chance for happiness

Hope under the heart

The evening greeted the travellers with a light breeze coming from the open balcony and the smell of fresh, delicious food from the kitchen: the cooks had been preparing for this since the morning, cooking their best meat and vegetable dishes.

The evening filled Rhea with hidden anxiety and an overwhelming desire to eat as soon as possible, as the smell of food reached even her chambers.

Long corridors stretched throughout the castle, so the Lady of the Rune Stone hoped not to get lost on her first day in the capital.

In the hall where the royal family had already gathered, there was the usual noise and babbling of children, but the adults were eating dinner in silence:

Queen Alicenta could not stand Princess Rhaenyra, and she, in turn, had no warm feelings for her stepmother. There was a clear tension between them, which the king and the rest of the kingdom and court noticed.

Viserys was about to add something, but the door creaked open and his sister-in-law, Lady Royce, entered the room.

A faint smile flashed across his elderly face, which was showing one wrinkle after another, and he said:

-"Rhea, I am glad you came and broke our silence.

The Lady of the Rune Stone nodded and looked over to her daughter at the table, playing with Princess Helena: They were very young, but they seemed to be having a good time together, and even the girls laughed from time to time, which seemed to surprise everyone else, for when they were alone the girls were quiet and calm, but when they met they made so much noise and merriment that even Alicent's eldest son, Aegon, who was a brat, made no noise.

Lady Royce smiled and sat down at the table next to the queen.

'I don't know about your daughter, but when she's alone, you can't get a word out of her, and she's talking so much,' Alicent whispered quietly, watching the girls calm down a bit and look at the freshly picked flowers on the table that had been in the vase.

'-Lantysa is a pretty calm kid, too,' Rhea said, putting a piece of fragrant baked fish on her plate.

'-How are you feeling? His majesty said you hadn't been feeling well on the road,' the queen broke the brief silence.

The Lady of the Rune Stone shook her head and smiled faintly, she knew that all these questions about her condition were ostentatious and necessary to appear polite and friendly in her eyes, but in the end she understood her: good manners and manners were something that ladies of high rank were taught from a young age, so she quickly looked at Alicent and spoke.

'-Don't worry, sleep has already helped me with everything.'

For a moment she saw herself in Alicent, for although she was ten years younger, she had also been married to a man to whom her heart felt only cold, but Viserys, unlike his younger brother, was more reserved and did not allow such harsh words to be spoken to his wife.

'We have the best maesters in the capital, so they will examine you if necessary,' the queen's voice was feigned sweetness, but the truth could be felt in her words.

Rhea nodded and sipped her wine, surprisingly, for the first time she agreed with her husband, because it was indeed better here than on Rune Stone.

A sudden crash made Rhea jump in surprise: it seemed that the girls didn't like the vase and knocked it off the table and onto the ground.

'-Lantysa,' Rhea whispered as she approached her daughter, but she just blinked her sly eyes as if she were innocent.

The servants had already removed the shards from the vase, so there was no need to worry about that.