(no subject)
When she told Tyrion that she could not attend Joffrey's wedding because she felt unwell, she did not expect him to believe her. She had not thought he would force the issue though and she could retire to bed and she would wish Poor Margaery well safely from the confines of her bed. Tyrion looked at her with his mismatched eyes and she hoped she was not blushing, but if she was it made no matter. He sent word that neither of them would attend and had a Maester call on her. He gave her dreamwine in the end something Sansa was glad to drink and she slept away Joff's wedding day. When it wore off and she woke in the middle of that night - Tyrion was awake and reading - he slept poorly, Sansa knew that.
"Poor Margaery," she said softly almost to herself, but her lord husbands hearing was sharp.
"You don't envy her?" he queried and for once he did not sound like he was making mock. He often did though often he seemed to mock himself something Sansa could not understand.
"Not in the slightest," she said for once entirely honest. And she felt shamed that Tyrion had thought she might still be so deluded that she would want Joff. Not that she had given him reason to think otherwise. She glanced at his book - for it was a book he held in the candlelight and not scrolls or accounts, "What are you reading, my lord?"
"Lives of Four Kings," he said, "It was to be Joffrey's wedding present but I've decided not to waste it." Joffrey was not fond of reading, Sansa knew but did not say.
"I like love stories," she said instead and immediately felt foolish. Tyrion stared at her for a long moment and put down his book and came and got beside her on their bed, he did not touch her but they lay there in the dark as the candle guttered and he told her stories, love stories all of them, none of which she had never heard before. He knew endless stories, this husband she could barely look at and there was, Sansa reflected, nothing wrong with his voice.
It was not unpleasant to have something in common with him and one day when she had returned from dancing attendance on the new Queen - Margarery's bruises were inflicted not by the Kingsguard but by Joffrey himself. She could tell from their placement which Sansa only saw when Margaery was changing. She was not sent away like the other ladies because she already knew there would be bruises whether she saw them or not. She felt sorry for Margaery until she saw what she perceived as accusation in those brown eyes. 'I warned you', she thought and that was more than she owed a Tyrell, Queen or not, look at how they had abandoned her when she'd been wed to Tyrion.
Who she was now grateful for in a strange way. He was all she had, and he was her shield in two ways - one against Joffrey who looked at her in ways she did not like and secondly against death - she was the only Stark to survive the war and if it was due to a Lannister husband she was alive. And he knew so many stories, she asked and asked and he would always have another until she began to feel eager for the time they had alone together. Because if even his squire Podrick Payne was there he would not waste his time telling stories.
She felt almost a sense of triumph when he told a story she already knew - but he made it better, more vivid, more real and he knew more detail than in any book Sansa had ever read. He knew the songs Florian the fool had sung and described the gown Jonquil had made specially - one that was pretty but not too rich so that Florian would not be even more put off by the disparity in their ranks, Sansa was enthralled - she had always loved the song of Florian and Jonquil best and when he was done she quite forgot herself and leaned across and kissed him. He froze and Sansa thought of the Septa's words once more - she did not think to find her husband's beauty in what he knew rather than who he was but there it was. He touched her cheek and she remembered their wedding night and she did not know how to say the words. But then he went to pull away and she started, "no," she said, "I meant that . . . I have come to know you and trust you more than a little." After that they did not speak.
He was very gentle and if she refused to feel guilty over Margaery's bruises she knew enough to be grateful for gentleness. She even found pleasure in it to her surprise. And things are different after that, he is planning things - many of which he will not speak of to her, but some he will. She's Lady of Winterfell now if in name only and Tyrion's plans for their future in the North make her homesick. To be away from court would be a wonderful thing, and she has something to look forward to for the first time in a long time.
She does not expect to wake one day in a place that is hot and bright and alien. She does not expect to find her family here. All of them alive and well. She did not expect to miss Tyrion but she does - thought she keeps it to herself. She can't do anything but keep it to herself. Arya didn't believe she wed him, Robb looks fit to murder someone at mention of his name. Her Father's anger is less obvious but there none the less. She cannot tell them she betrayed them utterly and loved a Lannister for the sake of some kindness and some tales. So she says nothing to anyone, and now Tyrion is truly a member of her family - she's betrayed him like all the others.