Chapter 2 - Eddard

Ned Stark can't believe his ears when his youngest son tells him what he saw. The Prince and the Queen? An affair? Had the information come from any other, he would have accused him of lying, but Bran hated liars with a passion and rarely fibbed about the simplest of things.

"You must not tell anyone else what you saw Bran, do you understand me?" Eddard tells his son sternly, knowing what danger such information poses. "Not even Morgana or Sansa."

"Yes father," Bran replies with a nod.

"I'll take care of this," he assures his son, kissing the top of the boy's head. "Now run off to Morgana and stay with the guards. Whatever you do, do not allow yourself or your sister to leave the presence of one of our guards."

"Yes father," Bran replies with a serious face as he gets up and runs from the room.

With a sigh, Lord Eddard Stark of House Stark of the North rises from his seat and goes in search of the Queen.

He finds her in the Queen's garden, the one Uther had built for Queen Ygraine when he learned of her pregnancy.

"Lord Stark," Cersei greets coldly. She has never particularly liked him he knows, not since he agreed to come and act as Uther's highest guard under the condition that Sansa be betrothed to Arthur. The prince had been the only child Cersei ever doted on. When she decided to take him to her bed, Ned doesn't know.

"My Queen," he greets in return.

"What is it you want Lord Stark? My time is precious," she snaps irritably.

"I come to tell you that tomorrow I am going to the King and telling him that you've been unfaithful. As a courtesy to you, I am telling you so you have time to leave. Claim your father is sick and leave tonight to be with him. Uther will not go after you once he learns the truth, I promise you that, but if you are still here tomorrow he will cut off your head."

"I see," she says, an amused smile on her face, "And who may I ask is this man I have been unfaithful with?"

"My son saw you with him, your lover," Ned tells her, "I know the truth."

"Do you Lord Stark?" she asks, her smile still amused. Her green Lannister eyes flicker over the stone rail of the Queen's garden, into the garden far below where his daughter and son play. Sansa is being swept in circles on the rosestone path by one of Camelot's knights and Bran stands with Lord Beric watching them.

"If you do anything to my family, I will not give you the mercy of allowing you to keep your head."

"You play a dangerous game Lord Stark," she tells him, giving him her Queenly smile before walking passed him.