284 AC Kings Landing Cersei Lannister III
She was overseeing the preparations for her departure from the Red Keep, making sure that her dresses and things were properly packed up for the long journey north to her new home at Winterfell. She was not happy about any of this but there was little she could do in the end, she did not kill herself, no, that would be the easy way out, and she had no intention of letting her father have it easy for forcing her to marry Ned Stark!
Jamie had left a few days ago to return to the Westerlands with that Tyrell slut as his bride. And didn't the chit look pleased with herself, dressed in rich crimson clothes and hanging onto Jamie's arm like she owned him! ¡Decir ah!
Well she was his wife and was getting her cunt stuffed by Jamie's nice pillar, and what did she have? A dour northern Lord and a decrepit, freezing stone pile as a new home, while Janna would get Casterly Rock!
She snorted, she, Cersei Lannister, the daughter of the Warden of the West, the most beautiful noblewoman of the age, and she was being banished to freeze to death in a wilderness of snow and barren heath. They would pay for this, her father and Jamie, both would pay, she did not know how, or when, but they would suffer, just as she was to suffer now.
Speaking of her father, he would be joining her in the trek north, to make sure she did nothing 'foolish or female' he had said; ¡Ja! She had seethed at the thoughts that her father wanted to keep any eye on her, to make sure that she did her duty! Duty, that was a word her father put great store in, duty to House Lannister above all else. So she was expected to give up her one true love, her perfect twin, for duty? So she was expected to trudge half the length of Westeros to spend the rest of her days shivering in a castle that to all accounts was as stark and foreboding as the Lord she was to marry. So for duty she was expected to open her legs to that barbarian Ned Stark, and let him pump his wolfish Stark seed into her womb so that she could bear his northern pups? A womb that she had long ago decided that would only be seeded by Jamie, her golden twin.
Never! She would find a way to thwart her father; she would find a way to ruin the hopes and dreams of Lord Stark, for she would never give her heart to him, never! For her heart was broken by Jamie's betrayal, she would never let it be broken again, it would be armoured in hate so that none may touch it again, none would wound her so grievously ever again!
The Stark came from a land of Ice and Snow, well let his marriage bed be the same, he would find no solace or love in her arms. He could take her, she would do as much as duty demanded, no more, no less, she would have to bear him his sons and daughters, but there would be no love between them, not even affection she vowed.
The fool, and her father, had thought that his gift of that diamond that sparkled like sunlight trapped in ice had changed her heart. Hah men! So stupid, so unable to read a woman's inner thoughts, so easily fooled. She glanced down at the cut gemstone on her left hand, turning it in the light to see it sparkle, oh it was a nice bauble and it drew the eye, but that was all it was, an empty, meaningless yet pretty stone.
Her father in particular had been so easy to fool; as far as he was convinced she had accepted her future and was even looking forwards to being the Lady of Winterfell! She shook her head, for all his intelligence and cunning her father was just too easy to fool sometimes.
The Stark on the other hand, presented something of a conundrum. She had her dresses altered to reveal more bosom, had even removed the sleeves from many to show more flesh than was usually considered decent. And yet despite this the Stark was only marginally more attentive to her than before. She had spent considerably more time with him after the announcement of their betrothal, frequent walks in the gardens, dining with him and father and a few others almost every evening.
She finally had to put it down to Ned Stark's natural reserve and even shyness, though how a man that so filled any space he occupied could be shy she did not know. He was infuriating she decided, he would not fall for her obvious charms, made little attempt to court her, seemed far too smug for a man of his age and gave off an insufferable air of superiority that annoyed her.
And yet each time she spent with the Stark she could help being struck by how handsome he was, different from Jamie, rougher looking, but with something dangerous, wolfen about him. When she was close to him she had to struggle sometimes to concentrate, heated visions of the most wanton kind always surfaced and threatened to steal her composure. She always fought hard to suppress these; she was the daughter of the Warden of the West, not some wanton tavern slattern! But Ned Stark always brought out these thoughts, and not only in her she had noticed, some of her ladies in waiting blushed quite excessively when her and Lord Eddard took their walks together.
Just then a servant had entered with her new riding leathers and Stark Cloak, of which she did not know what to make if she was honest. Lord Stark had presented them to her two days ago, several sets of travelling leathers and a grey cloak in the Stark style, lined with fur and with the collar trimmed with wolf fur? I mean did this barbarian expect her to travel on horseback to the North? Surely not, surely he could not be that deluded? She would be taking the wheelhouse that she had journeyed from the Westerland's to Kings Landing all those many moons ago, and the cloak? I mean really, did he expect her to wear that, and before they were married! And if she wore it did the oaf expect to take it as a sign that she would not mind a tumble or many on the road to Winterfell?
Gah! He was so annoying, infuriating even. Why was she letting him upset her so, he was a savage heathen, barely even a Lord by her estimation, why all he ruled over was a wilderness of forest, bog, heath and snow. A land empty of life, impoverished and backwards that was to be her jail for the rest of her days.
She waved with a hand at the servant to put the leathers and the cloak over to one side while she stewed for a minute, getting angrier and angrier. Making a quick decision she called for her maids and ordered them to help her undress, she would try on these riding leathers, see how ridiculous she looked, see what an insult Eddard Stark had proffered her by gifting her garments not fit for her station!