Lady Joanna Lannister reminds Melara of her mothers. Both the one of Earth and the one she remembered more clearly.
Not in appearance- the Lady of the West is blonde and green-eyed and curvy, were Rosalind Hetherspoon, nee Marband had been slim as a willow and red-haired and blue-eyed- but in the way she held her mouth, in the way she gently moved about the world in grace. She was a kind, kind woman. Both her mothers had been kind as well, Melara remembers. Even if she doesn't remember the name of her Mother on Earth, even if she cannot remember how she smiled or how she took her tea, she remembers her kindness.
Pity, Joanna's going to die soon after the Tourney.
Tyrion Lannister is gestating, and that means that Joanna Lannister would soon die in childbirth. Melara swallows thickly. She wanted to have this woman as her goodmother, and she was going to die.
Fuck.
"Melara," Joanna's voice is tempered and even. But Melara can detect a hint of annoyance as she looks up from the ledgers across her large cherry-wood desk, "Where is my daughter?"
Melara smiled. Sweet and feeling hallow. She has her own problems to deal with, her own death to overcome… She feels her heart constrict. She curtsies, deep and full. Lady Joanna flicks her fingertips dismissively in an impatient greeting.
"My Lady, Cersei went to fetch me early this morning to explore the Tourney grounds in Lannisport. I understand she left the Hall without your leave for it. I apologize, truly, I explained my eagerness last night far too much. Cersei is probably half-way to the Grounds already."
Joanna Lannister sighed. And she was so beautiful and oh so about to die. And Melara missed her own mothers like a physical, impossible thing.
"Oh, so that is why she is so eager to leave. Yet, I see you here, Melara, why?"
Melara shifts. She barely resists a shrug. Not quite elegant in Westerland's etiquette.
"I am here to be of service, Lady Lannister, whilst Cersei and Jeyne have their fun," she tilts her head, "I… I actually just want to be useful to you before the King arrives. I have a feeling there will be no peace for you."
Something stills in Lady Joanna's expression. Her hand drifts to her rounded stomach. Melara feels a fan theory in her mind perk up. It could have been a subconscious nervous gesture to reach for her child at the mention of a man that is supposed to be obsessed with her no matter the canon, but it could also be Joanna Lannister reacting to the mention of the King that abused her. In the worst of the theories, the King had raped her and was Tyrion's biological father. That had been certainly implied on Tywin's privy death, much as GOT had completely ignored it…
Yet, even in the more milder versions of events involving Joanna and the Mad King, he had harassed her verbally endlessly until her death.
If I live to see the King, I'm going to make sure he stays the fuck away from his victim. For whatever that's worth…
"Well, certainly I am surprised that you wish to help me. You always seem more content to follow after Cersei's skirts. What makes you think you will be useful to me, child?"
Melara looks up at Joanna, and she sees sharpness in her emerald eyes. Contempt lining the mouth usually set in kindness. A cold shiver rips down Melara's spine. It seemed that Melara Before the Well had been very ignorant of the people around her. Blind about the fact that she was being watched by the Lady of Casterly Rock. Cersei was merely a fucking lion cub with cruelness at her hand, for all that Melara had thought otherwise, Cersei had no power.
Joanna Lannister was a lioness full grown into her damn claws. And the wife of Tywin Lannister for reason. And she knew that Melara had attached herself to her daughter for her own means. Childish, innocent means of an abused girl who wanted escape, but for her own benefit nonetheless. Joanna had not interfered, perhaps to give Cersei a lesson of choosing your allies wisely... But nonetheless, Melara was in the gaze of the Lioness of the West and that gaze did not look at her favorably.
Well, fuck me. Tyrion get's his intelligence and people skills not from Tywin, but from fucking Joanna in the fridge Lannister.
Melara blinks quickly. Her plans turn on a dime. It seems she had found the ally she needed to take her Uncle down.
"Not much," she admits, voice firm and honest, "But whatever service I may be to you, Lady Joanna, will be my honor."
Joanna Lannister lifted a single, even brow.
"Lady Melara do you instead intent to cling to my skirts?"
Melara lifts her own eyebrow.
"I believe I will, Lady Joanna. I have miscalculated. Chosen to cling to your daughter for my own benefit, but you know that. You know your daughter better than anyone. Know what she is capable of. What I thought she could do for me… But Cersei Lannister, I found, is a double-edged sword."
Joanna Lannister blinks.
"Has Cersei done anything to hurt you?" her voice is softer now. Dangerous, but there was something in her eyes that spoke of genuine unease at the prospect.
Joanna might not like her, but she does not want to see a child hurt by her daughter's hand. Had she thought her death suspicious? Had she known her daughter had been complicate, if not outright murderous? Had she concealed it, or had she died before she could check to see what happened to the girl that had once used her daughter? Melara swallowed.
"No, not yet, Lady Joanna."
Joanna's fingertips drum on her desk.
"But you believe she would."
Melara does not stop her shrug.
"Yes, eventually. If I displeased her. If I got in her way. I know how cruelness looks in the eyes of people, Lady Joanna. And Cersei has it. She has some affection for me, but it would not stop her."
Joanna sucks in a single, heavy breath.
"Child…"
"I wanted to marry Jaime," she tells her. She blinks quickly, and her throat constricts. And she looks at the woman set to die, same as her, "I'm sorry, but I thought it was the only way, my Lady. I've been foolish."
A sneer forms on Joanna Lannister's face. And she is truly her daughter's mother.
"You think I did not know you wished to marry my son? That you clung to my daughter to look at him? You, some partly heiress of a hedgeknight's keep, daring to think that you are worthy of the future Lord of the West? Related to Marbands you may be, Melara Hetherspoon, but you are not worthy of my son. I let Cersei keep you close because your half-hearted friendship was a tempering force for her, and a lesson for her to pay attention to her allies, but do not think you can come to me and curry my favor for my son. Know your place , " something dark in Joanna's tone, furious and angry.
She looks at Melara and thinks she is nothing but a social climbing girl over her head. So it seems the Lady of the West doesn't know everything, smart as she is. She saw the simplest reason and was pissed because of it.
Melara breathes.
Cards on the table, bitch.
"I thought marrying Jaime was the only way to make it stop, Lady Joanna."
Joanna Lannister's anger flatters. Because suddenly, she seems to realize that Melara is wanting something beyond her social standing to be improved.
"Make what stop?"
Melara breathes. It is harder than she expects, to reveal what her Lord Uncle has been doing to her. Harder when she is not writhing in fury, harder when she is not on an adrenaline high, and hysterical after her remembered deaths. But she cannot afford to flatter. She had intended to go for Tywin after passing a peaceful day at Lady Lannister's side, but the game is more complicated than she expected. She had been being watched by Joanna Lannister all along, and she was not as kind as her memories made her out to be. She was a queen on the chess board. And that queen is before her, and she's not stupid and foolish enough to ignore the most versatile, dangerous piece in this game she had been shoved into. She cannot afford to stay silent.
She reaches for her dress's laces.
"It's best I show you, Lady Lannister."