Chapter Text
“There’s no cause for concern. You are with child”
Brienne stops fastening the laces of her breeches, and all the blood that had been concentrating on her cheeks in a furious blush disappears entirely from her face.
For a moment she wants to protest. Wants to say there’s no possibility of such a thing, that the bedding had been more than a year ago… but then she remembers.
That it would be a lie. That there had been two turns of the moon since her husband had taken his rights in their bed. Two turns of the moon where she had so willingly given it to him...
“I.. are you certain?” Brienne asks, and the maester gleefully confirms.
The Kingdom of The Rock will have an heir. It’s Queen is with child.
Brienne’s marriage to Jaime had been much like all the matches that happen in Westeros: arranged by their fathers as a way to secure alliances. Although Tarth was such a small kingdom compared to any other on Westeros, it’s location on The Narrow Sea was strategically advantageous as much for trade as it was for war. The Lannisters dominated the west and had long neutralized the Ironborns threat in their sea. With the growing threat of the Targaryens in the Crownlands, having Lannister fleets anchoring on Shippsbreaker’s Bay and so close to Dragon Stone certainly imposed inhibitions on their ambitions of expansionism and their dreams of becoming conquerors that never truly died, despite Aegon I Targaryen’s death being almost three hundred years ago.
There were also rumors involving the Lannister heir and his sister, Princess Cersei, which certainly helped The Evenstar King in securing the match.
Despite that, to have Tarth’s Princess married off with the heir of The Rock, the future King of The Westerlands, was a marriage her Lord Father would have never dreamed to be possible.
And so it was settled. Princess Brienne of Tarth, heir to The Kingdom of Tarth, married Prince Jaime Lannister, future King of The Rock, as the Westerlands Kings were liked to be known.
The ceremony happened in Casterly Rock, in a lavish party fit for the King’s son. The agreement was that their first born would be heir of the Rock, and their second born, if there was ever one, the future Evenstar. Once her father passed away, Brienne would be recognized as Queen of Tarth and Evenstar, but a regent would be appointed among her father’s most trusted men to rule in her stead.
King Tywin Lannister abdicated the throne in favor of his son two moons after his wedding, as it was tradition among the Lannister royals.
Jaime Lannister, first of his name, was then crowned King of The Westerlands. And Brienne, his Queen.
Brienne excuses herself from her duties for the day and locks herself in her bedchamber.
Their bedchamber, she thinks while looking at the bed she has been sleeping alone since Jaime left to visit Highgarden and the King of The Reach.
A year ago, they had been nothing but strangers, forced to spend the rest of their lives together for the sake of their houses.
He was infuriating and reckless and more often than not, his words cut deeper than swords ever could. And still, there was a kindness to him that once discovered, threw her off balance. An honesty that she never suspected beneath his japes and sharp edges. And now…
And now she was with child and the thought of breaking those news to him in a fortnight was enough to send her heart racing and her palms sweating.
The bedding on their wedding night had been nothing but duty, although she had been certainly surprised that her septa’s warnings never came to fruition. There wasn’t devastating pain or humiliation. Still, both had gone their separate ways the following morning and the first few months of their marriage had Brienne sleeping alone every night while Jaime made himself comfortable in another chamber far away from the one that should be shared by them.
But slowly, they found common ground where before there was only disagreement. Slowly, she came to understand him a little bit better, to not take offense so easily, to see the humor beneath his japes. To understand they weren’t at her expense. He wasn’t laughing at her; he was searching her eyes so they could laugh together.
And then he started seeking her out, for advice on disputes brought to his attention, their bannermen, the taxes, the golden mine. For her opinion when she never thought he would care.
The day after he found out she liked to practice with a wooden sword in a hidden alcove near one of the cliffs of Casterly Rock, he requested their master-at-arms to teach her what he knew as he, Jaime, had been taught himself in his youth. And he would ask her to spar whenever they had time between their duties as King and Queen.
And then he would come to have supper in her company at their solar. And sometimes he would accompany her to her chambers to drink a glass of wine between discussions regarding matters of their Kingdom, or to hear news from Tarth whenever she received them. Sometimes they just stayed in silence, until Jaime cracked it with some tale that would usually end with him laughing silly.
She liked those moments best.
They fell into an easy routine, one that was expected and gave her something to look forward to at the end of each day.
Until one night...one where he seemed overly tired of the day's activities, one where his usually good humor was damped by whatever issue his father had brought that day in regards to how Jaime ruled his kingdom… until one night where Brienne had told him he was welcome to sleep in his bed, their bed... if he wished.
The silence following her proposition was heavy and laced with a tension she couldn’t quite recognize, but that made her unease all the same. Her cheeks were probably Lannister crimson, and she was nearly regretting the words that came out of her mouth. But when Jaime nodded, all she felt was relief.
She was not thinking what those words might have meant then. She was not thinking anything at all besides not wanting him to walk for a good thirty minutes until he reached his own bedchambers in the castle. But every night after that one, Jaime would sleep in their bed. They would sleep side by side, and wake on the morrow side by side. He was the first person she saw when the morning light touched the sheets and the last person she saw when the candles were blown and darkness engulfed their room.
And when she woke in the middle of the night, mere hours before he was set to leave for The Reach, shifting and turning around, just to see him awake and staring at her, the moonlight barely enough to illuminate his features in the dark… it felt as if all those months of proximity had reached their boiling point.
Jaime closed the distance between them and kissed her tentatively. Grinned and kissed her again, harder, when she chased his lips after he broke that first kiss.
There was pure heat between them at the first swipe of his tongue against her lips, when she opened up to him and he came back for more. She was hungry for the taste of him. Hungry for the weight of his body on top of her own, his hips fitting snugly between her open thighs.
Jaime slipped her night shift over her head and palmed her breasts, cupping and squeezing the soft flesh in his hand, moaning against her mouth as she got him free of the soft fabric of his sleeping pants while he dragged her small clothes down her legs.
Her cheeks still flush bright red remembering Jaime’s lips wrapping around her nipple while he touched the damp curls between her thighs, the wetness coating his fingers and how he… how he sucked on them when he brought it to his mouth.
The feel of him sliding inside of her, filling her deep, making them one… felt only inevitable. The fitting ending to their dance.
Brienne woke the next day with the morning light. Woke to empty sheets and a note.
The party waits for me by the gates of the castle and I have never felt more like skirting my duties and spending the day with you beneath these blankets. But I believe you wouldn’t appreciate this display of laziness by a king.
Be safe in my absence, wench.
Your husband.
J
Watching the cliffs below one of the windows of their chambers, Brienne touches her belly. There’s still no sign of life, nothing that indicates what’s growing within her.
She wonders if Jaime will be pleased by this news. His father certainly will, if he does not know already. The maester had promised not to tell a living soul before King Jaime arrived in Casterly Rock, but she knows Tywin Lannister has eyes and ears everywhere in this castle.
To give him an heir, that was my duty. Will he still want to touch me even though I’m already with child?
The thought comes before she can stop it, and she feels her cheeks flush by merely considering such a thing as important.
Besides, that night was perhaps something that shouldn’t have happened. Perhaps he was anxious about traveling through The Westerlands. Anything could happen and even the more experient Knight won’t underestimate the dangers of the road even in times of peace.
Or perhaps… perhaps it was his sister he had in mind
, Brienne can’t help thinking.