Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun

Chapter Sixteen

Ashara hummed softly as she gently brushed her fingers through Swift Ash's coat as she waited Hodor to arrived with what she needed to clean his coat, ordinarily Elia would look after him but the Maester wanted her to have a few more days in bed even though it was clear that worst of it had passed.

Elia took care of her horse herself and didn't trust anyone else to do it but since she was confined to bed rest she had no choice but to leave it someone else and the only person she would even consider trusting her precious horse to was Ashara and while Ashara was honoured cause she knew how much Swift Ash meant to her she didn't particularly want to do it, this was a stable boys work.

Thankfully cleaning the horse's feet had been a job that Elia had left to the stable boys though under her supervision and Ashara was glad of that, she didn't want to hurt the horse and if she did then she knew that Elia would never forgive her.

Still, she had never been able to tell her friend no so here she was. Gods help her.

She smiled when Hodor came in with a large bucket of water in his hands and a grooming brush under his arms. "Hodor." He said happily as he placed the bucket down on the ground and placed the brush next to it and took out a clean sponge out of his pocket and placed it down next to the bucket as well. "Hodor." He repeated.

"Thank you Hodor, I think I can take it from here." Ashara said giving the gentle giant a warm smile, Hodor was a sweet man and while he may've been simple that did not mean that he was stupid.

"Hodor." Hodor said with a blush before he left the stable, hodoring as he went.

Ashara knelt down and picked up the brush and began to gently brush the horse's hair. "Aren't you a handsome boy? Elia has missed you a great deal and I know she can not wait to go for ride with you."

The horse softly neighed and Ashara couldn't help but wonder, not for the first time, if Swift Ash could actually understand her. Elia always seemed to believe that he could understand people but she wasn't too sure herself.

She spent the next hour gently brushing the horse's coat and when that was done used the old sponge to gently clean his horse and coat, once that was done she placed a bucket of oats before him and gently stroked his face. "There you go, good boy."

She smiled as the horse gently rubbed his face against her hand and then bent his head to eat the oats, she couldn't help but feel sorry for the stallion, he was a horse that had been bread for running through the sands of Dorne and dealing with the intense heat not the freezing cold of the north.

Ashara sighed and decided to leave the stables, she could tell Hodor to come back to pick up the buckets and brush.

Ashara stepped out of Swift Ash's pen and made her way to the door of the stables but a voice called out to her which made her stop before she could open it.

She turned her head and saw Brandon Stark standing in the shadows near the back of the stables, a half-eaten apple in his and an arrogant smirk on his handsome face. "Such a great friend your princess is." Brandon said before he took a massive bite out of the apple and dropped the core down to the hay covered floor. "Making you do a servant's work."

"I am not doing a servant's work, I am performing a favour for my friend." Ashara said as she narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, he knew nothing. "If you will please excuse me Lord Brandon." She tried to leave again but she couldn't even turned around before Brandon laughed.

"Lord Brandon? So, we are back to formal titles are we Ash?" Brandon shook his head and stepped closer.

"We never stopped using them and please do not call me Ash, only my friends can call me that." Ashara said as she stepped back.

"And we aren't friends?" Brandon asked with wide eyes as he placed his hand over his chest. "You wound me, Lady Ashara, truly you are so very cruel." He said mockingly.

"We aren't friends, we were never friends. I know what the rest of the kingdoms say about us Dornish but I do not do what we did with friends." Ashara said as she felt her temper build at Brandon's mocking. "And now we are done talking." She said as she turned on her feet and made her way to the door that lead out of the stables but before she could open it Brandon spoke again and what he said made her blood run cold.

"Lauryn, she's mine isn't she?" Brandon asked and for the first time since he had come into the stable he didn't look arrogant, he looked almost sad. "Why didn't you send word? Did you honestly think I wouldn't have come."

"Don't. Just don't." Ashara said with a shake of her head. "You didn't exactly profess your undying love for me, you are a handsome man and I am a beautiful woman and we had sex, that is it. Lauryn changes nothing, she was an unexpected result. You have no claim to her."

"Other than the fact that I am her father, I have a right to her just as much as you do if not more." Brandon said with a growl as he stepped closer to her, his blue eyes, hard as diamonds, looked on to her violet ones. "You should've told me."

Ashara couldn't help herself, she took a step towards the wild wolf, her wild wolf and brushed her hand over one of his muscular arms, shivering as she remembered how those arms felt holding her, laying naked against his chest on the floor with the light of fireplace shining on them. "Can you blame me? You've something of a reputation as a wild wolf, Barbary Dustin, half a dozen other girls? Why would I be different? You should count yourself lucky you haven't a dozen children already."

Brandon reached out and cupped her face and tilted her head up, making her eyes met his. "The difference is you've had my child and I want you, you could be happy with me and I with you."

There lips were only inches apart and the distance was closing, before they could connect Ashara held up her hands and pressed them against his chest. "We can't, you're going to be married. Your future wife is my friend, I can't. Not to mention your father, he would kill you."

Brandon growled and pulled her even closer. "Fuck my father, I don't want to get married and he knows that and Lady Catelyn can fuck herself as well, I don't care about her."

Ashara slapped Brandon across the face so hard that it actually forced him to let go of her as he staggered back, he held his hand to his red stinging cheek and looked at her with disbelief. "What the hell was that for!?" He screamed.

"You might not care about her but I do! You son of a bitch!" She shouted, her violet eyes glowing like fire. "She is to be your wife, do you not care for her at all? You utter bastard, do you know the day Elia fainted she came to me and Elia and cried about how she thought you didn't like her? It breaks my heart to see that she is right and I can clearly see where your sister gets it."

"Do not talk about my sister!" Brandon shouted.

"I'll talk about her as I like! She's a bitch! And now I know where she get's it, thank the gods that Ned and Benjen have managed to become good people!" Ashara shouted as she stormed back over to the stable door and pulled it open, turning her head back to look at Brandon who was fuming. "You have no claim to my daughter and you never will, try anything and you will regret it!"

And with that Ashara stormed out of the stable with tears running down her cheeks, as they froze against her cheeks she tried to convince herself that they were tears of anger.

Elia hummed happily as she laid out her dress on the bed, she had been looking forward to this dinner all day. It wasn't an important dinner in any real way but it was important to her because now she was finally done with being confined to her room and could finally have meals with the rest of the family and her husband.

It got lonely as she since she had been sentenced to bedrest she had most of her meals on her own, sometimes her husband ate with her as did Ashara but most of the time she ate on her own more on her own insistence as she didn't want Ned or her friend to think they were bound to spend all their time with her.

Speaking of Ashara she hoped that everything was going well in the stables, Swift Ash was used to her taking care of him and while he knew who Ashara was he could be a little temperamental. More than that however she really hoped that Ashara didn't mind doing it, she really hoped that her friend didn't think that she was talking advantage of her, she only wanted Ash to do it because she knew how much her horse meant to her.

"What do you think little one?" Elia asked as she picked Lauryn up from the chair that she had set her in and carried her back over to the bed. "Do you like the dress?"

"I like it. Beautiful." Lauryn said with a giggle and Elia smiled as she pressed a kiss to the side of her head, Lauryn seemed to grow more and more with each day that passed, it was hard to believe that she was the same baby that she ridden all the way to Starfall to see when Ashara's letter had arrived.

"I shall have one made for you little darling." Elia said with a smile. "You shall be a great beauty when you are older, just like your mother."

Lauryn didn't seem all to bother by that as she kicked her legs, clearly wanting to run around.

Just as Elia was about to put her down the door to the room burst open and Ashara stormed in, she stormed over to her friend and quickly snatched her daughter from her hands and pressed kisses to the top of her head as tears rolled down her slightly red cheeks.

To say that Elia was concerned was an understatement, in all the years that she had known Ashara she had never seen her like this, she had seen her upset before of course but never quite like this. "Ashara? What is wrong? What's happened?"

Ashara didn't answer, simply kept holding her daughter close to her chest and letting her tears roll down and fall into her child's dark hair. "Mama?" The little girl asked, her voice filled with worry and Elia knew that if this wasn't dealt with soon then they would have a crying fit on there hands and that was not going to help anyone.

"Ash, please tell me what's wrong." Elia said as she stepped closer to her friend and gently rubbed her back, how had she found herself comforting every single woman in the castle?

Ashara took in a shuddering breath and looked up at her friend. "Brandon was in the stables, I think he'd been waiting for me."

Suddenly a horrible mental picture entered Elia's mind as what she said hit her. "Ash, he didn't..." She couldn't finish saying it, it was too horrible to even consider.

But if Brandon Stark had done what she thought that he had done, then he was dead. Elia would accept no other outcome.

Ashara stared at Elia uncomprehendingly for a moment before what she meant occurred to her and she shook her head rapidly. "No! He's an arse but he isn't a monster, that isn't why I'm upset."

"Then what is it?" Elia asked.

Ashara sighed and walked over to the bed, sitting down and adjusting Lauryn into a more comfortable postion before she patted the spot next to her, Elia walked over and sat down in the spot and took one of Ashara's hands, liking there fingers together and offering her comfort as she waited for her friend to speak.

"He knows." And that was all that Ashara needed to say for Elia to understand, there was only one thing that Brandon could know that would make Ashara this upset.

"Has he threatened you? Lauryn?" She asked as she gently stroked the little girl's hair and thanked the gods that while she was smart enough to understand that her mother was upset about something and didn't understand why someone might want to hurt her, if Brandon had threatened her and he told Lord Rickard...

Thankfully she was spared from her thoughts from going down that unpleasant direction when Ashara spoke. "No, he didn't threaten her but he tried to exercise some claim on her and, I suppose by extension, me. He said that he did not care about Cat and didn't want to marry her but that wasn't what really made me angry."

"Then what did make you angry?" Elia asked.

"What he did not say." Ashara admitted. "He did not say that he loved me, he said that he did not want to marry her. And then I realised that he simply wanted me because he thinks, because I am Dornish I wouldn't mind if he strayed from my bed. The arrogant-" Ashara clearly wanted to finish the sentence by biting her tongue for the sake of her daughter. "But even that was not the worst thing."

Elia didn't say anything, this all had to come from Ashara.

"I love him Elia, gods help me but I do. I wanted to say yes." Ashara admitted as tears rolled down hers, she only just managed to get the confession out before she broke out into harsh sobs, Lauryn following her into tears.

Elia sighed and pulled them both close to her, doing what she could to comfort them both.

She would need to talk to Ned about this and he would need to speak to his brother, but that could wait till later.

For now, she simply held her friend and her child and hummed to them both, waiting for their sobs to die.

End of Chapter Sixteen

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