She stroked her husband's head who was trying to listen to the movements of their child.
"She's quiet." Her husband said.
"He's probably asleep," Lysa chuckled.
They were still in disagreement about the gender of the child. Jon wanted his first child to be a girl whereas Lysa wanted it to be a boy. Both of them had their reasons. Jon didn't actually care about the gender of the child but he wanted a child that looked like his wife and he would raise her as his heir if he couldn't have more children.
Lysa was in her third month of pregnancy and her stomach was unusually big for a third month. They guessed that the child simply was big which made Lysa concerned of whether there was something in the child's genes that would make it grow bigger. Hopefully it wouldn't become as big as a giant for both her sake and the child's. Pregnancy was lethal in this medieval world she lived in and her body was still very young. She prayed that they both would survive the birth.
Women who were pregnant with important children certainly received privileges and were more respected. It was as if everyone had forgotten that she was once labeled as a witch or the fact that the Sept hated her. All everyone could care about was the child and heir to House Arryn. The Valemen was more accepting of her now, especially with the baby who would become the heir.
She had always found it funny how people made a one-hundred-eighty degree once something made them happy.
"Anyway, love. Please be careful." She reminded him.
Lysa didn't want to lose Jon so quickly. He was going to finally subjugate the Mountain Clans that were robbing and raiding villages. Those problematic tribes had been a problem to the Vale for years. It was only after the raiding two weeks ago that Jon decided to finally deal with them and let them know the law. Jon had previously been too kind to them but knowing that it was his children that would have to deal with those troublesome tribes Jon decided to finally subjugate them. It would be a cruel massacre and a dishonorable one.
"I will. And please be careful yourself," Jon kissed her and the top of her stomach.
The painter who was painting this scene felt the scene to sweet for his bitter life. He had been hired again after the wedding since Lady Arryn had loved his paintings he painted during the wedding feast which lasted for three days. When her stomach began to show she hired him to paint a picture of her and her husband. He didn't care about the reasons as he knew he would be well-paid for the job.
Lady Arryn had decorated the stage very well. She was sitting in an armchair made out of blue fabric and gold metal, while Lord Arryn was on his knees leaning unto her stomach as he was listening. She was wearing a white gown with long bell sleeves along with a white veil and a crown made out of sapphires and silver, and Lord Arryn was wearing his usual attire.
Lysa wanted there to be at least a painting of Jon showing his love for their child. She wanted their child to know how much he/she was loved in case Jon died from the battle with the Mountain Clans and she died while she was giving birth to her child. It was better to be safe just in case.
The next day, while Jon had gone to get rid of the Mountain Clans, Lysa was busy overseeing the village below the Eyrie in the Vale of Arryn through her servants Seraphina and Merce. She was also allowed to be in charge of all the paperwork while her husband was gone. She couldn't have the old man having a heart attack from overwork when he came back after all.
A factory for the production of warm heaters as well as a factory for mass production of glass made out of Dorne sand, was currently being built. Outside of the village a new city was being built at the middle of the end of the river and near the lake.
The city was currently busy with laying down foundations and a functional sewage system which was built to last for generations. Once all of that was done the new buildings would be made out of Roman concrete, bricks and stone as well as metal (to hold them in place) and they would have pipes going through the buildings for the heating system as well as sewage and water system. The buildings were built in the same functional way Lysa had seen from Cinderella's memories but since Cinderella loved the neoclassical and baroque style of architecture Lysa too didn't see the harm of building them. The outside of the apartment buildings would look like a baroque building but the inside would look like the modern apartment buildings Cinderella was used to seeing. There would be elevators, stairs and also for the disable people she had designed some apartment buildings more fit for them. Each apartment contained at least the four necessary rooms which were the kitchen, bathroom with a toilet, a bedroom and a living room. All the apartment buildings also had glass windows.
The first people who were going to live in this City were the people hired to build it. Lysa didn't care where they were from. If they helped build the City they would be honoured with receiving a home for free and become a citizen of The Eyrie City. Of course, this rule would only last until the city reached about ten thousand residents.
In the center of the city everything important was going to be there. The town hall was going to be a very round building with white walls and a blue roof. Then there was also going to be a large library and a church next to it. There were obviously no Christians in the Vale except for Lady Arryn so the church really wasn't a priority. None of the more important buildings were a priority. The priority lay in residential buildings as well as mercantile buildings, of course, education was very important to Lady Arryn and hence why a school was going to be built in a residential area.
The roads were going to be wide and if someone from above looking down from the sky was going to say anything about the city's form then they would say that it looked like a giant cross. Its heart was part of the river flowing through the city and was designed into a garden city style along at the ends of the arms, legs and head of the cross which were also designed into garden city style. Whereas the arms, legs and head of the cross was put into a grid city style.
During her spare time, Lysa was designing the garden in the Eyrie. The statue known as the Weeping Alyssa Arryn was beautiful but it certainly made Lysa uncomfortable to look at so she told the servants to have it removed and place it in a corner of the garden where it could be hidden by plants. The center of the garden would instead be replaced with a statue of Lysa Tully as she wore her bridal gown along with a rosary. She was also holding a scroll in her hands. The scroll contained a favourite quote of hers.
"Remember who you are. Don't compromise for anyone, for any reason. You are a child of the Almighty God. Live that truth." - Lysa Terkeurst
Cinderella had time and time again compromised her morals and ethics to fit in and to achieve her accomplishments. And even if Jesus Christ was always in the back of her head she stopped listening to him for her goals that only had earthly values. That was what led her to a destructive path in the first place. Lysa didn't want to walk in the same shoes as her previous self and she wouldn't need to. She didn't need to be a thief, a scammer, a killer or live double lives in order to reach her goals. Lysa was truly blessed not only to be born as a noble or have married to a wealthy and powerful man but she was also blessed because God didn't even abandon her in a world that had no idea about Him. And that was almost given since God didn't even abandon Cinderella despite the people she put through a living hell, the families she tore apart, the people she killed, the societies and innocence she ruined and corrupted. All so she could reach the top of the food chain and yet she had failed miserably because God showed her His fist in the end. After that incident Cinderella did calm down and wasn't as power-hungry as she used to be. Greedy? Vain? She perhaps continued to be but God had certainly put her in her place and frightened her to obedience. In Lysa's opinion all of that had still been too merciful towards someone like Cinderella. But who was she to judge God's actions?
"Lady Arryn," the painter bowed as she stared at the progress of work.
The hired painter was currently painting a wall in the Lower Hall. Lysa had found the Lower Hall boring and had decided to spice it up a little bit. Since the Lower Hall was smaller and shorter than the High Hall, which was the ancestral seat of House Arryn, Lysa decided to make it a room for art and paintings. On one of the walls she had decided to make a family tree starting from bottom to top. At the bottom was Jasper Arryn and Alysanne Arryn, the parents of Jon Arryn. There was also a hand sized picture on them which had been made by copying portraits of them before putting them between two glasses of frames, which were later nailed to the wall. Below the portrait was a golden plate of their name, birth and death date imprinted on them. A line of red was drawn between them. From the middle of the line a black line went up before a horizontal line with three vertical lines was connected to it. Jon Arryn with his siblings Alys and Ronnel had their respective hand-sized portraits put there. Their spouses were also put there along with them and their children. Since Jon and Lysa didn't technically have a child yet their child couldn't be put onto the family tree. Lysa had also included Jeyne Royce (along with her stillborn children) and Rowena Arryn to the family tree as they had once been very important people to Jon.
Rowena Arryn had especially been the love of his life, even though Jon had married Lysa about three years after her death. Despite them being blood-related and growing up as practically siblings Jon had loved her so much, even when he married Jeyne Royce who he was betrothed to at an early age. Jon had confessed to Lysa that he felt guilty over the stillbirths of his previous wife Jeyne because he thought it was a punishment from gods. He believed that his wives and children were taken away from him early because he was being unfaithful to his first wife in his heart. Jeyne had completely loved him from the bottom of her heart and even if Jon was faithful to her by not sleeping around with other women he did dream of a married life with Rowena occasionally. Well, he got that dream fulfilled but it ended tragically in the end. At least he got a few years of living the dream.
Jon would sometimes reminisce and tell Lysa stories about the past with his wives. The moments he recalled and enjoyed as well as regretted. Of course, Jon wasn't an oblivious man and he intentionally kept things out of the stories he told that he believed could make Lysa jealous. However, Lysa wasn't a jealous person and she didn't love Jon that way anyway. She respected him and was loyal to him, and she loved him as a partner. As long as they both did their duties as husband and wife she wouldn't complain and neither would Jon.
Two months after completely wiping out the Mountain Clans, Jon returned home safely. Lysa saw the pain and regret in his eyes. His decision hadn't been an easy one even if it was necessary. Talking... how many times hadn't they tried it with the tribal chiefs and Jon Arryn had already been kind enough to let them live as long as they did even when they committed such heinous crimes against the Valemen.
When night fell she held Jon in her arms as she felt his tears run down on her breast. He tried to be as quiet as possible and she pretended to be asleep so that he could let it all out.
"As High as Honour," was his family motto. And there was no honour in executing an entire group of people even while knowing that most men, women and children were innocent in all of this but this time the Valemen had lost their patience and they demanded "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth". If Lysa had been a normal woman much less a girl she might have felt that he was going too far. However, Lysa remembered far more terrible things that Cinderella did, and what Jon had done could be considered mercy in comparison.
The next day Lysa woke up to Jon being dressed. His face was neutral as he stood in front of the mirror. His body, strong, tall and proud. There was no trace of the broken man that had hugged her so tightly the previous night.
"Good morning, handsome," she yawned from her bed.
"Good morning, love," he turned around, as the maids stopped dressing him, and went to the bed to kiss her.
Their fingers intertwined when he took her hand.
"Busy day?" She looked up at him while he nodded.
"I'll see you later during dinner." He promised and walked away.
When her husband left her Lysa thought for a moment about what she was going to do that day but then sleep took over and she decided to give in to it.