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Petyr smoothed down the front of his clothes and made sure he looked presentable for the day. It was the day before the tournament that had been planned for Ned Stark, the new Hand of the King, and Petyr had an extraordinary amount of last minute tasks to pull together all the remaining funds. After being content with his appearance, he grabbed his ledger book and departed from his rooms to the rest of the castle.
Everything was a bustle with the last minute preparations for the day, and as some of the more important participants were staying within the castle, there was many a flustered looking servants and stewards running around as well. Among these people Petyr saw one of his little birds that acknowledged him with a very slight nod. Oh, this means means she has learnt something. It was one of the more insignificant kitchen girls who usually was sent upon to take food in the odd hours of the night to those he requested it from the kitchens. The possibilities of what she had come across piqued Petyr’s interests.
“You, girl,” Petyr said as he approached her.
“Yes, my lord?” she replied dutifully with a curtsey.
“I need to do a count of the stores to see how much it will cost to replenish everything after the tourney. I assume you have a key to the stores?”
“Of course, Lord Baelish.”
“Good, then lead on, girl,” Petyr said with disinterest, but his brain was working at such a high speed. Hopefully what she had to tell him would be of value, and if it was, oh, this day was already starting on a better note than he could have even hoped for.
Once inside the stores, Petyr began making the motions of counting all the stored food while referencing the head cook’s counts as well. Several minutes of silence passed between the serving girl and Petyr until he finally spoke.
“Well? What information do you have, little bird?” Petyr asked in a quiet voice, so quiet that it might have gotten lost in the silence had the girl not the keen hearing.
“My lord, last night I was sent to deliver a plate of fruit to Lord Renly’s chambers,” she replied in a small voice.”
“And?” Petyr urged her on impatiently.
“Well, my lord, I found it quite odd that he had asked for such a large amount of fruit for just one person, but then I thought maybe he would be saving it, all the peaches and apples and-“
Rolling his eyes, Petyr cut her off, “Get on with it!”
“Oh! Sorry, my lord, well, his usual servant did not answer the door. It was Lord Renly himself! It was a shock for me, and I nearly dropped the fruit. But, my lord, when I was placing it on a table, there was armour in his room. But Lord Renly is not jousting tomorrow, my lord.”
“Your information was that Renly has armour?” Petyr asked with annoyance clear in his voice.
“No, my lord, no!” she cried desperately.
“Then what?”
“The armour had jeweled flowers on it, my lord, and the flower of the Tyrells.”
Petyr stopped his count of wheels of cheese and turned to the girl. He examined her for a moment before giving her a look telling her to continue.
“Lord Renly realised I had seen the armor, and he told me that it was Ser Loras Tyrell’s armour, and that Renly was interested in seeing it because he wanted to get something similar as a gift for Lord Joffrey.”
Petyr could not help but to laugh at the excuse. Giving Joffrey jeweled armour? What a joke.
The girl looked at Petyr nervously before continuing. “Ser Loras then came out from one of the rooms in Lord Renly’s chambers. I know he didn’t have his armor on because it was on his chair, but my lord, I don’t know why he had no clothes on.”
And with that comment, Petyr found himself launching into giddy laughter. Renly and Loras? Oh, this was interesting.
“I think I am done with my counts now. I will finish later.” And with that, Petyr turned and left the stores. He knew he should go work on some of his tourney related duties, but this was much too good for him to pass up. He quickly passed between all the busy and frantic bodies in the castle and made his way to Renly’s chambers. As he turned the corner, Renly himself came through the doors.
“Ah! Lord Baelish,” cried Renly upon seeing Petyr.” “What brings you to this part of the castle? You won’t find any stray dragons to pay for the tournament here!” Renly slapped Petyr on the back in a show of friendship and began laughing.
“Oh, no, I knew I would not find that here. Perhaps some stray flowers, perhaps?” said Petyr with a small smile. He did not miss Renly’s eyes darting to look at his door and then back to Petyr.
“And why ever would you come across flowers in this part of the castle, my dear Petyr?” Renly asked with a smile.
“With their beauty, even the most strong of beasts, say a young stag, could be attracted to them. I thought you might have some I could add to the post tourney celebrations.”
“I am sorry, my dear Petyr, but I do not,” said Renly with a warm smile, yet a chill in his voice. “Now, if you would excuse me, I do believe I have forgotten something in my room. I will see you later in the day, I am sure.”
“Oh yes, we do have a small council meeting today,” Petyr replied with a smile and turned on his heel to leave.
Yes, this was proving to be quite the interesting bit of development. Petyr could not wait to start riddling Varys with this news.
After attending to some of his tourney duties, Petyr came across Varys.
“Ah, my dear Littlefinger. How goes your day? Any news?” Varys said with a nod towards Petyr.
“It has been a rather busy day, but I might have come across one interesting thing or another,” Petyr replied.
Varys gave Petyr a smile. “I am sure it is fascinating, and perhaps we will be able to discuss it later,” he said, and then he walked out of the hall with a swish of his robes. Petyr looked at him confused, but then continued on with his day.
The rest of the day went by fairly uneventful, but something about it left Petyr restless. His inability to sleep that night caused him to choose to stroll the Red Keep and its grounds in darkness. It was calming, really. He had concluded that he might just go try and see if sleep would find him again in his bed when he saw the serving girl from earlier in the day darting towards him.
“Lord Baelish!” she gasped out.
“What is it girl? Do you know how suspicious you look? I should have you lose your job for that!”
“No! My lord, my lord… Lord Renly and Ser Loras…”
“What about them?” Petyr asked quickly, he found he was even more awake now than earlier.
“The baths!” she said in an excited whisper, and Petyr turned to walk in that direction.
Really? They were in the baths at this hour? Did they think no one would be out and stirring in the castle the night before a tourney? How foolish of them. But he supposed young love could be.
Upon reaching the baths, Petyr crept in the shadows to avoid being seen. He was not surprised to see Renly and Loras lounging in one together with a plate of fruit settled on the ground next to them. From his angle in the shadows, he could see both men’s profile as they looked at each other.
“Are you nervous for tomorrow?” asked Renly with a smirk.
“You know the answer. Why do you even ask?” Loras replied with laughter in his voice.
“Because I want to know if the great Knight of Flowers even fears anything,” Renly said.
“There are some things I fear, but they are too unimaginable,” Loras said, the humour gone from his voice.
“And what is that?”
“Losing you, perhaps,” Loras said in a whisper that Petyr almost did not hear over the sound of water moving as Loras shifted in the bath.
“That will not be happening any time soon. I, unlike you, do not find any pleasure in participating in these ridiculous tourneys.” Renly said with a smile as he reached for grapes on the plate.
“Ah, but it is such a thrill,” Loras replied, moving towards Renly slowly. “How else am I to find any pleasures or thrills?”
“I can think of a way,” Renly replied as he leant forward to kiss Loras.
Petyr quietly and quickly slipped from the shadows of the baths back out into the castle, hastily making his way back to his chambers. It was true. Yet, it seemed that Petyr was not nearly as shocked as he would have thought. It made sense in his head.
And as Petyr found sleep in his bed, he smiled because he knew Renly’s secret, and that would be most useful in taunts and bets in tomorrow’s tourney.