Catelyn (283 AC)

Catelyn was relieved when her Lord Husband returned from the war alive and unharmed, which meant she wouldn't have to be betrothed to yet another highborn Stark son. The horror she had at the sight of the nearly-naked girl that arrived with Eddard Stark turned to astonishment and intrigue upon learning that she was one of the Awakened Dolls that were turning the Seven Kingdoms on their heads. There was mournful understanding as he finally brought his beloved sister Lyanna home to Winterfell in linen wrapping and a box the size of a corner bed.

But these feelings were outweighed by the rage and scandal she felt when he revealed that he had brought into her new home a bastard son. The sheer cheek of the gesture, even as she greeted him in the courtyard with his trueborn son, who had been named Robert, in honor of Eddard's sworn brother and new sovereign. And to make it worse, he'd named the bastard Jon, in honor of Eddard's father, as if he were TRYING to cause a divide in his own House by confusing his sons with who he loved more.

Catelyn watched her son sleep in his cradle, her heart overflowing with love for him. But now dread crawled about her heart and stomach like a creeping centipede, its many legs prickling every part of her being as it regurgitated into her mind every story her septa had fed her on the havoc and chaos that bastard children wreak by their envy and greed. She needed only to remember what the Blackfyres did to the Seven Kingdoms for generations, and she could only beg the Gods that they would make her husband see sense and at least send the boy as far away from Winterfell as he possibly could.

But perhaps worst of all, Eddard refused her, point blank, to at least grant her the small courtesy of knowing which woman it was who had pilfered from her husband that which only belonged to her by right. This was the single most unfair crime of all, as she, the Lady-Wife of a Lord Paramount, at the very least had the right to know who had wronged her, and yet Eddard had denied her even this.

She was jarred from her fearful musings when there was a knock upon the nursery door. She turned and saw the new Doll standing in the doorway, coat thankfully closed to protect most of her modesty, her hand holding the door open.

"Yes, ah," Lady Stark searched her mind for a moment for the Doll's name, "Black Rock Shooter, was it?"

"Yes," Black Rock Shooter replied evenly, nodding her head in a shallow bow. "I was sent by Lord Stark."

"I see," Catelyn stood. "He has instructed you to give his Lady-Wife a message saying he desires that I join him in his bed?"

The Doll nodded. "He also instructed me to tell you that, and I quote, 'because of the wrong he has done to you earlier today, you may refuse him tonight without fear of rebuke or shame.'"

At least he has enough decency in him to feel shame, Catelyn thought. "Tell him that he may retire without me."

"Very well, Lady Stark," the Doll acknowledged, and turned to leave and close the door.

Catelyn was suddenly struck with a realization. "Wait!"

Black Rock Shooter paused, and reopened the door to properly look upon Catelyn.

"Please come in," she stated. "There is something I would speak to you about."

Black Rock Shooter stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. "What is it that you would speak to me about?"

"Do you know who Jon Snow's mother is?" she asked. "And how my lord husband came to bring him here?"

"Yes, and yes," the Doll answered, her tone of voice unchanged.

"Will you tell me?" she inquired.

"I am sworn by Lord Stark not to," Black Rock Shooter rebuffed.

"Hah!" Catelyn spat, and turned away. "I should have known that he wouldn't let the source of the truth of this stain on his honor be revealed."

And to protect this woman he loves as much as me from my righteous fury.

"But he has not sworn me against revealing why he has allowed his honor to be stained."

Catelyn spun about, stunned at this development. "Why, you say? Why he allowed his honor to be stained? When by doing so while being wed to me, any dishonor that falls on him falls on the whole of his House, and me? And for what? To protect another woman he loved instead of his wife?"

Black Rock Shooter was silent and still, as motionless as the dolls for which her kind had been named. She then took a breath, and said back, "Jon is a son from a prior relationship, one that ended with his mother expending her life to give him his. A mother whose identity Lord Stark cannot afford to allow anyone to learn, for fear of losing him."

For a moment, Catelyn was confused as to what exactly the Doll had just said. But within moments, the meaning behind Black Rock Shooter's words clicked together in her mind.

"Oh."

He was already secretly married! she realized.

I just thought he was unhappy with me because he was getting married to the woman chosen for his brother, but it was also because he was already married to another before he was engaged to me! And clearly, this woman must have been someone important, a highborn lady from somewhere, whose family would never have allowed their daughter to marry a Northerner, and someone his father would never have approved of! And now, because the mother is dead, the only safe place for Ned's son is to be raised as a Snow here in the North, where he will be beyond the reach and suspicion of his unknowing family somewhere in the South.

"Lady Stark?" Black Rock Shooter addressed, breaking the awkward silence Catelyn belatedly realized she'd allowed to manifest. "I am only recently fully conscious of myself and the world around me, and much of what I know comes from the time I have spent with Lord Stark. But I know that in all that time together, he refused to speak one word of ill will about you, and deeply regretted that his circumstances would compel him to force upon you the shame of cuckoldry, and sharing your family home with the son of a stranger. So know that he is sorry for what he has done, that he knows you may never forgive him for this slight, and all he asks of you in this regard is that you don't punish Jon for the sins of his parents."

Catelyn had no experience speaking with Dolls, or rather, those that had Awakened – she had shared a long, secret conversation with one that sat all alone under a tree just outside Riverrun mere days after the Arrival, before her Septa had warned her away from doing so again. That one hadn't returned any words to her, and this one before her, although she spoke clearly and with excellent command of her own words, spoke in a dulled voice that occasionally rose or fell, as if she were still learning how to properly use tones and emphasis in her speech.

All of which was to say that Catelyn had no idea if this girl was lying through her teeth, buttering her up with exaggerated sympathy, or telling the honest truth.

But Black Rock Shooter had held her gaze and never averted her eyes a single time while she spoke to her, and never showed her any disrespect in her words or manners, so she decided to take her at her word, for now.

"I see, and thank you," Catelyn said.

"You're welcome, Lady Stark," Black Rock Shooter replied. "Is there anything else you need me for?"

Catelyn thought for a moment, mulling over what she had just learned, and what it said about her husband. "Just to return to my Lord-Husband with a message from his Lady-Wife that she understands his concern for her feelings and appreciates the discretion he has granted her, but that she will honor his request tonight when she retires."

Black Rock Shooter bowed her head. "Understood, my Lady." She then turned and left the room, softly closing the door behind her.

Thus leaving Catelyn with her son and her thoughts, as she sought to take the time to fully digest them, and share more love with her infant son before she left him to see to her husband for the performance of her wifely duties.