Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun.
Book 2
Chapter One-Hundred and Thirty-Six
She was shivering, and she could not blame it on the cold.
Lysa had never truly grown used to the cold even in all the years she had lived in Winterfell, but she could normally hide how bad the cold the affected her, it was fear that made her shake tonight.
Most of the castle was already asleep, there were the guards on the walls who always kept watch through the night but aside from them Lysa was certain that she was the only other person still awake in this black night.
Her daughter and her husband had already retired for the night, they had held court during the day and seen to the daily matters that always came with the ruling of a castle like Winterfell, Lysa had offered to offer her aid in any matter that was required of her but Minisa had simply smiled at her and said, "You do not have to worry lady mother, my lord husband and I have it well in hand."
Her lord husband, Catelyn's son, who had stolen her rights from her simply by being a man. Jon smiled so easily at them both, the smile of someone who had been handed everything in their entire life without an ounce of suffering or effort.
And Lysa had to endure it.
Well, no more.
Lysa rose from her seat and walked over to her chamber window and stared up into the sky and looked at the moon, she had learned how to tell the time of day like every highborn girl at her septa's knee, studying the moon. It was finally the hour of the wolf, and the hour she had been waiting for so very long.
The night was so silent, she could feel her heart beating fiercely against her chest.
The silence was a good sign, she supposed. If the alarm was raised then it meant that all she had been hoping for would be lost.
It felt like hours passed before the knock came at her chamber door, Lysa walked over and pulled it open to reveal a man she had never seen before. He was tall and fair-haired and could be considered comely, a long whip was hung from his hip. "My lady," he spoke with a gentle smile and a tone that promised all the warmth of spring. "Lord Ramsay is waiting on your pleasure in the great hall."
Lysa smiled, and for the first time in a long time it was a smile that felt real. "Of course good man, just a moment."
Lysa had dismissed her maids earlier in the day as she did not want them to notice her anxiety, which meant that she had to dress herself. She choose a dress of simple purple velvet and the only jewels she wore were moonstones around her throat and at her ears.
They were a mean looking bunch, was the first thing she thought when Lysa entered the great hall. She supposed that she had not expected much more than that when Lord Bolton had made it clear in one of his letters that he would be sending his bastard son to do the work.
Almost all of them had a lowborn look to them as well, Ramsay Snow was sitting on the dais. He was a ugly little man, but he had brought her the future back and so Lysa could kiss him. "Lord Ramsay," she said, giving the bastard a title he had no right to. "I am glad to welcome you to Winterfell, I hope that the journey was not to harrowing and that the task you were set was not too difficult to accomplish."
Ramsay smiled at her, it was not a pleasant sight at all. "Oh, it was nothing that I could not handle. My lord father set me a task and I always strive to see his will done."
"Lord Bolton is so fortunate to have such a dutiful son," Lysa glanced around the hall. "When will he be joining us?"
If his bastard was here then Lysa knew that the work was done, but she would feel safer when she had Lord Roose and all the strength of the Dreadfort behind her. "Soon my lady," Ramsay Snow said with his awful smile, "I will send a raven to him in the morning, I have no doubt that he will be glad to see you as well."
Lysa nodded and after a few more courtesies she left the hall and made her way to the Lord's solar, sitting herself down behind the desk. There was no hope of being able to go back to sleep tonight, she needed to be up regardless.
The sky was just starting to turn pink when her eldest daughter was brought to her, the first thing Lysa noticed was that she had been crying and the second was that she was enraged. "What have you done!?" She screamed at her.
Lysa frowned. "You will hold your tongue, I am your mother."
"They came into our bedchamber," Minisa carried on like Lysa had not said anything at all. "They ripped me from our bed, Jon tried to stop them and they cut him and beat him into the ground! They took him to the dungeons! I want him released, now!"
"Why?" Lysa asked and Minisa stared at her like she was mad. "You were promised to him when you were a little girl, your birth right was stolen from you. Your father was the Lord of Winterfell and he never had a son, you are his eldest child. You should have been the lady of Winterfell."
"I am the lady of Winterfell!"
"Only as Catelyn's son's wife, they gave you your own coin and expected you to be happy with it," Lysa shook her head and scoffed. "And you actually have the nerve to be so, have you know spine at all?"
Minisa reared back for a moment but after that it seemed she did find her spine, glaring at her with all the coldness that could only belong to one of Stark blood. "By right or marriage I am the Lady of Winterfell, not you. You will have Jon released from the dungeon, and you will have these monsters thrown from our walls. Now."
Lysa sighed and shook her head, she loved him. That was the awful truth she had been trying to ignore, she had been in love once as well but Petyr had shown her his true face and she realised what a fool she had been, Minisa would see the truth soon enough as well. "Your mind is addled and you are not fit to rule in your own name, until you regain your senses I will be acting as your regent alongside Lord Roose Bolton."
Minisa blinked, and then she began to weep. She rushed around the desk and threw herself down to her feet, grasping at Lysa's skirts. "Mother please, you don't know what you've done. They've killed our guards, their are strangers in our walls with spears in their hands. They've killed most of the guards, they killed the maester, I saw the one with the whip whipping Hodor and laughing, he's a monster. They are all monsters."
Lysa wiped away Minisa's tears, just as she had done when she was a little girl when she had scrapped her knee. "Hush my darling, none of that need to concern you. I will take care of everything, one day you shall thank me for this."
After that Minisa became inconsolable with tears and Lysa had her escorted back to her bedchamber and she summoned for Ramsay Snow to come and attend her.
An hour passed and he had still not come to her, a crying serving girl brought her food and tales of rape for her midday meal, and after that she found that she could not eat.
It was near sunset when Ramsay Snow finally deigned to come to her, stinking of wine. "I summoned you quite a while ago."
Ramsay took his seat, and did not smile at her. "A thousand pardons my lady, my boys and I have been celebrating our victory and our prizes, I could not get away."
"Yes, I have heard of your celebrating," Lysa said with a frown so she could make it clear how displeased she was. "I am no fool, I did not expect that this matter would be bloodless. But I have heard of the rapes, and the cruelty of one of your men to Hodor whose only crime is that he is an imbecile. I will not have it, I expect them to be punished."
"No."
"No, what do you mean no?" Lysa said, feeling a trickle of fear coming down her spine for the first time since the night before. "You must, if you do not then your father will hear of it."
"And who shall tell him?" Ramsay said, and with that the ember of fear had become a blaze of panic and Lysa bolted for the door.
She did not make it, Ramsay sized her braid and pulled Lysa back shrieking. "Oh, do calm yourself my lady. It is beneath you, even more so from the mother of the bride on the evening of her daughter's wedding."
"Wedding?" She had known that was part of the price of this plot, the bastard of the Dreadfort was Lord Roose's only child and a marriage was needed there, Lysa had planned to offer Amelia or Aemma, but she had not written of any offical plans yet.
"Of course, Lady Minisa suddenly finds herself in need of a husband after all?" Ramsay leaned forward and pressed his thick lips to her cheek. "Do be sure to smile, mother."
End of Chapter One-Hundred and Thirty-Six.