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face-to-face with her uncle. When the queen reminded him of their meeting later, Ser Kevan gave a weary nod and begged leave to withdraw. But Lancel lingered, the very picture of a man with one foot in the grave.
But is he climbing in or climbing out?
    Cersei forced herself to smile. “Lancel, I am happy to see you looking so much stronger. Maester Ballabar brought us such dire reports, we feared for your life. But I would have thought you on your way to Darry by now, to take up your lordship.” Her father had made Lancel a lord after the Battle of the Blackwater, as a sop to his brother Kevan.
    â€œNot as yet. There are outlaws in my castle.” Her cousin’s voice was as wispy as the mustache on his upper lip. Though his hair had gone white, his mustache fuzz remained a sandy color. Cersei had often gazed up at it while the boy was inside her, pumping dutifully away.
It looks like a smudge of dirt on his lip.
She used to threaten to scrub it off with a little spit. “The riverlands have need of a strong hand, my father says.”
    A pity that they’re getting yours,
she wanted to say. Instead she smiled. “And you are to be wed as well.”
    A gloomy look passed across the young knight’s ravaged face. “A Frey girl, and not of my choosing. She is not even maiden. A widow, of Darry blood. My father says that will help me with the peasants, but the peasants are all dead.” He reached for her hand. “It is cruel, Cersei. Your Grace knows that I love—”
    â€œâ€”House Lannister,” she finished for him. “No one can doubt that, Lancel. May your wife give you strong sons.”
Best not let her lord grandfather host the wedding, though.
“I know you will do many noble deeds in Darry.”
    Lancel nodded, plainly miserable. “When it seemed that I might die, my father brought the High Septon to pray for me. He is a good man.” Her cousin’s eyes were wet and shiny, a child’s eyes in an old man’s face. “He says the Mother spared me for some holy purpose, so I might atone for my sins.”
    Cersei wondered how he intended to atone for her.
Knighting him was a mistake, and bedding him a bigger one.
Lancel was a weak reed, and she liked his newfound piety not at all; he had been much more amusing when he was trying to be Jaime.
What has this mewling fool told the High Septon? And what will he tell his little Frey when they lie together in the dark?
If he confessed to bedding Cersei, well, she could weather that. Men were always lying about women; she would put it down as the braggadocio of a callow boy smitten by her beauty.
If he sings of Robert and the strongwine, though . . . “
Atonement is best achieved through prayer,” Cersei told him. “
Silent
prayer.” She left him to think about that and girded herself to face the Tyrell host.
    Margaery embraced her like a sister, which the queen found presumptuous, but this was not the place to reproach her. Lady Alerie and the cousins contented themselves with kissing fingers. Lady Graceford, who was large with child, asked the queen’s leave to name it Tywin if it were a boy, or Lanna if it were a girl.
Another one?
she almost groaned.
The realm will drown in Tywins.
She gave consent as graciously as she could, feigning delight.
    It was Lady Merryweather who truly pleased her. “Your Grace,” that one said, in her sultry Myrish tones, “I have sent word to my friends across the narrow sea, asking them to seize the Imp at once should he show his ugly face in the Free Cities.”
    â€œDo you have many friends across the water?”
    â€œIn Myr, many. In Lys as well, and Tyrosh. Men of power.”
    Cersei could well believe it. The Myrish woman was too beautiful by half; long-legged and full-breasted, with smooth olive skin, ripe lips, huge dark eyes, and thick black hair that always looked as if she’d just come from bed.
She even smells of sin, like some exotic lotus.
“Lord Merryweather and I wish only to serve Your Grace and the little king,” the woman purred, with a look that was as pregnant as Lady Graceford.
    This one is ambitious, and her lord is proud but poor.
“We must speak again, my lady. Taena, is it? You are most kind. I know that we shall be great friends.”
    Then the Lord of Highgarden descended on her.
    Mace Tyrell was no more than ten years older than Cersei, yet she thought of him as her father’s