The maester came into her husband's Solar while she was playing there with her daughters and Jon was reading some surely boring reports. The old goat actually enjoyed it to have her close to him now and he especially enjoyed it to watch her pretty and strong daughters waving their little hands and trying to catch the toys she is showing them.
She is often rolling her eyes at him, while he smiles at Teora and Perelle, especially since Perelle is named after his mother and has darker blue eyes than Teora, who is named after the Queen who had once made her husband King Roland I Arryn agree to build the Eyrie.
Lysa had quickly found out that her husband was extremely agreeable whenever she asked for something from him and had her daughters close by at the same time.
And this came wonderful to fruition because the reason for why the maester had now entered the Solar was that he had brought newly arrived letters, not only ten for the Lord Hand but also once again a letter from the Fingers for her, the Lady Arryn. From the Lord Baelish, told the thin maester to her husband, the same Lord Baelish from the Fingers, who had already send quite a few letters to the Lady Arryn throughout the last few years.
Lysa smiled at her frowning husband and agreed with the maesters words. But before she could say more, both her daughters started screaming loudly at the same time and Lysa and both men winced at the loud and shrill cries. And so the Lady Arryn went to the closest door, opened it and waved Milva and a second Maid inside, who each then carefully picked up on little babe and then carried the active girls out of the Solar. Lysa closed the door behind them herself and then looked towards her husband once more before she started speaking again.
A Lord of the Fingers had sent already quite a few letters to her, the wife of the Lord Hand, not that she answered them till now.
This latest one, this one she will answer, she tells her husband.
"Petyr Baelish is a childhood friend of my siblings and myself and he is a clever but sadly also a lonely and rashly behaving man. He had written me in his earlier letters that he wished to better his standing and to be given a chance to show his cleverness to the noble Houses of the Vale. I have to admit to you my Lord husband, that I sometimes had thought to ask you to give him a good position in Gulltown, but my first few unsuccessful pregnancies made me unhappy with everything and you and I were not at peace in our marriage and so I dared not to ask you such." she finished with a smile and slightly lowered eyelids.
She blinked carefully up towards her old husband and he looked unsuspecting and calm, not really interested but calm and with something akin to understanding.
"Do you wish to ask me now for a good position for young Lord Baelish then, wife?" he asked with a warm sounding Voice
But Lysa is slowly shaking her head then, for she had made her plans for Petyr already during the long moons she had to stay abed during the pregnancy with the twins. It was certainly fortunate that her horrible father had never told her husband who had fathered her first Baby and that her husband had always suspected a Riverlander Knight in getting her pregnant.
Lysa smiles her best demure and shy smile at her husband with these thoughts in her mind before she answers.
"No my Lord husband, I would not wish a lonely position in Gulltown for him anymore, even though I am sure that he might like it at first to work in the City. But like I already mentioned, he is not only clever but also lonely now and rashly thinking and behaving.
So, I am thinking now, that he might need to get married and that a wife at his side will calm him down and bring stability to his lonely life."
The old goat looks at her very approvingly after hearing these words and even the thin maester who is still lurking in one corner, looks now towards her with something like respectful interest.
"It is a good and very respectable idea which you have for your childhood friend, but I fear for your plans my dear wife, since his options are rather limited if I remember the size and wealth of House Baelish's holding correctly."
Lysa nods earnestly at these words and then pretends to think about them for a moment, before she then blinks her eyes and her smiling starts again, deeper and wider, so much that her dimples are showing.
She opens her eyes wide, as if a thought had just then entered her mind.
"Surely you are right my Lord husband, but I had just thought a Lady whose family might agree to such a marriage after all.
Is not Anna, Lord Elesham's only niece, a widow now twice over already? And she is not even six and twenty namedays old, if I remember correctly. Just think about it, a young widow, still without children and she is the last living, direct heir of Lord Elesham too now, since both her brothers had died in the War and Lord Elesham has no children with your niece.
Petyr might bring not much in lands and has no riches but his holdings are close to the Paps and he is just about twenty namedays old and blessed by the Sevens with a quick mind and an agreeable behavior."
Lysa finishes her little endorsement speech with an even sweeter smile and one last sentence.
"And then there is the sad fact that poor Lady Anna and her Uncle might hope for a better marriage option but I must say it frankly my dear husband, for even though I had seen her just once in the years since I have the honor to be your wife, but I thought of poor sweet Lady Anna as a sad and not really pretty looking woman."
The old goat looked at her for a few moments and then walked over to his desk, where he then sat down.
The thin maester was standing as still and quiet as possible but his eyes never left his Lord and he was gulping nervously and loudly, all too clear to hear and see because of how skinny his long neck was.
It took a short while for her husband to think about Lysa's words but then reluctantly agreed to her idea and he himself would later dictate a letter to his good-nephew and would make it clear to the Lord of the Paps, that House Arryn would appreciate a marriage between the Heiress of the Paps and the Lord of House Baelish from the closest Finger.
"My dear Lord husband, you could offer to pay for this third wedding as a gift for the bride and her Uncle and your dear ailing Lady Niece, his wife. I am sure that they would appreciate it."
Lysa smiled while her husband thought about her words for a moment but then agreed to it with a deep sigh.
This sigh was sounding very much alike to the deep sigh which he had made six moons ago, when he had asked her Lysa, while she was forced to stay abed with the babes growing inside of her, for what she had spent 1500 dragons a couple of moons earlier and she had back then answered him that she given countless coins to all motherhouses and many Septas, so that they all may pray for her to have a successful pregnancy.
He had then agreed with her, that such an investment was a wise one, though he back then still had thought the sum too high, a thought which he had promised to never speak about again after the girls had been born so healthy, surely protected already because of the countless prayer for which their mother had payed for.
Lysa had known back then that her husband had way too much pride to ever ask even a single Septa or any motherhouse members at all, if they ever had received money to pray for the Lady Arryn's health and especially for a good pregnancy. It had been a good and safe excuse for the money which she had spent at Chataya's.
Lysa reminded herself to not think about anything in the past right now but instead to concentrate on the task at hand. This letter was important after all.
"My Lord husband, would you please also include in the letter to your good-nephew, that Lord Petyr Baelish will have a kind of dowry of his own, all together a sum of 500 dragons and two big chests filled with good cloth."
Her husband now stared at her and Lysa forced herself to not show any kind of insecurity or nervousness while she explained her idea.
"The two chests are filled with woolen cloth, some in too dark blue to fit the Arryn blue colors, others in a light green which I bought accidently last year and the rest are in a deep rose color, which I actually like but it clashes horrible with my hair and so I want to get rid of it. It is all good woolen cloth, the colors are just not fitting your House nor my Hair my Lord husband and thus I want to gift them to my childhood friend."
"I can understand that two chest of woolen cloth then can be given as a gift to Lord Baelish, especially since green is in his Houses Colors and deep rose in the Colors of the Lord of the Paps, but I forbid you to give these gifts in your name only. It is not seemingly for a married Lady and especially not for my wife, to gift cloth to other men.
And now my Lady wife, you must tell me why you wish to gift such a generous sum to your childhood friend too. It is an even more inappropriate gift from a married Lady to anyone not directly bound by blood." lectured the old goat her with the disapproving tone clearly to hear in his Voice.
Lysa made her lips curving even more gentle looking and nodded as if in agreement.
"You are of course right about this, my dear Lord Husband and I know that there is nothing truly reasonable about my foolish wish to gift this sum to an old childhood friend so that might be seen more worthy enough by the family of his future bride, really nothing reasonable in my wish, just the memory of a happy childhood spent with my sister, my brother and this boy who we all had seen as nearly a second brother and if not that, than as a dear cousin instead." she finished with a shy smile.
She waited for his reaction towards her words, her eyelids were once more half closed and she kept her hands clasped together.
The old goat sighed deeply once more and mumbled and grumbled a bit about what she had said and then he agreed with her.
"It is a noble thought of you my Lady and I agree that such happiness in the childhood can be honored by giving such a generous gift to friend in the need of financial help. But and this is my final word on these matters, Lord Baelish will recive both gifts, the woolen cloths and the five hundred dragons from you and I together and after this, you will have no further contacts to care for young Lord Baelish or his well-being. Do you understand that, my Lady?"
Lysa nodded as earnestly as she could, while she grinned inwardly.
This had been actually easier to make her old goat to agree with, than she had thought it would be.
Once, in her old life, she had nagged Old Arryn for nearly two years, just so that Petyr had finally been given work in Gulltown as customs officer and later the position as Master of Coin and look what all that help had brought her in the end.
No, this time she would make sure that Petyr would not climb too high and she would make sure that he would not have the possibility to build connections so easily.
The Ravens towards the Paps and to the smallest Finger left at the same evening and she wonders if her childhood friend will figure out the trap which she is laying out for him, since he deems himself so clever, or if his greed will make blind for her plans.
A married Petyr, tied to the Island of The Paps through his wife and with the Lady of the House being loyal still to House Arryn, her mother's side.
A good gossiper, nearly a spy and really perfectly loyal.
Oh what fun it will be to play with Petyr, now that she, Lysa sits absolutely secure in her position and is not blinded to his faults anymore.