The Gentle Queen: HOTD

Confront|29|

"Your grace," Julia, a trusted maid of the queen who had been summoned, said, bowing to her queen, who rocked her crying daughter.

"Julia" Lilly greeted the maid with a nod before handing the baby to her Lucy.

"Take her to her room. She has been fed and changed. She is just cranky as she is tired," she said to the women who nodded.

"Well, let's get this princess her beauty sleep, oh yes," Lucy whispered to Helena before bowing to Lilly, leaving the queen and the servant alone.

"How may I be at your service, my queen?" Julia asked, walking closer to the queen.

"My sister Alicent, did she visit the princess Rhaenyra at all yesterday, perhaps early in the morning?" Lilly asked, rubbing the swell of her stomach.

"Yes, your grace Princess Rhaenyra called for Lady Alicent yesterday morning; they broke fast in the princesses chambers before myself and Mary cleaned the princesses room," Julia answered, making Lilly nod.

"And that is where you found the blond sheet." Lilly clairrifed

"Yes, hidden in a planter's pot."

"Thank you, Julia. You may go and have my sister come here," she gently demanded.

"Right away, your grace," Julia said, leaving the room and rushing to Alicent Chambers across the castle.

"Lady Alicent, you have been summoned," Julia said to the woman who was sitting in her room.

"By who?" Alicent asked, confused, setting her book down.

"The queen," the maid said shortly, making Alicent tense up before nodding.

"Very well," she said, exiting the chambers and slowly making her way to her sister's chambers.

"Lady Alicent, your grace," the maid said to Lilly, who sat nodding as the two walked into her room. "Thank you, Julia." I apologize for making you run around, but could you bring me the princess Rhaenyra as well?" she said, making the maid smile.

"Of course, my queen," she said before leaving the room, happy to do her task and help her queen.

"May I ask why you called for me, sister?" Alicent asked after a tense and silent moment, watching her sister as she rubbed her baby bump.

"Did you know?" she asked, looking at her elder sister, the one she sacrificed everything for, the one she protected, the one she forgave when she abandoned her time after time.

"Did I know what, Lilly?" Alicent asked, acting confused, but she could already tell what she was asking about.

"Did you know that Rhaenyra lied to me at the Weirwood tree about Daemon touching her about remaining a maiden? You stood there when I questioned her yesterday." Lilly clarified her question as Alicent looked down in guilt.

"I did no such thing; Rhaenyra did not lie to you, Lilly." Alicent tried to convince her little sister.

"Do you have any idea what I have done for you, and yet you still stand there and lie? You stand there and protect Rhaenyra, but yet again, you always choose her, even if I am your sister." Lilly snapped, stepping forward just as Rhaenyra entered the room.

"You have done nothing for me," Alicent shouted back, confusing Rhaenyra as she looked between the two shouting sisters.

"What is going on?" she questioned, but was ignored.

"You know damn well that I have. You know that my father forced me to see the king. You know that I had to in order to protect you. Our father told you, and he explained to you that I kept him from marrying you off to Lord Calloswerth, a monster of a man. I now damn well know he did because I heard the fucking conversation. I have protected you when you have never protected me." Lilly ranted, trying to hold back her tears.

"Sister."

"You and Rhaenyra have completely abandoned me, whether you realize it or not. You two were supposed to be my sisters and be there for me; you promised to, and yet you failed." Lilly whispered, trying not to cry.

"I am sorry, Lilly, but Rhaenyra may do as she pleases; she does not answer to you, and neither do I," Alicent snapped.

"Enough of what the hell is going on." Rhaenyra shouted, stepping in between the two Hightowers grabbing Lilly's arm gently, but she ripped it away as if she had been burned by the Targaryen's touch.

"Do not touch me, Rhaenyra," she snapped, stepping away.

"What have I done?" Rhaenyra asked, looking at Alicent, who shook her head, shrugging.

"You lied about what happened between you and Daemon, then you lied about being a maiden, and you hid it from me. You made the king think I had lied to him to protect you, Rhaenyra. You did that knowing the things he has done to me."

"Criston, he told you?" Rhaenyra stuttered, "Why would he do that? I demanded that he not mention it."

"That is what you have to say to me, not that I am sorry or anything else." Lilly scoffed, laughing in disbelief.

"Lilly-"

"He told me because I asked, and as his queen he is to answer when spoken to, he told me all of it that you two fucked, and Daemon was the one to tell me what really happened in the brothel, and now he is banished away from court once again by the king."

"So, Lilly, what is the problem? Sorry, I didn't tell you that I fucked him, but I was afraid you would tell my father as you tell him everything, and why do you care so much?" Rhaenyra shouted before scoffing.

"Perhaps you're jealous that I was the one he fucked and that I am allowed to be happy, and you will forever be stuck in a miserable marriage, only being good for two things: being bedded and having heirs that will never sit on a throne. If you didn't want this life, then maybe you shouldn't have whored yourself to my father. Maybe you shouldn't have been my father's personal whore if you didn't want this life you complain about. What have you done but be his whore?" she continued.

"Rhaenyra" Alicent gasped upon hearing the words that left her mouth and the absolute heartbreak and betrayal on her little sister's face.

"You went on that marriage tour because of me. Your father planned to marry you to Lord Jason Lannister or Lord Boremund Baratheon. Your father named you his heir because I convinced him to. Your father did not marry you off because of me. The men in the stepstones survived because of me because the largest houses answered when I called upon them. Alicent gets to marry whomever she wishes, a commoner or a prince. Because of me, she was going to be sent to Lord Calloswerth, a man who beats and rapes his wives until they either die at his hands or their own, something I am quite familiar with. I have defended your claim to the throne over my sons, and you stand there and ask what I have done."

"Lilly, I didn't mean to say—" Rhaenyra tried to apologize.

"Yes, you did. You meant every word you said. I was a child. Hell, I still am a child. I was only twelve when I was stripped of my clothes and raped by my husband, your father, in front of my own father, who did nothing to stop it. Eight other men watched as I cried and pleaded for your father to stop, but he did nothing but shove my head into the pillow to drown out my cries. He humiliated me by forcing me to walk through the whole castle with his seed and my own blood spilling from me for all to see over and over." Lilly spoke in a way no one had ever heard. She stepped forward, and in return, the two older girls stepped back in fear.

"I have only been loyal to my husband regardless of the monster he is to me, and never once did I complain about what he did to me, and yet you have the nerve to call me some whore when the moment Daemon did not fuck you in that whore house, you went and fucked your guard."

"Lilly, I will admit I made a mistake." Rhaenyra started, but Lilly held up her hand, silencing her.

"I will not hear your pathetic excuses and apologies. I just know that your mother would be ashamed to know that you swore on her, and for the words you have uttered in this room, hell, she wouldn't even be able to look at you."

"Don't you dare mention my mother," Rhaenyra snapped.

"I will say as I please because I respect that woman, and I knew her, you swore lies on her memory; you were the one to disrespect her."