Sevens but the Baratheon shrew was really grating today, thought Lysa to herself as she sat together with Selyse Baratheon in the small dining room in the Tower of the Hand for the tri-moonly playdate of hers, Lysa's children with little Shireen.

At least little Shireen was a delight as always, a pure little sunshine. It was really astonishing, given how her parents were but it must be admitted that the sweet little Girl had sadly at least inherited the looks of her parents if not their personalities.

Truth to be told, Lysa was still very proud of herself, even all these many many moons later, for that she had remembered Shireen's fate in her former life early enough to warn the Lord of Dragonstone about Doll merchants who might carry greyscale infected Dolls.

He had been suspicious of course but she had back then explained that she heard rumors about such ways and plans against the Baratheons, had explained that her favorite Summer Islander merchant had heard such rumors at a stopover in Dorne.

Back then, Stannis Baratheon had not cared much about her words, nor had he really believed her, for he and all others had just recently then victoriously returned from the Greyjoy rebellion and the people were all seeing better times ahead.

Nonetheless, Stannis Baratheon had listened to her back then, or better to say to her husband's advice and had then three moons later not allowed a suspicious merchant ship with a Doll trader on board to stop at Dragonstone.

Given that a few days later this ship had been the reason for two dozen Greyscale infections in the harbor of the capital, it was most likely the ship from where the infection had in the other life had been brought to Dragonstone and thus to Shireen.

In the end, thought Lysa now to herself, in the end this warning had brought her only more good things and it had also brought her Selyse Baratheon as something close to a friend.

Though she, Lysa really doubted that Selyse was truly able to ever become a true friend, the Baratheon wife was at least useful in other ways, mainly through her family connections.

But truly, thought Lysa to herself, the real reason why she suffered Selyse's rather brittle friendliness every three moons for a whole day since the last one and a half year now, was for sweet little Shireen.

Briefly Lysa wondered if the lovely Child had been just as sweet in the other life, with her face then scared and disfigured or if she had been then more like her parents.

But that truly did not matter anymore, for in this life, the sweet little girl was not scared and was delightful and playful and cute.

She would be a good idea for her, Lysa's younger son Brynden, though that was of course a thought far away in the future.

Lysa reminded herself to smile once more at Selyse and not to look all the while at her children playing with Shireen. Selyse was always so grateful to receive a nice and kind smile and Lysa wondered for the first time what kind of a marriage the Baratheons of Dragonstone had with each other.

Oh well, she should really give Selyse a few tips about taking care of herself, maybe that would make this woman a bit less grating to be around.

And a few advices of how to take care of a man would maybe useful too, though Lysa seriously doubted that stern Stannis Baratheon was as adventurous as the fathers of her's Lysa's children or as her dear old goat of a husband were in bed.

She grinned at that thought. She would definitely have to teach Selyse a few tricks, if only just for the fun that Selyse herself would finally have then.

...

Nearly a moon later...

The Lord Hand had never seen the Lord of Dragonstone looking so lost in thought, nor had anyone else ever had done so.

Even Robert had eventually commentated on his younger brother's rather unusual behavior just yesterday.
Jon himself had just mentioned it to his darling Lysa this morning and she had just grinned at him, leaned over and kissed him good morning.

"If your first thought in the morning is about Stannis' Baratheon's curious behavior, then my dear husband I must not have been a good wife to you in the night before."

He smiled, put his teeth in and then kissed her back.

"Of course not, you are the best wife any man can ever wish for my sweet one. I had just thought about him because the small Council will have a meeting in less than two hours and I wondered if he will still look so absent minded then."

Lysa's grin turned into a very understanding smile then at her husband's words and a teasing twinkle was now in her eyes as she answered.

"Well, I might have told Lady Selyse a bit of our pleasureable nightly activities and gave her a few ideas, so that... "

"Lysa," interrupted her husband with a shocked Voice, " please tell me that you have not told Lord Stannis' wife of our marriage life and bed."

Her lovely eyes twinkled now merrily.

" I am hopeful that Lord and Lady Baratheon will find themselves blessed by the Mother in the future and would that not be wonderful if little Shireen would have a sibling too? A very cute and sweet minded child, she would certainly like a baby sibling. We must pray that her parents are becoming blessed like we did in the last few years." she finished with an earnest voice though also still twinkling eyes.

Jon sighed. Oh well.
Why not, everything for enough Baratheons of the next generation. He shuddered, though barely visible, at the thought of his sweet wife giving carnal advices to the not very pretty wife of Robert's younger brother and for just a breath of a moment, while a was helped into his clothes, he imagined the Baratheon's of Dragonstone having the same pleasurable experiences that he, Jon had and will continue to share with his dearest Lysa.

He quickly banned these thoughts from his mind and reminded himself that the meeting of the small Council would be soon.

After a kiss on the sweet lips of his wife and a kiss on each of the heads of the children, he was ready to start his way.

There was enough to do after all, especially since Grandmaester Ryam had taken heavily ill just yesterday and the Queen was still not pregnant again and Robert still had not visited her bed but was instead working his way through the beds of countless other women.
And of course there were hundreds of other problems just around the Corner too.

...

Casterly Rock...around a fortnight later

The Warden of the West put down the latest letter from his informant in the Red Keep.

He felt irritated, angry and absolutely annoyed.
Cersei had appearantly still denied her husband and King his marital rights and so Robert Baratheon spent his nights with countless other women and fathered bastards left and right but had yet to put another child in the one womb into which he really should put one.
Whatever stupid thoughts were currently running through Cersei's annoyingly stubborn and irrational head, he Tywin had decided for himself that he would have to teach her how to behave like the Queen she was now.

And since this proud daughter of his had neither reacted to his letters, in which he had reminded her of her duty, nor had she reacted agreeable when Genna visited her, this meant that he would have to make the journey to King's Landing himself, just to make sure that at least one more royal pregnancy might truly happen in the near future.

Hells, thought Tywin to himself, but this all would not have happened if Pycelle had still been alive. He would surely had been able to deliver the babe alive instead of dead like this blundering idiot of a successor had done.

And now he, Tywin Lannister would have to actually make this unwelcome journey to force his daughter into doing once more her duty. If only this dreaded Girl would have reacted to any of his messages instead of refusing to answer for her behavior.

This was one of the many situations in which he really still desperately missed his beloved Joanna, for she would surely could have made Cersei see reason.
Her death still hurt so much and quite often the longing for her was burning once again just by thinking about her and their children or seeing the murderer of her.

At least the journey and the following stay in the capital would free him from having to see his wife's murderer for a while.
And it would give him enough opportunities to see the power bases there with h his own eyes.

Especially the deep friendship between the Ladies Arryn and Baratheon were curious and most likely deeply dangerous, seeing as the second and the third most important Ladies of the Realm were both from powerful families themselves and he knew that his daughter despised them and they most likely disliked his daughter.

Damn Cersei, she was not even able to behave herself with the closest important Ladies and thus most likely was not in control of the Royal Court at she should.

He would really have a lot to do in the Capital.