Her husband had said nothing when he showed her the letter. A command from a king, not an invitation.
"I can't go. I won't. I am with child, I cannot travel. Tell them that. Maester Cressen will vouch for that."
"Very well."
"It's not because of him. It's her. It's because of her. I cannot …"
"You don't have to go," he said, his tone gentler this time, but his expression still betraying nothing. Tell me what you are thinking, she wanted to shout. Do you believe me?
She knew what his answer would be. Do you believe yourself? He would have said. And she would have disliked him for that. So she did not ask him the question, because she had decided to be happy.
Did she believe herself? She did not ask herself that question either.
In the end she decided that she would go. Because her father, brothers and new sister-in-law would be there. Because the distance between Storm's End and King's Landing was shorter than the distance between Storm's End and Winterfell. Because she wanted to prove a point to her husband. Because she wanted to prove a point to herself.
He is nothing to me. Nothing at all.
At times it seemed to her that the world was full of people trying to prove a point, either to themselves or to other people. Brandon's wedding to Catelyn Tully had been full of them. Barbrey Ryswell smiling and flirting with Ned, while her eyes stared daggers at Catelyn Tully when she thought no one was watching. That strange ward of Lord Tully, whose name Lyanna could not recall now, all attention and soft words to Catelyn's younger sister, while his eyes stared daggers at Brandon, when he thought no one was watching.
Run, Ned. You deserve more than to be her second choice.
But she knew Ned was in no real danger from Barbrey Ryswell. Their father would never allow the match, for one thing. A Lannister perhaps, for Eddard, Lyanna had heard the maester speaking with her father. Pity the Tyrell has no daughter at a suitable age for Ned, her father had replied.
Run, Lysa. His eyes do not see you. Only your sister.
She wanted to say this to this woman she did not know. This fragile girl she did not know. Catelyn's younger sister. Lysa Tully was not trying to prove a point to anyone.
Lyanna's husband had no one to tell him to run. Not even Maester Cressen, who loved him like a son, but treated him like a lord, and thought it not his place to meddle in matters of the heart.
She wished she had known him before the wedding, had cared for him then the way she did now. She would have been the one to tell him to run.
Run, Stannis. She is a woman who does not know her own heart.