Tales of Winter

1

Catelyn Stark had a wonderful life, she had a wonderful husband who adored her, a magnificent castle to call home and four wonderful sons and a beautiful daughter who she was so blessed to call her own, in so many ways Catelyn Stark's life was wonderful.

Except for her.

That little bastard girl who her lord husband had brought home when he had been away from Winterfell, she was an insult to her and to all of her children and she had never forgiven Ned when he brought her home.

Ayra Snow.

The bastard girl who looked more like a Stark then most of Ned's trueborn children, She had tried to have it installed in all her children that Ayra was not a true Stark, that she was only to be tolerated, never included.

It had worked, to an extent.

Robb basically acted as if the girl didn't exist, Sansa hated the girl, seeing her as nothing but an insult to her mother, herself and her siblings, Bran was polite to her but never more than that and Rickon was too young to really understand who Ayra was.

Jon was the expectation.

Jon, her darling Jon had a large heart, he was always kind to the servants and would ask if they were well and if they still enjoyed working for them and if there was anything they could do to improve things for them.

In a way it was a shame that Jon wasn't the heir, her dearest son would make an excellent lord of Winterfell.

And in that large heart he found no shortage of compassion for the little bastard girl, always playing with her when he had any free time and always asking if she was well.

It infuriated Catelyn and she never thought that she would be cursing her own son's kind nature.

It all came to ahead one morning when neither Jon nor Arya turned up for breakfast, and even the idea of breaking fast with the girl nauseated her but her lord husband demanded it off her and so she suffered her presence.

Robb had excused himself to go and get Jon and when he came back, pale a sheet and shaking with a letter clutched in his hands Catelyn knew that nothing would ever be the same.

The letter read that the night before both Jon and Ayra had left Winterfell and were going by boat to the free cites to make a new life for themselves, Arya because she knew that she had no true future in Winterfell and Jon because he didn't want his little sister to be on his own.

Everyone in the Stark family set to action, Ned and Robb went riding to the nearest port to try and stop any ships from leaving as there was a chance that they hadn't left yet, Sansa preyed in the sept for her brother's return and Bran was told to distract Rickon.

Every Stark took action, aside from Catelyn, no, Catelyn raged, the bastard had took her son from her. She was right all along the bastard was trying to destroy her family.

When Ned returned that evening, eyes red from crying and smelling of ale she knew that the bastard had succeeded.

They family was destroyed that day, Rickon would not stop crying and begging for Jon for at least a month until he realised that he wasn't coming back.

Sansa sobbed for days when she was told and then when she finally stopped she became cold and swore that if her husband ever brought a bastard into her home she would do what her mother could not and cut it's throat.

Robb and Ned sent men to the free cites to try and find them but it didn't do any good, apparently pale, dark haired foreigners were more common in the free cites than most would think.

Bran didn't know how to cope and so clung to his mother, and Catelyn clung to Bran terrified of losing another of her children.

Catelyn never saw Jon again, she didn't see how he, along with the mother of dragons, Arya and an army of ten thousand took King's Landing. She didn't see how her son smiled proudly as the mother of dragons was crowned the queen of the seven kingdoms and she didn't see how her son married a beautiful girl from Highgarden.

All Catelyn Stark knew ended at the Twins, at the red wedding, when her throat was cut and her blood spilled.

And Catelyn Stark couldn't help but wonder as she bled out, would any of this have happened if she could find it in herself to love that little bastard girl? Would it make any difference?

Probably not.

End