JON ARRYN

He walked quietly as he could to the tower of the hand. The crumpled message lay firmly in his hand and his heart was beating so fast in his chest that he was sure that his heart would jump out of it. This couldn't be possible, no, it couldn't be. This could not have happened right under his nose and leave him none the wiser, but he had to find out the truth of the matter for himself.

All his life, Jon had tried to live his life by his house words, Higher than honor. He had tried to imprint them as best he could in his wards, Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon. But it seemed that only Ned had been paying him any attention.

Jon was very disappointed with Robert as of late. The letter Jon had to send to Ned, had broken his heart. The north had supported Robert in taking the throne and helped him when the Greyjoys rebelled. Robert could not have taken the throne without Ned and the north.

But Robert hadn't paid them any honors after either war, they had no members on the small counsel, nor did they get any honorary positions in Robert´s court. And now they were asking for help manning and rebuilding the castles on the wall to help defend against wildlings and the king said no.

No?

How could he do that? Robert was using the crown´s lack of money as an excuse not to help them, but it wasn't so dire as of yet, that Robert couldn't spend a few thousand gold dragons on the order that help to guard the realms of men, when he was spending ungodly amount of money on tourneys, feasts and whores.

Jon and Varys had been the only ones that cautioned against the inaction that was not helping the lords of the north. All the other lords of the small counsel had brushed of the concerns of the northern lords and called them, northern superstitions. They said that the Wildlings could never get over the wall and that they had the full confidence that the northern lords would break them if they dared.

But that was just it, would the northern lords even want to route them back if the southern lords didn't help them? Would the lords of the north just let them pass into the south in revenge?

Jon knew that Ned would never allow that to happen, but even Ned as the lord of Winterfell and warden of the north, couldn't stop the wildlings alone. Maybe the other lords would resent Ned for being Robert´s friend at all.

Maybe the lords of the north would dispose of Ned and place his son, the young Robb as the lord of Winterfell and use him to rebel against the iron throne.

Jon didn't voice this concern to the small counsel, he would have been laughed out of the room. Jon knew that the only reason that the small counsel respected Eddard Stark was because that he was a great lord and had been raised in the south alongside Robert Baratheon. Well, except for Stannis, he did respect Ned, but he didn't like him, not that Stannis liked anyone.

The southern lords didn't like, nor respect the northern ones, they called them drunken barbarians and many other things of the like, but for now Jon had another problem he had to deal with.

Jon continued to walk up the stairs, he wasn't sure he should trust the source of the information that was in the note, but in these times, one had to be sure of everything.

Jon could feel his age when he walked all those stairs, but he did his best at not letting it show, even though there was no one around, only his loyal Arryn guards.

Jon was supposed to be dining with the king, but when he had gotten the letter from his informant, he had decided to cancel, Robert hadn't been very disappointed, no, in matter of fact, he seemed glad to be able to spend more time with his whores.

When he finally made it to the living quarters of the tower of the hand, he had to take a breath. He was getting to old for this. He greeted the four Arryn guard that were on duty today and walked into his bedchamber that he shared with his young wife.

Even though he had gotten the letter, and it had clearly stated what was happening, he couldn't believe his eyes.

There on their marriage bed, lay his wife Lysa, and on top of her was a man, that she was clutching close to her. The man was grunting lowly and Lysa was biting her lip, so that she wouldn't make a sound. The only reason that she hadn't screamed was because she had her eyes firmly shut, but then like she had read his thoughts, she opened them.

Her scream could have woken the dead as she saw her husband in the doorway of their bedchamber. The scream was enough to startle Jon out of his shock.

"GUARDS!" At his shout the guard came rushing in. By this time the man that had been fucking his wife, had jumped up and shown his face.

Petyr Baelish. If this had been under another circumstances, Jon would have laughed himself silly at the man´s face. The whoremonger was looking like he had never been so afraid in his life.

But Jon couldn't afford to lose focus now, he ordered his guards to seize them both. Littlefinger was dragged away to the dungeons, until Jon could figure out what to do with him, his wife was dragged away to a barely used apartment, high in the tower of the hand. There she would stay until this could be sorted out.

He knew that he wasn't the youngest or the most handsome anymore, but how could his Lysa be this stupid? He knew that she didn't love him, he wasn't an imbecile, but this was adultery, was Robert even his son? Was he Littlefinger´s?

Robert sure looked more alike Littlefinger than he did Jon, and Robert didn't resemble his mother a lot either, Robert had her eyes and her temperament. But every time Jon looked at the boy, he saw no family resemblance between himself and the boy.

And now that Jon thought about this and had the evidence that his wife had been cheating on him, the thought that Robert was Littlefinger´s son made a whole lot of sense. The boy was sickly as Petyr had been as a lad and looked just like him at that age.

Jon turned back and went to his office, he had work to do.

SANSA

She didn't know how long they stayed outside maester Luwin´s study, waiting for news on Jon. Her father and Robb were waiting with her and they seemed like they were almost as restless as she was. Almost.

Her mother was sitting nearby, on one of the chairs that the servants had brought for them. She was holding baby Rickon in her arms as he slept, and Bran was half asleep by her feet.

Arya on the other hand was not going to go to sleep any time soon. She was crying silently in her fathers' arms, as he tried to comfort her, but she seemed to be inconsolable.

It didn't matter that she and Sansa had grown so close as of late, Jon would always be Arya´s favorite. But Sansa couldn't find it in herself to be jealous, Jon had always been Arya´s go to guy, he was the one that every man that Arya would ever meet, would have to measure up too.

But Jon had become Sansa´s go to as well, and she didn't know how they could go on if anything would happen to him. He was the prince that was promised and if he died, they had no hope left. But more than that, he was the one-man Sansa wanted to spend the rest of her life with, even though sometimes he did stupid things like this.

Sansa knew in her heart that if Jon hadn't done what he did, they would all have died or gotten injured. But seeing him rush forward in their defense like this, had brought home how easy it was to kill him, sure he was the best swordsman in Winterfell, but he could still be brought down by arrows.

Sansa could see her mother was watching her like a hawk. Catelyn Stark was probably not pleased with how Sansa had behaved when they returned to the castle, but Sansa found herself not caring about what her mother thought.

Her mother had been pestering them, she was trying to get the girls to go to their lessons and Robb to the yard to practice. But she had stopped when Robb had told them all the story of what had happened, and how Jon had bought them time to run away, with his life most likely.

Sansa just hoped that with this information, her mother would stop her pestering.

Her mother most likely had the best of intentions in mind when she was trying to get them to go to their lessons, work could distract your mind from your troubles, but it really struck Sansa as insensitive that her mother was behaving like this. Couldn't she see that they were waiting for news to know if Jon would life?

After her mother had found out Jon´s mother was dead, lady Catelyn had calmed down somewhat when it came to Jon, but Sansa could see it in her eyes that she would never like Jon at all, and that broke Sansa´s heart.

They must have waited for hours until the door was opened. Out stepped maester Luwin, the old man looked tired, worn and more than a little sweaty. In fact, his grey robes looked darker than usual because had sweated so much. But there was also blood on his clothes that could only be from Jon. It made Sansa´s insides freeze, knowing that Jon´s blood was covering the maesters robes.

Before anyone could start asking questions, the maester spoke up.

"Jon is alive." The collective sigh of relief was very audible in the hallway. "I have the highest hopes that he will be making a full recovery, but for the next few months he will need rest and time to heal and it will be hard going for him in the upcoming weeks."

Sansa watched as her mother stood up with Rickon in her arms and ordered her brood to follow her, but Sansa ignored her and decided to stay with her father, who had put Arya down and ordered her to follow their mother, she didn't seem happy with not getting to see Jon, but their father said that she could see him after he had rested.

"Sansa-." Catelyn started to say but Sansa´s father shook his head. Sansa could see her mother's nostrils flare in annoyance, then she turned and stalked away. Dragging Bran and Arya with her and ignoring their protests. Even if their father had ordered her to follow their mother, Arya would have to protest, it was a matter of principle.

"So, Jon is going to be fine?" Robb asked with a small voice. The guilt in his tone was almost overwhelming, Sansa could understand very well from Robb was coming from. Sansa felt guilty herself that she had been dragged away to safety when Jon had been risking his life for theirs.

The maester seemed a little uncomfortable to discuss this in front of Robb and Sansa. But their father just nodded at him to let him know it was alright. "Yes, I believe that Jon will be just fine and back in the practice yard in a few months." That reassurance seemed to make Robb really happy, but Sansa wasn't convinced. Jon had been hit in the thigh, shoulder, side and his chest, and the maester believed that he would be up and about in the training yard in a few months?

"However, he has sustained injuries that I will need to monitor in the next couple of weeks, and he will be needing a lot of help in the meantime." The maester finished.

"Can we see him?" She wanted to see Jon with her own eyes, to make sure that he was safe. The maester seemed to think on the matter but ultimately let them into Jon´s sickroom.

The room was almost unbearably hot, and the fire was blazing in the hearth. But Sansa entered the room despite the heat.

Sansa walked straight to Jon´s side as he lay there motionless. He was laying there pale and covered with furs to keep him warm, but as she grabbed his hand in hers, she could feel the incredible amount of heat that seemed to radiate of Jon´s body.

Sansa shot a look to the maester, he seemed very tired after making sure that Jon would live. Did Jon have a fever and the maester didn't care? That was not like him.

"Yes, I know." The maester walked over to Jon´s other side. "He seems to have higher than normal body heat for some reason, but it isn't acting like a fever and I think that it may be helping him." Jon had a little higher than normal body heat, but he wasn't normally like a blazing inferno, and how was it helping him?

"How is him being hot, helping him maester Luwin?" Robb had walked to Sansa´s side and was staring at Jon sadly. Both Sansa and Robb had started sweating in the heat of the room. But Jon was looking like it didn't have any effect on him at all, he was paler than normal, but that had to be because of the blood loss he had sustained.

"I don't know, but it seems that the warmer he is, the better he feels." The old man answered. The maester of Winterfell seemed rattled.

Sansa had to force herself not to look at her father. Was this the Targaryen blood working? Or was this something else?

She heard her father clear his throat. "Well, Sansa, Robb we should let Jon rest, he is going to need it. And I need the two of you to help me." Robb looked about to protest but thought better of it. Sansa could understand, she wanted to stay with Jon too and make sure that he would be fine. But she knew that she couldn't, so they both followed their father out of the room.

EDDARD

The feeling of helplessness was not leaving Ned anytime soon. He was sure of that at least. Ned had only once felt this helpless in his life, and that was when Lyanna had died and entrusted him with her son. He had failed her, again.

Her only child, Jon was lying in bed with four arrow holes in his body that had come about because he had tried to save Ned´s children.

Ned was very grateful to Jon and thankful that they hadn't died. But that didn't mean that Ned didn't feel like the failure he was.

Ned had charged Robb and Sansa to start writing letters to all the lords in the north that they should come to Winterfell. He trusted Sansa to do a lot better job than he, himself could, and Robb could learn a thing or two from her.

Ned had decided that it was time for the lords to come together and discuss the wall and what they should do about it. Ned would read the letters over and sign them when he had the chance, but now he had to talk to a prisoner.

Sansa had pulled him aside and told him who it was, the man who had attacked the children was none other than Ramsay Snow, the man who had tortured and raped Sansa for months and shot Rickon down like he was game.

Ned didn't believe that one should punish a man for crimes that they hadn't committed yet, but in this case, he really wanted to make an exception. But he knew that he wouldn't.

Ned needed this monster to gain access to the Dreadfort. Ramsay Snow was still not a man grown and therefore he was the responsibility of Roose Bolton, and he was living in the Dreadfort.

Which meant that Ned could use that as an excuse of search the castle to see if he could find anything else incriminating on the Bolton bastard, and to see if he could implicate Roose Bolton as well.

Ned walked down the stairs to the dungeons that held the bastard of Bolton. Ned looked at the young man that was sitting calmly on the floor of his tiny cell. He was an ugly thing, with dry dark hair and colorless grey eyes. But there was no fear in them, only madness.

"Why did you come here and attack my children?" The question was followed by silence for a while. Then the young man broke it, with his voice that reminded Ned of worms for some reason.

"Why did you send those dogs to my lands?" This made Ned raise an eyebrow. So, he had found out that Ned had sent men to the lands surrounding the Dreadfort and had come here to retaliate.

"I don't recall a Ramsay Snow having lands in the north." Ned had been told by Sansa, that the boy hated it when he was called by the name Snow, and it seemed like it was true. The ugly brute was biting down on his teeth that Ned thought for a moment that he would break them.

The young man didn't answer, he looked at Ned with eyes that were filled with hate for a moment, and then the look in his eyes turned mocking. "Is he dead? The boy that came charging at me and my men?" When he said "my men" his voice was filled with a strange pride.

"No, he will be fine, as it turns out." Ned could see the disbelieve in his eyes for a second, before it disappeared.

"That is…disappointing." The bastard of Bolton was clenching his teeth again in anger. "But he fought well for a…what? twelve-year-old?"

"Ten…Jon is ten." Ramsay Snow just stared again at Ned in disbelieve. Yes, Ned could understand his shock, it was unbelievable that a ten-year-old could have bested five men in battle for life and death, but here they were.

Ned wondered if the bastard of Bolton had either sent the man that was killed in Wintertown, to the crypts and killed him when he didn't have anything of value, or if he didn't know anything about it and it was just a coincidence that they had found the body a day before the attack. He decided not to ask the bastard today, Ned wanted to get more information first.

"You know, I thought that he would go down when I hit him with the first arrow. But the arrow in the thigh didn't even slow him down." The wormy voice filled the dungeon. Roose Bolton´s bastard was trying to rile him up, but Ned wanted to see were this would go, and hopefully he would get something out of the bastard.

"Then I tried his shoulder, but he just kept on going." His eyes were wide as he remembered shooting Jon with arrows. "You know I have never seen anyone move like him in my life." It sounded like the bastard admired Jon.

"It wasn't until I hit him in the side that he started to slow a little, but still he kept on going, slicing through my boys like he was carving a cake." The bastard didn't seem upset that his men had all died. It seemed to Ned that he was more amused by the thought.

"But I don't have to tell you what happened next." The mocking tone and the smug smile made Ned have to hold himself back from making the bastard swallow his own teeth for that comment.

Of course, Ned knew what had happened after that.

Ned and the guard had arrived just as Jon cut down the last man of Ramsay´s party, and Ned had seen as the bastard shot the arrow into Jon´s chest. Ned could see it now in his mind´s eye, how Jon had fallen slowly to the ground, with four arrows in his body.

The Stark men had rushed the Bolton bastard and taken him captive, but Ned had only eyes for Jon, as he lay there completely still on the forest floor.

Then Ramsay changed the subject. Effectively bringing Ned out of his memories. "Will I be dying now?" He sounded almost bored when he spoke of his own death. Like the very thought was so boring that it was unbearable.

"Soon." Was the only thing that the lord of Winterfell said as he turned on his heel and stalked out of the dungeons. He had to get out of there, if he didn't, he was sure that he would kill the bastard.

He was sure that Ramsay Snow couldn't be human, there was something so inhumane about him and the way he was, that it gave Ned a feeling that he had never felt before.

The feeling spoke of something so dark and horrible that Ned didn't have a word for it. He shook of the thoughts and returned to his solar where the eldest of his children were.

As he entered the solar, Sansa and Robb were still working on the letters. He took one of the finished once and looked it over, it was very well written, and he could help but to let out a proud smile at that.

"Why don't you two go and visit Jon again, I will finish these." Robb gave his father an exited beam and ran out the door, but Sansa stayed.

"How did it go?" Ned gave a sigh.

"As well as it could have." He sat down in his chair and stared at the desk. He was beyond exhausted after the last two days.

"Is Allyn in trouble?" Ned looked at his daughter at that, her face was unreadable.

"No, Allyn is not in any sort of trouble, he did what he was supposed to do, he took you and Robb to safety." As far as the guard knew, Jon was a bastard and they weren't as important as their trueborn siblings, so it was expected of him to make sure that Robb and Sansa had been brought to safety before worrying about Jon.

Yes, Jon wasn't really a bastard born, but for now it was his armor that he was thought of as one.

"You know, the lords will love Jon for this." Ned looked carefully at his second born child. She looked like she was planning something.

"You want to use this incident when the time comes to gain the support of the northern lords?" This could work, the northern lords would not soon forget the boy who had risked his life to save the heir to Winterfell and the first-born daughter of the Warden of the North.

Sansa nodded. "Yes, I think it is a good idea for them to know how Jon used himself as a bait to make sure that Robb and I could be brought to safety."

Ned nodded, but then he frowned as he thought. That could work, nobody would think that Robb was a coward because he was only ten-years old and it was unreasonable for anyone, even the lords of the north to expect a ten-year old to fight.

"Aye, I agree. Now why don't you go and see Jon, I have to finish up here." Ned gave his daughter a small, tired smile.

Sansa nodded at that and then she left, most likely to see Jon.

CATELYN

She didn't hate Jon Snow. If she ever had, she sure didn't hate him now, not after what he had done. Sure, she didn't want him in here in Winterfell, he was the constant reminder of her husband´s infidelity, as well as a threat to her children´s birthrights, no matter what her husband said.

Sure, Ned wouldn't place Jon Snow in the line of succession or give him the Stark name, but who knew if the bastard didn't decide that he wanted Winterfell after all. But the bastard saving Robb made her doubt that he wanted Winterfell, if he had wanted Winterfell, wouldn't he have let Robb die?

She was thankful that the bastard saved Robb and Sansa, she really was. It had rattled her, seeing how close her children had come to harm, and if not for the bastard, they would have most likely been killed and Sansa raped.

Cat couldn't bear the thought of her precious, perfect Sansa being raped and murdered. Cat could feel the tears well up in her eyes at the very thought, and Jon Snow had saved her from that fate, and now he was lying in a sickroom for his troubles.

But the shock of seeing Sansa behave like she had done, when the guard brought them to Winterfell, was almost too much for Cat to bear. Cat could understand that Sansa was frightened by the attackers but to behave like this was unacceptable.

A good southern lady would never have behaved like this, not for anything. This must have been because of the weapons training that she was receiving, that had to be the reason she was behaving so un-lady like.

Cat knew she must do something about this, Sansa couldn't continue in the training yard, no this had to stop right now. Sansa should never have been in the wolfswood with Robb and the bastard in the first place, that was no place for a lady.

How would she ever get a husband if she not only behaved like a wildling, but was also swinging a sword about? This had to stop, and she would make her husband see sense if it was the last thing she did.

But the look Sansa had given her, when she had tried to get the children away from the sickroom, chilled her to the core. Cat had never seen her perfect little lady give anyone this look before, not even Arya when they were fighting.

But sickrooms were no place for children, it would be good for them to go to their lessons and distract them from the bastard, children shouldn't worry about such things. But her husband had allowed Robb and Sansa to stay with the bastard, Cat could feel the anger at Ned at the very thought.

Why did he always do this? Why did he always have to contradict her in front of the children? Couldn't he see that it would be bad for them to see something like this, they could see the bastard later.

She was grateful to him for saving Sansa and Robb, but children didn't belong in sickrooms, certainly not sickrooms of bastards.

Cat walked through the halls of the great castle of the Starks, she always felt like an outsider here in this castle, she had told Ned that she felt like an outsider in the godswood, but it was the entre castle that made her feel this way. Hopefully it would change with time.

She knew that she was a southern lady at heart and no amount of time would change that. Her name may be Catelyn Stark but, in her heart, she was a Tully of Riverrun, the daughter of Hoster Tully the lord of Riverrun and lord paramount of the Riverlands.

She was on her way to her husband's solar, she needed to talk to him about all of this. She needed him to stop making her little girl learn how to use weapons and let Cat take charge of the rearing of the children. Cat was glad that Ned was taking interest in the children, but it was her area as the lady of the household to raise the children.

It was a woman´s job to make sure that the children were properly readied for the world, well except maybe the heir, he could learn from the lord, but the others were her responsibility, especially Sansa.

Sansa needed her the most, Sansa needed to learn how to be the perfect lady and Sansa couldn't learn how to be a lady unless she stopped this nonsense with the swords and other weapons.

Cat arrived at the door and knocked, when she heard her husband's voice, she entered the solar. Her husband was sitting in his chair, surrounded by the gifts from the other houses of the north that had been collected over the centuries of Stark rule. The room was nothing like her father´s solar. Her father's solar was grand and filled with light and a view of the rivers.

She sat down in the chair in front of the desk. Her Ned looked years older than he really was at this moment. His desk was filled with letters, both sealed and opened. She could see that some of the letters were written in Sansa´s and Robb´s hands. Ned had clearly been drafting them to help with the letters to the lords.

That made Cat really happy, her children helping to write the letters to the lords was something that she supported very much. This was something that Sansa should be doing, learning how to help her future husband.

"What are you doing?" Why was he writing to the lords? What could possibly have happened so that Ned would have decided to write to them? She knew that Ned had been having a lot more contact with them over the last half a year but, this was so much more. It looked like he was writing to them all at the same time now.

"I need to call the lords of the north to Winterfell; we need to have a gathering." His deep voice resonated within the walls of the solar, but Cat was having a hard time processing those words. Why in the world was Ned calling the lords here now? This couldn't possibly be because of the attack, could it?

Then again someone had attacked the heir to Winterfell and the north and the lord of Winterfell´s eldest daughter, and Cat had heard from the guards that they had captured one of the attackers. Maybe he had given Ned some sort of a clue on who had ordered the attack. No one would have attacked people so close to Winterfell on their own and not having powerful backers.

Maybe one of the lords had ordered a hit on her son Robb, he was the heir to Winterfell. Or maybe one of the lords had ordered his lackies to kidnap Sansa, Cat had heard that there were some wildlings that came over the wall and kidnaped girls.

"May I ask why?" She tried her hardest to keep the curiosity out of her voice, but judging by the small smile on his face, she wasn't very successful at it.

"I need to talk to them; I have to explain somethings that cannot be put in a letter." He fell silent for a time. "We need to come up with plans for payment for the castles on the wall and we have been working on trade deals with the Riverlands and the Vale. And I would like their ideas and input on the deals."

This left her a little startled if she was being truthful to herself. Why was Ned thinking about trade deals and restoring the castles on the wall now?

And who was we? When she asked her husband this question, he turned a little sheepish.

"Sansa has been helping me with the trade deals and Robb and Jon have been looking into the abandoned castles on the wall and around the north. It was their work that made it possible for us to settle the castles we have in the last half a year."

This made all thought flee Cats mind, Sansa had been helping her father planning trade deals and Robb and the bastard had been helping with the abandoned castles? For a half a year? Without her knowing?

Well in her defense, she had been heavily pregnant and then she had been taking care of Rickon, her precious little babe. She had been very busy the last half a year.

But they were children, how could they have help with all this? She asked him this. "Well, Cat they are really smart children, they have had a little help from maester Luwin and have been spending a lot of time together in the library, and this is good for them and especially Robb."

Robb? Restoring castles and rebuilding the night´s watch was good for Robb? How?

"How on earth is this benefitting Robb, I can understand the trade deals, but rebuilding castles and restoring orders that are mostly a refuge of criminals are not something a lord of a great house should be concerning himself with." Her husband´s small grin slipped of his face. It was then she realized that she had spoken out of turn.

"It is a lord's duty to see to that his lands are taken care of, and the night´s watch makes sure that we are not invaded from the north." His voice was a little hard and his eyes were like two glaciers.

"I am sorry, my lord, I spoke out of turn." She looked at her hands in her lap, she hated it when he was mad.

Her husband sighed. "I am sorry too, my love. This day has not been easy for any one of us, but I will have you know that this is what Robb will have to deal with when he takes the mantle of the lord of Winterfell. Ever since the days of Cregan Stark the north has been in a rapid decline, and it will be his job and the job of his children to help the north grow."

This statement made Cat more than a little afraid, her son would inherit a broken kingdom and he would have to fix it. He would have to spend his life trying to make it better and her grandchildren would have to do this too.

"Don't look so sad, there are ruins in all the kingdoms, that the great lords should be rebuilding or making habitable again, like Castamere in the Westerlands. It is one of the largest gold mines in Westeros, but there is no governing lord there mining for said gold." This made her think, yes that was true and even in the Riverlands had its share of ruins, the most famous ruin in all of Westeros was there. Harrenhall was habitable but it was a ruin and a blight on the beauty of her homeland.

She nodded. "But this is not what I came to ask you about, I want you to stop making Sansa attend the weapon lessons with the boys." She could see Ned´s face turn to stone, before he could say anything, she continued on, she had to make him see sense.

"Ned, please. Don't you know how hard it will be for us to find a husband for Sansa if she is waving a sword around, and I have not even started on her little tantrum in the yard today, she was behaving like a savage." Her tone had been rising steadily over the course of her speech, but her husband's face had also been growing more and more serious.

"Sansa will be continuing her weapons lessons with the boys, today has made it clear that it is necessary for all our children to know how to defend themselves, and her reaction to leaving Jon in the woods while Allyn took her and Robb to safety was perfectly reasonable."

Cat could feel the anger in her belly rise, why couldn't he see that it wasn't respectable for a lady to wield weapons?

"Ned, you cannot do this. Sansa is a lady and she cannot be handling weapons. No respectable lord will want her." She could feel her face heat up with anger.

"Catelyn, Sansa is a northern lady and they wield weapons all the time, as do many women of lesser birth in the north and they have no trouble getting respectable husbands. And if any one of the lords do not approve of Sansa knowing how to defend herself, I do not what them as her husband." This made her fall silent for a while.

She could feel the frustration bubble up as she tried to explain to him the importance of this matter.

"Ned, how can we find a respectable lord wanting to marry her if she is behaving like a wildling?"

"You mean a southern lord?" Cat could feel the bite in her husband´s question.

"Let me tell you something my Lady." She hated it when he called her my lady, it was to formal and didn't speak to their close bond that they shared. "I will not be letting Sansa marry some southern lord, she and Robb will be marrying people that have been raised in the north to appreciate the traditions of the north."

Cat could feel her spine go rigged with anger and tension, she decided it was time to leave the solar before she said something to her husband that she would regret.