Apologies for the delay. I just finished uni and am job hunting now, which takes a lot of time and energy. :(
00oo00
Chapter 3: Good Advise
Ian had been right. Alienor had gotten used to all the steps leading up the Tower of the Hand. After two weeks of working as the new serving girl, the stairs had become only a minor challenge. Ian, however, made her more and more uncomfortable. Every time she made her way up the Tower, she could see his gaze linger a little longer on her body. The feeling haunted her all the way to the council chamber and she began to dread this unimportant soldier more than Lord Tywin himself. To her relief the Hand of the King had ignored her the days following their first encounter, and Alienor was sure that he had forgotten about her.
Balancing her tray, Alienor, slipped through the door, feeling Ian's gaze following her. She smiled grimly. Today, she wouldn't worry about him. Today, she would be happy. The overseer had just told her that her promotion was permanent. Apparently, Packer despised her and her sister, but since she seemed to be doing her new job well, he saw no reason to start the search for a replacement. Alienor felt a little proud of herself.
She entered the council chamber confidently but quietly and started to arrange the food on the table. She couldn't help admiring its surface again. She did so every time, fascinated by how a piece of wood could be that smooth, glowing in such a deep reddish brown colour.
"Did you find out?"
Her head snapped in the direction the familiar voice came from. Lord Tywin had looked up from his paper work. Apparently he had not forgotten about her. She immediately knew what he was talking about, their first and last conversation still fresh in her head.
"Yes, my Lord." She carefully arranged the last plate, trying to keep her gaze down as was expected of a servant. Still, she could feel his eyes not leaving her face.
"Could it happen to you as well?"
"Yes, my Lord." Unfortunately.
Lord Tywin continued to probe. "And? Can you protect yourself?"
Ian had told lies about Ella out of revenge. She had turned him down and his pride had been hurt. Alienor had no doubt that he would do it again, making a woman suffer for something she hadn't done. There was only one option to stop him from doing so. Giving him what he wanted. Alienor shuddered. Never!
"I don't think so, my Lord."
Tywin seemed to sense her discomfort. She watched him out of the corner of her eye. His head was slightly crocked and his chin rested on the back of his hand. The parchment in front of him was forgotten. Alienor was the focus of his attention and this realisation made her heart beat faster again. When she lifted her hand to put a strand of hair behind her ear, her fingers left moist prints on the perfect table surface.
"That is nonsense", Tywin finally said, his voice quiet and measured. "You only can't protect yourself, when you don't know where the danger lies. Once you know that, you can take counter measures. Mostly it is all about timing, about being faster than your enemy. Act, don't just react." He paused briefly. "Do you understand?"
The young woman slowly turned her head and looked Tywin straight in the face. Her eyes were big, and even from the distance he saw that they were of an unusually light brown. She reminded him of a doe. Beautiful and vulnerable, and confused about whether the approaching man simply wanted to admire her or intended to hunt her down. Finally, she nodded. "Yes, my Lord."
"Good. You may leave now. I assume you have a considerable amount of work to do and some…matters to attend to, and so do I." Although he pretended to focus on his letter, Tywin continued to watch Alienor until the heavy door fell shut behind her…just like he had done the last two weeks. Again he noticed that little habit of hers; every day she brushed a strand of hair out of her face, smoothed down her apron, briefly run her small fingers one last time over the table's surface and only after this little ritual she left the council chamber with quick, long strides. Absent-mindedly Tywin picked up the quill, his eyes still fixed on the door, wondering what a curious woman that kitchen wench was. He smiled to himself; he liked hunting.
00oo00
This night, not her sister's regular coughing fits and weak breathing, but her own thoughts kept Alienor awake. Her mind was running while she tossed and turned on her thin mattress, sometimes absent-mindedly rubbing Lyla's back. Just after the bells of the Sept had announced midnight, she came to a simple but not surprising conclusion.
Lord Tywin was right. Again.
Alienor despised intrigues and lies, and neither did she have a natural talent for plotting and planning nor did she enjoy such activities. But her own gut had told her a long time ago that waiting this particular problem out would do more damage than good, and Tywin's remark had only reinforced her sense of approaching danger.
Alienor didn't know what to make of the man. He was so powerful, but despite of his power he had more than one war to lead and struggled to hold the realm together. Why does he even talk to me?, she wondered.
Ella's remark crept back into her mind and she blushed in the dark. He surely had no intentions of that kind. She was only the kitchen wench. There were other women, women like Ella's mother, who were more beautiful and much more experienced in the art of pleasuring a noble man and, therefore, had to be more appealing to a lord. Sometimes she saw some of these women discretely slipping in and out of the castle through the servant's entrance. The maids were always busy gossiping about the receivers of these visits. Some names came up on a regular basis, some just occasionally, but Alienor could not remember that Lord Tywin was ever mentioned. Her face felt cool again.
He was not like any other man. Alienor had soon realised that it wasn't the King but Lord Tywin who was actually ruling. Undoubtedly, he had to waste neither time nor energy fooling around with low-born women.
Maybe he is just being kind, she thought.
Maybe he was. She knew from experience that sometimes some people could show unexpected kindness. Likewise, some people that you thought to be amiable and honest would suddenly show their evil and destructive character.
Alienor sighed. Whatever his reasons – she convinced herself that she was quite relieved that she could rule out any unseemly ulterior motives – his advise was more than valuable to her. In an environment characterised by intrigue, changing loyalties and overly ambitious noble men, he had managed to survive that long, gaining more and more influence and power, and building the greatest house in the Seven Kingdoms. With his advise she should be able to keep her sister and herself safe in the much smaller but apparently not less dangerous world of the servants.
Next to her Lyla started to shiver slightly, moving closer to her older sister. Sighing, Alienor wrapped her arms around her. If telling some lies and slightly bending her personal morals were the price for their surviving in King's Landing, she was more than willing to pay it. Having made a decision, the young woman allowed her mind and body to drift to sleep, blissfully unaware that their future would require much more of her than slightly bending her morals.
00oo00
A single candle lighted the small chamber, illuminating two naked bodies lying on a narrow bed. A large, masculine hand followed the curves of a full bottom, teasingly grabbing a rosy cheek and giving it a slight slap. A high, playful squeak filled the room. "Stop it."
"I thought you like that." The hand wandered to the other cheek and then started to explore the warm, wet area between them.
As an answer, the soft body shifted slightly while the woman it belonged to rolled on her back, offering better access to the hand and her full breasts to a hungry male mouth.
"You know I do", a dark voice whispered softly. The woman run her hand through the man's blonde hair and closed her eyes when he started circling her nipple with his tongue. She felt him smile against her skin.
Without a warning, she suddenly yanked his head up and brought his face close to hers, enjoying his brief look of confusion. "But you know, what I would like even more."
Confusion changed into annoyance. Sighing, Ian removed his hands from between her legs and sat up grabbing for his shirt. "And you know that I can't do that, Sue." Even if I wanted to, he added silently in his mind. "I don't earn enough to support you, let alone a family."
The woman pursed her full lips. Alongside her long, thick black hair, her mouth was Sue's proud and glory. Whenever she caught a glimpse of herself in a looking glass, she reassured herself that these two attributes made up for a rather big nose and short eyelashes, both of which had annoyed her since early adulthood. "You forget that I earn, too", Sue whispered into her lover's ear, pressing her breasts against his back.
"You serve in the Great Hall, my dear, how much do you earn there, mhm?" Laughing, Ian let himself be distracted by her soft skin and turned around to pay some more attention to her breasts. His words, however, had a less than desirable effect on Sue, who briskly pushed his hands away.
"Well, I work harder than you do. And I make enough money."
"And how much do you think you will get, when the men get wind that you are suddenly married to a soldier? When they can't give you coin after coin anymore just for grabbing your arse." Ian couldn't help but smile cruelly at the hurt expression in Sue's eyes.
Without hesitation she got up, grabbed her dress and went for the door. Before she left, she stared into Ian's smiling face. "Oh, I would get even more. Because as soon as the men hear to whom I am married, they would just do what they always do." She slapped herself on her full butt and threw Ian another, this time triumphant glance. "And do you know why? Because they know that they don't have to be afraid of you. That you couldn't defend my honour even if you wanted to. You are a fine soldier...standing at a stupid door all day. The real soldiers are going to war against Stanis, fighting on the battle field and dying for their King."
With that, she stormed out the door and left Ian alone in the small room, half-naked and shaking with hurt pride. The smile on his face had turned into a furious grimace.