"You are being foolish, Rose!" Celia snapped at her daughter once she sat herself down for breakfast that morning. "You cannot mean what you say."

"I do mean it," Rose promised her mother, biting into her apple as she looked nonchalantly between her and Theon. "I do not want to stay here. I want to go somewhere else...anywhere else..."

"No," Celia declared. "This is war. If someone caught you or hurt you...I could not bear it."

"I know," Rose whispered, "but you have to understand that there is nothing but bad memories for me here. There is nothing but his ghost lingering in the corridor and I cannot bear it anymore. I want to start again. I want to leave."

Theon considered what he was about to say before he said it. He held his tongue firmly between his teeth as Celia shook her head, giving up in getting her daughter to listen to her. Theon took a few seconds to drum his fingers on his thighs whilst Rose sipped her cup of water.

"Come to the Iron Islands," Theon urged her and she looked at him with a cocked brow. "I do not wish to stake my claim as a husband, but you will be away from the North and safe with me. Once I return from war then I shall take you."

Rose looked at him, considering his offer before she nodded and looked to her mother. Celia was still, a look of annoyance still on her features. She couldn't lose her daughter. She didn't want to lose her. Rose was all she had left. She would run with her daughter if she could. She would take them and find a small holdfast in the hills. Jeyne Poole could come with them.

But Celia had Bardontown. She was its only heir.

Could she give it up? Did she want to give it up? The people relied on her and looked up to her.

But then Celia looked to her daughter's face and saw the pain and anguish etched there. She could see Rose had lost weight. She was gaunt, her face holding no rosy colour to her cheeks. Her hair was limp around her head and her gown ill fitting. Celia had to firmly admit that her daughter looked a mess. It hurt her to admit it, but the truth often did hurt. Her daughter needed her more than the people of Bardontown. A Northern Lord could preside over the town until Celia returned.

"Wherever you go, I shall come," Celia promised her daughter.

"But you are Lady of Bardontown," Rose responded and Celia shook her head.

"First and foremost, I am your mother," Celia said, holding her hand out to her daughter. "And I will make whatever pain you feel stop. I promise you."

Theon kept still as the two women held hands and he wondered just what this meant for his marriage.

...

"Mother has managed to appoint a small guard of three to escort us South," Rose informed Theon as men packed horses and women held their sons and husbands tightly to them. "I do not know where she intends to go, but I doubt we shall head any further than Riverrun."

Rose was seated on Theon's bed as he packed his trunk, her legs crossed underneath her. Her gown flowed around her and she held herself up by one arm whilst her other arm played with the material of her gown.

"I hear the South isn't as safe as it had once been," Theon informed her. "I also heard that a Targaryen Queen flies on her dragons to stop the White Walkers in the North. Everything is turning to ash, Rose. It makes me wonder if the Seven Kingdoms can ever be peaceful again."

Rose looked optimistic as Theon struggled with his armour. She moved to help him, her hands fastening the straps over his shoulder as he remained still and felt her hot breath on the back of his neck.

"We have to have hope," she urged him. "The Gods know we both went long enough without any of it."

Theon smiled sadly as Rose let her hands rest on his waist once she had finished with the straps there. He turned around to face her, his gloved hand coming to rest on her cheek.

"You deserve so much more than this," Theon promised her.

"As do you," Rose urged him. "You deserve to have a woman who loves you and spend the rest of your days sat as a Prince in the Iron Islands."

Theon almost looked horrified at her words. "Do you think any woman can love me? I have no means of providing her with an heir. I have no means of giving a woman any pleasure...and the only woman I seem to want is standing right before me, but I know that there is so much more that a man could give you. You deserve to have children of your own."

Rose scoffed and looked to the ground as Theon continued to caress her cheek. "I haven't even thought about children, but I meant what I said. You will find someone who loves you."

"And can it ever be you?" Theon asked; his eyes wide and Rose could have sworn this was a different man to the one she had married in Winterfell. He was nothing like the Theon Greyjoy she had dreaded to spend the rest of her days with.

"I need to learn how to love," Rose whispered and Theon shook his head.

"No," he contradicted. "You need to learn what it is like to be loved."

He said nothing more on the matter, bending down to press his lips to her forehead as she remained still and contemplative of the words he had just spoken to her. She bit her bottom lip as Theon moved to the door and she held her arm with her hand.

"Be safe," he urged her.

"You too," she whispered. "Come back alive...please..."

A small chuckle left his lips and he nodded to her.

"And Theon," she called out before he could leave the room. "We will meet again one day. I know it."

"In that case I will count the days until we do," he promised her and she felt her smile falter as he closed the door and left her alone.

Rose sat down on the side of the bed, her hands shaking and her lip trembling as she thought of what he had just said. He loved her. Theon loved her. A good man had admitted that and all Rose could do was tell him she did not feel the same way. She had fallen for the wrong man. She only wished she had known better all along.

Three Months Later

"The Queen Daenerys has asked for fealty."

Celia Bardon rolled up the parchment she had finished reading. She handed it to her daughter and Rose examined the document. They were both sat in the small reading room of the tall tower they called home these days. Jeyne Poole had been taken with them, but she was spending the majority of her time with a guard she had met during the journey. They truly were smitten with each other.

"It is true," Rose spoke, "she has taken hold of King's Landing."

"Yes," Celia nodded. "I intend to express my fealty to her. She saved the North from destruction and murdered Roose Bolton too. How can I not express my fealty?"

"She has killed many from what I have heard," Rose whispered and Celia eyed her with interest. "Does she truly want peace?"

"I do not see why she would not," Celia responded. "I can ask her for your marriage to be annulled if it would please you? Theon sent word that he has returned for the Iron Islands. He asked after you."

"And what did you tell him?" Rose wondered, folding one leg over the other and tossing her hair over her shoulders as she did so.

"I told him you were well enough," Celia said. "I did not mention the nightmares you have every night or the fact you still wake up crying over him."

Rose looked uncomfortable as she avoided her mother's stare and bit down on her cheek. She looked away, doing her best not to think of the dreams which occupied her sleep most nights.

"I'm trying," Rose whispered and Celia sighed, wishing that she had not been so harsh.

"I know," Celia promised her daughter. "But Theon does sound like a sweet boy. Perhaps he would make you happy, Rose?"

"Perhaps," Rose spoke, "but I am hardly ready to think about that. He told me that he could not make me happy because of Ramsay mutilating him, but that does not bother me. I have taken so much moon tea that I doubt I can even conceive a child anymore...and there is always the chance to adopt an orphan as our own. What does bother me is that thought of sharing another man's bed...or not knowing who a man truly is...I do not know what to do."

Celia stood up and knelt by her daughter's chair, taking hold of her hand harshly. Rose flinched at her mother's strength, but she only knew she was trying to comfort her.

"You have time," Celia promised her. "But you need to understand that no man is like Ramsay Snow. Never have I met a man so full of hatred and so capable of atrocities."

"But I never saw him like that," Rose whispered. "I never knew him."

Celia shook her head and sighed lowly. "Only you can decide what it is you want, Rose."

She said nothing on the matter and glanced to the bookshelf behind her mother's shoulder. What did she want? Would she ever know what she wanted? Did her future involve Theon? He seemed to be the only one who understood her. He was the only one who never demanded that she forget Ramsay.

He was the one who had admitted that he could love her

Rose stood up and made her hasty decision, unsure of what more she could do.

"Invite Theon here," she spoke to her mother. "Tell him...just tell him that I wish to see him...as a friend..."

"Are you certain?" her mother asked.

"As certain as I ever will be," Rose whispered.

She left her mother alone in the reading room and made her way down the small corridors towards her own chamber. She settled down on her bed and inhaled a sharp breath, glancing to the necklace which sat on her dresser. It was the necklace Ramsay had presented her with on her name day when he had first dared to touch her pale skin. She could still recall the way her heart had sped up at his fingers and how his lips had pressed against her shoulder.

But it had all been a game to him.

Rose stood with haste and grasped the locket, opening her window wide as the cool air rushed in. It was then when she tossed the necklace out; ridding herself of the only thing which she could see to remind her of Ramsay Snow.

She didn't want to be part of his game. The game was over.

...

A/N: And that is the end of the story! So thank you very much to my regular reviewers and I do hope you enjoyed the story!