Author's Note: Suggestive themes both heterosexual and homosexual and royal incest.
Princess Alyssa Targaryen had known that she was different from other girls since her early tens. Tomboyish as she was during her childhood, Alyssa still preferred the company of girls around her age over boys with the exception of her younger brother Aelyx and their cousins Aeric and Daemion. As she grew up, Alyssa found it difficult to relate with her female peers when they discussed their feelings about the opposite sex. The princess would smile and nod as her companions gossiped and giggled over the boys they found attractive even though she felt nothing. Of course, there were some boys and men that Alyssa viewed as being handsome, but it was the girls and women that she paid closer attention to.
Her eyes would trace the physical features of the ladies she met and knew like the shape of their faces, the color of their eyes and hair, how white their teeth were, the condition of their skin, and the size of their breasts and hips. Alyssa also paid close attention to how her friends walked, ate, laughed, and smiled, and what their personalities were like. She never did this with the squires in the training yard, or the friends of her brothers and cousins. To the princess, there was nothing else to these males other than her first impression of them like how shy they were, how kind they were, how smart or dumb they looked, et cetera. Shallow as these observations were, Alyssa did try to put a little more effort into characterizing her fiancé, Lord Lyonel Tyrell.
He was chivalrous, he knew how to make people laugh and smile, he was dutiful to and respectful of his mother, he was skilled in arms, he was brave, and he was loyal to his friends and family members. Good qualities as these were, Alyssa now realized that her betrothed's sense of loyalty did not include observing fidelity to her. Hearing about how Lyonel had flirted with the female relatives and servants of House Rowan was, obviously, quite discouraging for Alyssa, never mind the fact that he got two of those servants pregnant with his bastards. But it also made her feel less guilty about her having an intimate relationship with Lady Florence Rowan, her "precious Flo", or "my precious Flo" as Alyssa would say lovingly to Florence when they were alone together. The two girls were the best of friends during childhood, and they officially became a couple three years ago during the celebrations held for the Black and Green Wedding in 146 AC.
The two girls were brought together by nonother than Sabitha Vypren, the Lady of the Crossing and one of the companions of Alyssa's mother, Princess Baela Targaryen. Alyssa had been drawn to the crude and rebellious Sabitha during the wedding festivities in 146 AC. She liked how confident Lady Vypren was in herself, how bold she was in openly flirting with women in plain view of both her husband and society at large, as well as to participate in the wedding tourney as the Knight of the Lilies, and how she did not care at all about what people thought of her. Alyssa was thrilled when Sabitha became her mother's new lady-in-waiting later that same year. As 146 AC wore on, Alyssa, conflicted with her feelings, worked up the courage to meet with Lady Vypren in secret in the former's bedchamber to discuss these feelings and how to deal with them.
The Lady of the Crossing comforted Baela's only daughter when she revealed her attraction to the same sex, and she provided invaluable counsel to Alyssa, who was so relieved to find a confidant in someone who shared the same predilection for other women as she did. Sabitha told Alyssa to not fight her feelings, but to embrace them. When Sabitha asked the princess which of her peers she found attractive, Alyssa blurted out Florence's name without a second thought. Cajoling the princess to reveal what she found attractive about Lady Rowan, Alyssa soon found herself listing off in great detail what those features were to Sabitha. There was much about Florence to describe.
Florence's curly golden blonde hair, especially when it glimmered under the sun. The way she smiled, and how her brown eyes would smile too. How she tilted her head back to laugh. The slenderness of her figure, the softness of her hands, the scent of Flo's favorite perfume, peach blossom, which emanated from her like a pleasant aura. It was during this description that Alyssa revealed that she had once imagined what her closest friend would look like unclothed.
Realizing that the princess's attraction to Lady Rowan bordered on love, Sabitha told Alyssa that she wanted to observe Florence to see if there was a possibility of them being more than just friends. An upcoming hunting and hawking trip to the Kingswood provided Sabitha with the perfect opportunity to conduct her observations. Lady Vypren observed Florence's mannerisms during that trip. She noticed how Florence looked up to Alyssa, how she followed her every movement, and how she wanted to be with the princess at all times throughout the day in the forest. In Lady Rowan's eyes, Sabitha saw her adoration for the princess, and, possibly, longing.
Giddy with excitement, Sabitha met up with Alyssa later to share her findings with the princess, and she instructed the thrilled young lady on how to woo the object of her affections. First, Alyssa plucked a pink wild rose from a bush in the Kingswood and gave it to Florence, a gift she appreciated very much. Second, Alyssa taught Florence how to shoot a bow and arrow, and aided her in taking down her first quarry, a rabbit, which greatly thrilled Lady Rowan as well as make her a little sad. Third, at the hunting lodge, Alyssa, as instructed by her confidant, named Florence as her bed-maid. The two girls, who turned fourteen and thirteen that year in 146 AC, slept back-to-back at first during the first few months of them sharing a bed together.
However, by the end of the year, the princess and Lady Rowan started sleeping while facing each other. Early in their adolescence then, Alyssa and Florence's bodies were still growing and they were experiencing mood swings and brand new feelings at the time. Their nights together were the perfect time to experiment and to satisfy their curiosities about each other under the intimate safety of blankets and the darkness of night. It was during one of these "experiments" that Alyssa and Florence had their first kiss. Two years earlier, Alyssa had had her very first kiss with a boy, a squire from House Rosby, an experience that she did not enjoy too much.
But it was different when she kissed Flo. It felt good, it felt right. The kiss confirmed to Alyssa that this was what she liked. The kiss bound the two girls together, it was their very own secret, the only outsider privy to this being Lady Sabitha Vypren. This was when the princess and her companion became a couple.
Kissing was one thing, having relations was another. Alyssa and Florence crossed that threshold together the following year in 147 AC after they had both flowered. This brought the two young ladies even closer together, and once more, only Lady Vypren knew of this, and she was the one who had instructed Alyssa on how to please a woman in bed. Bound first by their secret, the two young ladies were now bound by love. Acting prim and proper in front of the royal court, Alyssa and Florence expressed their true feelings for each other in the privacy of their bedchamber, although they occasionally risked detection by sneaking in a quick kiss when they thought no one was looking.
Even though Florence was the princess's only bed-maid, no one at the royal court suspected anything out of the ordinary going on between the two ladies. Alyssa and Florence did their best to keep their affair a secret, and it would have remained that way if they had not slept in the morning after the last day of the Twentieth Year Tourney in 149 AC. Both ladies had drunk a great deal of wine the night before, and they "carried on the celebration" in the princess's guest bedchamber as the Darklyn's and their guests began retiring to their beds for the night. Before they fell asleep after copulating, Alyssa crowned her paramour with the crown of roses that Lyonel had given to her after winning the tourney earlier that afternoon. "My Queen of Love and Beauty", stated Alyssa to Florence before sharing one last kiss before finally dozing off.
The heady mixture of wine, lust, and exhaustion was what caused the couple to sleep in that morning. They did not wake up when they were discovered by Magda and Lia and were still sleeping when the two ladies quietly fled the room with the door still open. Dowager Lady Mary Crane and Lady Bethany Hightower were both missing from the Dun Fort's great hall when Magda and Lia arrived to inform Princess Baela Targaryen about what they had found.
"Where is Alyssa?" the confused princess asked before Magda leaned in and whispered into her ear. Baela's purple eyes were as a big as saucers after Lady Rollingford divulged what she had found in Alyssa's room. She was pale and speechless after Magda had finished filling her in.
"That cannot be..." Baela whispered at last. She gave Magda an angry look as if what the young lady had just told her was a cruel joke.
"Lia saw them too, my lady..." Magda said sheepishly.
Baela looked from Magda to Lia, the latter quickly backing up what Lady Rollingford had said.
"It is true, princess. We both saw them together."
Baela all but crushed the armrests of her chair with her hands as fury coursed through her. She reached over to grab her husband's arm as he ate his breakfast. Jace turned to face his wife while eating a piece of bacon, and he was taken aback by Baela's expression.
"Baela, what is wrong?"
"Jacaerys, it's Alyssa. We have a problem..."
Baela then leaned in and told Jace what was going on. As if Baela's reaction to this news was not terrifying enough, Jacaerys's was petrifying. Together, the couple got up out of their chairs and stormed off towards their sleeping errant daughter's room with Ladies Magda Rollingford and Lia Wendwater following them looking scared. Not wanting to see his own child and her lover naked, Jace commanded Magda and Lia to rouse Alyssa and Florence and to get them dressed or at least covered up with sheets or blankets, and to take Florence out and to leave Alyssa in her room afterwards so that Jace and Baela could talk to her. The nervous Magda and Lia did as they were told, and they were welcomed with terribly shocked expressions by both the princess and Lady Rowan after they had been shaken awake.
Dressed in the wrinkled clothing they had worn yesterday and discarded last night on the floor, nothing was said between the four women, and the air was awkward and tense as Alyssa and Florence were attended to by Magda and Lia respectively. Flo was weeping while Alyssa remained stoic even though she looked dejected. After both the princess and Lady Rowan were dressed, Magda and Lia quietly led the latter out of the room; Florence ducked head down when she passed by her lover's parents, who glared angrily at her.
"Lady Florence." spoke Jace in a stern tone. The three ladies stopped and turned to face the crown prince. "We will speak later after I am done with my daughter."
A teary-eyed Florence nodded nervously before looking back down at the floor again. She was soon led away. Jace and Baela entered the bedchamber as soon as their daughter's companions had left to confront her, and Baela all but slammed the door shut behind her. Alyssa did not even flinch, but she did raise her head up to look at her parents. She sat on the edge of the bed with her hands folded over her lap looking every inch like a prim and proper lady.
"Good morning, mother. Good morning, father." Alyssa said nonchalantly without a hint of fear in her voice. Neither Jacaerys nor Baela returned her greeting.
"Alyssa." Jace began, his voice simmering with anger. "What have you done?"
"Nothing." Alyssa shrugged. Her answer angered her father even more, who believed that Alyssa was being "smart" with him. Jace took step closer to Alyssa, his face changing from pink to red.
"Nothing? You call being found abed with Lady Florence Rowan, your lady-in-waiting, nothing? Is this all a jest to you, Alyssa?"
Alyssa shook her head. "No. It is not a jest to me..."
"Then why are you acting like this is nothing?!" Jace all but spat out.
"Better than acting like you are right now!" Alyssa countered.
Both the prince and his wife were taken aback by what their daughter had just said. Jace balled his hands into fists.
"Do not get wise with me, young lady." the prince said threateningly. "This is very serious, one more wise word out of you will earn you a slap across your face!"
"Your father is right, Alyssa." Baela chimed in. "We need to fix this as quickly and as quietly as possible to avoid your good name from being tarnished."
"You mean the good name of House Targaryen, mother?" quipped Alyssa. Just as promised, Alyssa was slapped by her father for her insolence. The slap stung, but only the princess's skin, not her pride. In fact, the pain fueled her scrappiness even more.
"Lyonel can sleep around with anyone he fancies without fear of ruining the reputation of House Tyrell, but if I, a woman, were to have a dalliance, her honor and reputation comes under serious jeopardy. How is that fair?"
"That is different." Jace growled. Baela looked at her husband with a concerned look, whether it be him stirring the proverbial hornet's nest, or that he appeared to be condoning an age-old double standard.
"Different, really father? Because Lyonel has a cock and I don't, that makes his adultery any less despicable?"
"No, Alyssa. What makes this different is that you were caught in bed with another woman!"
"What of it?!" an exasperated Alyssa stood up to her full height and looked her father right in the eye. "Queen Rhaena "the Black Bride" had a female paramour and no one made much of a fuss about it except for her brother-in-law. Two women cannot make a baby together. Lyonel already has two, if not more, bastard children running around in the Reach right now!"
Jacaerys was breathing heavily, and his skin was sanguine. His brown eyes were bulging and unblinking, and he looked like he was just seconds away from raising his hand to Alyssa again. Instead, much to the great relief of both his wife and daughter, Jace turned around and stormed out of the room in a fury. Alyssa sank down onto her bed again. Baela, restraining her own anger, quietly walked over and sat down beside her daughter.
"How long has this been going on, Alyssa?" she asked, trying to initiate a calm discussion between mother and daughter. "How long have you been... seeing Florence?"
Alyssa did not respond. She only stared off into space with empty indigo eyes. Baela tried to talk to her middle child for a few more minutes before giving up and leaving the room to let Alyssa be alone in silence. Baela was able to get the answers she needed from Florence. The weepy girl was not as tough as her lover, and she broke down and confessed everything to Princess Baela.
Baela was deeply shocked to learn that Lady Sabitha Vypren, one of her own companions, had not only known about Alyssa and Florence's relationship and kept it hidden during the past three years, but that she was also the one who encouraged Alyssa to explore her sexuality. This led to a tense confrontation between the princess and her companion in the solar at the Dun Fort.
"You knew about my daughter and Lady Rowan this whole time and you said nothing, Sabitha?" Baela all but growled. Sabitha silently nodded. "Not only that, but it was you who brought them together. How could you? How could you?"
"Alyssa sought me out, my lady." Sabitha said. "She wanted my counsel, and I gave it to her."
"But why did you encourage her to pursue her lust?"
"She was confused and curious. She told me how she felt about Florence, and I saw no harm in bringing them together."
"This can cost us a powerful match with House Tyrell! My husband is furious! It took him a long time to create this betrothal between Lord Lyonel and Alyssa."
"And I am sorry! Sincerely, I am!" Sabitha said. "But let me tell you something that just might assuage you and your husband. I have been overhearing the servants here gossiping. Apparently, the Tyrell's and your kinsmen are going through the same thing right now."
"What are they going through?" a curious Baela asked.
"Your daughter's betrothed was caught in bed with Prince Daeron the Daring's oldest daughter this very same morning."
The eyes of Baela, both her Belmore companions, and Lady Alysanne Blackwood, who had come to support the princess, widened when they heard that. She then remembered that Lyonel's mother and Lady Bethany had been absent for some time at the great hall. Not only that, Baela just remembered that her daughter's bedroom door was open when she and her husband went there to confront Alyssa. Quite a pickle everyone was in right now... Sabitha was not yet done.
"I do not need to tell you, my lady, that Lyonel claiming the maidenhead of a princess while betrothed to another is a really serious offense to your house. Best pray that Princess Saera has not been impregnated. But given how fertile her mother is, I would not be surprised if -"
"Enough!" a flustered Baela all but shouted. She did not want to hear anymore sordid details. This whole thing was one huge nightmare! Baela then remembered what her daughter had said about how two women could not make a baby together, and she began to sympathize a little with Alyssa's plight over how her indiscretion was being treated in comparison to Lyonel's philandering.
But still, adultery is wrong regardless of whether or not the cheating pair are a man and a woman, two women, or two men. Once Baela had composed herself, she made the following statement to Lady Vypren.
"Sabitha of House Vypren, you are hereby dismissed from my service."
Sabitha sputtered.
"What?!"
"You heard me." Baela said firmly. "Your actions have led to this, and I cannot stand to have you by my side any longer. Depart for the Twins with your husband and son at once!"
Sabitha was gaping as Baela and her other companions turned to leave. But before they left the solar however, Sabitha regained the power of speech, and she made her protest.
"I did not encourage Princess Alyssa to do anything that she did not consent to, your grace!"
The four women stopped in their tracks. Baela slowly turned around to face her former companion.
"What did you just say?" the princess hissed.
"What I am saying, your grace, is that none of this would have happened had Alyssa not consented to it. She wanted this. Not this situation, mind you, but she wanted Florence. They both wanted each other. All I did was help them along the way."
Baela said nothing at first after Lady Vypren had said that. But suddenly, without a word, the princess stormed over towards Sabitha and she punched her right in the face. Sabitha cried out in pain and grabbed her face as Baela seized her by the collar and readied to punch her again. It took both Black Aly Blackwood and the oldest Lady Belmore to restrain the princess and to pull her away from Sabitha, who was being held by the youngest Lady Belmore. Sabitha's left eye was swollen and black and blue when she was escorted back to her horrified husband and son.
Discord was also plaguing the Tyrell's and Green Targaryen's in the aftermath of the discovery of Lyonel and Saera's one-night stand. Mary furiously scolded her son after a deeply embarrassed Saera was taken away by her mother.
"Do you realize what you have done, Lyonel?" fumed Mary. "Do you?!"
An ashamed Lyonel said nothing as his mother ranted.
"Your betrothal to Princess Alyssa Targaryen is the greatest thing to happen to House Tyrell since Aegon the Conqueror named our family as the High Marshal of the Reach, and your dalliance with Alyssa's cousin is probably going to result in us losing this match! Why could you not have bedded one of the Darklyn's serving girls instead? Why could you not have thought with your head for once instead of with your manhood?"
"Saera came onto me, mother..." Lyonel said meekly before Lady Crane cut him off.
"I do not want to hear how this happened. It is too late to fix it now. What we, no, what you must do, Lyonel, is make restitution to House Targaryen."
"Restitution?" a bemused and fearful Lyonel repeated, which annoyed his mother.
"Apologize to both Alyssa and Saera's families. Send one of your cousins to King's Landing or Oldtown to serve as a cupbearer or squire. Allow yourself to be scourged by septons at the Starry Sept as punishment for your lust. Perhaps allow Princes Jacaerys and Daeron to scourge you instead. Arrange a marriage for Saera to one of our bannermen to preserve her honor.
Any if not all of these choices can help reconcile you to the Iron Throne."
The young Lord Tyrell was pale after he listened to his mother list off her suggestions to make up to the Targaryen's. He wrung his hands and looked like he was about to break out in a cold sweat.
"And one more thing, my son." Mary added.
"What is it, mother?"
"You best hope that you did not father a bastard on Princess Saera last night. A bastard with a claim to both Highgarden and the Iron Throne will surely spell disaster for the realm if a succession crisis were to occur."
Lyonel said nothing, but he sighed deeply as his stress increased. Gods, what a mess this was! In stark contrast to the confrontations between Lyonel and Alyssa with their parents, Bethany and Saera did not say much to each other, although disappointment was rife between mother and daughter as Saera talked to her mother about the events that led to her sleeping with the Lord of Highgarden last night. Just like what the disgraced Lady of the Crossing had said to Princess Baela Targaryen in the solar, the news of this riveting double affair, which was soon dubbed as "the Duskendale Scandals", spread like wildfire thanks to the gossiping servants at the Dun Fort despite the Targaryen's and Tyrell's best efforts to keep this all quiet. The Lord of Highgarden bedding one of the unmarried half-nieces of the queen was one thing, but it was Princess Alyssa's affair with her precious Flo that truly gripped the public's attention.
By the time Lyonel and Alyssa confronted each other, the news of their dalliances was starting to trickle out of Duskendale. They had both apologized to each other's families in the Dun Fort's solar, and now, it was time for the engaged couple to make up with each other. Lyonel and Alyssa decided that the best setting to work out a reconciliation was walking through one of the castle gardens with Sers Dorian Celtigar and Lucias Tarbeck of the Queensguard following them.
"Well, this is quite a predicament." Lyonel said as he and his fiancée strolled through the beautifully maintained garden.
"Yes, it is." Alyssa replied.
There was a pause before Lyonel spoke again.
"To be honest, my lady, I am unbothered by your, how should I say it, your attraction to other women?"
Alyssa looked away and frowned, but not out of shame, but by how Lyonel had said "attraction to other women". He had sounded like he was being patronizing to both Alyssa and her sexuality. Seeing his betrothed's demeanor, Lyonel picked a rose from a nearby bush, a bloom that was the color of saffron, and he presented it to her.
"Take this rose as a token of my apology, princess. I regret my actions from the previous night, and I am truly sorry."
Alyssa stared at the rose. Seeing its pretty petals reminded her of the day she and Lyonel first met nine years ago in 140 AC during her grandmother's royal progress in the Reach. Lyonel had given her a yellow rose then too when he welcomed her family to Highgarden, and he kissed her hand after giving her that rose. Dowager Lady Mary Crane had introduced the then eight-year-old princess as the future Lady of Highgarden. The memory of that happy time and her earlier fondness for her betrothed caused Alyssa to feel some regret over what she had done.
She reached out her hand to take the rose from Lyonel. Her fingertips were about to touch the stem when she remembered that Lyonel had said that he was, quote, "unbothered" by her preference for women.
"Lyonel," Alyssa began, her fingers hovering around the rose's stem, "you said that you are unbothered by what I had done. Are you truly unbothered by it?"
"Of course." he said reassuringly, but Alyssa remained unconvinced. Whatever hopefulness Alyssa had been feeling up until then evaporated right then and there. There was a catch to this, her instincts told her so. Lyonel saw the doubt in his betrothed's eyes.
Instead of offering more reassurances, Lyonel became serious, and he grabbed Alyssa's hands and forced the rose into her hands. He then looked her in the eye and began whispering fiercely.
"Both our families have invested heavily in our upcoming marriage, Alyssa." Lyonel hissed. "It would be stupid of us to throw it all away over something that none of us can claim the moral high ground on. I will always have my lusts to slake just as you will have yours. There will be no loyalty between us, Alyssa, but I do expect us share in our infidelities."
"Share? What do you mean?" Alyssa asked in a hard tone.
"What I mean, princess, is that we can share women."
Alyssa thought she blacked out temporarily when she heard that. Lyonel kept taking, excitement tinging his tone.
"I will arrange for your little rose of Goldengrove to remain in your service during our marriage on the condition that Florence warms my bed too besides yours."
Alyssa's eyes widened as an indigo fire lit them.
"You can have other women too, Alyssa. Like I said, we will share them. But if you do not want to share, Alyssa, then there will be no Florence, and I will expect you to be my loyal Lady of Highgarden and the mother of my heirs."
It was then Alyssa slapped her fiancé across the face. The slap was loud enough to startle the birds who were roosting in the branches of a nearby tree and for them to take flight, and the two Queensguard knights to freeze where they stood. Lyonel stood there in complete shock, more from the fact that a woman had struck him rather than from the pain of the slap itself. Alyssa's thumb had collided with his bandaged broken nose however, and that did cause Lyonel to wince. The princess could not believe that it happened; it was as if her arm been controlled by an invisible puppeteer.
Her shock quickly melted away, and the words that spilled out of her mouth were completely under her control.
"Florence is not a whore. She is a lady and is to be treated as such. What she and I share is special and wholly ours. The thought of my precious Flo being forced to share a bed with a spoiled brat of a lecher like you makes my stomach turn!"
Lyonel's face turned crimson as he listened to Alyssa tear into him. He balled his hands into fists, but dared not do anything more as he considered the presence of Sers Dorian and Lucias in the background. Emboldened by the presence of two of her grandmother's sworn bodyguards, who were her witnesses to this exchange between her and Lyonel, Alyssa made up her mind on how this was going to end. She held out her left hand, which held the rose after it was switched there from her right so that she could slap Lyonel.
"Here, you can have your rose back." Alyssa said as she dropped the flower at Lyonel's feet. "Florence's dignity, and my dignity, are worth more than our betrothal."
Lyonel stared at the rose before smirking.
"Is that it then, my lady?"
Alyssa nodded.
"Very well, then. It is over. The work of your father and my mother was all for naught." Lyonel then stomped on the rose and crushed it into the dirt. "And you know what the worst of it is, Alyssa?
This betrothal was broken off over a woman you are never going to see again. Do you honestly think that your family is going to allow Lady Rowan stay by your side after this? No. She is going to be married off to any lord who will have her. Your defiance and stubbornness have cost you both your precious dignity and your precious Flo, the two very things that you wanted to protect the most and what I would have allowed you to keep by marrying me!
I hope you are happy now. Good day to you, my lady."
And on that note, Lyonel stormed out of the garden, leaving Alyssa alone with Sers Dorian and Lucias to contemplate what she had done. Engaged for twelve years, the long-anticipated marriage between Lord Lyonel Tyrell and Princess Alyssa Targaryen would never take place. A pall of anger and disappointment hung over the heads of the Targaryen's and Tyrell's after they left Duskendale. Florence was dismissed from her lover's service by an angry Queen Rhaenyra, and Lady Rowan was seen to be entering a wheelhouse weeping the day her family departed for Goldengrove. Alyssa remained as stoic as ever when she and her family departed from Duskendale without her precious Flo in tow.
Upon returning to King's Landing, Alyssa was confined to her bedchamber for the foreseeable future. Her other ladies-in-waiting were dismissed, guards were posted outside her door, and she was not to be left alone in the company of other women. As if these restrictions were not enough, Alyssa also had to deal with the reality that she had become the black sheep of her family. Her father and grandmother in particular were frosty towards her, and they did not speak to Alyssa for some time out of anger. The rest of the family did speak to her, but the disappointment or pity they felt for their kinswoman was quite palpable to the princess, and this further alienated her from them.
The only three people that Alyssa did not feel alienated from were her grandfather, King Daemon Targaryen, younger brother, Prince Aelyx Targaryen, and cousin, Princess Megaera Velaryon, although, sadly, Meg could not be there to comfort Alyssa since both she and her husband were commanded to return back to Pentos after news of the scandal reached Lady Juno Thoredando's ears. Alyssa was Daemon's favorite grandchild, a sentiment that had not dissipated even after he learned about her role in the Duskendale Scandals. The only time the princess ever shed a tear of emotion during this difficul time was when her grandfather laid a comforting hand on hers when she visited him in his bedchamber. Aelyx worshipped his older sister and he loved her dearly. So dearly, in fact, that he approached his father one afternoon offering himself to marry Alyssa and become husband.
"Father, please let me take Alyssa to wife. I can make her an honest woman, I swear. Please..."
Jacaerys was not at all receptive to his youngest son's suggestion.
"So, Aelyx, you want me to break off another betrothal, your betrothal to Lady Arielle Tarly, so you can marry your sister after she had so crassly broken off her own engagement? No, my son, that is not happening."
"Can't I marry them both like the Conqueror married both his sisters, father?"
"No." was Jace's stern reply. "Polygamy has not been practiced in Westeros since the time of Maegor the Cruel over a hundred years ago. You will only marry Lady Tarly and that is final. I appreciate your desire to help your sister, Aelyx, but I cannot allow for anymore scandals to taint our dynasty." Poor Prince Aelyx left his father's solar feeling dejected after this conversation took place.
Speaking of marriage though, Prince Jacaerys Velaryon did attempt to salvage what goodwill remained between him and House Tyrell to try and broker a second betrothal between Lyonel and another Targaryen princess. The next bridal candidate was Jace's oldest half-niece, nine year old Princess Valaena Targaryen. Lyonel would marry a dragon princess, but it would not be Valaena. Before Jace could negotiate a dowry with Dowager Lady Mary Crane, a dreaded inconvenience occurred. Princess Saera Targaryen missed her monthly bleeding, and an examination conducted by Maester Ulrich confirmed that the fourteen year old was carrying a child in her womb, and everyone knew who the father of that unborn child was.
Unlike his lowborn flings, Lyonel was obligated to marry Saera because of her highborn status to both preserve her honor and to ensure that their baby was born legitimate. The couple was married at Highgarden. The wedding ceremony was tinged with an underlying sense of tension and awkwardness, but at the end, after Lyonel and Saera were declared man and wife, some joy was felt by the Lord and Lady of Highgarden's parents since they were going to become grandparents for the first time. At long last, Prince Daeron Targaryen, the youngest child of King Viserys I Targaryen and his second wife, Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower, was going to become a grandfather.
This marriage rubbed more salt into the wounded pride of Daeron's Black relatives back in King's Landing. Prince Viserys Targaryen, on the other hand, was secretly relieved that his darling only daughter was not going to be married to a lecherous man who was eleven years her senior, a sentiment that was shared with his wife, Lady Myrine Darklyn. Viserys's eldest half-brother, Jace, meanwhile, confined himself to his study to stew alone on the loss of this powerful alliance that could have happened had it not been for both his daughter and Lyonel himself. In his simmering loneliness, Jace began considering the possibility that this situation had been engineered by his half-uncle. What if Daeron the Daring had put his own daughter up to seducing and bedding Lyonel in hopes that she would fall pregnant by him prior to his wedding to Alyssa so that Saera could steal the Tyrell betrothal from the Blacks for the Greens own benefit?
But why would Daeron do this? The Blacks and Greens had been getting along for the most part since Maelor and Visenya's wedding three years ago. Stealing such an important engagement between House Tyrell and the Iron Throne would seriously jeopardize the relationship between the two succession factions and unravel decades worth of reconciliatory efforts between the descendants of the Young King's two marriages. Perhaps lust was the only real engineer of this undoing. A drunken and lustful Lyonel seduced and bedded a naïve young princess, and Alyssa and Florence lost themselves in the heat of their unnatural passion all in one night...
It was not just the Targaryen's who suffered in the aftermath of the Duskendale Scandals. When Lord Forrest Frey learned of his wife's involvement in Alyssa and Florence's affair, he finally put his foot down, and Forrest forced Lady Sabitha Vypren to join the silent sisters. Cinean, although also humiliated over what his mother had done, protested her being made into a silent sister to no avail. After Sabitha became another of the Stranger's wives, Forrest resigned as master-at-arms at the Red Keep, and both he and his son returned to the Twins in shame. Shame haunted House Rowan of Goldengrove too.
Desperate to preserve the honor of both Lady Florence Rowan and his family, the Lord of Goldengrove, Robert Rowan, quickly arranged a marriage for his granddaughter soon after she returned home from Duskendale. The man he chose to become Florence's husband was Aldus Florent, the Lord of Brightwater Keep. Aldus was fifty years Florence's senior at six and sixty, a few years older than Robert himself! Besides the age gap between him and Lady Rowan being half a century long, Aldus was also a two-time widower and a father of ten grown children: eight sons and two daughters, the youngest daughter being the betrothed of Lord Cyril Hightower. Lord Florent was also a grandfather and a great-grandfather too.
Poor Florence was pretty much catatonic when she married Aldus and became his third wife; she went through the motions of the ceremony without any happiness or joy. The only thing that the new Lady of Brightwater Keep felt about her marriage was the fact that House Florent's maester was actually kin to her. That maester, his birth name being Lord Tommard Rowan, was the youngest half-brother of Florence's grandfather, and he was just as kind and gentle as his late father, Lord Thaddeus Rowan, had been. Maester Tommard was his half-grandniece's only friend at Brightwater Keep. Thankfully, some joy would be found at King's Landing too after the Scandals had taken place.
Following the resignation of the Lord of the Crossing as the Red Keep's master-at-arms, Queen Rhaenyra appointed Forrest's replacement. The new incumbent to this position was Ser Wyllis Darklyn, one of Myrine's older brothers. Accompanying Wyllis to King's Landing was his wife, Lady Eris Rosby, and their only child, five year old Lord Raynor Darklyn. Eris herself would also gain a court position alongside her husband, with her filling in the vacancy left behind by the fallen Lady of the Crossing as lady-in-waiting to Princess Baela Targaryen. Raynor soon became fast friends with his cousins Princes Aerys and Daemon Targaryen, and the three boys could often be found playing together in the castle's training yard.
Joy was also found by Prince Lydus Targaryen on Dragonstone. With the assistance of Prince Baelor Targaryen and Palefyre, Lydus was able to successfully claim Seasmoke as his own, becoming the beautiful creature's second rider. Lydus even took his half-cousin's son, Prince Aemon Targaryen, flying on Seasmoke's back before the former flew back to the Reach on the back of his mount. Lydus flew around Oldtown thrice before landing in the Hightower's courtyard and dismounted to meet the awaiting arms of his proud father and mother. Just as he did with Aemon, Lydus took his younger half-brother, Prince Baelon Targaryen, for a ride around Seasmoke's back too.
But even these joys could entirely dampen the sting of the Duskendale Scandals. Prince Baelor remained at Dragonstone with his family to avoid the shame, gossip, and intrigue that had been generated from his sister's scandalous behavior on the mainland. Septons and septas were heard condemning Princess Alyssa's tryst with Lady Florence, and the two women were referred to as abominations by members of the Faith. Drunkards in taverns made crude jokes about the two women, and some boasted that they could show either the princess or Lady Rowan "what they were missing" with the opposite sex. Others treated the whole affair as being ribaldly entertaining.
Thankfully, one month after the Duskendale Scandals took place, the excitement over it began to die down a bit. Too bad the shame that Jace felt over the whole affair could not die down like that. He had considered forcing his only daughter to join either the silent sisters or a motherhouse as punishment, but he could not bring himself to do it due to a combination of fatherly love, a desire to find another beneficial match for her, and an underlying concern that Alyssa could cause more scandal in an all-female environment. Overwhelmed by his feelings over the whole thing, Jacaerys soon found himself procrastinating over finding a suitable husband for Alyssa. Unbeknownst to him, however, the key to solving this problem was close at hand.
That key came in the form of a raven bearing a letter addressed to the crown prince. It was from Grand Maester Thaleus that Jacaerys learned that the raven had flown all the way from Winterfell, the seat of House Stark in the North. The letter had been written by the Warden of the North himself, Lord Cregan Stark. Unrolling the letter, Jace read its contents with interest.
"Greetings your royal highness, the Prince of Dragonstone,
I hope this letter finds you well. It is I, Cregan Stark, the Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North. Let me start off this letter by expressing my apologies over what you and your family have been going through during this past moon's turn. However, permit me to be forefront with you, your grace, for I have a proposal to make. My oldest son and heir, my only child by my dear late first wife, Lady Arra Norrey, Rickon, has been a widower for two years now ever since the passing of his own dear wife, Lady Jeyne Manderly, in childbed. As you are well aware, I have twin sons from my current marriage to Lady Cassandra Baratheon, Torrhen and Orys.
However, they are both still, as of yet, unmarried, and although I dearly love my two granddaughters, Rickon's girls by Jeyne, Serena and Sansa, I would very much like to have a grandson to ensure the continuation of House Stark through him. What I am proposing to you, my lord, is a marriage between my son, the heir to Winterfell, and your daughter, Princess Alyssa Targaryen. A marriage of ice and fire. This will be a first for both our houses, my lord. Cass and I are forever grateful to for bringing us together, and now, I would like to return the favor.
Rickon is a good man, and he doted on Jeyne when she was still alive. Serena and Sansa are still quite young and they need a mother. Please consider my proposal. I eagerly await your response.
Sincerely,
Cregan Stark"
Jacaerys felt a sense of lightness after reading Cregan's letter. A marriage of ice and fire? That sounded promising! A faint smile forming on his face, Jace quickly retrieved a piece of parchment and dabbed the tip of his quill into an inkpot. He wrote out his response to Cregan's letter just minutes after it stating that he would be more than happy to give Alyssa's hand in marriage to Lord Rickon Stark.
About an hour after the Northern raven's arrival, another raven was dispatched carrying Jace's agreement to wed Alyssa to Rickon. That raven carried not only a letter, but a father's hope to redeem his daughter, and a piece of history in the making.
The "Pact of Ice and Fire" is finally being realized in the non-canon history. The North will be visited in the next chapter, and you will finally meet House Stark. Can't wait to get that chapter out to you guys! Thanks for reading and please review! :)
PS: I forgot to mention this in the previous chapter, but the Rogue Prince has Parkinson's Disease. Just thought I would share that.