Sansa, Tyrion--prompt based on a song by Kate Bush (
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/k/kate+bush/the+man+with+the+child+in+his+eyes_20077179.html).
No. of words: 2660
These characters belong to GRRM
When she was scarce thirteen years of age, Sansa Stark was married off to a man ten years older than her, and shorter and uglier than he had any right to be. Of course, her bridegroom was not chosen by her parents or her brothers-her father had been executed as a self-confessed traitor and her mother, eldest brother and uncle were rebelling against the king, Joffrey Baratheon, the First of his name, to whom she had been betrothed for a year. When the crown allied with Highgarden and Joffrey agreed to take Lady Margaery as his wife, the Queen Regent and the Small Council in their wisdom decided to wed her to someone whose loyalty to the crown was unquestioned-the king’s dwarf uncle, Tyrion Lannister, who had briefly served as Hand and had participated so valiantly (although neither his father nor the queen spoke of this) in the defence of the city against Stannis Baratheon.
Of course, she was horrified when she learnt whom she was to marry-she was told of her own marriage only a few minutes before it was to take place. However, although she wept throughout the wedding, did not kneel when the cloaks were exchanged and refused to consummate the marriage, she did not totally hate her husband, because he had been kind and understanding to her at a time when she needed it most. But, when he made it obvious he wanted her to be a wife in fact as well as in name, if not now than sometime in the future, she refused by telling him that she could never love him. To be honest, she could never forgive him-he had promised to send Arya and her home in exchange for his brother. And he had broken his word, sworn before the whole court, so that he could get Winterfell. Now that both her brothers were dead, killed by Theon Greyjoy and his men, and Robb had no children of his own, she would be heir presumptive to Winterfell if he should fall in battle. She would be godsdamned if she let the Lannisters get the North so easily. And yet-she felt sorry for him. She could not understand the look in his eyes, but she could not give him what he wanted. Not then, anyway.
He did not know then that she planned to escape King’s Landing with the help of Dontos Hollard, whom she had saved from Joffrey’s vengeance on the young king’s name day. She left on the very day that Joffrey was married to Margaery Tyrell and died choking at his own wedding feast. And she left Tyrion alone to face the accusations of murder levelled against him by his father and sister. Perhaps it was as well-for it was likely she too would have been accused of the crime and executed. Her presence there might have made it impossible for her husband to escape, which he did, and go east.
As for Sansa, she went to the Vale of Arryn and lived there as the bastard daughter of the Lord Protector, Lord Petyr Baelish, who was married to her aunt, Lady Lysa Tully Arryn. On her way there, she learnt the truth about the murder of the king and her own role in it. She also learnt-even as her aunt died-how her family and the Lannisters had been cleverly manoeuvred into a war by a lovesick woman and her manipulative lover. Perhaps it was pure luck that her granduncle arrived in the Vale, just before she was to be married off to Harry Hardying, her sickly cousin Lord Robert Arryn’s heir. She was able to confide all she had learned on her journey from King’s Landing to the Vale to Ser Brynden Tully, and she was able to then honestly describe how her aunt had died.
Her revelations helped the Lords of the Vale to convict and execute their Lord Protector for the murder of his wife and her late husband Lord Jon Arryn and his attempt to murder his stepson, Lord Robert. Although the Lords then expected Sansa to set aside her marriage and take one of them as a husband, she hesitated, explaining to the Lords that she had made her vows before the High Septon and the entire court at King’s Landing-any marriage she entered into would be seen as null and void if her previous, unconsummated marriage to Tyrion Lannister was not annulled by the High Septon and a council of the faith. She said she had hoped Lord Petyr would find some way to accomplish this, but he had expected to marry her off to Harry Hardying and hope for Tyrion Lannister’s death, wherever he was. She said she would wait-she was a maiden short of her fourteenth year and had much to learn about the world before she would wed again. However, she was able to convince the Lords to invade the North in support of King Stannis in his battles against the Boltons, telling them that their late overlord and her father had both supported his claim as King Robert’s heir.
She used the same arguments when Stannis’ Lords and her father’s bannermen tried to convince her to set aside her marriage-her youth; her need for an annulment granted by the High Septon to ensure that her second marriage and the issue thereof were trueborn in the eyes of the law and the gods old and new. No, she would not opt for a Northern or wildling marriage-she would wait to get an annulment from the High Septon and nothing else. Of course, she would need her husband’s consent for this, as many of her suitors reminded her-and they all prayed for his early demise. With her ladies-My Stone, Myranda Royce, Maege Mormont, Barbrey Dustin, Brienne of Tarth and Val of the wildlings, as with Ser Brynden and Lord Edmure Tully, she was most open. “I have no desire ever again to be married for my claim to Winterfell. Let them wait if they wish to wed me.” With her half-brother, Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch Jon Snow, who was eventually revived after his men tried to kill him, she was more forthcoming.
“Jon,” she said to him honestly, “he was kind to me and I deserted him at a time when he needed me at his side. Yes, I know that, if I had been there, he might never have been able to escape and I myself would have faced execution. No, I did not love him then, but ... I felt sorry for him, Jon. He should have been loved-there was much that was good in him. Of course, Lord Petyr tried to turn me against him by telling me that he had his first wife raped by his father’s guards when he grew tired of her. I do not believe that he was the instigator, Jon-I have never forgotten how he roared at Joffrey when he tried to get the Kingsguard to strip me naked and beat me because Robb won a victory against Ser Stafford Lannister. I need your help to discover the truth, Jon.”
Jon did try, of course, to find men from the West who knew something about Tyrion Lannister’s previous marriage, but to no avail, until Maester Samwell arrived from the Citadel by land, bringing Ser Jaime Lannister in his train. It appeared that Ser Jaime had been captured by a group of brigands in the Riverlands and had been involved, along with them, in many crimes, namely the killing of sundry members of the Frey family, many of whom had been involved in the Red Wedding. Ser Jaime’s excuse for his involvement with the brigands was his general disapproval of the Red Wedding and his dislike of the Freys. He also said he had joined because the leader of the brigands, one Lady Stoneheart, had claimed that Lord Bolton had mentioned his name while stabbing Robb Stark.
“And I had nothing to do with it-nothing at all,” he responded angrily when he faced Jon Snow and Theon Greyjoy. “I had less to do with it than that turn cloak,” he pointed at Theon rudely, “had to do with your younger brothers’ deaths.”
Jon remained silent-by this time, he had learnt, not only from Theon but also from Sam, after much waffling, that both boys were alive. Indeed, Lord Davos Seaworth had been heard from recently from White Harbour-he had returned from Skagos with Lord Rickon in tow. And Sam had reported helping Bran, Hodor and two friends of theirs go through the gate at the Night King’s tower to go beyond the Wall. Jon had been very wroth with Sam for not telling him this earlier-even though Sam pleaded that he had sworn an oath not to tell. Jon had spoken of this to Sansa, who had been relieved-at least she would no longer be seen as the heir to Winterfell. People would want to wed her for herself rather than for her inheritance.
Jon eventually got Ser Jaime on his own, after many sessions in the practice yard. Ser Jaime soon learnt of how Lord Baelish had set the Starks and Lannisters at each other’s throats; how he had planned the murder of King Joffrey with the Tyrells and had almost got away with the murder of his stepson. He was at first sceptical, but then horrified when Sansa told him how the father of the three Kettleblack sellswords, one of whom was part of the Kingsguard, had worked as the captain of Lord Baelish’s ship, the Merling King. He agreed to write of all this to Queen Cersei and, in turn, he told the truth about Tysha and Tyrion to Jon and Sansa.
“He was a boy of thirteen when this incident took place. We ran into a girl outside Lannisport-she was fleeing from some men, who were harassing her. I gave chase, while Tyrion comforted the girl. I never caught up with the men. She told us she was a crofter’s daughter. Tyrion took her to an inn while I went back to the Rock to get more men to find and punish her attackers. We did not find those men, no matter where we looked. Tyrion remained away from home a week or two. When my father came home-he had gone to visit Cersei in King’s Landing-he immediately sent men to look for his son. He had little love for Tyrion-he blamed him for my mother’s death-but he was a Lannister. Well, we were soon visited by a septon, who told us that my brother, Tyrion Lannister, had taken Tysha, the daughter of a crofter, or so she claimed, to wife! My father was furious. He was convinced the girl was up to no good-he felt she was after his gold, since she thought Tyrion would inherit Casterly Rock. He told me to say that I had set this up to make a man of my brother-paid extra for a whore who was a virgin. He was my father-and I was suspicious about the men who had appeared and disappeared so opportunely. So I told the lie when Tyrion came home with his wife. He was devastated-he loved that girl. He had been happy-they had found a cottage by the sea... The rest you know-it was my father’s decision to have half a regiment of Lannister guardsmen rape the girl and have Tyrion watch. He made each man pay her a silver stag, and he made Tyrion go last and pay her a gold dragon. As a Lannister, he was worth more.”
Sansa listened to this story in horrified silence. So this was where Joffrey’s and Cersei’s violent streak had come from. This was perhaps why Tyrion had refused to force her to consummate their marriage. This was why he had been so enraged with Joffrey...
“What became of the girl, Tysha?” Jon asked quietly.
“I don’t know. I could never tell Tyrion the truth about this until your mother set me free, my lady,” he told Sansa. “And then, when I found him accused of a crime he did not commit, I was certain he was shielding you, although Brienne was equally certain that you were innocent. I spoke to Varys-I forced him, at the point of my sword, to help my brother escape. I felt he deserved another chance-away from the enmity of my father and sister. And then, when I let him out of his cell, I told him the truth of what I had done. He hated me then-he went to confront our father. Early the next morning, Cersei and I were told that our father had been done to death-shot in the guts with a crossbow bolt while on the privy. And the girl Shae--who had been Tyrion’s whore-had been strangled.”
They were silent then, as they allowed the whole horrific story to sink into their minds. Eventually Ser Jaime left for his own quarters-Jon had asked him to train recruits in the art of swordsmanship. He was also learning the armourer’s trade from Gendry Waters, who had been a member of the Brotherhood without Banners, the brigands who had captured him.
When Jon returned after speaking to the watchers on the Wall, he found Sansa still in his room, staring into the fire. He had left her thus after Ser Jaime’s departure-Sansa had not even wished the man a good night. He was going to tease his sister about her letting go her courteous demeanour when she turned to him and said in a rush, “Jon, I think he is looking for her, wherever he is. He must be-he is a kind man and he would never forgive himself for the wrong he did her. I am convinced he must have loved her greatly. And to have his heart broken when so young... I can understand and forgive his killing that unnatural man who called himself his father. And I can even understand about Shae-I made it very clear to him that I did not love him and he said he would go to the whores. It was my fault, Jon-but I could not have let him have Winterfell so easily, could I? I had to be brave-I had to be like Robb.”
Had he been a man with a sardonic sense of humour, like the Hound or the Imp, Jon would have told her that, had she been like Robb, she would have submitted to her Lannister husband. Instead he asked her, “Does this help you gain an annulment-the knowledge that he was a kinslayer? I know that it would be enough to end your marriage in the North.”
“Not unless he was actually seen committing the murder. The fact that he was accused of a murder that he did not commit-that he was always accused of having caused his mother’s death-would have been enough to sour anyone’s disposition. And then to be accused of yet another murder-for he served Joffrey most loyally even though he hated what the boy was like-would be enough to set off his temper. It was as volatile as wildfire, you know, Jon. I have read accounts of the trial and I know he would have said those things, vile things, when he was angry. And all he said so hastily would be used against him-a stick to beat him with. No, I will not annul this marriage, Jon-not unless he finds Tysha and she forgives him and he is happy with her. I am certain he will come back-there are many debts he has to collect here in Westeros.”