"Joanna Lannister, you rotten child, get back here," Septa Truvie shouted, running after the wild girl. Joanna knew better than to think the Septa was truly angry with her. If her laughter didn't give her away, it was the large smile on her face.

Joanna bolted down the hallway, running from the inevitable bath that awaited her inside her chambers. After a day of running barefoot through the meadows and bogs surrounding her father's holdfast that lay half a day's ride from Casterly Rock, Joanna's legs and dress were coated in mud. Settled on her hiding place, Joanna slid into her father's small library, and drew the curtains behind her as she took up refuge on the window ledge, which was large enough to hide her and a few of her favorite books.

She curled her grubby feet under her, and pulled a book from the bottom of her stash, flipping to the page she had left off at. Aegon the Conquerer had just landed on the east coast of Westeros. Joanna loved the story of Aegon the Conquerer, especially Aegon's sisters. The sisters never did get enough credit for helping Aegon conquer Westeros.

The curtains snapped back, and Septa Truvie stood, solid and broad, with her hands on her hips.

"You. Bath. Now," she said, taking the book from Joanna with a sigh.

Joanna grumbled, but complied and slid off her stony perch. She dragged her feet all the way to her quarters, where a steaming copper tub awaited her. With her play clothes off, Joanna sank into the water, and allowed the Septa to scrub her skin pink. Tonight was an important night—they were going to Casterly Rock for her cousin's Name Day celebration.

"Ow!" Joanna objected as the Septa dragged a tortoiseshell comb through the unruly knots in her golden hair.

"If you were more a lady and didn't sneak off to play in the muck, this wouldn't hurt as much," Septa said. "You're much too old to be so wild."

"Why can't you just cut it all off?" Joanna asked through her grimace as the Septa worked her way through the knots.

"Because you are a lady, and that is how ladies wear their hair," Septa said.

Joanna was silent at this. She knew what was expected of her tonight. Her father had kept her from Casterly Rock since her birth, but the time had come to finally present her to Lord Tytos and his wife, Lady Jeyne. At thirteen, Ser Jason could no longer give excuses for why he kept her from being presented to the Lord of Casterly Rock.

"I don't want to go to Casterly Rock," Joanna said. "I don't care about Tywin's Name Day, I've never met him."

Septa smiled, and when she was satisfied with her work, she grabbed a large towel for her charge to step into. When little Joanna had been bundled up, Septa Truvie knelt in front of her.

"I don't need to tell you why you must go. It is your cousin's sixteenth Name Day. He is a man now, and it is important that your family support their future liege lord."

"But father does that, I don't know why I—"

"Because you are old enough now, Joanna, and you are expected to be a lady. I expect you'll be betrothed soon enough, and you'll make little lords and ladies of your own."

"He'll be old and ugly," Joanna said crossly.

"And what makes you say that, child?" the Septa asked as she toweled off Joanna's hair.

"Because it's what Lynora and Stafford said," Joanna managed, nearing tears. She hated thinking about having to marry some stranger. Tonight only meant she was getting closer to that.

The Septa pulled out Joanna's shift, and lowered it over her head.

"Lynora is jealous because, as your father's bastard, she will not marry high-born like you or your brothers and sisters. And your little brother is wrong to tease you thus. Your father will choose a man worthy of you," Septa said. "It matters not that he has a handsome face, for handsome men can be just as cruel as homely men."

Joanna nodded, and swallowed back her fears.

Within the hour, Joanna's hair was perfumed, she was dressed in a fine, green silk dress that brought out the green of her eyes, and her hair was braided ornately. As much as Joanna disliked most of what came with being a lady, she allowed herself to twist in admiration in front of her silvered mirror.

"There," the Septa said. "You look the part of a lady. Just don't go chewing on the bones at dinner tonight, you'll give yourself away," she added with a wink.

Joanna fidgeted with the neckline of her gown as she rode her pony Hildebrand up the stone steps of Casterly Rock's courtyard. She had grown up in the shadow of the great Castle, but having been sheltered from its politics, she had no idea what to expect. She had enough experience at being a young lady, and conducting herself as such when truly expected of her, but Casterly Rock carried with it a great amount of unease.

Her father, Ser Jason, spoke kindly of his brother, Lord Tytos, and he assured Joanna that he was a jovial sort of man, prone to excesses, but he would not be unkind to her. Her brother Damon, from her father's first marriage was a man grown, and had already been presented to Lord Tytos. But as her four other true-born siblings were younger than her, they were not yet presented to Tytos. Her mother was pregnant yet with her sixth child. Her bastard sister Lynora would not be presented at all.

Joanna had barely noticed that they had made it all the way up to the great stone steps to the great hall. Her mind had been racing the entire way. What if she tripped on her gown? What if the Lord and his family thought her table manners poor?

All worries were cast aside as she saw who she assumed was her uncle, jovially walking down the stone steps, his arms wide.

"Jason! My brother," he said. Joanna's father hopped down from his horse, and clapped his brother's back in a hug.

With help from a squire, Joanna stepped down from her pony, and stood patiently, waiting to be received by Lord Tytos.

"Gods, Jason, how are you? How is your Lady Wife?" Tytos said, his face rosy, already half in his cups.

"Well, my Lord. She has begun her confinement," Jason said, referring to his wife's most recent pregnancy. "She is sorry she could not be here, but we are happy to be here on such a joyous occasion," he added, looking back to the child he had brought with him.

"And who is this?" Tytos asked kindly. "This can't be the little Lady Joanna? But you were a babe last I saw you."

"It is me, My Lord," Joanna said, and curtsied with as much grace as she could manage.

"Oh, posh," he said, "none of this 'lord' business! I'm Uncle Tytos to you, and that's final."

Joanna smiled. "Yes my—Yes, Uncle Tytos."

At that, Tytos laughed and kissed his niece on both cheeks. "My lady," he said, and he held out his arm, and Joanna took it meekly. They passed into the halls, passing servants and squires all making last minute arrangements for the feast.

Tytos brought his brother and his brother's daughter to a great study, where wine was poured for all, and they waited for the rest of Tytos's family to arrive before their entrance was made into the great hall. Joanna held her glass of wine unsurely—her father had only ever allowed her to take wine medicinally. Unsure what to do, Joanna sipped politely, trying to hide her dislike of the taste.

Joanna stood in awe, admiring the high ceilings and the bookshelves that extended over twenty feet high. She had never seen so many books in her life. Would that she could spend but an hour in the library—she was sure there was at least one book about dragons in there somewhere.

"Like what you see, young lady?" Tytos asked, pointedly. He laughed, and drank generously from his cup.

"Yes Uncle," she said, her young ears untrained to finer tones. "Father's library is my favorite place in the holdfast."

"And what a small library it is, I keep saying you ought to let me make a loan for its renovation," Tytos said, addressing his younger brother.

"I could not, Tytos, it would not sit right with me," he said. He already had felt managed enough by the patriarch of the family, he would not take his money.

The Lord of Casterly Rock opened his mouth to speak, but his, and everyone else's attention was drawn to the door, which opened with a bang. In clamored four boys, the first three of whom were arguing amongst themselves, and a girl about the same age as Joanna. The fourth of the boys, standing at least a foot taller than the other three, with noble green eyes, flecked with gold, and a fair, freckled complexion, carried himself with a cool dignity and air that made Joanna think him cold and unwelcoming.

"Kevan, Tygett, Gerion and Genna! Quit your bickering!" Tytos shouted, causing the boys to fall silent. "Say hello to your uncle and cousin."

All five of Tytos's children mumbled their greetings, and soon their attention fell to young Joanna in her sea green silks.

Joanna curtsied and said her greetings. All five of them seemed ten degrees less interested in her than her uncle had been, and for this she tried to hide her disappointment. This could have been forgotten, but the look of disappointment that played on her oldest cousin's face when he was told he would escort her into the hall made Joanna want to run all the way back to her father's holdfast.

The time came to make the procession into the great hall, and when Tywin extended his arm to Joanna obligingly, Jason and Tytos exchanged a secret glance.

Once in the hall, where they were greeted by over a hundred standing guests, they sat at the head table, and the feast began.

Joanna remained a quiet observer of the scene in the great hall at Casterly Rock. Bannermen drank and laughed, and the Lord of Casterly Rock drank and laughed louder than all of them. Every time Tytos's bellowing laugh was heard over the din of the feast, Joanna saw her cousin Tywin's strained expression. Clearly, his father's drunkenness embarrassed him to excess.

Joanna thought Lord Tytos kindly and jovial, just as her father assured her, but she was determined to not let her cousin's ill mood deter her from acting like a lady. When, after a half an hour of stony silence seated beside him, Joanna asked her cousin a question, she was answered with as much disinterest as she had estimated.

"My father told me you were just knighted by His Grace King Aegon."

"Yes," he replied stiffly, and refilled his goblet with wine.

Joanna smiled. "Do you like it in King's Landing?"

Tywin sighed, and didn't answer right away. "It's not all pretty maids and knights in polished armor like it is in the songs, if that's what you're asking."

Joanna scrunched her eyebrows in indignation. "I don't care about pretty maids and knights. But I bet you do," she said, picking at an invisible spot on the wooden table. Immediately she regretted her words. She was not being a lady, like Septa Truvie had told her to be.

Tywin opened his mouth to respond, but his Lord Father's voice stopped him.

"Tell me girl," he said, leaning over the table to get a good view of his niece, seated two seats away. "Have you bled yet?"

Joanna blanched. "M-My Lord?" She looked to her father, seated next to Lord Tytos. His expression was grave, but with his eyes, bid her to answer.

"Your father tells me you're not yet betrothed," he said, and took another swig of his wine. "I was telling him a girl can be betrothed before she bleeds. Tell me girl, have you?"

Joanna looked at the table and nodded her head so gently that she wasn't sure anyone saw it.

Tytos laughed heartily. "My boy Tywin hasn't been made a match yet," he said. "He says he won't marry from a lowly house; what do you say to that, Jason?"

"I'd say he's a smart lad," Jason said, uncomfortably.

"Says the ladies at court are silly and flit about like idiots," Tytos roared, and hiccupped.

"Father," Tywin warned, his complexion growing redder by the minute.

"Fine, fine," he said. "Enough of this, then." He stood, scraping back his chair, and soon enough the entire hall grew silent, waiting for their Lord to speak.

Tytos addressed his guests, and prattled on drunkenly about his son's Name Day celebration, and one by one, guests presented gifts to the heir to Casterly Rock. Joanna heard none of this, as her blood rushed in her ears. She had never been so laid bare in any of her father's feasts, or public gatherings. What Joanna had taken for kindliness in her uncle not an hour before, she now interpreted differently. His guffaws and loud gestures were nothing more than that of a drunken fool. She looked at the faces of his bannermen, and saw mockery and condescension poorly masked in their faces.

All her life, Joanna had considered her house one of the most prestigious and well regarded among the noble families of Westeros. But this Lord's behavior reflected none of the Lannister's glory and esteem she had been taught by her father and the Septa.

Joanna dwelled on this a while longer, and was roused from her broodings when Tytos clapped her father on the shoulder.

"For the last of the gifts on my son's sixteenth Name Day, I have this for you, dear Tywin. It was only a discussion recently, but…" he looked to his younger brother Jason, whose face was solemn. "In light of tonight, I think it wise to finally set your betrothal."

Tywin's eyes narrowed in confusion.

Tytos continued, his tongue loosened from all the wine he'd consumed. "I considered it a while, and it's true there was a very pretty Tully girl, and a Martell girl who would have done well for you, but after seeing my lovely niece Joanna, my mind is made up. I announce officially tonight the betrothal of my heir Tywin Lannister, to the eldest daughter of my brother Jason Lannister." Tytos rasied his cup, and the entire hall did the same. "Please join me in toasting this most happy of betrothals."

The great hall cheered and clapped, and Joanna's face drained of color. She looked to her father, whose expression was that of remorse. He could not deny his liege lord and older brother.

Tywin hissed to his father. "Father, she's a child."

Tytos chuckled. "My boy, you're not marrying her tomorrow. A few years, give or take," he added with a wink, punctuated by another sip from his cup.

Tywin's green eyes blazed. He stood abruptly, scraping his chair back as he stormed out of the great hall, leaving his guests murmuring at his back.

The next few hours passed in a haze. Joanna had no appetite for anything put in front of her, and she made no more conversation. She thought on what little of Tywin she knew. He seemed to be a rather unhappy young man—but who wouldn't be, with a father as silly as Tytos Lannister? It still didn't excuse his arrogance.

When Joanna was helped out of her chair by her father, Joanna held onto his arm for support.

"Father, please," she pleaded quietly. Jason hushed her gently.

They left the great hall, and entered the same library which they had taken refuge in before the feast. Tywin's three younger brothers and sister were quickly whisked away to bed, but still shot Joanna teasing looks on their way out. Joanna held herself together, if only out of shock.

"Wait here, brother," Tytos bid Jason, and off he went down the private halls of Casterly Rock, shouting Tywin's name.

Joanna sat feebly on a chair, and looked up tearily at her father.

"Father, please," Joanna begged, a tear falling down each cheek. "I don't want to marry him."

Jason sighed and sat beside his beloved daughter. "I'm sorry dearest," he said, taking her hands. "Lord Tytos is our liege lord, and this is his wish." He paused, looking at the sad look on his daughter's face. "It's a good match, love. You'll be the Lady of Casterly Rock."

"I don't want to be the Lady of Casterly Rock!" she shouted, finally able to feel anger through her sadness. "I don't want to marry anyone."

"You say that now," he said. He was silent a moment. "Joanna, this match is far better than I had hoped for you. I've done things that… Most noblemen do, but don't flaunt like I do."

Joanna sniffled. "Lynora," she reasoned simply. She referred, of course, to her bastard sister. Many noble lords did indeed have bastards, but few of them lived so openly in their father's houses. For a nobleman to support a bastard in sight of his own wife was unheard of.

"Yes. Your uncle has his mistresses, but he's the Lord of Casterly Rock, and such things are overlooked."

Joanna sat in silence, and was roused from her thoughts when she heard growing shouts from the hallway.

Tytos and Tywin were coming down the corridor, and by the sound of it, none of Tywin's anger had abated.

"You get in there boy, and apologize to that poor girl," Tytos warned.

"No!" Tywin's voice responded.

"You dare defy me?"

"If I knew you better, father, I would think your threats are serious. But we know how your bannermen take advantage of you. Why should your threats matter now?"

"You don't think I'm serious?" Tytos's voice reasoned coldly.

"No, I don't," Tywin said.

"I swear it, boy, if you don't consent, I'll name Kevan my heir, and you can be a bloody sellsword in King's Landing for all I care. And don't think this is an idle threat, boy. I'll fetch Maester Gavin this instant to draw up the contract."

"Father, they bring shame to the family. They parade that bastard daughter about like it's nothing."

"That's no fault of hers, boy."

There was silence.

The door banged open, and Tywin came in, followed by his father. Tywin, though he was tall, handsome, and dignified, looked very much like a scolded child at this moment.

His jaw clenched, and Joanna saw his fists, balled at his sides, do the same.

"Uncle Jason… Lady Joanna," he said, finally looking down at the young girl. "I have behaved abysmally. Please accept my deepest apologies."

"Of course, Tywin," Jason replied, automatically.

Joanna was silent.

Jason shifted uncomfortably. "Joanna," he warned of his child.

Joanna's face flushed. For fear of what she might say, Joanna kept her mouth shut. She had never been so infuriated in her life. This arrogant, spoiled boy thought they brought shame to the family? Instead, she nodded her acknowledgment, and looked anywhere in the room but at Tywin.

"There," Tytos replied, and slapped his son's back. "We'll wait until Joanna is older, and for her to be presented at court of course."

"Court, my lord?" Jason replied.

"Of course!" Tytos replied. "The future Lady of Casterly Rock must be presented at court. She will be handmaid to Princess Rhaella. I'll make the arrangements with the King."

"Tytos, Joanna is too young to go to court," Jason objected.

"Well of course she is now, but when the girl turns fourteen, I see no reason to keep her from court," Tytos barked.

"Fourteen?" Jason stammered. The challenging look in his brother's eyes changed his tone. "Of course, My Lord."

Joanna's head swam. Her fourteenth Name Day was only a year from now.

"Excellent!" Tytos said, and wrapped his arm around his brother's shoulders.

Before Jason and Joanna retired to their guest quarters for the night, Joanna's eyes met Tywin's. He had been looking at her for some time. He held her gaze, and Joanna could not decide what she saw in the look he had given her. Was it disappointment? Was it disgust? She had no idea. The look haunted her for a whole year as she waited for the day she would leave the Westerlands for King's Landing.