CATELYN

Even though she and her husband were fighting at the moment, she really missed him. Over the years she had grown to love him, even though he was making the grave mistake of letting their daughters learn who to handle weaponry.

Cat watched from the balcony, as her elder daughter was in the training yard with the master at arms, Ser Rodrik Cassel. The knight was Sansa´s partner himself, now that Robb was with his father and the other northern lords at the Dreadfort, looking for that torture chamber.

Cat hadn't talked to her daughter much in the last few days as she had been very busy with Lysa and making sure that she behaved herself. Lysa was wroth that she wasn't allowed to be with her bastard as much as she pleased.

Jon Arryn had left instructions with the servants that Lysa was only allowed to be with her bastard for two hours a day, and she was not allowed to breastfeed him anymore, as he was both getting too old for it, and Lysa couldn't be seen breastfeeding her own bastard that had been conceived when she had been married to her husband.

While Cat was still angry at Jon Arryn for trying to send Lysa´s bastard to their father, Hoster Tully, she thought that he was too lenient on his wife. Lysa had shamed house Tully and house Arryn with her behavior, and the fact that she was allowed at all to see her bastard was scandalous.

Normally if a woman had committed such a crime against her husband, she would have at least been set aside and made to join the silent sisters. But Jon Arryn hadn't set her aside, nor was it looking like he was going too.

Catelyn had to admit that she was feeling conflicted about that decision of his. While she was angry that Lysa wasn't getting her proper punishment, she was glad that her father didn't have to bear the shame of having his daughter set aside and shamed more in front of the lords of Westeros.

And speaking of shame, Cat spotted the shame of house Tully wobble around on his short legs around the courtyard of Winterfell with his nurse holding his hand. As she watched him doing his best to walk around the yard, she could feel anger slither around in her belly like a snake.

She didn't want him here, she wanted him gone. Why was it that every time that her sister screwed up, Cat had to be the one to pay for her mistakes, even as girls Cat had always been the one to clean up after Lysa, well no more.

Catelyn would be damned if Lysa´s bastard would be staying here in Winterfell with her family. He had to go, and she didn't care where he was sent, as long it was a long way from here. She shouldn't have to suffer both her husband´s bastard and her sister´s bastard. She had suffered enough for one lifetime.

Cat glanced back at her own beautiful, trueborn daughter. Sansa was wearing her lovely hair in a northern braid that fell down her back, and she was again wearing trousers and shirt that Cat still didn't know where she had found.

Cat didn't know how Sansa did it, but her lovely daughter was as graceful as a dancer when she avoided getting hit by Ser Rodrik´s sword. Somehow Sansa made swordsmanship even look graceful and ladylike.

Cat had pondered briefly on putting a stop to Sansa´s lessons while Ned was away with the lords, but she knew that she couldn't. Eddard had commanded that Sansa should learn how to wield a sword and Catelyn knew that Ser Rodrik wouldn't go against her husband, not for anything.

And even if she did manage to put a stop to the lessons, Ned would just make them start again when he came back, so it would be of no use. Cat would have to make her husband see that it was in Sansa´s best interest to put a stop to these lessons. She owned it to her daughter.

She saw a movement down below and she could see that Arya and young Jorelle Mormont were watching Sansa as she trained with the master at arms. Soon Arya and the young Mormont girl would be joining the older children in the training yard, and Cat knew that Arya would never be pried out of those lessons, much to Catelyn´s dismay.

Ned always said that Arya looked like Lyanna, and Cat was sure that he was right. Catelyn had met the rose of Winterfell once, and that had been at the tourney at Harrenhall.

Lyanna Stark was a beautiful woman, but anyone who looked at her could see how willful she was, just like Arya. Lyanna Stark had carried her willfulness around her like a cape, and Cat had thought her too wild to be a proper lady.

She had been just as wild as eldest brother, and Catelyn´s great love, Brandon. She would never admit it out loud, but there would always be a part of her that would love Brandon in a way that she would never lover her husband.

Cat loved Ned, truly, but she had dreamt of Brandon and their lives together for years before she even met Ned. Most of her formative years had been thinking about how they would get married and how he would whisk her away to his castle in the north, and they would live out their lives in blissful happiness.

But Catelyn had always known that Brandon would have had his little love affairs on the side, and that by the tourney at Harrenhall he already had a couple of bastards of his own, but he would never have disrespected her by bringing them to Winterfell, like Ned had.

Just thinking about Ned´s bastard made her feel angry and afraid. While she was grateful that he had risked his life for Robb and Sansa, she couldn't stand how Ned had started to place him with his trueborn siblings at feasts. But for now, there was nothing that she could do about it as he had saved Robb and Sansa.

She could also feel the fear swarming around her, of the lords of the north wanting the bastard as a future lord of Winterfell instead of Robb. Even though her husband had assured her that the bastard would never inherit Winterfell and the north, and he would never be a Stark, she lived in fear of the moment when the lords of the north would decide that the bastard was a better candidate than her trueborn son.

Already most of the lords were very impressed with the bastard after the incident in the wolfswood, and how he had stayed behind to make sure his trueborn siblings escaped.

And that caused her to fear the bastard even more, the fact that he had stayed behind to selflessly sacrifice himself to make sure that Robb and Sansa escaped had impressed the lords of the north, and how long until they decided that Robb was a coward for not staying behind and fighting as well?

Robb was only ten, well almost eleven and it was unreasonable to expect him to stay and fight like an grown man, but the bastard had done it and the northern lords were known for their prowess in battle and they would take better to someone as their leader, who had shown such skill as the bastard had when he saved Robb and Sansa.

Catelyn was drawn out of her thoughts when someone walked up to her. That person turned out to be her sister, one of the people she didn't want to see. Cat could feel the anger burn in her belly at the very sight of her sister.

Lysa had been strutting around Winterfell like she owned the place, much to Cat´s irritation. Winterfell was her dominion, not Lysa´s. Cat´s little sister was lucky that she even had a home after her stunt with Petyr.

It was all Lysa´s fault that people were looking down on their family, she had shamed them with her behavior and now everyone was laughing behind their back at the Tully´s of Riverrun.

Cat shot her sister a look that clearly told her to be careful about what she would say to her. Lysa had been criticizing Cat´s perfect trueborn children, and Cat wouldn't stand for it. Lysa was the last person that could criticize her and her family after what she had done.

Lysa looked out into the training yard with a disdainful look on her face, and her watery blue eyes were glaring daggers at Sansa in the yard. Lysa would give Sansa that look, she had always been jealous of those who were more beautiful than her, so it was only natural that Lysa would be jealous of Sansa.

"I still cannot believe that you are allowing this." She turned her nose up in distaste as she watched Sansa spin gracefully and swing the sword back to meet Ser Rodrik´s practice blade.

While Cat didn't want Sansa to learn how to wield a sword, Lysa had no right to judge her and her family and how her children were being raised. "Ned wants our daughters to learn how to defend themselves." She replied tightly as she shot her a glare in warning.

Cat hated Lysa for putting her in the position of having to defend Ned´s decision of having their girls learning how to fight, when all Cat wanted to do was to drag Sansa from the yard and into the keep where she should be sowing with septa Mordane like a proper lady.

But Lysa just sent her a smug smile in return. "Hardy lady like, I imagine that it will be hard for you to find her a husband if she is allowed to run wild like some wildling."

Cat felt the anger rise in her chest once more, how dare that harpy bring up the fact that Catelyn would have a hard time finding Sansa a husband. Catelyn knew that if this was allowed to continue, all of Cat´s dreams of Sansa marrying the crown prince would be ruined.

Cat really wanted Sansa to thrive in life and the best place for her to do that was to be the queen of the seven kingdoms. Catelyn knew that if Sansa would become queen it would make Catelyn´s father incredibly happy, having a granddaughter for a queen.

Catelyn knew that it had been their father´s dream to help house Tully rise high in life and having Sansa as queen would help him realize that dream, but now it was all but gone just because Ned wanted his daughters to behave like barbarians.

Catelyn gave her sister a cold smile. "At least you will never have to worry about finding your children spouses." She knew that it was a low blow but Lysa deserved it for humiliating house Tully in front of all the lords of Westeros.

Lysa´s smug grin fell of her face and she turned white as curdled milk, then she turned as purple in her anger. But Catelyn didn't care anymore, she turned her back on her sister and walked back into the castle.

She had only just gotten into the castle, when she was stopped. She half expected her sister to come charging after her to start a fight, but it was only maester Luwin. The little grey man looked a little winded like he had run a long way.

"My lady." He said as he reached the lady of Winterfell. He had to take a moment to get his breath back before he could tell her what he wanted. Cat folded her hands in front of her as she waited for the man to continue.

"Lord Stark has sent a letter from the Dreadfort, they found the torture chamber of the Boltons." She looked at the man with wide eyes, she hadn't expected them to find anything in the castle of the Boltons as the lords of the Dreadfort had always been rumored to be cunning.

There had been so many stories circulating about the Dreadfort over the centuries and she had been afraid to have Robb go with the men, in case the castle of the Boltons had secret traps around their home. It was the sort of thing that she had heard about the Boltons do when she had been a child, growing up in Riverrun.

"Is everyone alright?" She had to know about Robb and if he was unhurt. She had a huge fight with Ned about Robb going with the lords to the Dreadfort. She was sure that Robb wasn't old enough to go, but Ned disagreed with her and took him with the lords to the Dreadfort, but luckily, he had also taken the bastard with him so that she didn't have to look at his miserable face.

The maester smiled at her, and she could breathe easier. "Yes, my lady, everyone is fine. Lord Stark wanted you to know that they are now on their way to Castle Black to talk with the lord commander of the nights watch."

She could feel a small smile bloom on her face at the relief that Robb and Ned were alright, but she would have to wait for at least a month and a half for them to return to Winterfell. She turned back to the small grey maester. "Did Ned write about what he has planned for the castle?"

She tried to sound disinterested but when in reality she was very interested in the fate of the castle. She wanted Bran to inherit the castle, it had good lands that were perfect for farming. All they would need was a good castellan to handle the lands and a good castle with large profitable lands would be waiting for Bran when he entered adulthood.

She was also hoping that Ned would be giving Rickon Moat Cailin. The lands to the north of the ancient castle were very fertile and it was Moat Cailin that was the key to the north, and Ned was starting his work on rebuilding the castle soon.

"There is also another letter my lady." She looked back to the maester of Winterfell as he continued. "It came from your uncle, Ser Brynden Tully, he wanted you to know that he is on his way now to Winterfell."

EDDARD

The great hall of the Last Hearth was filled to the brim with the lords and ladies of the north, and as all northern feasts it was loud, and the ale was flowing freely. Ned was sitting beside the Greatjon in a seat of honor as his liege lord, and both Robb and Jon had been dragged to where the heirs of the north were sitting, on the table below them. Ned´s foster father was sitting on the Greatjon´s other side in deep conversation with the lady of Last Hearth.

He could also spot Theon Greyjoy with Robb and Jon, but he seemed to talk more with Arnolf Karstark than them. It wasn't hard to see that Robb and Theon no longer spent any time together, in their last life, they had been good friends, but now Robb didn't even want to talk to Theon.

Ned had to admit that he was glad that Robb was no longer spending a lot of time around the iron born, as Theon had more interest in bedding whores than learning how to govern his future lands and that was not someone that Ned wanted around his son. Not to mention that he had betrayed Robb by taking Winterfell and fooling Robb into thinking that his brothers were dead.

He would much rather have Robb continue to spend his time with Jon, as the rightful king was a much better influence on Robb, than Theon could ever hope to be.

In fact, ever since they had left the Dreadfort which had led to everyone´s happiness, Robb had been hovering around Jon more than usual. After leaving the torture chamber of the Boltons, Jon had been graver and more serious than he was usually, and that seemed to make Robb very concerned about his wellbeing. The Stranger may have had his reasons for wanting Jon to see what had happened down in the chamber, but Ned could see that what Jon had found in the chamber had its effect on the rightful king of the seven kingdoms.

Ned had thought that Robb would have been jealous of Jon for having been the one to find the chamber, but the future lord of Winterfell had only been concerned about his cousin after he had seen how effected Jon and everyone else had been at seeing the horrors in that dreaded chamber.

Ned had gone himself and helped with burying the bodies of the victims of the Boltons, as he felt that it was his fault that they had suffered the way they had because Ned hadn't stopped the Boltons sooner. When the other lords had seen how their liege lord had gone and stated to help the guards and common folk with the burials, they had all rushed over to help as well.

But Ned would never forgive himself for not doing anything sooner, every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was that girl strapped on the table, and he knew that the image would never leave him.

Ned had left the Dreadfort fully garrisoned with his own trusted men, but he still had to find a competent castellan for the Dreadfort until a lord could take over.

"So, Ned," The Greatjon´s booming voice brought him out of his thoughts with a jolt. "What do you plan on doing with the Dreadfort?" The Greatjon was the largest man that he had ever seen, he was just shy of seven feet tall and great brushy bread and clear grey eyes of the north. But there was always a glint in them that made Ned think that the man was shrewder than he let on.

It seemed that the lord of Last Hearth was very careful to conceal his intelligence from the other lords, so that he could be underestimated when he needed to be. But Greatjon, like his ancestors had always been faithful supporters of house Stark, well until the Smalljon in their last life.

But the young man couldn't be blamed for things that he hadn't done, no more than Theon could be blamed for his betrayal of Robb in his last life, but that didn't mean that Ned wouldn't be weary of him. But at the moment the heir to Last Hearth was regaling Robb with a story, making the heir to Winterfell laugh merrily at the young man antics.

"I don't know." Ned answered honestly. At first, he had intended to give Jon the Dreadfort, but as all its lands were almost flat and had little to no large forest lands, it would be hard to hide the ever-growing dragons. Ned was not eager to separate Jon from his dragons; the gods only knew what would happen then. No, it would be better for Jon to inherit a place where he could more easily hide the large dragons.

That however made Jon having the lordship over Moat Cailin impossible, as ever since they started on their trade deals, more and more people were using the king´s road, which meant that they were traveling through Moat Cailin to get north or south.

However, there was a place that was perfect for Jon, and that was Queenscrown. The gift had large fertile lands with vast forests and to the west of Queenscrown lay the western mountains. But both Brandon´s gift and the new gift belonged to the night´s watch, but Ned had a plan. If he could convince to Jeor Mormont, the lord commander of the night´s watch to let Jon be the lord of the gifts, then instead of paying taxes to Winterfell, he would pay them to the nights watch. That deal would be good for everybody.

The north would have more habitable lands to use, the watch would see increase in taxes and food supply and Jon would have lands and a holdfast of his own. But the Queenscrown was in ruins, but as Jon had saved both Robb and Sansa, it would be easy for Ned to justify to everyone why he was helping Jon rebuilding the tower holdfast.

Ned could hear the large man beside him give a hum as he thought. "I would have thought that you would have wanted to give your bastard the castle." The Greatjon shot Ned a sideways look and the lord of Winterfell let out a sigh. He had expected someone to ask him if he intended to do give Jon the Dreadfort as it now belonged to Winterfell, and that he had saved Robb and Sansa.

The lords knew that they weren't likely to get the castle and its lands, as Ned had two trueborn sons without lands, and they believed that Jon was his bastard and he also didn't have lands yet. Most of them would be angling to marry their daughters to Robb, and if that failed, they would try to marry their daughters to which ever son of Ned´s that stood to get the Dreadfort, even if it was Jon, who they thought of as a Snow.

Jon had impressed every single one of the lords with his bravery when he had saved Robb and Sansa, and now that they had seen the plans for the castles on the wall, they were even more impressed with him.

But Ned was surprised that Greatjon would think that Ned would bypass his trueborn sons in favor of Jon. Even though that here in the north, bastards weren't looked down on as much as in the other kingdoms, except for in Dorne, they wouldn't be expected to inherit before their trueborn siblings.

Ned shot his friend a look. "You know that I cannot do that. If I give Jon the Dreadfort, it would set a dangerous precedence." He was glad that he could use that excuse, as it wouldn't be good to place Jon in the Dreadfort because of the dragons.

"Aye," The large man agreed. "You are right there, are you then giving the Dreadfort to your younger boy, Brandon?"

Ned nodded at that. "Aye, I think that is a real option if I place a good castellan over the castle until he is of age."

The lord of Last Hearth stroked his massive beard in thought. "I think that is a good idea, and I assume that you are going to start rebuilding Moat Cailin soon and place young Rickon there when he is old enough to rule."

Ned shot him a bewildered look, and the large man just let out a laugh. "Oh, come of it Ned. Moat Cailin is a massive castle and it will take years to rebuild, so it would be for the best to place your youngest son there, giving you time to start on the reconstructions." The man slapped Ned on the back good naturedly and Ned let out a grunt at the impact.

"But what about your bastard? You know you have to honor him after everything he has done, I mean knighting him is all well and good, and the gods know that he is one of the few to actually earn a knighthood, but is it enough?" The Greatjon was looking at Ned with unconcealed interest now. It seemed that the rightful king was one of the few that had really impressed the Greatjon.

Ned sighed. "Well, I have been thinking about talking to lord commander Mormont about resettling the gift and placing a lord in Queenscrown. I think that Jon would do an excellent job as the lord of Queenscrown."

Ned could see a happy glint in the Greatjon´s eyes at Ned´s words. The lord of Last Hearth would be happy if the gift was resettled, because that would mean that the watch would get stronger and then they would have an easier time protecting the lands to the south of the wall against wildlings.

"I think that I speak for all the lords in the north, when I say that placing Ser Jon in Queenscrown would be a fantastic idea." Greatjon exclaimed happily with a laugh before he continued. "I don't think that the old bear will be hard to persuade, he must be as sick of having such good lands as the ones in the gift unused for year as the rest of us are."

Ned was sure that Greatjon Umber was right about that, it would most likely irk Jeor Mormont knowing that so much good lands were abandoned because of wildling raids and because the nights watch didn't have the resources to work these lands anymore.

But Ned had a feeling that Jon would do a good job in restoring the lands of the gift, if he was allowed to rule as the lord of Queenscrown.

"I think that Ser Jon would do an excellent job in governing the gift." Ned was surprised to see that the lord of the Eyrie had joined the conversation with Ned and Greatjon.

At first the Greatjon had been weary of Jon Arryn as he was Robert´s hand, but when he found out that the lord of the Eyrie had tried to install a northern lord for the position of master of coin, and he had also promised to help with the rebuilding of the castles of the wall with his own money and he would also be trying to get his own lords to help the nights watch, the large man had warmed up to him.

Ned was glad that both Jon Arryn and Greatjon Umber seemed to agree that it was a good idea to have the rightful king rule as the new lord of the crown. He knew that they were good men to have on his side when the time came, and if his nephew did as good a job as Ned thought he would, then Ned was sure that Greatjon Umber would place Jon on that throne by himself if he had to.