Riverrun wasn't exactly the sort of place he'd have chosen to set up a temporary headquarters, but given the fact that the war had entered a stalemate, he supposed it was safe enough. And he'd been putting off this dressing-down of Robb for a long time, particularly as the man had been undermining him for some time. What in the Seven hells was he thinking when he made that sort of agreement to cross the Twins? There was no chance Steffon would have agreed to it if he had been there.
He shook his head clear as they crossed the moat that separated Riverrun from the rest of the world. The moat and walls make for a formidable defence, especially with rows of archers lining the walls. Alas, with the majority of Riverlands and Northern soldiers away fighting, there seemed to only be a small garrison. Not smart, considering that there was the possibility of surprise attacks, especially with Harrenhal still in his grandfather's hand.
He'd have to ask Robb why he hadn't attacked Harrenhal. As long as that castle stayed occupied by Lannister troops, there was a risk that they might lose control of the Riverlands.
The courtyard had been turned into a makeshift aid station, it seemed, complete with a Maester attending to wounded soldiers and Silent Sisters going about their work as well. Above them, soldiers in the armour of House Tully watched everything with crossbows out. Steffon was questioning the wisdom of having them watch the courtyard before he spotted the small prisoner pen. Dungeon must be overflowing.
They were approached by a Northern soldier. "Your Grace, Lord Robb asks that you met with him as soon as possible."
Steffon frowned. "Well, I'm ready now." He said before turning to Arya.
"As am I." She added as the two of them dismounted their horses. Steffon braced himself for an inevitable confrontation with Robb.
The two of them were led into the great hall of Riverrun, where they were greeted by Robb, as well as Edmure Tully and his uncle Brynden, better known as the Blackfish. Steffon had recognised the two of them from when they'd visited King's Landing.
"Your Grace." Robb bowed, followed by Edmure. The Blackfish bowed slightly, but it was obvious that he intended to stand less on formality than the other two. Arya for her part sprinted forward and hugged her brother tightly. "Gods, you've grown." He commented, almost wistfully.
"War does a lot of things to people, Robb." Arya replied. Her voice was a little strained when she said that, Steffon noticed. Had things been affecting her that badly? He needed to talk with her later about it.
"Indeed it does." Steffon said, smiling.
"Also, Your Grace, I wanted to offer my congratulations, as well as condolences. We heard how you managed to unite the entire Stormlands under a single banner. An impressive feat, but it came at a heavy cost from what I am to understand. I am sorry for what happened to your uncle."
Robb's words stung Steffon. While the memory of his uncle's death was bad enough, it hurt even more hearing kind words from Robb. He was here to castigate the man who would soon be his brother by marriage, yet he still had the decency to empathize with his loss. Even if the man had acted like a fool, Steffon had to remind himself he was a good-hearted one at that.
"I'm told you won a victory at a sawmill some time back, Lord Edmure."
"Counted for little." The Blackfish muttered.
"Every victory counts in some way." Steffon replied. Not even more than a few minutes here and things were already getting testy.
"I was hoping to discuss the next stage of the war, Your Grace-" Robb began before Steffon cut him off.
"I'll be honest, Lord Stark, you've wrecked my plans." He said bluntly. The other three snapped their heads towards him at that. "I know that you broke your vow to Walder Frey."
"I had to preserve Jeyne's honor after I…" Robb couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence. Steffon didn't feel a need to finish the sentence for Robb, so let it hang in the air for a while. Even though the Lord of Winterfell hadn't said it out loud, it didn't need saying.
"If my grandfather becomes free to dictate strategy, we lose the initiative." Steffon said curtly. "If we lose the initiative, we lose the war. Winning battles is never enough to win a war. It never has been." Steffon sighed. "And then, you threw your entire supply line into disarray when you broke your vow to Frey. Not only have you undermined me by forcing a squire on me, you managed to break my entire strategy apart."
"What, by marrying a woman I love?!" Robb asked, growing noticeably irate.
"Yes!" Steffon shot back.
"Should've just tossed her some coin and let her be." Brynden said. The man seemed to be given to offhand comments.
"Jeyne is not some common whore, uncle!" Robb exclaimed.
"You shouldn't have slept with her in the first place." Steffon said, trying to calm himself down. "That little flight of fancy might be what costs us the whole war."
"I could not let her be thrown aside after what we did!" Robb said. He was becoming more and more defensive now.
"Let me repeat: it never should've happened to begin with!" All attempts at keeping himself calm had gone now. "At the very least, you could have fucking done it with the girl you were betrothed to!"
Everyone looked at him, stunned. Arya looked slightly fearful of what he'd just said, and of course, everyone noticed.
"You two…" Robb said, trying to piece things together. Steffon looked at Arya again, but she seemed to be at a loss of what to say. Edmure and Brynden were likewise stunned by Steffon's words. Steffon glanced at Arya, who couldn't help but avert her gaze with an ever growing flush to her cheeks.
That was all the confirmation Robb needed.
He charged at Steffon, fists raised.
Arya could see the whole thing was getting out of hand pretty quickly and made to try and pull them apart. Arya might've been short, but she also knew neither Robb nor Steffon would risk swinging their firsts when she was in the way. So, she pushed them apart herself, fixing them both with a scolding look. Neither of them were getting out of this one, as far as she was concerned.
"Stop it! Both of you." She said as firmly as possible. "You're acting like children." After taking a minute to compose herself, she looked at Robb. "It's true, Robb. Steffon and I slept together. But he did not force me into it. Regardless of how you feel about it, Steffon is right; you did cock a lot of things up by breaking your oath to the Freys. At least when Steffon and I have the defense of being already betrothed." She then rounded on Steffon. "And it's not like Robb doesn't have a point. The two of us are not yet married, Steffon, and you are fully aware of what that means."
Both of them seemed a little chastened by that. Had she finally gotten them to calm down? She wasn't sure, but figured it was best to probably try and separate them, lest they try and charge at each other again. Her two uncles seemed to get her idea and immediately ushered Rbb out of the room, though her brother was still glaring daggers at Steffon.
"I think it's safe to say our friendship is dissolved." Steffon observed dryly. "It's a shame. I truly did think he and I could be friends."
"Not. The time." Arya said testily. Tensions were already running high between the Baratheons and the Starks; an inopportune comment like that wasn't likely to help the situation.
"Do you regret it, Arya?" He asked quietly.
Arya shook her head. "No, you idiot. I love you, but it was out of wedlock." At least he nodded this time. With hindsight, it hadn't been the smartest thing to do, but she didn't regret it. Giving herself to Steffon had been one of the most amazing experiences in her life. If Robb was going to be a prick when he had done more wrong, that was his problem.
Steffon smiled and took her hand. "I don't regret it either." He said, kissing her cheek. "But none of this resolves our immediate problems. The Freys are still threatening to march home and your family's pissed at me."
Yes, Arya had to remind herself, they'd come here to fix the issues at hand. Especially with the war entering the decisive phase now, and Tywin Lannister solidifying things in King's Landing. It was going to become even harder once the Tyrells moved their full army into the Riverlands. The numbers alone would swamp them unless they moved fast.
"There is an obvious solution, you know." She said, turning to look Steffon in the eye, trying to gauge his reaction.
"That being?"
"We could marry. At our earliest convenience."
Steffon looked like a stunned fish for a moment. Arya did have to admit, they hadn't really broached the topic before; the understanding was that they would marry after the war, when the rebuilding had started. There simply wouldn't have been time to host a full ceremony during the campaigning.
"Arya, we… you wouldn't get the ceremony you deserve."
Predictable. "Steffon, I love you, and you've already taken my maidenhead. You have to marry me now or you will dishonor my family."
"Then… it looks like I have no choice but to follow Robb's example."
"Sadly. But at least you'll gain more from it than you could have possibly lost. it will have to take place soon, lest my brother becomes more irate."
The Gods only knew what her brother would do then, prideful as he was. Deep down, both of them knew that it was a flimsy excuse at best; they'd done the deed before they were married. It wasn't exactly looked kindly on in Westeros, at least in the world of noble marriages. Sometimes, Arya couldn't help but think that the smallfolk, for all their misfortunes, might have more freedom than the highborns did.
"Then it is best we marry as soon as possible." Steffon said, prompting a nod from Arya. "There won't be any time for it to be a grand affair, love."
"I don't care about that." She said as sincerely as she could. "As long as it's you I'm marrying."
"Who else would it be?" He asked, smiling. She kissed him gently.
"I just have to hope my brother doesn't decide to try and murder you in the meantime."
"And that he and your mother consent to the wedding." Steffon provided. Arya nodded again. That was still an open question, and really, Robb would be well within his right as the head of House Stark to cancel the betrothal altogether, unless he could be convinced that doing so would dishonour their father.
Sometimes, tradition could be an annoying thing, that was beyond certain. Hopefully things would change in the future, but that didn't change the fact that they were hamstrung by the customs of society right now.
"They will. Mother won't want to break anything father arranged, and Robb will come around." She reassured him.
"In that case, we marry before the week is out. A small ceremony."
Arya smiled and kissed him again.
Robb had been beyond angry when he had first stormed into the solar where Cat had decided to take some air. He did have a justifiable reason of course, consummation before the wedding did extreme dishonour to the woman's family, yet part of her couldn't help but sympathise. The last time she had seen Arya and Steffon, it had been very obvious they cared deeply for each other.
And it wasn't like Robb had much ground to stand on, considering his dalliance with the new Lady of Winterfell. Hopefully he would be able to understand that, but given what she knew about Northerners, she doubted that very much. Still, it was her duty to try and make him see that, as well as making Arya understand that She and Steffon would have to marry immediately to avoid further dishonour.
"How dare he?! Violating her like that!" Robb raved. Cat sighed; this was going to be a lot harder than she first thought.
"They are betrothed, Robb." She said. It wasn't exactly uncommon in the south for that to happen when lower houses arranged a marriage if the couple knew each other beforehand. Of course, the North was different. Most of the people there were still traditionalists, following the old ways.
"It doesn't matter! He's dishonoured her!"
"Much as you dishonoured Jeyne?" She asked.
Robb stuttered, unable to think of an answer. He wouldn't admit it in a million years, but he had done exactly the same thing that Steffon and Arya had, only it was worse. He'd already excused it before by saying he'd more or less just fallen into Jeyne's arms.
Why, my son, she thought, if you fell into any woman's arms, why couldn't have been Margaery Tyrell's? The wealth of Highgarden could've made the final difference in this war. It wasn't exactly hidden knowledge that the Tyrells had tried to get Steffon to marry Margaery over Arya, but he had been more honourable than that. She turned to Robb again. "You swore a vow to marry one of Walder Frey's daughters, Robb. You broke that vow by marrying Jeyne."
"I had to marry her after I-" He cut himself off, almost as if he was ashamed of speaking the next words.
"Then the same must occur here." Cat said resolutely. "Arya and Steffon must marry without delay."
"After what he's done-"
"Robb, he has done much the same as you have."
"Why are you trying to claim the moral high ground on this? You were the one who freed the Kingslayer!"
"I did that for Sansa." This time, there was a genuine steel to her voice. "Your concern is winning the war. I understand that Robb. My concern is getting my daughter, your sister, back."
"So you were planning to give them the Kingslayer, Jaime Lannister, for-"
The door opened. "Everything alright here?" Arya asked, opening the door. "The guardsmen showed me the way here."
Cat looked at her son. Knowing Robb, he was itching to call the betrothal off, and if Cat knew her daughter, there was no way a girl as stubborn as Arya was ever going to accept that. If anything, it would likely just incite her to do the same thing again with Steffon. She had a rebellious streak twenty leagues wide.
"Steffon and I were talking… and we think it would be best to marry as soon as possible. To erase any ill will between our families."
It sounded almost like it was rehearsed; like a bad mummer trying to say a poorly-written line. Nonetheless, it was the best way to resolve the situation at hand, so Cat nodded.
"I agree. It would not be a large wedding, but a larger ceremony can be held at the war's end."
Robb shook his head. "No, I will not permit this. He has dishonored our family when he-"
"Fucked me out of wedlock?" Arya shot back, folding her arms in defiance. Cat cringed slightly. "Do you really want to have that conversation, Robb?" She stared down her brother, a feat that wasn't particularly easy thanks to him being a good deal taller than her. It was a challenge, and one that both women knew that Robb would never be able to answer properly. Nor without sunding like a hypocrite. In another place and time, she might've admired her daughter's ability to catch Robb in this situation. Right now though, it wasn't exactly something she was proud of. They couldn't afford to fight among themselves.
Robb seemed to relent, albeit with sagging shoulders. "Fine… but it must be held as soon as possible No more than three days."
"Agreed." Arya said.
"And it must be held in the Godswood."
Arya scoffed. "Steffon doesn't follow the Old Gods."
"A compromise then." Cat jumped in, trying to defuse things before another row started. "We hold two ceremonies; one in the Godswood, the other in the Sept."
"I'd be happy with that." Arya replied.
Robb sighed. "Fine, but like I said, no more than three days from now."
Arya nodded. "I'll let Steffon know."
The two of them left not long after, leaving Cat to her thoughts.
What had happened between Steffon and Arya was a grave violation of almost every social norm the world knew. Yet, what Robb had done was undoubtedly worse; having slept with a woman he'd barely known, he then proceeded to marry her and violate his oath to Walder Frey. The man had every right to be upset with them. None of this was made easier by her brother of course, or her uncle. If only her father were still here; he'd have managed to resolve things.
Or not. Father never had a very high opinion of Walder. He'd call him 'The Late Lord Frey', she reminded herself. The words of the Greatjon about not being surprised if one expected nothing of Walder Frey echoed in her mind as well. The man always did have an inflated sense of his own importance, not to mention his resentment to her father.
Ned would've been able to right this.
She sighed to herself. She had to put this aside; there