Ever After AU

The Comtesse and Cinders

Margaery found herself completely incapable of sleep, tossing and turning constantly. She spent what felt like ages staring up at her ceiling as the evening turned to dusk. Margaery was plagued by thoughts of the Comtesse she had met earlier in the day. No one had ever spoken to her in such a manner. The Lady Catelyn of Tully... she seemed to be a rare woman and wise beyond her what couldn't be more than twenty years. Margaery knew of only one person who could likely tell her what she needed to know. Luckily her mother had yet to go to bed. She rose, dressed and went to find her. Margaery drew her mother out on a walk in the gardens as a pretext.

"I have not been able to stop thinking about this young woman, Mother." Margaery finally admitted after a long period of silence.

"Who, dear?" the queen looked intrigued and somewhat surprised.

"After some work, I managed to procure her name. The Comtesse Catelyn of Tully. She is a cousin of- well, actually I don't know who her cousin is." Alerie hummed in response and beckoned for her daughter to continue. "Surely you have heard of her."

Margaery sounded almost desperate and it touched at her mother's heartstrings. The elder woman wished desperately to be able to help.

"Oh, darling. They are simply too many courtiers to remember them all by name. Why are you asking?" Alerie asked.

"Oh, it's nothing. I can figure it out on my own." Margaery replied thoughtfully. She was disappointed but was determined to find out more about the mysterious girl she had met that morning.

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Early the next morning Sansa was drawn to the front courtyard by the arrival of a carriage, a messenger stepping out to deliver a message of some kind to the Baroness.

"What news of the engagement?" she asked looking down to the very short man whose face seemed to sport a constantly pinched and rat-like appearance.

"Canceled. Rumor has it she must find herself a fiance before this very ball to which you have been invited." even his voice was slimy and squeaky. Sansa disliked him immediately on sight.

Cersei visibly stiffened. "Well, that doesn't give us very much time. I shall need to know..." and she placed a gold piece in his hand as she spoke. "Who the competition is, every move she makes, her agenda..." a silver piece, " And any other pertinent tidbits you might be able to dig up." she dropped three more silvers into his hand and Sansa flinched.

He visibly twitched and glanced around to be sure no one was listening and Sansa pressed herself back into the wall tightly. His eyes jumped over her. His voice dropped low and quiet.

"She will be playing tennis with Samwell of Tarly, tomorrow at noon. They are well known to be good friends. He is likely not a threat or competition." His smirk brought a nauseated feeling to Sansa's stomach. She only felt sicker when Cersei brought her hand up to the messenger's face and dragged the back of one nail down his cheek.

"I have grown rather fond of our intrigues together. I do hope you know that." Cersei said in a sickly sweet voice. Sansa though she really might retch.

"I am having an inkling, my lady." his tone was flirty, squeaky, and awful.

"When my son is king or my daughter is queen, perhaps we may come to a new arrangement." Cersei winked in possibly the most disturbing manner possible.

-----/////-----

"I would have given almost anything to have seen you all dressed up like a courtier, speaking to the princess like a lady." said the Septa Mordane, Sansa's former tutor and current maid of the house as she assisted the young lady in harvesting honeycombs.