"Catelyn," Ned's voice snapped her out of her daze.
Catelyn craned her neck and looked toward the door of her room. Standing at the entrance was Lord Eddard Stark. His face, as usual, was stoic and stiff. Very little ever showed on Ned Stark's face in the form of his facial expressions. Many people often joked that the cold of the North had frozen the expressions on Lord Stark's features.
Taking a deep breath, Ned entered the room and approached his wife.
"Maester Luwin said there was a letter from your sister in King's Landing," he remarked, looking at her expectantly to provide him with more information.
Catelyn winced at the mention of the letter from her sister, though she kept the uneasiness to herself. How could she feel good knowing she had lied to her husband?
For a lady like her, for whom family was the first priority, lying to her lord husband was a sin. Family, Duty, Honor. These were house words for House Tully. And she was committing that sin.
But she had to. She could only hope for forgiveness from the Seven. She was doing it for the overall benefit of her family.
And what was the lie? The letter was not from her sister. It was from Petyr Baelish. But Ned did not need to know that.
It had all begun when the news came that the Lord Aeos, the man who had captured the three cities of Slaver's Bay was Jon Snow. The bastard of Winterfell. The bastard of her husband.
A few days later, she had received a raven addressed in her name. As was his duty, Maester Luwin had delivered the letter to her without suspicion.
She had been quite surprised to discover that the letter was from Petyr Baelish.
Petyr Baelish had been her childhood friend, someone she had shared many memories with. They had grown together.
Though he had made the foolish mistake or the error of challenging Brandon Stark when her betrothal had been announced with him, and had harmed the relationship between two, Catelyn, as she grew older, dismissed it as youthful silliness. Something Petyr did without giving thought to the consequences.
She still thought of him as the friend she had known. For all his flaws, she believed Petyr to be a good man. Through hard work, he had risen far in life, enough to become Master of Coin on King Robert Baratheon's small council. And she still valued Petyr as her friend.
After Catelyn married Ned and moved to Winterfell, communication between them had practically ceased. Although Petyr had occasionally sent a few letters inquiring about her well being or congratulating her after childbirth, they were formal, and Catelyn had responded just as formally.
But this letter was different.
He began by asking if she knew what the bastard had achieved, and then proceeded to give detailed information about Jon's activities, information not available in Winterfell.
News filtered into the North slowly and rarely in full detail. Winterfell's spy and communication network was very weak.
And from then onwards a series of letters were exchanged with Petyr Baelish. At first, the letters revolved almost entirely around Jon Snow, but slowly Petyr began slipping other, more personal topics into their conversations as well.
When she had received the very first letter, Ned had casually asked who it was from and in her panic she had claimed it was from her sister. Thankfully, Petyr had not used any seal on the letter, and that small mercy had saved her that day.
She had thought of ending the correspondence. She should have ended it. But the constant stream of news about Jon, the kind of information she could not get anywhere else, had stopped her from asking Petyr to cease writing.
"Catelyn," Ned's voice came again, gentler this time. "What does the letter say?"
How much he wished to simply take the letter from her hand and read it himself. But despite being her husband, he respected certain boundaries. He assumed the letter might contain something Catelyn felt comfortable discussing only with her sister.
Ned, too, had been investing what little coin he could spare into establishing a network of informants. He had asked Wyman Manderly to weave a line of communication using the traders who came to White Harbor, but news through that route was slow. The letters that came from Lysa Tully were always faster, sharper, and more detailed. He could have sought information from Jon Arryn or even Robert himself but the thought of doing so made him uneasy. Although he had exchanged a couple of letters with Robert after Lord Aeos' identity had come to limelight when the king had enquired about his 'bastard', he still did not feel comfortable asking for information from Jon Arryn or Robert himself.
He was very anxious for news about Jon. The last letter Catelyn had received from Lysa had revealed how an army of mercenaries and sellswords, thirty five thousand strong, was marching toward Jon's cities.
Ned had been furious. Oh, how he had wanted to grab Jon by the shoulders and shake some sense into him. It was a basic military tactic. Secure your defenses first. Always make sure to keep your defensive stronghold in a secure position, in a position from which you could repel any incoming attack.
Yet Jon had emptied his lands of soldiers, sending his entire strength to launch an invasion, leaving his own cities exposed. How foolish that decision had been?
And so Ned had waited, anxious and afraid, wondering what Jon would do. Would Jon escape the trap he had built for himself? And if he abandoned his cities, would they, cities he had poured so much blood and effort into, survive the fury of the Dothraki hordes? They would be pillaged and rampaged and Jon would lose all.
"They have been defeated," Catelyn answered at last, knowing exactly what Ned wished to hear.
"Who?" Ned asked instinctively, then the truth dawned on him. "The sellswords and the Dothraki?"
"Jon won?" He exclaimed in extreme delight with a beaming face. The expression on his stiff face had changed.
Catelyn nodded. He beamed in delight.
She did not know how she felt about it. She was not so cruel as to wish Jon dead but his victory left a knot of discomfort in her chest. Maybe he could have lost with his life intact.
"How?" Ned pressed. "He had no army left with him."
This time Catelyn visibly winced.
"No one knows," she replied. "There are only rumours and very few facts, about how Jon managed to win."
"What do you mean?" Ned asked, his brows furrowing.
Catelyn shook her head and began explaining what the letter contained.
#
#
#
[Add the book to your collection. Send it some power stones. Leave a rating and a review.]
[Access advanced chapter on P@treon. Replace @ with a. One additional advanced chapter each week on P@treon. ]
[email protected]/imaginarywriter