Only once before had Eddard Stark witnessed so much change so quickly.

In only a month and one half, his children had found living sigils of his house, Jon Arryn had died, Jon Snow returned from the dead and earned a knighthood, and Robert Baratheon was on his way to Winterfell with the royal court.

Presently, Ned found himself standing and watching as Jon spoke his marriage vows in front of two faceless weirwoods. And merely a short walk from a keep of his own.

The holdfast in the Wolfswood had been half-ruined when his men found it. All for the better, he thought. The stone from the ruined half served well in restoring the salvageable half. Ned smiled thinking of this small happiness.

Still, he couldn't help but reflect on the more troubling happenings. Jon Arryn is dead. Sixteen years ago, Ned had lost a different father. Back then, it'd been the father who sired him. Now, the father who raised him was lost as well. My father in all but name.

A cheer went up as Jon took his bride into his arms. My son in all but name.

The young pair, both fourteen and younger than even Ned had been at his wedding, led all those assembled to the small feasting hall. Robett Glover provided three tables as wedding presents, in order to please Eddard far more than Jon. At the table of honor, Ned sat with his children, Lord and Lady Hornwood, Daryn Hornwood, Lady Berena Tallhart, Glover, and Ser Wylis Manderly, as well as the newlyweds. Each noble who made the journey was present on account of kinship. Ser Wylis was kin to Lady Hornwood. Lady Tallhart was the sister of Lord Hornwood. Robett Glover, though not related by blood himself, brought Lawrence Snow to witness his cousin's wedding.

The guards and servants for all of the lords and ladies filled the other two tables. The hall could bear no more, even if anyone else had been inclined to attend.

A soup of turnips, salsify root, and barleycorn; a main course of brazed venison and loaves of spelt-grain bread, and a dessert of plum pie was modest fare, but nothing to feel poorly about. Most of the food brought by the guests went to the keep's stores. Other lords might have taken insult at that, but after Robett jested that Jon had obviously not forgotten his father's words in saving this boon for winter, no one appeared put out.

During the feast, Jon acted more refined than Eddard expected. The boy demurely assisted his lady with the meal, cutting her meat off the bone and even feeding her at times. Lydrea Hornwood blushed at the attention, but her smile never wavered.

After the meal, the guests stacked the tables against the wall to make room for dancing. Both Jon and Lydrea were too bashful to begin the revelry, but a jubilant Halys Hornwood and a wine-besotted Robett Glover took the young couple's place by locking elbows and swinging each other about. The attendees supplied their own songs, half singing and half shouting, while stomping out a rhythm on the stone floor.

Ned thought of his own wedding. The dark shadow of war had hung over the Riverrun feasting hall. Ned himself was mayhaps more reserved than anyone. Father was dead. Brandon was dead. His castle and bride fell to me. Would that I could have had a wedding like this. . . Would that I might have kept my word.

He shook his mind free of old wounds and the ghosts of lost loved ones. Turning his attention back to the celebration at hand, Ned smiled inwardly as Robb found himself without a dancing partner at the change; Jon refused to switch when everyone else did. Lydrea gave her new good-brother an apologetic look, before aiming her smile back at Jon.

With the imbalance of men to women, Sansa spent the entire night on her feet, much to her delight and that of Daryn Hornwood. He best keep his hands high upon her back.

Even Arya found herself dancing for a song. Surprising the relucant girl, Lord Hornwood lifted her from the bench and twirled her off her feet. Try as she did to look put out, Arya couldn't resist laughing along with him.

Long into the night and after a second singing of The Bear and the Maiden Fair, Daryn and Robb shouted, "The Wolf and the Maiden Fair!" and the bedding ceremony began. With the crowd short on women and long on men, Jon was pushed to the stairs fully clothed, while Lydrea was carried overhead and down to her smallclothes before she was out of the hall. The rest of the men followed after them, emptying the small feasting chamber into the attached keep. They all crowded into the rotunda in the middle of the keep's spiraling stairs. Most yelled bawdy jests upward, while Eddard and Halys shouted for caution, watching Lydrea held much higher than the railing.

Ned was feeling quite content when he returned to the benches to retrieve the youngest of his pups. Rickon awoke when his father picked him up, but the little boy allowed Ned to carry him to their room.

"Girls," he called to Sansa and Arya, "your room is next to ours. Follow me."

"Yes, Father," they said together, though neither looked eager to share a bedroom.

Rickon and Bran, conversely, were more than a little excited to share a room with Robb and their father.


The next morning, Ned was the last of the Stark boys to rise. That his sons had already woken up, dressed, and begun their day after so little sleep amused him. When Ned had drifted off previous night, Bran was still prodding Robb for stories. Robb was merrily whispering newly invented tales of valiant knights and maidens with curved hips. He didn't doubt that his eldest had imbibed more ale than Ned had allowed. Rickon, who slept through half of the feast, was so delighted by the attention of his brothers that he giggled and clapped at every jape, even those a boy of three couldn't possibly understand.

Stepping into the eating hall that morning, Ned saw the heir to White Harbor still breaking his fast. He took the seat across from Wylis Manderly, and Halys Hornwood soon joined them.

"Lord Stark, may Ser Wylis and I have a word?" asked Hornwood.

Ned nodded.

"My lord, this is a fine holdfast for your son and dear Lydrea," began Wylis. "But what, pray tell, will the handsome couple do to support themselves?"

Stark replied, "What all landed knights do, I suppose. I filled his stores, which all the guests added to; I granted Jon the rights to hunt small game and any male deer or elk in this part of the Wolfswood, and my men expanded a clearing just to the west of here, which should be suited for a small crop."

"Noble and generous, to be sure, my lord," answered Manderly.

"Lord Ned, they are provisioned for the next winter, but what of the winter after?" Halys asked. "And, will their children have enough to continue this House?"

Ned knew they were leading to something. "You both sound as if you don't expect them to. Do you have a different thought?"

"Aye, my lord," Halys agreed.

"My lord knows us all too well," said Wylis. "Though she is not of Manderly blood, my lord father has always been fond of Lady Lydrea, and I've thought of her as a younger cousin for many years. Lord Halys and I spoke yesterday about a dowry of sorts. When we saw the surplus timber left from that crop-clearing you mentioned, we had the idea."

Ned furrowed his brow. The Hornwoods and Manderlys were friendlier with each other than perhaps any other pair of Stark bannermen. Their lands bordered each other, their families often intermarried, and they were united in their distrust of the nearby Boltons, though the latter was shared with nearly the entire North. Still, he couldn't help being leery of what they might say next.

"White Harbor is always in need of good timber, none of the thickets on our lands could hope to match the Wolfswood or the Hornwood," Manderly continued.

"Ser, you have my leave to speak plainly." And to make your point. "I'll hear your thoughts on my son's and my good-daughter's livelihood."

"Lord Stark," Halys stated, "in return for a portion of Jon's, and your, lumber and what I plan to add, the Manderlys can arrange for a trader to bring Ser Jon and the wood to Braavos. Full tree trunks are scarce there and even firewood fetches good coin."

"That sounds amenable, my lords. Yet, why would Jon need travel? He is no seafarer."

"I can put the question to my merchant captain, my lord," said Wylis. "I have a particular trader in mind, the most reliable and skilled of any that frequent White Harbor. This man, though, has insisted that I accompany him on similar voyages. The captain says that his men dislike 'ferrying' a lord's goods. In the sale of such goods, they receive little direct profit, instead earning a flat fare for the journey. Sailors and oarsmen are a temperamental and superstitious lot and, practical or not, this crew prefers the idea of sailing under a lord's banner with him on deck.

"Besides," he continued, "crossing from White Harbor to Braavos is only a brief journey. Accounting for the time for Ser Jon to ride to White Harbor, away and back will take only a matter of weeks. Two months at the lengthiest."

Lord Hornwood added, "Before we spoke with Drea or Jon, we thought to raise the issue with you first, lest you have any objections."

Eddard Stark agreed that some gold would mean much for the newly founded House. He told his bannermen that he would bring the matter to Jon directly and thanked the men for seeking his approval. Privately, he knew his boy would be excited by the little adventure.