Howling at the Sun

Both Tabitha and Cersei stood in the seamstresses’ workroom, keeping their eyes focused on the large mirror in front of them. Their dresses were being refitted once again, but Tabitha was no longer spotting the differences made as they were so minor in her opinion. Nonetheless, she stood still and allowed the woman to poke and prod at the dress. Cersei’s dress was a completely different design to her own, but Tabitha wasn’t fond of the wide, open neck that exposed Cersei’s boney clavicle. Golden embroidery at the top of her arms depicted lions on the pale rose material that covered her arms and ended in enlarged sleeves. From the hips down, the lightened Lannister red fanned out and revealed the odd golden layer between some of the partings, proving just how proud Cersei was to be a Lannister. Tabitha focused back on her own reflection and decided that she preferred her own dress, as the simplicity was a nice touch.

“Do you know much about the Dornish, Lady Tabitha?” Cersei asked out of the blue.

“Not particularly,” Tabitha said unenthusiastically, not wanting to converse with the woman, especially when she had seemed so bored while posing the question.

“Do you know about their sexual endeavours?” Cersei continued, pausing for only a short second to not allow Tabitha a chance to answer. “They boast about what they do and their preferences for men or women, or both. Most have paramours too, which from what I can tell is just a personal whore. Can you believe that?” She snickered a little, showing her disapproval.

“They are open people. They probably think that we are just as strange for shunning those who like the same sex, and for hiding those who we actually love,” Tabitha remarked, a little surprised at the words that came from her mouth. Before coming to King’s Landing, she never would have understood and would have been complaining with Cersei, but now she felt as though it was wrong to judge Oberyn because he had a different lifestyle. Cersei glared at Tabitha for a few moments, then disregarded her words.

“I cannot believe how overly sexual Prince Oberyn is. Did you see the way he ate those grapes last night?”

“Yes,” Tabitha replied, almost having to stifle a laugh. From the day she had arrived and joined the royal family’s feast, Oberyn had seemed to enjoy slipping the grapes into his mouth in sensual ways. At first it had embarrassed her to have witnessed it, but now she smiled at his uniqueness.

“I don’t know how he’s going to keep his hands off me until our wedding night,” Cersei muttered before running her hands down the front of her dress. Tabitha became uncontrollably rigid at her words, clenching her fists into the flowing material of her dress as she tried to rid the thought of Oberyn bedding Cersei. He had said that he would talk to the queen, but what if he failed at convincing her? What if he ended up marrying Cersei? “Why do you spend so much time with Oberyn?” Cersei broke the silence and Tabitha’s head whipped around to meet the green-eyed stare that was directed at her, suddenly fearing that Cersei had been scheming for the whole conversation and taking note of her responses.

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb,” Cersei stated with a hint of bitterness. Tabitha remained quiet, trying to think of a reasonable explanation to give. It hadn’t crossed her mind that someone would question her regular meetings with Oberyn. “Or perhaps you are dumb. You do realise that he is betrothed to me? You are marrying Viserys, not Oberyn. Was that not clarified for you when you arrived?” Tabitha’s jaw locked and her eyes narrowed as she pondered a clever response. She dug into the back of her mind and found some inspiration from lessons that her father had once given her in diplomacy.

“There are many other reasons for why a lord and a lady might be speaking with each other regularly. As members of two Great Houses in Westeros, we have a lot to discuss while we have the opportunity,” Tabitha replied smoothly, resisting the urge to grin at how well her words had turned out. Cersei gave one last glare at her before turning back towards the mirror.

“I will marry him, and I will take him away from you.” Cersei’s words were spoken lowly, but Tabitha well and truly heard the threat. Clearly the Lannisters had bigger plans for the wedding that would unite the two houses, which only gave Tabitha further motivation to mess it all up. She had never liked the Lannisters anyway.