"I can't marry him!" Cate shrieked.

Mother frowned as Cate paced the bed chamber. "And why not? It's a good match, wonderful even, better than anything I could have hoped for you. He's the Crown Prince!"

"Yes, and he -" Cate paused, because how could she explain that she could tell Joffrey Baratheon was smarmy, arrogant, not half the man Robert Baratheon was (which was saying something, because from rumors she heard when he was betrothed to Aunt Lyanna, he wasn't much to begin with), when she didn't have any reason to know other than pure gut instinct? "We're too young."

Mother approached her, reaching out a hand to stroke Cate's hair - a trick that always worked to calm her down. "You're both sixteen, Cate. I'd been betrothed for two years by your age. And besides, you won't marry straight away. You'll likely go with Father to King's Landing, and the prince will court you for a year or two. You'll get to know him better in that time."

"That's if Father even agrees to be Hand of the King," Cate scoffed. Her mother didn't respond. "He's not actually going to agree, is he?"

There was a pause.

"Your father loves the king very much," Mother tried to explain.

And then, Cate felt her heart sink as it hit her – this was reality. Childhood was over, and this was the start of her new life.

She hated it.

Her arms crossed over her chest. "I don't want to leave Winterfell."

"I left my home to come here," Mother pointed out.

Cate snorted. "Compared to King's Landing, the Riverlands are a stone's throw away."

"Don't snort, Cate. And that may be true, but before you know it you'll be married with children. Life will be happening so quickly that you'll forget all about us."

Cate threw herself into her mother's arms. "I just don't want it to be over. My life in Winterfell. My life with you and Father. Childhood."

Mother held Cate more tightly. "It was going to be over sooner or later. And isn't this a good way for it to end?"


Oh Catelyn. No. No it's not.

Hey again! Short chapter this time, but the next one will make up for it. :)