I would have figured by now you would have taken to your new lands and castle." Zhoe noted, an interest eyebrow raised up her head as she looked at our eldest.
Ciri hummed as she took a nibble out of a lemon cake. Was an affinity towards lemon cakes genetic or an odd coincidence considering Sansa? "Riverdale can wait," She began, rubbing the corners of her mouth to free it from some crumbs. "Jon has gone ahead nonetheless and intends to put the castle and lands to right."
"To rights?" I repeated from where I laid, my head resting on Zhoe's lap. "From my understanding, the administration of Stonebridge has been nothing but superb. No troubles nothing."
"Riverdale now, father." The daughter chided her father with a slight tsk. I rolled my eyes at the statement, much to her amusement. "And yes, the lands of Riverdale have been run superbly, but Jon wants to get to grips with the local officials, geography and problems as soon as possible. 'Bandits' and all."
It was good to see that the use of air quotes was now being used correctly and their usage was now quickly being caught on by the court among other people. Despite some of the things that I had brought, air quotes was one of my finest introductions.
"I suppose I should send another letter of complaint to Highgarden?" I asked, rhetorically, cos I definitely knew how that would be answered by my contemporary in the south.
Zhoe swatted my ear playfully. "What would that even do? Nothing. King Mern has very well shown he cares not for your protests about the actions of his lords. A part of me thinks he encourages such actions."
"I think father was merely asking a rhetorical question, mother." Ciri said with a laugh as light as the air.
"It matters not." Zhoe rubbed at the round of her pregnant middle. "What matters is I wish this little trout would hurry up and be rid of me. My ankles can't take any more of this."
I didn't particularly like the way she had directed a look at me at the end of her sentence, so I was a little defensive. "Hey, it takes two to tango here." I said as I rose my head up from her lap and to sit up. I gently prodded her middle, returning the look straight right back at her. "This is just as my fault as it is yours."
"I remember the night he was conceived, and it was most certainly your fault." She said, not backing down from our little staring contest.
I only took one thing out of that entire sentence. "He?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. I wasn't aware that we had developed the technology to tell the sexes of unborn babies yet in Westeros, cos if we did, that was a major leap in tech that happened without me knowing.
"Oh please, I'm hoping for another little sister." Ciri chimed in happily enough. "I think this family needs more women with sense."
I frowned as I turned towards my daughter who was innocently nibbling at a lemon cake, as if she had just not insulted her kingly father who was well...her king. "I take offense at that. And so does Alfie and Henry."
"He's right Ciri," Zhoe said, letting out a breath of air. "Your brothers have far more sense than their father. It's the blood of House Mooton I tell you."
"And now I see why I married you." I said in deadpan, staring at my wife with a dead fish look amidst the laughter of Ciri.
"You had no choice," she stole a kiss from me in my state of mild annoyance at the amount of respect I get from my own family. "I was the only suitable bride available to suit your needs."
Well, she had a point and it is quite surprising for me that we were able to somehow make it work. In other words, I have a really good eye for this sort of thing.
"Father," Ciri cut in, the tone of her voice seemingly somewhat more serious than before. "What are you going to do about the Cracklaws and the Vale?"
Glancing towards my daughter, I saw that she was looking at me quite intensely, for as intense as she could muster. "Well, my original plan was to just sweep it all under the bed and hope it goes away...but I doubt it's going to all go away as much as I wish it would. Why the interest? You should be more concerned about what is happening in the southern marches rather than the east."
She smoothed her skirts as she answered back. "Because what happens somewhere else in the kingdom could very well affect Riverdale. If you were to supply aid in terms of men and materiel to Ronnel, the reachmen might take this as a chance to try and regain the lands and castles they lost."
And that was something that had been making me wish that I wasn't involved in this business. I figured that the form of military aid in the form of men would result the Reach coming back for round two, just to save face. I might not have the sheer insanity of the borders that they control, but mine were just as bad.
That, and I didn't want to have the rep of intervening in the domestic problems of other kingdoms. That way lied problems that could prove detrimental in the future.
Cracklaw Point though, I planned on leaving that particular mess well alone. I didn't need to have any sort of problem with the Targaryens and their Freehold. Their Freehold that probably controlled like a third of a continent or something. Their Freehold that was well ahead of my little kingdom in terms of economics.
I was still adhering to my original rule of not fucking with the Targaryens. I didn't need that sort of nonsense suddenly dropping their lizard murder-machines out of the sky and onto my unsuspecting ass and proceeding to burn that ass into a nice burnt crisp flavouring.
Nope.
No-one needed that sort of shit, so the Boggs, Crabbs and Pynes were shit out of luck and out on their own.
"Don't worry about it Ciri, Papa's got a plan."
The nod of approval mixed with some pride at me showed that she had faith in her father not to fuck this shit up. I didn't intend to.
I did have a plan, but for that, I needed to go on a little boat trip. Just to see what sort of options were available to me and the sort of outcomes those actions would have.