"It was an oversight on our part, keeping Tommen alone like that."
"Oversight it may have been, but it did us good. The Grandmaester's presence there implicates him, as does it implicates Ser Boros Blount. Two of our targets are down."
Robert still was not pleased. Looking at the faces of his brother Renly, the Master of Whispers Varys, and his Hand Jon, Robert could see they were pleased by the outcome. In the end, Cersei had not escaped so that was a victory he supposed.
However, such a victory did not quite sit well with Robert, to whom victory was either absolute or not up to chance.
He sighed and emptied his cup. Water, not wine. He hadn't been able to savor that since his return. He made a promise, and for that, he needed to struggle.
"How is Shireen doing?"
The question had killed the happy mood instantly.
Stannis' death came as a shock to all who heard, but Shireen had been the most affected by it. She felt both betrayed and lost, and she blamed herself for it. That was what the Septa had told the King when he asked her. Robert had yet to talk to his niece.
"She is… dealing with it" Renly answered. There was anger in his tone, and rage in his eyes.
To Renly, Stannis had taken the coward's way out.
"Your grace, about the replacement in the trial, they have confirmed their attendance and will be honored to sit as judge."
Robert nods. But the seat of thejudge was the last thing on his mind right now.
He pulled out a piece of parchment and read it over once more. It was from Stannis, an explanation of what he was going to do and why was going to do so. But only one line came to Robert, haunting him constantly.
I leave my daughter in your care, she is the best of me and I trust that you will care for her. Please make sure she lives a better life.
Stannis expected him to look after his daughter when he couldn't look after his own. How was he supposed to do that? He did not know how to be a proper father. He couldn't even properly look after himself.
The thought of what he could do plagued him fora while until he finally had a plan. King's Landing was no place for that child, who was sweet if not a bit melancholic from what Robert had seen. The capital would eat her up and spit her out, make her into something twisted and vicious as it had done to so many before. There was only one way to properly take care of the girl.
"Ned's written back that he'd be joining us. Which means he's already on his way. The capital is no place for Shireen. Once Ned arrives, I'll ask him to ward Shireen. He has two daughters, andboth have seen what the future could hold. She won't be alone and she will find company she can enjoy there."
That was the only way Robert saw.
Jon nodded. He saw the wisdom in there.
"Lord Stark is a good man, he'll raise her right" Varys nodded.
Renly on the other hand looked displeased.
"That's it then? You're going to wipe your hands off of her and send her someplace else?"
Robert stared at his brother with a little surprise.
"That is best for her" the King reasoned.
"Bullshit" the Lord of Storm's End argued. "You're her uncle, her coward of a father trusted you to take care of her because you share his blood! Shireen is a Baratheon, our niece. She should be raised as a Baratheon and not as a Stark!"
"And what? You want her to remain in the capital? You want her to become some twisted version of herself here?" Robert snapped back.
"She won't be living here" Renly glared. "She will go to Storm's End with me. I will do what you refuse to do and raise her like a Baratheon."
"And who will do your work here?" Jon raised a brow. "You are the Master of Laws."
"Was" Renly leaned back. "I resign. I've done jack shit as master of Laws. Find someone better. I'll return to Storm's End with Shireen and I will resume my duties as Lord of Storm's End."
Robert stared at his brother for the longest time in silence, while Jon and Varys looked between the two.
"I need you here," Robert said finally. "I need you by my side to deal with the bullshit that I've dug myself into."
I need you here so I can have a better relationship with you.
The last part was all in Robert's head, his thoughts, and only for him.
"If you can't remember, the bullshit you've found yourself in has my hands on it too" Renly muttered, the fight dying down in his voice. "I'm easily influenced and manipulated. I am not fit to be on the Council. I need to return to Storm's End to rally the Storm Lords under my banner, so when the time comes I can lead them and fight under you."
Bullshit, that was what the reason was to Robert. Renly was running away from the problems here and Robert was not going to shy away from telling this to him.
That was until Jon shook his head.
Robert let out a frustrated sigh.
"Fine" the King grunted.
Renly lowered his head and stood.
"With your leave, your Grace."
-x-
If it were the old Robert, the less caring Robert, he'd have gone out to hunt or whore to get his mind cleared. But since it was not, Robert was wandering the halls of the Red Keep. The servants bowed as he passed by them, some trembling and others stoic. Robert had not noticed it before, but the servants feared him, not that Robert could blame them. Most of the time they'd see him drunk or angry, or both. Anyone would be afraid of that.
But Robert was not drunk. He was angry, but not to the explosive levels that people should fear.
But the levels may yet to reach that because he'd run into someone whose neck he'd love to wring.
Petyr Baelish.
The rat greeted him with a smile and fell in step with him as Robert walked. He was saying one thing or the other that Robert was not much paying attention to.
Until the topic of Shireen had come up.
Robert stopped then, turning to Baelish and demanding he repeat what he said. Baelish repeated as such and Robert was close to knocking the man out.
Normally Robert wouldn't have minded it, a match between Shireen and Jon's son Robyn, he may have even rewarded the rat for suggesting it. But knowing what the man planned to do with Jon, with Jon's traitorous wife and weak son, Robert wanted to behead him right then and there.
But The Spider had wanted time and patience to deal with the rat, so Robert bit his tongue and walked away with a grunt. Baelish had watched with a smile.
Robert was very close to breaking his word to The Spider.
With growing frustration, Robert made his way to where he intended to go in the first place.
Shireen's chambers.
He stopped outside and took a moment to think about what he would say to the girl he'd not spoken a word to all her life. Robert was not good at comforting people, that was all Ned and maybe even Renly. It was definitely not him.
Yet still he knocked on the door and entered when he heard the faintest sound asking him to enter. Robert had not been in a child's room before, even with three children growing upin his castle, so he did not know what to expect.
But he was certain a bland room was not what a child should have. There should be toys, and even books if the child likes reading. Yet none of it was there, and the child in question was hugging her knees on the bed.
"Your Grace" Shireen went to stand but Robert stopped her with a motion of his hand. The large man sat on a chair and stared at the girl. He was still not sure what to say.
"Your uncle has asked to ward you at Storm's End" It was better to just get to the point, "I think that Storm's End would be better for you than this viper-infested snake pit. So you will be going with him when he leaves."
"Is Mother going to come with us?" Shireen asked, her voice small shaky.
"Of course" Robert nods. Renly had said nothing about not taking Selyse. And Storm's End might be better for her than Dragonstone, far from the clutches of that bitch of awitch if she ever came sniffing.
"Have you had anything to eat?" the man asked.
The girl did not answer.
Robert held back a sigh. What has her mother been doing? What have the servants been doing?
"You need to eat, child. Your father would not want you starving yourself."
Shireen stiffened and Robert cursed himself for saying that. Her father's just died, the child would not want to hear that.
"It's my punishment for killing Father."
It took Robert a moment to process what the girl had said. And once he did a sort of calm spread over him. It was not the good kind of calm.
"Who told you that you're the reason your father's dead?" Robert asked.
Shireen shrugged. "Nobody did. But it's true. He watched him burn me and still fail. The shame of it killed him. The shame of bearing a child that even the gods would reject."
"Is that what you think?" Robert asked. Shireen said nothing and the king growled. The girl's head shot up to meet his gaze, fear in her eyes. Robert dialed down on his anger. It was not the time for that. "Your father loved you, more than anything in this world he loved you. He couldn't live with himself because of what he'd done to the only person he's ever loved more dearly than anything he ever loved. It is not your fault. Your father did not die because of the reasons you say he did. He died because he couldn't live with hurting the most important thing in the world to him."
"If he didn't feel ashamed by me then he'd have stayed. He'd have stayed with me because I needed him" Shireen argued.
Robert sighed.
"Your father's a complicated man. But the one thing about him that was not complicated about him was his love for you. He loved you and he felt anything but shame for you. Never doubt that even if the memory of him doing… you know what to you is burned in your head. Your father loved you, and the fact that he betrayed you is what got him killed, not you or anything like him feeling shame about you being his daughter. You are his pride and his joy. That will never change."
Robert was not good with his words, but he hoped he'd been able to get through to the girl about her father. He probably had. Why else would she be hugging him if he had not?