He stood there side by side with Jon Arryn, right in the entrance of Arryn's Solar and watched as a young woman was singing merrily and playing with four young children.
It took him a moment to remember that this was the Lord Hand's young family and he turned his head slightly to Arryn to look at him.
The older man watched his family with a smile and a look of deep satisfaction on his face.
An understandable look, thought Tywin to himself, given that for many years the main line of Arryn existed only out of Jon Arryn himself alone and this young wife failed in the most important task for the first few years of their marriage.
Such things happened of course and in the end, the young Lady fulfilled her duty to her husband.
To see the young Lady Arryn now amidst these children, this was indeed a good sign for the Arryns, for the Vale and for the Kingdoms, thought Tywin to himself.
Stability was after all very important, stability in the offspring, in the House, in Power, in the lands.
A Great House with enough healthy progeny and a rational and powerful Head of the House was a very good garant for the continuing stability of the Realm, had he not proved that often enough in the Westerlands himself, thought Tywin as he watched as Arryn made his way to his young wife.
"Lysa, as much as enjoy to watch you sing to our children, I must ask you to leave the Solar with them, for Lord Lannister and I need to speak privately." ask Lord Arryn as he had reached his wife and children and had touched her shoulder to make her aware of him.
Tywin rolled his eyes at Arryn's gently behavior, while he himself felt his mien becoming only more stern as a sign of his impatience to be finaly able to speak with Arryn alone.
He watched as the young woman smiled at her husband, nodded respectfully and then softly told her children that they would have to go to a different room because Papa would need this room for his work.
She was a graceful woman, Tywin thought to himself, he could definitely admit that she quickly gathered the few playthings laying around, was also quickly reminding the four children to remember their manners and then she stood up and turned fully around from her husband towards him, Tywin and looked straight at him.
For a very very quick moment he startled at this young woman's apparent lack of ladylike lightly lowered eyes at a first meeting but then he reminded himself that she was surely used by now, as wife of the second most important man of the Realm, to be in a position where she would not need to lower her eyes to most other people anymore.
As soon as this realization passed his mind, Tywin took a closer look at her, this young Lady Arryn.
She was of course not as beautiful as wife had been, nor as his daughter had turned out to be, nor had the ethereal beauty of the Targaryens, but she was a good looking woman nonetheless.
Thick auburn hair, styled quite simple in a single thick and very long side braid, interwoven with white and midnight blue ribbons, a nice oval shaped and fair face with a small but pretty mouth, big blue eyes, framed by long eyelashes and crowned by elegant eyebrows of a darker color than her hair.
She was wearing simpler clothing than her husband, for there was no silver embroidery on her dress but she matched her husbands colors still, for her dress was Sky blue at the top, her belted middle was in white and her skirt in midnight blue.
The Arryns made a well-looking couple and for just a short moment this reminded Tywin of his own, dearly missed wife with a sharper pain than usual in his heart.
He looked away from them and his sharp hazel eyes found the four young children then, all showing the good upbringing by showing proper gestures of respect towards him.
The two oldest ones, fiery-haired twin girls were doing two very good curtsies and both the younger boys, reddish-blond the both of them, were doing their best to bow before him in a proper manner.
Tywin showed his own respect towards Lady Arryn and graciously acknowledged the children's efforts and then they all were quickly leaving the Solar and he was finally alone with Jon Arryn.
"You must be relieved, that after the first few years of failures, your wife had finally proven her worth." said Tywin in a neutral voice as he took the seat to which Arryn had lead him as soon as the two of them were alone.
"I am beyond thankful to the Seven for my wife and our children, this marriage had become a true blessful one." answered the older man with a sincere looking smile.
Tywin only nodded once in agreement but made no further comment about that matter.
Instead he decided to start talking about the real reasons for why he was now in the capital.
"I had brought the best Maesters who had specialized in Women's health and fertility and birthing matters from the Citadel with me, half a dozen Midwives, each and everyone of them well praised and known for their good handling in all matters of complications, everything needed for to make the next conceptions a keeping one, or if such a thing would have happened already, the upcoming birth a safe one.
And then, I arrive here in King's Landing only to hear from the personal Household Guards of the Queen, that my daughter had not spent time with her husband since she had fallen pregnant with the babe which had then died at birth and that the King is not even trying anymore to gain his marital rights." Tywin finished with barely controlled anger in his Voice.
And damn it to all seven hells and beyond but this was really worse than the informants had written to him, so it was his godsbedamned right to feel anger.
Jon Arryn looked at him with a mixture of sad agreement and slight embarrassment.
"The Queen is sadly in a very unsettled mind since she had lost her daughter at birth through Grandmaester Ryam's mishandling of the whole problematic birthing situation.
Though, it must be admitted that she had been seen smiling a bit again by Coutiers in the last few days, ever since the unlucky Grandmaester Ryam had succumbed to his illness.
It was indeed very bad luck that Grandmaester Pycelle had been poisoned last year, for his medical excellence would have helped the Queen surely in her times of need.
But now that you had brought a whole team with you, at least these dangers of the birthing bed will surely be taken care off for good.
The King himself will be happy to hear that there now so many caretakers for the Queen, to make sure that all will be good for her and thus she will hopefully not refuse him any longer."
Tywin felt the cold displeasure growing in his mind at these words of the Lord Hand.
"I would not have taken the King for a man who would agree to such a idiotic behavior of his wife, or any woman at all. Many woman loose babes, at birth or before and I do not believe that they all behave like my daughter is currently doing. Or did your wife did this in the first few years?"
Jon Arryn looked patiently at the Lion Lord while Tywin asked those words in an annoyed voice.
"My wife was unhappy during the first few years, unhappy with this marriage, unhappy with me and unhappy with life at all and she was so very very young too and all these factors were hindering her body.
Lysa was years younger at her first babe and miscarriage than your daughter had been when she had born Prince Joffrey after years of being married.
But my wife grew into her role by my side, she grew into her position as my wife and her body became strong enough to produce healthy children and to give easy births.
The Queen lost one babe in the first year of her marriage and show only little sadness about it, then it took years for the second pregnancy to occur, even though the King did his duty rather often back then and this second pregnancy ended then happily with Prince Joffrey.
After that it took years again for the Queen to become pregnant again and we know how it all had ended and the Queen and the King sadly dislike each other immensely for years now and are already only very rarely do their dynastic duty.
It it not a good pattern and it leads not to great hopes for a lot more pregnancies of the Queen to occur." finished Jon Arryn in a solemn voice.
Tywin grumbled in deep dissatisfaction.
This was really not good at all and if the Lord Hand knew so many details than it would not be illogical to think that others knew the same details too.
A Queen with just one living child after nine years of marriage, only one misscarriage and one deadborn child and years between each of the pregnancies, sevensbedamned but that was not a Queen who was seen as the mother of the ruling dynasty, especially not since she was denying her husband his rights.
He really would need to speak with his daughter about her duty and countless other things too. Cersei was ruining all his careful planning with her stupidity.
"I will speak with my daughter about all this and I will make her see her duties." grumbled Tywin in the end.
The older man looked at him with a pitying smile and gods but how Tywin hated him for this.
He took his leave after both men agreed on a second meeting in the evening, since Tywin now really wanted to speak with his daughter and Jon Arryn still had some work to do.
Just as Tywin had left the Solar and made his way through the open anteroom in which two scribes and a few other Arryn servants were hurrying around, he was then stopped by Lady Arryn.
"Lord Lannister, I would like to speak with you for a moment before you are leaving."
"I am in a hurry Lady Arryn."
"Please Lord Lannister, just for a few moments. It us about the Queen"
He stopped and starred at her. She looked him straight into the eyes without fear.