Chapter IV: Lady and whore
"Yes, my Lord", Shae's face was an unmoved mask as she curtsied.
"Please understand me, I have no other choice!", Tyrion pleaded.
"I do, my Lord. You have to do as you're told. Your father commands, and you will have to marry Sansa." She repeated Tyrion's former words.
Tyrion sighed and straightened, at the same time struggled not to let tears creep into his eyes. "You have to be safe, for all the sake of my heart." He paused, then continued calmly: "You've got to flee with Sansa! Be her guardian!"
"What am I to do with her? I can't hide her in a brothel, I suppose", Shae exclaimed with hands in her hips.
Tyrion sighed again. Oh, how lovely she looks this way, with an angry-red flush on her cheeks.
Aloud he said, close to a whisper: "I'll send Bronn with you for protection. But the less you attract attention and the fewer people travel with you, the more likely it is that you'll be able to escape Joffrey and father."
"How do we suppose to sneak under Lannister's noses?" Shae spoke even louder as before.
"Pst, those walls may have ears!" The hints to his own family blood and his face were not lost on Tyrion, but he decided to overhear it. "We are in the storage cellars and it's well past midnight. It's most unlikely someone should hear us or comes around, except for Varys. As for Varys and his spiders, they are on our side. - So would you please calm down and listen. This is the plan Bronn and I have worked out."
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On the next night, Sansa squeezed Shae's supporting hand firmly as she bent over and vomited in front of their feet. The Stark girl couldn't stand the stench anymore. Their shabby disguise only added to her discomfort.
Shae dragged her up. The maid was stronger than her slender figure let assume. "Mylady, don't look into the gutters, just take care to see the runway in our light and watch every step."
In front of the two women, Bronn turned towards them with the torch in hand, illuminating the constriction and nauseating around them, causing some small footing shadows to flee in haste.
"Give her more", Bronn ordered.
Shae nodded and pulled a flask and a cloth out of her bag and only briefly dipped the cloth into the liquid. She gave the cloth to Sansa. The younger girl eagerly put it to her nose and mouth, while Shae stored the flask back into her bag. An island of citron smell surrounded the three of them now.
Sansa tried to stumble forward to signal to the other two that they all could move on again, too. It seemed to take hours in the darkness and disgust with hundreds of fork junctions to choose, until from far away a light danced dimly.