In the Uttara Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana, Rama asks his companion Bhadra and his friends what the people of the city are saying. “What do they say of Sita, Bharata and Lakshmana?” Bhadra repeats the talk of the city, in Dutt’s translation: “What pleasure can his heart experience in possessing Sita, whom Ravana formerly held in his lap, having borne her away by force?”
Two chapters later, he orders Lakshmana to take Sita away to a hermitage.