Chapter Text
She is blamed for her children’s trail of broken betrothals, as a mother is always blamed for her children’s deficiencies real or perceived, as a mother is always blamed if there are only daughters and no son, as a wife is always blamed if there are no children at all.
If the children are willful, if they are stubborn, if they are reckless, it must be because they are following their mother’s footsteps, it must be because the blood flowing in them is her blood.
Never mind that Betha had not broken any betrothal at all when she married her husband for love.
Never mind that it had been Betha’s assiduous planning and deft machination that had secured the betrothals that would have secured Aegon’s rule.
Never mind that it had been Betha’s voice speaking the loudest, louder than even her husband’s, trying to convince Duncan to remember his duty as heir to the throne.
Never mind that it had been Betha who understood that Jaehaerys and Shaera must be separated at once, who decided that they must not live under the same roof in the same castle, in an effort to prevent two more broken betrothals. They blamed her for that effort too, when Jaehaerys and Shaera eluded their guardians and eloped.
A mother is always blamed.