For all Renly had enjoyed the tourney and had relished the excitement that had come with it, he would very much have been lying if he said he wasn't at least slightly relieved it was all over. He found in fact that he was beyond glad when the last of the guests finally took their leave, and things could finally return to normality in Storm's End.

He was not quite so relieved however when he glanced on the mountain of papers that were stacked on his desk. He'd pleasantly managed to ignore all of his official Lordship duties for the duration of the tourney, and now it seemed he was paying the price.

Sighing, he sat down dutifully at the desk, rifling through papers and trying to work out what the tourney had cost them.

He laughed when he saw the figure. Stannis would most definitely had called him frivolous had he seen it.

He called over to Loras who was sat by the window, watching the waves crash against the walls below as he often did when Renly was too busy too be able to pay him any attention.

Renly smiled as he too glanced out of the window. The good weather seemed to have departed along with the guests. The summer showed no signs of fading, but the glorious sunshine had vanished, powerful, unrelenting summer storms taking its place. Ominous black clouds rolled in off the sea, masking the sky and rattling even the walls of Storm's End with the thunder they brought. Renly rather enjoyed the storms, he loved nothing more than lying in bed awake, listening to them.

He glanced at his squire. Loras on the other hand did not seem to share his love of the storms. Whilst Loras had never been frightened of them and even seemed to have a grudging sort of respect for them, he certainly was not overly fond. He had a rather glazed look of boredom on his face at the moment as he stared absent-mindedly out of the window, the rain lashing against the glass panes. It was the sunshine Loras loved, the lazy sunny days he'd grown up with in Highgarden.

He called to him. "Care take a guess Loras at how much this tourney has cost us?"

Loras frowned. "I don't know? Fifty thousand gold dragons? Sixty? Seventy?"

Renly laughed "Double your last guess and you'll be almost there!"

Loras shrugged. "It could be worse."

Renly sighed. He always managed to forget that Loras came from a much wealthier family than he did. His brother may have been the King, but even the crown's wealth was pittance when compared to the vast fortunes of the Tyrells or the Lannisters.

"It's your name day in a few weeks Loras?" Renly said, trying to put his squire back in good spirits. "Do you have anything in mind as to how you want to celebrate it?"

Loras shrugged again. "I don't want to celebrate it at all if the weathers like this"

Renly turned back to his papers, sighing. He knew better than to bother trying to cheer Loras up when he was in moods like this. "I have to go show these Penrose" He said, waving the papers at him. "And apparently he has important things to discuss with me."

"Sounds dull."

"It probably will be." Renly agreed. "Perhaps even more dull than those papers I've been looking at all morning."

"It's times like this that I'm rather glad I will never inherit Highgarden." Loras yawned, running a hand through his hair before returning to staring sulkily out of the window.

Renly laughed. "Well do you have anything better planned for the afternoon then? You look bored out of your wits at the moment."

"I was thinking about seeking out one of the squires and getting some practice in."

Renly laughed incredulously, gesturing out to the weather outside. "In this?"

Loras shrugged. "It's only rain. It's hardly cold out."

Renly couldn't argue with that. The days were hot and humid. Even the rain felt warm to the touch. "Well suit yourself. Rather you than me!"

Loras smiled. "I'll come find you later" he said, jumping down from the window ledge and heading off down the corridor, seemingly in much better spirits now he was off to do something he enjoyed.

Renly couldn't help but laugh as he made his way to Penrose' study. He ought to be surprised at Loras braving even this violent weather all for the sake of practising with a sword for a couple of hours, but he knew Loras far too well to be surprised. Practice with the master at arms had halted for the duration of the tourney, and watching the great lords and knights who had come to compete had only served to make Loras more restless. His squire had high standards it seemed, and high standards required practice, in all weathers apparently.

Renly was half way to Penrose's study when he heard voices giggling in the corridor up ahead. He knew he ought to carry on walking, but curiosity got the better of him. He stopped, out of sight, listening to the tittering group of girls, presumably serving girls or maids.

One of the voices Renly recognised. She was a serving girl who'd been in Renly's employ for a few years now. Robert had paid her rather a lot of unwanted attention at last weeks feast if he remembered correctly.

Catching a few words, he sighed when he realised they were talking about Loras. That was all the girls of his household seemed to discuss nowadays and it was exactly what Renly didn't particularly want to hear.

"He's beautiful" One of them was saying. "I'd say he's much more attractive than that young lord from Blackhaven you seemed to favour Celia!"

One of sighed dreamily. "You mean Lord Beric, and he looked at me once last week, actually looked at me."

Renly couldn't help but smile. He personally had to agree with the first girl, though it would be hard not to see the appeal that Beric Dondarrion also had.

The girls laughed. "Stop being silly Celia! He probably was just being polite was all."

"Well a girl can dream!" The seemingly lovestruck girl retorted.

"But lord Renly's better looking than all of them." One of them piped up, the girl whose voice Renly thought he recognised.

Renly grinned. It seemed the girl had taste.

"And you said my dreams of Lord Beric were hopeless!" the girl Renly now assumed to be Celia laughed. "You must have heard what the kitchen girls were saying this morning?"

"No?" The girl asked, and Celia's voice dropped to a whisper.

Renly winced. He could no longer hear what they were saying but he didn't think he needed to.

He was just about to turn back when one of them squealed, and they all burst into laughter.

"Where did she hear that?" the girl asked, incredulity in her voice.

"Well..." the girl paused for effect. "Gwen heard it from Roslina, and she was told by that new girl who works in the pantry, you know, the ugly one? Apparently she overheard one of the serving girls from Sunspear laughing about it. And I can well believe it, you know Gwen herself spent months practically throwing herself at him a while back, and he never batted an eyelid."

She had? Renly frowned. That was news to him. The name didn't even ring a bell with him. He wondered fleetingly if he'd hurt the poor girl's feelings by not noticing her interest. He knew he was attractive, he was keenly aware of it in fact, but whilst he had noticed the odd girl blush in his presence, he'd never for one moment noticed that one of the servants was apparently throwing herself at him, to use the girl's expression.

He sighed, unsure of whether he wished he had noticed. Maybe he'd have even taken her up on the offer. He'd probably have to marry someday, and as such would be required to at least feign interest in women. Perhaps he ought to get some practice in before it became inevitable. A serving girl might not laugh at him like a proud high-born one might.

Or at least not to his face anyway.

Renly was sure they would laugh about it afterwards, if he failed to bed the girl that was. He cringed slightly as he recalled the nickname the Lannister imp had thrown in the face of Edmure Tully at the tourney, imagining the serving girls calling him something similar, sharing yet more gossip about him.

He didn't think his pride could endure it.

Sighing, he turned on his heel, determined to go the long way round to Penrose' study rather than face the girls and see them try to hide the fact that they had been whispering about him.

Continuing walking, he tried to push it to the back of his mind. It was only mindless gossip, and as such it would probably stay amongst the servants. Soon it would be forgotten about and the servants would find something else worth talking about. Or so Renly tried to tell himself.

Still, it stung a little, hearing his servants laugh about him like that. Perhaps what stung more was that Renly knew what they were saying was true.

Reaching Penrose's door, he pushed the thoughts aside, smile firmly back in place and knocked.

…...

Penrose almost had a heart attack when he saw the figures Renly showed him.

"How in the seven hells did you manage to spend that Renly?" He asked, face disbelieving.

Renly laughed. "Its no matter. It's hardly made a massive dent in our funds."

Penrose nodded curtly. "True, but it's made rather a bigger dent than I expected."

Renly grinned. "I did warn you that I was sparing no expense. You should have taken me at my word!" He laughed. "Anyway that aside, what were these official matters you wished to speak to me about."

"You came officially of age months ago Renly when you turned six and ten" Penrose said, stroking his beard absent-mindedly. "Now that this god forsaken Tourney is over, it's high time you visited your bannermen in their own halls. It will be expected of you my lord."

Renly smiled. That was considerably less dull than he'd been expecting. "Sounds like a good idea Penrose. What arrangements need to be made?" He frowned, thinking of the boring stack of papers that were already heaped upon his desk.

"Don't trouble yourself over it Renly." Penrose said as if reading Renly's mind. "I'll make the arrangements. I know how these things bore you."

Renly grinned. "Did I ever tell you Penrose quite how invaluable you are to me? I really couldn't find a better man to take care of my affairs than-"

"Yes yes" Penrose interrupted, waving Renly's compliments away. He was pretending not to be flattered at Renly's words but Renly could see he that the older man was smiling despite himself. "Do you have any preference as to which order we do it in? We either go north towards Bronzegate and Tarth, or south towards Mistwood or Greenstone."

"South" Renly said decisively. "My lord grandfather did not come from Greenstone to the tourney. And they say he is growing rather frail as of late. We should start there."

"A prudent decision." Penrose said. "Very well. We should go to Mistwood first then as it is closest and then take a boat over to Greenstone to your grandfather, lord Estermont. I shall write to Lord Mertyn and your grandfather now."

"Wonderful" Renly said, turning to leave. "But can we not go until after Loras' name day? It's only a couple of weeks off and it would be awfully dull if he had to spend it in Mistwood. If I remember correctly the Mertyns are not the most high-spirited of people. "

Penrose laughed. "If it please you Renly. Do you two have anything planned for it then?"

Renly smiled. "No, not really. Though I was playing with the idea of having a sword forged for him. He's old enough now to carry real steel surely. I was thirteen too when Robert sent me my first proper sword."

Penrose nodded. Well he's certainly got the skill to use it my lord. And the arrogance that comes with that skill" he muttered under his breath.

Renly laughed "Well we must allow Loras at least some faults Penrose."

"I thought you two had an agreement that you didn't buy each other gifts." Penrose said. "At least that was the impression I got."

Renly regarded him curiously. "How did you know that Ser Cortnay?"

"You'll find not much escapes me around here Renly." He looked at Renly rather intently for a moment before frowning. "And besides, you might recall that I accidentally sat on part of his present for your last name day Renly. It was on the way back from Highgarden, and he'd brought you peaches. He wouldn't speak to me for the rest of the journey after I'd sat on two of them."

Renly laughed. "You're right. He wasn't best pleased. Well anyway. I've decided that agreement is boring. And besides, having something forged isn't technically buying something, not truly." He paused, deep in thought. "I was thinking gold filigree handle maybe? Or perhaps wrought silver, set with gems? What do you think? It's a shame Ser Donal saw fit to join the wall. His steel was beautiful."

"It was" Penrose agreed. "But the smith now will do just as well. Nothing too ostentatious mind you Renly. With all due respects, Loras is still your squire. Don't treat him like he's already the great knight he imagines himself to be."

Renly sighed. "I suppose you're right. As usual... Maybe I can get him a fancier one when he's knighted. Although no doubt his lord father will make him a present of one then. I hear Loras is his favourite son after all."

"I can't help but wonder why." Penrose said dryly, although Renly could see the hint of a smile at his eyes. "I'll inform the armoury then shall I my lord?"

Renly laughed. "Please Penrose."