Capítulo 37: Doran I
292 AC
The Prince of Dorne stared down at the letter informing him that Arthur Baratheon would be leaving Tarth in the following week and coming south to Dorne to meet with his daughter about their betrothal. It had been sent two days ago, and with how fast the merchant lordling's ships were supposed to move it seemed likely he would be at Sunspear tomorrow, or at most the day after.
Then he would expect to see Arianne, and that was currently… complicated, to say the least.
Because of course, Doran had never agreed to betroth the girl to the Baratheon prince, oh, he had let it go through, even after Oberyn's blasted daughter had had the nerve to steal his seal. He could easily have had the couriers stop it before it ever reached a raven.
No, the match was actually not a terrible one, at least now that it seemed Viserys had fallen into the paws of Volantis and decided to marry his sister no less, an ill-habit of the Targaryen dynasty.
It did feel wrong at some level to let his daughter even suggest marrying herself away to a member of the family that had let the Lannisters kill poor Elia, but then Lord Stannis had been trapped in Storm's end at the time, starving with his men, and he doubted the man would have been nearly so lenient with the Mountain or the Monster. Not when he chopped his own second's hand off for smuggling.
Indeed, with the recent rise to power of the Dragonstone House, and their antipathy with the queen (or at least that was what his spies in King's Landing told him. The Dragonstone Baratheons were very private and hard to read.) would hopefully mean that he could see revenge for his sister in another way.
Ironically, the trouble was not with the Baratheon at all, but rather with his own daughter. Simply put she had been growing constantly more and more rebellious as he failed to find a proper betrothal for her, and when he had explained the reason why her now-canceled betrothal to Viserys, she had simply gone ballistic, blaming him, perhaps rightly, for making a plan that had fallen through so easily and paraded her around in front of gray old men for the sake of it.
Ever since it seemed she had been out to specifically defy him and enlisted his brother's bastards along for the endeavor.
The older Sand Snakes seemed all too willing to defy him, in ways that even she was not. Two of them were now being held at Water-Gardens, and a third might soon be on the way if she was plotting what he thought she was.
His daughter was less trouble if he were being honest. She wanted to rebel yes but was less willing to poison random courtiers to make her displeasure known. Instead, for instance, she had sent off to Betroth the Baratheon boy, hoping that it would step on Doran's toes, no doubt.
This meant that he had to act exactly as if his toes had been fiercely stepped on as soon as he decided the match would actually be beneficial.
Teenage girls were nothing but trouble, and so, Arianne had been confined to her room since he first got news of the betrothal visit, and given strict instructions that when she met the boy she was to make a marriage between them seem as unappealing as possible, to "force him to choose against the betrothal of his own accord, and without offending him."
Of course, that meant she would probably try to seduce him, which, if a bit uncouth, would at least hopefully earn his daughter some goodwill with a twelve-year-old boy, and besides, she had plenty of positive aspects beyond her body if she remembered to use them, which he hoped she did. She was a smart girl, after all, only a bit naive.
Still, the issue would likely be convincing the Baratheon that he didn't plan to murder him in his sleep, especially once Arianne inevitably started working the boy's ears off about how Doran hated the idea of them marrying. While his reputation was not as foul as his brother's in that regard, he knew well how the Dornish were viewed elsewhere, and not entirely without good reason. Perhaps he could talk to the boy and explain the situation once Arianne had spoken her words, though how smart the Prince of Dragonstone truly might be was hotly debated amongst the court, and he suspected many of the courts of the kingdom.
Clearly, the rumors weren't all true, for how could one man, much less a child, achieve so much so quickly. Still, he didn't doubt there was some credence to them, else the rumors would have been shattered at King's Landing.
He simply hoped the boy was smart enough to listen to reason, and perhaps to try and calm Arianne if he got the opportunity.
Hopefully, this match would work out well for his daughter and the young Baratheon both, and they'd get married, produce an heir, overthrow Robert and serve him the mountains head on a plate in his old age.
Oh, who was he kidding, things never worked out that well, Case in point Viserys new betrothal.
As always, his main worry was his daughter, but as long as she avoided anything obviously stupid, they ought to be alright.
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