Meereen: Day 2

They ate fruit and cheese for breakfast. Sansa asked Mhyraz if he could call any of the orphan girls, Dara for example, because she wanted to ask her for a favour. The boy nodded and went out.

Sansa wore proudly the snowflake brooch Tyrion had gifted her. He noticed, pleased. During the journey she hid it, but in their current circumstances she did not have to conceal it.

"You are very beautiful."

"It must be because yesterday I had a good day." Flush reddened her cheeks. How many times had they made it? Three, four? Tyrion was losing count and he decided that he loved the fact of losing count.

"Who do you think the queen will request first?," inquired her.

"Surely you. Ladies come first," said him with his gallant tone. "Remember you don't have nothing to fear. She'll like you."

"Are you sure? I'm not as clever as you or her."

"How many times do I have to plead with you not to underestimate yourself?," begged him patiently. "She'll see your virtues."

He kissed her hands.

Mhyraz returned to tidy up the breakfast service and Dara came with him.

"Mistress," said the girl, bending.

"Hello, Dara," greeted Sansa. "I would like to offer you a deal, and you'll tell me what you think." The girl made an affirmative gesture, nervous. "Would you like to comb my hair in the mornings? Can you get hair styled?"

"I did my mother's and little sister's hair," told the girl. "I know how to do it. I like it very much."

"Then, what do you answer to my request?"

"Yes, mistress. I'll come to do your hair every morning." The girl almost jumped with joy.

"Then we have come to an agreement. You can go, tootsie." The girl made a quick bow and left, grinning.

"How easy it is to make a child happy," murmured Sansa, staring at the door. Tyrion new that remark was not only aimed at Dara.

The door was knocked again. It was Missandei.

"The queen requires you in private. Lady Sansa, you are the first."

Sansa and Tyrion held hands briefly, he gazed at her eyes to inject confidence into her, and Sansa departed with Missandei.

The queen was sitting at a table, in a hall of much more limited dimensions than the audience hall. She again was dressed in pure white and her braided style left loose two wavy strands from her temples to her shoulders. She stood up to welcome Sansa and offered her a seat.

Sansa thanked her.

"Lady Sansa Stark," began Daenerys, solemnly. "I have not called you here to tell what you already know. We both know what our fathers did." She did a pause. "But perhaps there is something you ignore. It has come to my knowledge that your father, when he was Hand of the King, tried to make Robert the Usurper change his mind and stop plotting my death."

Sansa stared at her with surprise. "I indeed ignored it, Your Grace."

"Of course. You were just a girl in love with the wrong groom." Daenerys smiled, understanding. "You were lucky. A family who loved you and a father who protected you," she said, with a tone of longing for what she never had. "Naturally, you were not aware of what was cooking up in the court. But I have found out that Lord Eddard Stark had a kind gesture with me, an exiled teenager who was hundreds of miles away and who he never had seen. And the Mad King's daughter. I have discovered that he had a row with Robert, his best friend, and he threw the badge of the Hand to his friend's face, all to defend my life," she said, as if she was not able to believe it.

Sansa cleared her throat timidly. "My father always did what he thought it was his duty. Maybe he was not always right, but he never acted against his principles," declared her, standing up for him. Daenerys wanted the truth, and that was what she would obtain. At least the truth Sansa knew.

"I know. I am aware as well of the fact that he confessed himself a traitor in the Sept of Baelor to save you, before the Bastard King executed him. He was supportive of Stannis Baratheon as Robert's heir."

"Yes. He defended his stance against all odds, he even was ready to die for it. And I believed that I convinced him when I went to talk to him in the dungeons." Sansa smiled sadly. "He said that he would confess a traitor and he would declare that he supported Joffrey so they allowed him to dress the black. What a poor naïve I was. He did it to save my neck." Her voice trembled. She was about to cry.

Daenerys placed a hand upon hers. Sansa looked at her behind the veil of tears.

"That tells me very much about how your father was. I was blinded with rage, but now I have realized that I was wrong. Don't cry, sweet lady. Feel proud," encouraged the queen.

Sansa smiled through tears. "I feel proud. I regret so much that I was furious against him during those days... He had to slaughter my direwolf because of Joffrey and Cersei, and I got so angry with him that I barely spoke to him for weeks. He had gifted me a doll when we arrived at King's Landing to ask me for forgiveness. And I said to him that I did not play with dolls since I was eight." She sobbed. "If I had known that I had so little time left to be with him..."

Daenerys squeezed her hand. Tyrion used to do the same gesture. "You suffered a lot. It had to be awful to live among your enemies. To be betrothed to the monster."

"It was. The worst was pretending in front of everyone and repeating constantly that all my family were traitors. More than once I felt tempted to jump from a tower to avoid my wedding to Joffrey."

"You survived that hell. And later they wed you to Lord Tyrion so house Lannister could rule the North."

(Part of a longer chapter)