[A/N: This will be multi-chapter. It started as an exercise to help me write my bigger Riverrun fic set around this time (hint: Rule 63 is coming). Also, the title lyrics belong to Bob Dylan (from "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands). Enjoy and R&R!
It is nearly midnight when Catelyn Tully startles awake. She's always been a light sleeper, but though Riverrun is a great castle, it is far less noisy than most (Mother hated noise so...). However, tonight there is a heavy pounding on the floor a level below her and Lysa's chamber, and, like the creature of her nickname, Cat is perhaps too curious for her own good.
While Lysa continues to sleep on like an aurochs, her sister quickly hops out of bed and, with the light of the moon to help her, finds her bedrobe on a nearby chair. She carefully makes her way out the door and down the hall towards the noise. There is a balcony that overlooks a receiving hall in this tower, and Cat crouches down, peering down through the spaces between the columns.
Below, a grey-haired man stands before a figure that could only be her father. Some men with scabbards and mud-stained clothes huddle near the entrance.
"Brother, thank you. I'm glad to be back at Riverrun after so long away."
Catelyn gasps and smiles at the heads below her. Uncle Brynden!
"The hour is late, Brynden, else I'd have welcomed you more properly. As it is, I've sent a man to ready your usual chambers. Sleep well, brother." Hoster Tully bows his head and exits, leaving Uncle Brynden and his men to follow.
But the Blackfish isn't moving.
Catelyn jumps in what her septa would call an improper way for a maid of eleven when she hears a booming voice below her.
"Is that my Cat? Prowling around like a Silent Sister at this hour, are you? Come down and give your uncle a proper welcome!"
Cat blushes and straightens herself before running down to greet him, propriety be damned.