enough man to handle, and he was to some extent... The man is easy to handle, but the monster is impossible to control. No matter how tame a lion might look, at some point he will snap and show off his fangs and claws. Joffrey is like that. Even if I had wanted to leave him I would not have been able to do so."
Sandor almost chuckled bitterly after hearing the woman saying those words. Maybe the Tyrell woman did not envy Sansa as much as he had believed that she did, for she seemed to understand Joffrey better than he had thought she did.
When they got to the airport, Sandor parked at the front gates but he did not get out of the car. He didn't want anyone seeing him and probably recognizing him later, he wanted to avoid any trouble that that situation might get him.
Loras was the first to get off the car, and her picked his and Margaery's bags so that his sister could carry her son Garret in her arms easily. Sandor turned around to look at the baby one last time. The kid was still deeply asleep, and he looked so small and vulnerable and innocent... Sandor understood then why Sansa had wanted him to help Margaery to get out of that mess. Condemning that child to such a cruel fate that would be waiting for him should he stay in Westeros would be worse than the worst of crimes.
Before getting off the car, Margaery looked at Sandor with a small smile on her lips.
"Thank you," she said then. "For everything. You don't know how much this means to me, you have saved us..."
"Don't thank me," Sandor told her. "Thank Sansa Stark. She literally begged me to get you out of the country before it was too late."
Margaery's eyes opened with surprise at that revelation, and then her smile became sweeter, but at the same time a glimmer of guilt and regret appeared in her eyes.
"Please tell her that I thank her. I owe her my life, and probably my son's too," she said. Then she reached out with one arm while with the other she held Garrett, and she touched Sandor's arms while a pleading look took over her features. "Please help her too if you can."
She is definitely not so stupid, Sandor thought, realizing that Margaery understood perfectly the situation in which Sansa was. He nodded.
"I will," he assured her, and Margaery smiled.
"Again, thank you. To both of you," she said, and then she got off the car and joined her brother.
Sandor waited until Margaery and Loras walked inside the airport along with Garrett, and once they were out of sight he drove away from the airport as fast as he could, wanting to avoid any chances that anyone might see and recognize him or the car.