"Truly? Oh this is nothing, Lady Hester. I only wish your first visit to this court could have been in happier times. I remember my first time here and I spent the first weeks getting lost..." She had been only a child, but the memories were still clear in her mind, especially those of Aeria and she sighed as she thought of all the things that had been.
Elia turned a serious gaze on Hester. "I didn't want you to think I was being callous with this entertainment tonight, with the young princess's illness and the plague below but if I spent one more night alone doing nothing and feeling useless I was going to go mad."
She studied Hester's delicate features for a moment before she continued, "I thought it must be worse if it had been only my first time in Kings Landing, as it is for several ladies here, and I had not the luxury of feeling myself to be in somewhat familiar surroundings." All of it was true, though she might not have so happily greeted the lady had she not been so very curious about Hester's cousin the queen.