Kingdom Fall : Aegon II Targaryen

In Hot Water.

Your feelings about this chapter are really going to depend on whether you come from a naked family or not. 😂

Also i'm not sure if it's a universal thing or just a specifically British thing but to 'tell tales' means to tattle on someone or snitch. I was worried and just wanted to make sure it was clear.

Annerys is slouched against the wall with her ear pressed firmly against the cold of the stone. A tapestry bearing the mark of the seven grasped in her hand and pulled to the side so there was less separating her from listening to her mother and Daemon as Ser Steffon watched her disapprovingly. She shrugs and smirks at him then in return he shakes his head and smiles back at her as she presses a finger against her lips swearing him to secrecy.

She manages to hear very little other than the fact that they are indeed speaking to each other and neither sounds very happy. She's caught off guard when her mother suddenly storms out the door of her chambers. Ser Steffon bows to her as she exits her chambers, she turns and begins to walk before calling "come along Annerys." She sounds upset whether with her or Daemon or them both, Anne is unsure. But unwilling to further test her mother that day she quickly follows behind through the corridors until they reach her room. Zella is just finishing filling up a bathtub with steaming water in the middle of her chambers when they enter her room.

"Leave us." Rhaenyra calls to Anne's handmaiden.

"Yes, your grace." Zella says dutifully as she curtsies to them both and leaves.

The two stand there in silence for what feels like a lifetime before her mother walks up to her vanity and pulls out her chair and says "sit down."

Once Anne has made her way over and sat down her mother picks up the small pair of scissors from the table and begins to cut away the thread holding the plaits that rested on top of her head in place before she removes the pins and undos the braids.

"Come on then," her mother says before she moves back from Anne's chair. Anne stands and follows her mother a few paces away from her vanity. Her mother circles her so that she's stood behind her. She turns her head over her shoulder to ask her mother what she's doing before she feels her mothers hands on her back as she begins to undo the lacing at the back of her dress. Once she's unlaced her dress and removed the many layers of cotton and silk then her corset and chemise, Anne's slips into the scorching water of her bath. Anne sits in the hot water with her head resting on her knees which she has drawn against her chest.

Rhaenyra dips the cloth into the warm bath water and begins to gently run it across Anne's arm. In a show of devotion only a mother could show their child. This is not enough to soothe Annerys of her worries however.

"I am sorry. I don't mean to always disappoint you." Anne says.

"I've never told you or your brothers this, I've never seen the point of it. But for such a long time there was nothing in this world I wanted less than children of my own. When I found out I was with child I was so afraid. Both Laenor and Harwin were so happy but I'd never known fear quite like it. I remember the first time I felt you quaken within me. I knew that I would willingly die so that you might have the chance to live. Yet I still dreaded the moment I would become a mother. But the moment that I first heard yours and Jace's cry and they put you both in my arms and every doubt, every disappointment and every fear I'd ever had went away and there was only you both. You and your brothers are all that matters to me. If I have ever made you feel any differently then I am sorry. But understand this now. There is not a thing in the world that you could do that might disappoint me." Anne leans forward and presses her forehead against her mothers before Rhaenyra lifts her head and presses a kiss against her brow then pulls away from  her daughter and moves behind her. Rhaenyra picks up the ornate silver jug embossed with the patterns Annerys knows to associate with Old Valyria that can only be described as dragon/people orgies that Rhaena had gifted her for her most recent nameday.