AN: Nothing you recognise is mine. Mostly it belongs to GRRM. Apologies for any mistakes regarding form, but I think I got practically everything.
Thanks to Picky Guest for freely betaing chapter one, although Guest could have been kinder and place a compliment for the story before or after pointing out my mistakes.
TRIGGERS: Small amounts of bullying, vague descriptions of men appreciating a teenager's figure, allusions to sex-talk, vague descriptions of Underage sex, canon typical sexism and mysogyny, slightliest bit of men controlling a woman's activities and schedule, small mentions of pregnancy and childbirth, some mentions of blood an hunting, the slightliest allusion to the previous possible abortions (it is not specify if there was a pregnancy or not), a small bit of a woman requiring a man to claim his baby as his own, and needing his permission to name the baby.
I think that's all.
.
.
Freedoms, Restrictions and Births
.
.
Each day she walked a bit further in the gardens, and when they got too small for her tastes, she asked for a horse and a escort and started visiting the city. Although she could have easily made the merchants and traders come to the castle to show her their wares, she found it quite amusing to visit them and see them in their natural habitats. Nevertheless, it did not satisfy her exercising craving, so she only visited them once in a while and mostly got out of the city walls to ride. She used these occasions to visit the surrounding area of King's Landing: the Kingsroad northwards and southwards, the Blackwater beach, the Goldroad… She has once even gotten to Hayford. It was exhilarating to be so free.
Her exercise regime agreed with her, and by the time she turned 17, her body was more toned than ever. She was taller, with a more womanly figure and wider hips. Some men's eyes kept wandering to her chest area, but Lysa was always well guarded by Vale and some Crownlands and Riverlands soldiers, and as such, and did not think too much about it. For her nameday, she held a small banquet in her set of apartments and only invited Vale nobility, especially the older generations, as a sort of thank you for standing up with her and not fawning excessively around the Queen.
However, rumors of her exercise regime had also made it to the Court and the courtiers found her little escapades to be a tad… dotty. Of course they didn't mention it to her face, but her Lady Aunt Whent and Lady Anya Waynwood had kept her up in the gossip. For all that the men at Court seemed to appreciate her new figure, they derided her exercises and her search for loneliness. Still, since Lysa mostly kept company with the Vale matrons, it felt quite unimportant, and since soon there was another scandal for the Court to talk about, it didn't merit more than a passing comment when talking about Lady Loony Arryn and her horse-riding.
After some moons, word came from Dorne about Jon Arryn's success in bringing that Kingdom back into the fold. As such, he was bound to return by boat and Lysa realized that part of her liberties would be curtailed again. This was also perceived by other ladies of the Court, who suddenly remembered that the lady wife of the King's Hand also bore incredible power in the Realm, and as such, Lysa's time was again in high demand, although not as much as when she had just arrived at the capital.
Between sewing sessions with the noble young maidens, horse riding three times a week and visiting the city once every se'nnight, Lysa made sure to keep some days to spend with the matron ladies, which had standed by her since the beginning. Although mostly from the Vale, some matrons from the Crownlands or Riverlands could be found. If these days tended to coincide with those in which Queen Cersei had called most noble maidens for some activities (in order, Lysa suspected, to slight Lysa), nobody mentioned it.
This last group was the one Lysa found more enlightening. After some time and a bit of wine, with the absence of young unmarried ladies, the matrons started to talk about many things, among them the process of pregnancy, marital bed and child-rearing. Sometimes it was veiled with many metaphors Lysa could barely understand (but after asking discreetly to her Lady Aunt and considering the two men she has ever lay with, she felt she understood better), but others, the ladies were quite crude with the whole descriptions and Lysa felt her face and neck turn into an unbecoming red from the sheer shame of listening. Nevertheless, Lysa learnt a great deal from these conversations, and she decided to put most of it into practice when her husband returned. If after all that the Seven didn't see it fit to bless them with children, Lysa would know she has done everything in her human hand, but miracles were out of her reach.
Time went and with it Lysa's husband came back. His skin looked a tad darker and he looked slightly more tired and thin, but overall he was the same old, dignified, balding man Lysa had married. He greeted the King and the Court with formality and kissed her cheek softly when they reached their apartments. He seemed pleased to see her looking healthy. That night they lay down together, as did the next ones for a sen'night and after that they got back to their previous routine of one night out of two. He seemed surprised when Lysa told him about trying some new positions or movements, but when he inquired she just answered that she had spent some time with the matrons and dowagers and they had instructed her about several life aspects, including child making and childrearing. He considered it a fair explanation, and since most of those ladies were his own, he assumed they were wise in their recommendations.
Shortly after his return, the Queen announced that she was carrying the new heir of the Realm. If all went well, in six moons it would be born and the Seven would bless them with a healthy and strong prince. With all the attention set on the Queen the way she liked it, Lysa was still quite free to return to her horse-riding and her sewing circles. Although Lord Arryn hadn't been excessively gruntled with her exercise, it seemed to have been beneficial for her body, and since Lysa was always well guarded and accompanied by two female matrons of impeccable character, and also seemed to be unhappy whenever in the presence of the toadies Queen Cersei surrounded herself with (and Jon understood, for Robert seemed to be equally unhappy most of the time he was around the Queen), he let the matter rest… at least until Lysa started carrying. Jon hoped it would be sooner rather than later.
Since Lord Arryn had a great deal of matters claiming his time and attention (being Hand of the King to an uninteresting King was, after all, a hard job), he allowed Lysa to choose how to spend her days as long as she spent some evenings and all nights with him. Lysa found this not terribly restrictive and accepted gladly.
Three moons passed and when the Queen was starting to let out her gowns due to her expanding waistline, Lysa confirmed to her Lord husband that she seemed to be carrying his child, for her moonblood had been missing the last moons. Nevertheless, Lysa asked her Lord husband not to inform anyone yet. If it was for Lysa, she wouldn't say anything until he could feel the quickening of the baby from her stomach. Since the Queen seemed to be revolutionizing the Court with her new dresses for expecting mothers, Lysa just followed the flow and let out her dresses, thus keeping the pregnancy a secret for a while longer.
The matrons and dowagers, nevertheless, were canny people, and soon Lysa felt like walking around carrying paper and ink to fill in all the information the ladies were giving her. Some of it sounded logical, some not so much, and some was downright contradictory. It led to some spirited discussions in the elders' sewing circle. Nevertheless, they all looked for the benefit of Lady Lysa and her unborn child, and Lysa felt healthier than she had in the other pregnancies.
Shortly after Lysa and Lord Arryn had made the formal announcement that they were expecting, after Lord Arryn had watched in pride her stomach grow and felt the gentle kicks in from the child that was growing beneath her heart, Queen Cersei went into labour. Lysa internally thought that Queen Cersei had grown used to being in the spotlight of the Courtiers and disliked sharing it, however short the sharing period might be. After a day and a night, Queen Cersei presented the King a baby and King Robert presented her a pelt from the boar he had been hunting in the Kingswood while she laboured. Lysa thought it a bit in bad taste from the King, but then again he was King and nobody seemed interested in the opinions of a seventeen year old woman, even if she was the wife to the Hand of the King and was carrying the future Lord of the Vale.
Prince Joffrey was presented to the court after a moon, and the court babbled about how strong and handsome the Crown Prince looked. This seemed to please the Queen greatly, and she insisted the King to throw a tourney for seven days and seven feasts to thank the gods for the prince (and, Lysa suspected, to see everybody pandering to her and her son). By this point, Lysa was quite big, and although there was still a moon of waiting, she begged out of the jousts and most of the feasts, and to those she went, she ate and drank moderately and went soon after back to the Red Keep to get plenty of rest, as the matrons had recommended her.
Lysa was sitting in a gazebo watching over the Blackwater and the Red Keep gardens, enjoying the warm weather and the sunny reflections of midday in the water, when her contractions began. She knew from the matrons that contractions were not an indication of imminent birth, so she kept enjoying the songs of the birds and the wind until she noticed, about an hour later, some liquid in her legs. Looking at her two companions, Lady Anya Waynwood and her Aunt Whent, she just said "I think it's time".
The two matrons, exceedingly synchronised since they had been spending so much time together with Lysa, quickly took her to the birthing chamber and called for all the instruments. The delivery of the baby was quick, but the afterbirth took some extra time. The birth itself wasn't bad, but it was quite hard. Nevertheless, Lysa received for her efforts a beautiful baby girl, with auburn hair mixed with blood, pale skin and blueish eyes. Lysa hadn't been able to take her own eyes from the baby when her Lord husband came. Lysa, full of pride, opened the sheet that covered the baby and presented his daughter to him.
"My Lord Husband, I have birthed you a daughter. Do you claim her?" His eyes scanned the baby from hair to toe, and later looked at her with warmth.
"Aye, my Lady Wife, I claim her" He placed his right hand's finger in the baby's hand and instinctively the baby wrapped her fingers around the new object. Lord Arryn's eyes watered while Lysa folded the sheet back sround the baby. "I'm glad to have a living daughter. They seem less rowdy. And this one seems as healthy and strong as any other newborn" He made a pause. "I will send word to Baelor's Sept and the Eyre with orders to toil the bells for a whole day, so that the Kingdoms know that a daughter of House Arryn has been born" Another pause. Lysa could only imagine the outrage in Queen Cersei's face she she hadn't thought of that idea to announce the birth of the Crown Prince and her own husband hadn't apported any idea to honour his birth, and here Lysa was, not so important and having delivered a girl instead of a boy, and her Husband was more solicitous and happy than the King had ever been. Lysa could only smile in appreciation.
"What name do you wish to give to our daughter?" Lysa was very pleased to be asked. She has considered a bunch of names, but one has remained in her mind through the pregnancy granting her strength in times of need. Vale nobility tended to marry among themselves and rarely allowed other kingdoms' blood in the mix. The last time an Arryn has married a Riverlander woman, it has been a maiden from House Mudd, and she had birthed the first Sansa Arryn, who has been a credit to both her father and mother's Houses. When fate took first her mother and then her father, 14-year-old Sansa Arryn had risen to the occasion and became Lady Regent of the Vale for her young brother for 10 years. Lysa thought it was a strong name and hoped to convey that same strength to her daughter. Plus, it was also the name of Lord Arryn's grandmother, who was said to have doted on her first grandchild, Jon Arryn, and guided him even after the death of her own son, Lord Arryn's father.
"Sansa, my Lord Husband. After your grandmother, if it pleases you"
Lord Arryn looked at the baby in her arms, who was still holding to his finger, and Lysa thought she saw his eyes shine slightly. "Lady Sansa Arryn. A beautiful strong name, just like our daughter"
.
.
