The Ironfield Inheritance

Synopsis

In the kingdom of Verentshire, where a gentleman's worth is measured by the acreage of his estate and the sharpness of his tailor, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a throne left vacant by a foolish king must be in want of a worthier occupant. When King Robert Barroway, stout and jovial and entirely unsuited to governance, travels north to Wintermere Park to press his old companion Lord Eddard Starkton into royal service as Hand of the Crown, he sets into motion a chain of events that no amount of polite conversation at country assemblies can prevent. Lord Starkton, a man of honour so conspicuous it amounts almost to a social affliction, accepts the position with the grave reluctance of a man accepting a second helping he knows will disagree with him. His daughters, the composed Miss Sansa Starkton and the alarmingly unsentimental Miss Arya Starkton, are transplanted from the bracing civilities of the north to the glittering, treacherous drawing rooms of King's Landing-upon-Thames, where Queen Cersei Lannisford presides over society with the iron graciousness of a hostess who has poisoned the punchbowl. Her brother, the diminutive and devastatingly perceptive Lord Tyrion Lannisford, observes all folly with a raised glass and a lowered expectation of mankind. Meanwhile, young Jon Snowdon declines a suitable match to serve on the great northern garrison, where the cold brings threats that no etiquette manual addresses. And across the narrow sea, the exiled Miss Daenerys Targarrow, married against her wishes to the formidable Dothraki chieftain Mr. Khal Drogo, discovers within herself resources of character — and three very alarming hatchlings — that society had entirely failed to anticipate. Secrets of inheritance, whispered scandals of a most irregular nature, and a succession crisis conducted entirely through pointed remarks and strategic seating arrangements shall determine who, in the end, sits upon the gilded chair at Verentshire.