II - Aegor
1.
When she sees the king, she is disappointed. He is fat, slurred. His double chin is crumbling with fat. He has almost as much breast as she has. His purple eyes are lighter than Aegor's and less beautiful.
Her father bows before him. She looks at Barba, but her expression is indecipherable.
Bethany stands behind Aegor. The king raises him in the air, laughing, and the kid smiles. You're going to be a warrior. He rests him, and he crosses her gaze. Bethany does not lower her head.
2.
She is naked in her bedroom. She has just taken a bath with rose petals, and the smell is in the whole room. Barba examines her skin. You're not as pale as a Blackwood, but so much the better, it gives you a fair complexion. She pinches a nipple. Your breasts are small, she comments, smaller than mine, she adds satisfied. They can still grow, she answers.
She's like a replica of Barba, her improved version, and she knows it. She went through learning all the habits, all the little manias, the phobias of the king. She knows his favorite color, his favorite perfume, his favorite dish, his favourite song, his favourite position. And then, there is another side to his education, a more practical side. The king's whore, said her uncle one day, you are training her to become the king's whore. They did not see him again at Stone hedge. He has two sons who would be of the age of Aegor.
Do not yield to him, said Barba, not tonight. I know, says Bethany. She knows her business.
3.
She does not leave Aegor, after all it is he whom the king came to see, and the king must see her. He seems to be charmed by the kid, laughs as he runs down a staircase with his little wooden sword, and bumps into the wagon of the farrier below. It is quite me at his age, he says. Aegon loves her bastards, she remembers. His conversation bores him, he talks to him about politics and the dornish scourge. Sometimes he makes compliments, so she runs away after the little boy, and, as usual, they arrive, out of breath and laughing in the sacred wood.
From the elevated gallery, the king looks down at them and he smiles.
4.
He finds her funny, he finds her beautiful. She got him, without joy but with jubilation. She has long been waiting for this moment
He picks up bouquets for her. He travels the lands of the Bracken, hunts with lords of the Riverlands, flirts with the peasant women, and comes back with large armfuls of wild flowers, which he arranges with taste. Where did he learn that? He is not handsome, but he has honed his compliments to women. Sometimes she gets caught unaware.
Some days, he takes Aegor with him, (Bethany devotes himself to accompany the kid, as Barba feels indisposed). She rides gracefully, often outstrips the convoy, and lets the king catch her up in the middle of a flowery meadow. Men make rude jokes; she escapes with the kid, teaches him to plait crowns of daisies, so that she can arrange them in her hair when the king finds them.
My father likes you, says Aegor. He wants me, but she winks and lets him slip a wild rose in his braid.
How cheerful you are! says Aegon to her. It is the privilege of the cadets she says, the gift of carelessness. My brother is younger than me, yet he is not so happy, replies the king.
5.
She is naked in her bedroom, royal sperm on her thigh. He did not penetrate her, not yet. She knows how to make herself desired piece after piece. A first gift for her departure from Stone Hedge. As for the king, he offered her a diamond necklace, and the Handship for her father. (He kisses her tenderly on the cheek, I'm proud of you my daughter).
Barba and Aegor do not come. Her sister wanted to give them the kid, but the king hesitated. The kid stays, slices Aegon. He loves his children only from afar, or he is afraid of his eldest son? She says goodbye to him, and he is careful not to cry. I'll come to see you, or you will visit us. (Soon he will do whatever I want!)
Her sister doesn't smile. Bethany thinks she's jealous. Do not dream, she said, remember your place.