Small smile. "You are not wrong. And I realise that we came to my chambers last night without my asking you; would you prefer going to yours?"

"Oh, um. Yes, if you'd be comfortable there. If nothing else I could avoid scurrying back to my rooms in nothing but a dressing gown. But either's fine, I just think my chambers are prettier than the guest rooms."

"Then we could go as soon as you are ready and supper is available."

He's... a bit antsy. Apparently. Trying to keep a lid on it but.

She notices, because of course she does.

“Yes, of course. Should I just have them delivered to my chambers? That way we could go now and get settled.”

"There is no hurry; I am at your service."

"I know," she says, smiling, then she kisses one of his hands. "But I can tell my lord is impatient, so I'll go handle it now and then we can go to my chambers. Hold on."

Then! Off to ask for dinner for herself and her husband in her chambers! This is pretty easy to do, she has a general idea of what tasks are being done around this time, and thus someone is easy enough to find.

Of course she can tell. To be fair he is kind of not really hiding it so much. He'll follow her to her chambers once she leads the way.

Supper is secured, then she grabs her in progress embroidery (and the bag she has for her colored thread) and takes his hand with the other, and to her chambers they go.

They’re a bit bigger than his guest rooms, actually. Lord though he is, he’s being temporarily housed along with his army, and she’s lived here for her entire life. The rooms are also less boringly decorated, and feel very… her. Colorful, tasteful, with more of an eye to making the entire room work together aesthetically than either filling it with the most expensive things available, or paying artisans a lot of money to follow a theme. These look like things that were carefully brought together over years, not something set up recently. There are also many potted plants around, and only a few of them are flowers. He might recognize a few, actually, some of them are medicinal herbs.

“We should wait until after supper arrives to speak properly,” she informs him, once they’re inside and the door’s closed, “But first, um.” And then she looks down shyly, and steps forward and hugs him. “How was your day?”

Aaaaah yeah how the fuck did he miss that he was in love with her well probably because it is unreasonable to fall in love with someone over two days so of course it wasn't on his list of possibilities that's just sensible.

Nevertheless.

"Busy. Full. Zakary Baratheon led the strategy meeting and," oh gods why is he blushing just from talking about Zakary that's ridiculous he's ridiculous he's looking away so she won't see it, "erm, he's very good at... what he does," aaaah he wants to bury his head in the ground and never come back out.

This she definitely notices. She smiles a little, and adjusts the likelihood that Zakary Baratheon is his ‘not exactly’ jilted lover. So, probably? And…. he might have gone and spent time with him, and somehow found time to fall into bed with him and is feeling… guilty? That seems most likely.

“So I’ve heard,” she agrees, reaching out to caress his face and smooth out his worry lines by gently touching them.

Argh.

He leans into her hand, too, traitorous self.

"Uh, anyway, we spent most of the day in the meeting discussing plans and figuring out what we'll need," good riddance, horrible blush, "so tomorrow all of us are going to specifically check that. I believe Winterfell will not have enough archers for one of his plans but Lord Karstark said he might be able to cover us. Oh! And I spoke with Lord Manderly and he said that he sees no obstacle to getting you passage to White Harbour."

“Oh, good!” Pet pet pet. “Then I will be happy to be packed up and sent off whenever is best.”

"We should wait until we're ready to go," he says immediately, then looks away once more. "To, uh. Make as sure as we can that you should be with child."

Giggle. “Sounds like an excellent plan to me.” By the way her eyes are sparkling, she’s delighted by the idea of spending as much time with him as possible. “Though I do think we should keep the details to ourselves for a while, it’s likely wiser for me to be smuggled more than, you know. All of the pomp that usually goes with taking a lady and putting her elsewhere. I do not need to bring all of my dresses north, pretty though they are, I really doubt they’re built for the climate.”

He nods seriously. "It should not be advertised, no. I trust Lord Manderly's discretion and competence, and will follow his advice on how to best proceed."

She nods.

“I’ll act perfectly normal and like I’ll remain here,” she murmurs to him, very softly, “Give me at least a day’s notice beforehand?”

"Of course, milady. We should have more than that, but we will see." There's a knock on the door, then, and Alisander goes to the door to accept the food for both of them.

Excellent, then they can go further into her chambers, to a little sitting area with a table in her bedroom, and eat there. They’re right by a window, overlooking the river Tumblestone. She draws the curtains closed and shuts the bedroom door.

“And now we should not be overheard even if people listen at the door, so long as we don’t raise our voices,” she says, once all of this is done and she sits across from him with her plate.

He purses his lips but it's not like he can really contradict her.

"I should begin with... saying that I believe I have fallen in love with you." He's kind of embarrassed, his brain is still yelling that IT'S BEEN TWO DAYS but it's still true and it would be a disservice to his wife to not tell her.

She blinks, several times, then beams and picks up her chair to scoot it next to him so she can lean on him properly. And hold his hand. While not looking at him because she's embarrassed.

"Oh. Well. Good. I don't, um, know where the line of love or not love is for me, but you're, um. A better husband than I could have possibly dreamed of and I really truly want to spend the rest of my life with you, so. That might equate?"

He leans against her and smiles a bit. "It doesn't. ...ah, at least for the way my feelings work, it doesn't. It is a different thing."

"Damn. Then I'm sorry I couldn't just, um. Tidily return things, I don't... have enough experience to say? I expect I'll definitely end up madly in love with you eventually?? I might already be there and just don't know how to tell??? Sorry. Feelings are hard and, um. ... My northern guide was very clear about not lying in the godswood, and. I don't know, I kind of liked that feeling of honesty, and it seems disingenuous to not carry it over to our marriage considering where we were married and, um..."

Is she babbling? She's babbling. She closes her mouth and stops.

He lifts her hand to his lips to kiss it once more. "Milady, I do not expect you to reciprocate, or ask it. It would be good, I would be delighted, but I walked into this marriage knowing it was one of politics and convenience, and even if you never return my feelings, this is enough. We will still build something beautiful together, and our marriage will be strong."

She's afraid to speak again, for fear of babbling like a lunatic, but she smiles and nods and leans into him.

"Yeah. We will, and it will," she agrees softly, despite the danger of babbling.

He keeps hold of her hand, then swallows a few times, then grabs a glass of wine to clear his throat, and then finally gets the courage to get to the other part.

"Zakary was the one who noticed it," he starts with. "I believe his words were a very exasperated 'you are already in love with her', to which I protested we'd just met. And then—Lord Arryn told him of what happened when you and I first met, and he thinks it might have been love at first sight, or, erm. Something like that." Blush blush blush.