Lyanna sat up at the high table, beside Catelyn while the feast below played out. She picked at her food.

"How are you feeling, Lyanna?"

"I asked my ladies maid to lace me looser. Yet I can hardly attend in a shift."

Catelyn smiled. "No. I think that would cause a scene."

"And how - how is Robb?"

Lyanna listened to all that Catelyn could pour forth, and nodded that she might continue the details that she would naturally hold back. Lyanna's face was tightly wound when Catelyn turned to her husband for some mention, and then she returned.

"I am bothering you."

"No, Lady Catelyn. I find that I feel better - the hurt is more for it - but the burden is less. I thought both would increase. It tells me - and not yet, for it is almost a year since, and I must grieve anew - that to come the time when I might truly greet yourself and your child with a smile can come."

Catelyn turned once more to her husband's query and Lyanna was left somber until the conversation resumed.

"You see, Lady Catelyn. I could hardly have been queen. I cannot force a smile. Watch."

"Oh, Lyanna, you do make me laugh. I just - cannot show it - the people below are watching."

"See? I must look frightful."

"It is not so hard - it will get easier. Perhaps a raven to my sister might help? A correspondence might begin."

"That is a good idea. I shall start with… "

Catelyn laughed. "Oh, you do jest."

"It is in bad taste. But perhaps in time I can laugh. Perhaps I am too dark in mood such that I can laugh about it. An excuse of madness may be remedied by milk of the poppy, by Maester Luwin to be sure?"

"Be sure, Lyanna, not to take too much. It is a temptation - or so I have heard."

"You need not hold that from me. We can agree that we have both had - had those pains - and may they grant you a daughter."

"Any - mmm."

"Please continue and do not spare me."

"Any babe - whether boy or girl, would be suitable to me."

The ladies looked out from the high table. The darkest part drew up in Lyanna's mind.

She is so fertile.

Lyanna excused herself from the table. It would be many moons and yet before she could truly be at peace, and even then, only in the thinnest instances.

I must think of my child. He did not choose to leave me.