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“Good Queen Catelyn.”
The words had become more than just an empty title in the five years since her lord husband had taken the throne, yet Catelyn Stark still smiled to hear them in the low rumble of her husband’s voice, and she smiled ever more as his strong arms wrapped around her body.
“Your people are too gracious with me,” she replied demurely, though she was sure he could hear the pride in her voice, the satisfaction of knowing their reign was offering a clean slate to Westeros after the mad reign of Aerys.
“Our people love you,” Ned’s voice was as quiet as always, but she felt it reverberate in his chest just as much as she heard it. “Almost as much as I do.”
His beard tickled her neck as he nuzzled against her skin, and Catelyn’s blue eyes only remained on the scenery outside the window for a moment longer before they fell closed as she turned around in his arms. Blindly, she let her mouth seek his, her swollen belly preventing her from standing as close to him as she wished.
It had been a long time since their first kiss, a long time since she looked at him in that same bedchamber and promised him he would be a good king for their country, and though their love hadn’t grown overnight, it had grown steadily in the years hence. Now, with a young prince and a beautiful princess roaming the halls of the Red Keep, and another babe in her belly, Catelyn thanked the gods for the joy they’d been given after the loss and destruction of war. And she was thankful to her good and honorable husband for taking the throne for himself and giving the Seven Kingdoms a chance for a better future.
“My queen is bold today,” Ned murmured as they broke the kiss to breath, but he put no distance between them, smiling against her lips. “Is the pup making you restless?”
“I fear it is the grown wolf making me restless, my lord,” Catelyn replied breathily, and the look in her eyes was nothing short of sultry when she lifted her gaze to him. Her long, graceful fingers moved over the rich embroidery of his doublet, following the silver lines and feeling the hard planes of his body just beneath them, and she gasped softly when he turned them around so that he could sit easily on the windowsill and pull her into his lap. “I’ve missed you,” she confessed after a brief pause. “I’m loath to be apart from you.”
It was a necessary evil, as it would be most unseemly for the queen to visit a military garrison while heavy with child, but she had still hated every moment of Ned’s absence in the past fortnight, and she disliked being forced to sit on the Iron Throne to hear the high lords’ whimsical grievances. “And your seat is an uncomfortable one, your grace,” she added, with a chuckle that became high pitched as Ned pulled her tighter against his groin with a smug grin on his face.
“I trust you prefer this seat.”
“Indeed I do.”
Their eyes met, the blue of her rivers pouring into the grey of his skies, and Catelyn took a deep and steadying breath as she traced his lips with her fingers, feeling her heart swell in her chest. She smiled as he kissed her fingertips, dropping a kiss of her own to the top of his head, and she kissed his forehead and his nose as her hand cupped his bearded cheek, sighing contentedly when their lips met again – softly at first, then hungry and seeking, mouths open and breaths short.
“I am proud of you, Cat.”
The words were almost unintelligible, a rough whisper against her throat as he trailed kisses on her soft, sweet-smelling skin, but she heard them and felt them bloom in her heart, shooting right out of the roots of her love for him.
“I learned from the best of kings,” she murmured in reply, her fingers running through his dark hair. “I shall always try to be the queen you deserve, Ned.”
Even when she was sitting astride him on a windowsill, with her skirts bunched up around her waist and kissing him until they were both short of breath, she wanted nothing but to be the woman he needed by his side; a good queen for a just king.
THE END