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He found her in the library and felt oddly pleased with himself for correctly guessing where she would go. She had mentioned she loved reading last evening. She now stood before the large picture window with her back to the door, staring out over the beautifully landscaped grounds that sloped down to the Tumblestone along this side of the house. The river itself seemed to meander almost lazily as it flowed past Riverrun, and at the moment it positively sparkled in the sunlight. Ned understood how such a view might soothe a troubled soul, especially for someone who’d always called this place home.
She stood still as a statue and didn’t appear to be crying at least, for which he was grateful. He never knew quite what to say or do for a woman in tears. His own sister had declared him utterly useless years ago when he attempted to comfort her after Father forbade her to date a boy who wasn’t Jewish (And oh, the irony there!). Of course she’d then burst out laughing at his “dumb, frozen, clueless face” and laughed even harder at his annoyance so he’d gotten her to stop crying after all.
He wished Lyanna was here now. If she were actually speaking to him, she might be able to tell him what to say to the silent young woman at the window. Perhaps I’m as big a fool as you think I am, Lyanna. What have I to offer her? I don’t even know her.
He had to speak to her though. He hadn’t escaped their parents simply to gawk at her like a fool. He’d spent entirely too much of the past two days simply staring at her in awkward silence. Brandon had told him she was beautiful, but . . . she was breathtaking. And so impossibly brave about all of this in spite of being quite obviously terrified. And unhappy. God, how he hated being the cause of her unhappiness. That thought rather startled him as he’d been somewhat guiltily hating her for becoming the cause of his unhappiness before he ever met her. He had to say something. “Miss Tully,” he said softly.
She didn’t jump, turning so slowly to face him that Ned wondered if she knew he’d been standing there for some time. He hoped not.
“Mr. Stark,” she said, her melodious voice controlled and courteous. “Are the negotiations complete?”
He tried not to wince at her words. “Not precisely. Our parents are now arguing over the day for the wedding.”
Her eyes widened in disbelief, and then she laughed. This auburn haired beauty with stunning eyes the same sparkling blue of the river behind her looked nothing like his sister, but her laughter in this situation reminded him more of Lya than anyone else. “With all of the things they’ve argued and discussed and come to terms about, and all the rather large issues they haven’t even touched upon yet, they’re arguing about our wedding date? Why does it even matter?”
He understood her exasperation with the entire proceedings. He shared it. But he understood his parents’ feelings on this point. He walked a few steps toward her as he explained. “Not the date, Miss Tully. The day. Your parents want to hold the wedding on Saturday.”
She wrinkled her brow. “Weddings are almost always on Saturdays.”
He smiled at her. “I’m afraid weddings are never on Saturdays. Not Jewish weddings, anyway. It’s Shabbat.”
“Shabbat?” she asked, obviously unfamiliar with the word. Before he could explain, however, she exclaimed, “Oh! The Sabbath!” When he nodded, she bit her lower lip momentarily as if in thought and then asked, “Are weddings another thing you can’t do on the Sabbath, then, like working or driving a car?”
The defensiveness about his faith cultivated by four years of college at a Catholic University in the Vale leapt forward. “Shabbat is not a list of ‘things we cannot do’. It is a day of reflection—a time to spend on spiritual matters, with family, or just . . . at rest—a day that does not belong to all the work and worries of the world.”
“From sunset on Friday evening until sunset on Saturday evening. Yes, I know what the Jewish Sabbath is,” she snapped back at him, and he realized belatedly that he’d spoken just as harshly to her. “And while I find the principle of it quite wonderful, I fear it does come with a rather long list of ‘things we cannot do’ and while I’ve done my level best to learn them, it simply never occurred to me to consider a wedding as ‘work and worry.’ Forgive me, good sir, if I have offended you.”
Those blue eyes flashed with both anger and pride, and Ned actually took a small step back from where he stood in spite of the fact that he was already standing a fair distance away from her. “No, Miss Tully,” he said, forcing himself to look into those furious pools of blue. “Forgive me. I fear I spoke more harshly than I intended, a habit formed from having my religious practices questioned and outright mocked more often than I liked.
“I never . . .”
“No,” he interrupted, holding his hands up in a conciliatory manner. You did not mock. You only sought to understand. I thank you for that.” He tried to smile at her but wasn’t certain if he succeeded. Lyanna frequently told him he was frowning when he had no intention of doing so. “And it’s clear you already know something of the Sabbath.”
She smiled. “I’ve been reading about your faith for some time now. And I would remind you, Mr. Stark, Jews do not have a monopoly on recognizing the Sabbath. ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work: thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger who is within thy gates. For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.’ Exodus, chapter two, verses eight through eleven. The fourth commandment.”
Ned knew his smile was visible then, and he bowed to her ever so slightly. “I am impressed, Miss Tully. Have you all the commandments committed to memory?”
She laughed, but this time it was a somewhat more joyful sound. “I’m afraid so. Right out of the King James Bible. My grandfather tasked my sister and brother and myself to recite them from memory when we were children, and my Uncle Brynden, much to my grandfather’s dismay I might add, offered the exorbitant sum of ten dollars to whomever accomplished it first.”
“And you won,” Ned stated. It wasn’t a question.
“Yes, but as I am the oldest, it wasn’t really fair. So I spent my winnings on Lysa and Edmure.” She smiled a bit at the memory, shaking her head slightly. Then she sighed and looked at Ned. “Mr. Stark, I fear my legs are tired from standing so long. I haven’t sat down since my flight from Daddy’s office. Would you care to sit? Or do you think we should go back to the treaty talks?”
He laughed, appreciating her humor in spite of their circumstances. “I have no desire to return to that room at the moment, I assure you. Let’s sit here.”
She walked to a small table that had several books laid upon it and sat down. He followed and took the chair next to her. “You didn’t flee the room, by the way. You very courteously asked to be excused for moment. Our fathers were so engrossed in their conversation, they didn’t even realize you’d not returned until I announced my intent to check on you.”
“My mother knew I wasn’t coming back.”
“So did I. And for what it’s worth, my mother knows very well that I don’t intend to bring you back now.”
“Shouldn’t we want to have a say, though? I mean, it’s our lives they’re in there negotiating.” She looked him right in the eyes as she said that, but looked down at the table as she continued in a much softer voice. “But I just couldn’t stay there when they started arguing about how my children would be brought up, where they’d live, go to school, go to church . . . I just . . .” She shook her head. “It’s as if they don’t even understand they’re talking about my children.” She looked back up at him. “I’m sorry. Our children. Forgive me.” Her cheeks colored, and Ned found himself enchanted by it. “I didn’t mean to make this all about me. It’s just . . . well it’s hard to . . .”
“To discuss sharing children with a man you’ve only just met? Of course it is. I understand, Miss Tully.”
“Catelyn.
He looked at her quizzically.
“Please, if we’re going to be married we ought to at least call each other by our Christian names.” Immediately, her hand flew to her mouth an expression of horrified embarrassment colored her entire face red rather than just her cheeks. “I am so sorry! I meant given names. It’s just . . . just an expression we always use and . . .”
“Catelyn,” he said, testing the sound of her name in his voice and reaching out a hand to take hers away from her face and hold it in his. “Catelyn,” he said again more softly. “It’s all right. I’ve heard the term before. I know you wanted nothing more than to be called by your name. I would like you to call me Ned, if you’d please. If you call me Eddard, I’ll fear you’re irritated with me because that’s the only time any of my parents or siblings ever use that name.”
"Ned,” she pronounced carefully as if trying it out. “I like it.”
“We’ll both have a lot to learn about each other, Catelyn. The religious differences . . . they present a challenge, I know.” He shook his head. “Just listening to our parents in there makes me wonder why they ever came up with this scheme.”
“As I said, I have been reading about Judaism. I don’t want to be ignorant about your God or cause you any offense. I truly don’t.”
He could hear an almost desperate note in her voice and he wondered for at least the thousandth time what this bright, lovely young woman honestly thought about this marriage. “I can’t imagine your ever causing me offense, Catelyn.” She hadn’t pulled her hand from his and he continued to hold onto it. “But I would ask you to speak to me truthfully always—even if you fear I will not like your words.”
She caught her lower lip in her teeth again, hesitating for a moment before asking, “Does it bother you? The knowledge that you will have a wife that doesn’t pray to your God?”
Her eyes never left his as she asked the question or as she waited for his response. “I believe that God is God,” he said after a small hesitation of his own. “Only the way we understand him is different. And the ways in which we express our devotion to him. I believe we can each pray in our own way and still stand together before him.”
“God is God,” she repeated softly. “Surely he is bigger than any differences between us.”
“Aye,” Ned said. “And there some things we share, you know. I studied those same ten commandments for they were put down in the Torah as the first of about six hundred commandments long before Jesus Christ walked this earth.”
“So you believe Jesus lived?”
“Certainly. It isn’t a matter of his existence so much as his divinity where our beliefs diverge. And if my Catholic friends from school told me truly, he drew all his teachings from Jewish laws and prophesies. So again, I submit we share more beliefs than people seem to realize.”
Catelyn considered his words a moment. “We usually stay home after church on Sundays. We have a big meal, just family or sometimes guests who are close friends. My father doesn’t take any business calls which he does all the time any other day when he’s home. That’s how we keep the Sabbath. I’ve always liked Sundays here with my family.”
“It doesn’t sound so terribly different from Saturdays with mine,” Ned told her. “May I ask you a question?” At her nod, he asked, “Why Sunday? You quoted the commandment for me. It says the seventh day. Why do you celebrate the Sabbath on the first day?”
She laughed loudly then, pulling her hand from his to put both of hers up to her face as she continued to laugh. “I’m sorry,” she said as she caught her breath. “It’s just that I asked my father that very question when I was very little. Being apparently very proud of mastering the order of the days of the week, I pointed out that Sunday isn’t the seventh day and asked him why we were doing it wrong. He loves to tell that story.” She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, he told me it’s because Jesus rose on Sunday which makes it the holiest day of the week and the one we now honor.”
“Ah,” Ned said. “So marriage on a Sunday would be out of the question for you?”
“I don’t think so. I mean, I don’t know of any rule against it. It would be difficult to hold a wedding in a church on Sunday because they all hold services, but I don’t imagine we’re getting married in a church, are we?”
“They hadn’t gotten past the day of the week when I left,” Ned said. “But I can’t imagine my mother accepting my being married in a Christian church, no.”
“You’d think they would have considered all of these things when your father first suggested to mine that I marry Brandon!” She must have seen Ned’s expression darken because she immediately looked contrite. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to speak disrespectfully. I am truly sorry for your loss. Brandon was a fine man.”
Ned nodded. “And I am sorry for yours. My brother . . . spoke highly of you.” He said you were beautiful. “I should have spoken of him to you before, but I didn’t quite know . . .” He wasn’t certain how to finish that sentence. There were too many things he didn’t know—how she’d felt about wedding his brother, how she’d felt when Brandon was killed, how she’d felt when she’d almost immediately been promised to him in Brandon’s place.
“I wasn’t certain how to speak to you of him either,” Catelyn said after a moment. “In truth, I didn’t know Brandon well. We’d only met four times and our engagement hadn’t even been formally announced, but I liked him. He was charming and funny. He seemed so confident that our marriage would be a great success that I began to believe it just might. Then he was killed.” She looked down for a moment and then looked back up at Ned. “I am sorry we didn’t come north for his burial. My mother felt we would be out of place there. But it seemed wrong to me to have him just disappear from our lives like he was never here. I would have come had my parents allowed me, Ned.”
He nodded. “So you had doubts about wedding Brandon initially?”
“How could I not when I didn’t know him? I’d always imagined I’d marry some son of local banker or businessman and make a life here in the Riverlands or possibly in the Westerlands or Stormlands. I never imagined I’d be wed to anyone in the North. And I’d never even met a Jew until my father had your father to dinner here one evening. And it was obvious my mother was opposed to the idea which concerned me. I was frightened, Ned, especially before I ever met him. My fears were somewhat lessened after I did.”
“Brandon has a way of putting people at ease.” He swallowed hard as he realized his slip. “Had a way,” he corrected himself softly.
“Well, he certainly had a way of inspiring confidence and encouraging optimism,” Catelyn said thoughtfully. “But he never encouraged me to speak as you have this evening. I never spoke to him of my fears as I’m speaking to you now, and I’ve know you even less than I did him.”
“Your father inviting mine to dinner—that made an impression on him, you know. When the family firm’s reputation grew strong enough that we were consulted on cases here in the south, quite a few people were willing to pay for our services.
But not one of them was willing to have one of us as a guest until Hoster Tully asked Dad to dine in his home. It made a world of difference.”
“And so he decided that wedding his heir to Hoster Tully’s daughter would do even more to secure his position here. Your father is a shrewd man, Ned.” Ned couldn’t detect any bitterness in her carefully neutral tone, but he felt compelled to speak to his father’s character just the same.
“Catelyn, my grandfather started that law firm from nothing, and my father built it into the national force it is today. Sometimes his ambitions are . . . a bit overpowering, but he is an honorable man, and he truly respects your father. He never would have suggested joining our families if he didn’t.”
“Oh, you don’t need to defend him to me, Ned. I know how the world works. Your father is a good man. So is mine. But they both see the benefits in this family merger. A northern law firm run by a Jewish family faces an uphill battle at gaining real acceptance anywhere in the south regardless of how stellar their reputation because there simply aren’t any Jews here. And while Tully Holdings is stable enough at the moment, we’ve had to cut ties with the law firm which has represented us for years thanks to the scandalous behavior of my sister and their newest associate. Tywin Lannister smells blood in the water, and we may not survive the challenges he throws in our faces without the benefit of good legal counsel, and your family has some of the best legal minds in the country.”
Ned was impressed at her concise and accurate summation of the circumstances which led to the seemingly preposterous idea of the two of them becoming man and wife. His father had told him Hoster Tully viewed his eldest daughter as better suited to run his company than his son in all aspects other than her sex. “You certainly see things clearly,” he told her. “Your father gets the services of Stark Associates, my father gets more respectability and dinner invites, and both their businesses benefit.”
“You forgot about our unborn children. My father gets to leave the running of Tully to me rather than Edmure because I’ll have you to back me and I’ll nominally be just caretaking for whichever of our potential male offspring he decides to leave the company to, and both our fathers get the satisfaction of familial ownership of two multi-million dollar businesses through their theoretical grandchildren.”
“You have a wicked way with words. Has anyone ever told you that?”
“My mother calls it a sharp tongue that I should learn to curb, but yes.”
“Do you resent it? Our fathers planning this marriage for the good of their businesses?”
“For the good of our families,” she corrected him. “They see it as one and the same.”
“And do you see it as one and the same? Catelyn . . . how long after Brandon died were you told that you could simply exchange one Stark heir for another?”
“My father didn’t phrase it quite so inelegantly, but about two weeks. When were you asked to step into the breach as it were?”
“The day after Brandon’s shiva ended. Shiva is . . .”
“I know about sitting shiva. I’ve been reading, remember? Since I decided to give the marriage to Brandon my best effort.” She sighed. “They certainly didn’t waste any time salvaging their plans, did they?”
“Catelyn, you know they cannot compel us. Arranged marriage may be traditional among families of our status, but we are both legal adults. If you don’t want this . . .”
“You agreed to marry Brandon. You said you had come to believe your marriage to him could be a success. I am not Brandon.”
This time she reached out to take his hand. “I know that. And I agreed to marry you. If you don’t want this Ned, tell me, and we’ll go tell our parents together that this isn’t happening. My mother would likely cheer, and I think yours might as well. But I am content to wed you if you wish it. I’m not foolish enough to say that I know you, but I do believe I am beginning to know the kind of man you are, and I respect you. I feel respected by you. That matters.”
“I don’t want you to be unhappy.”
“Now you sound like my mother. Neither of us deserves to be unhappy, Mr. Stark. Are you so certain we would be?”
“No,” he said quickly, thinking that he’d never met a more remarkable person in his life, thinking that only a fool could look into those blue eyes and contemplate unhappiness. He’d wondered how it would feel to run his fingers through that abundance of auburn hair almost the moment he’d laid eyes on her, and now he wondered even more what it would be like to have years to simply converse with her like this. “I don’t think I would be unhappy at all, Miss Tully. Catelyn.” He swallowed hard. “But your mother surely knows you far better than I, and if she fears for your happiness in this marriage . . . if she feels you deserve the freedom to . . .”
“Freedom?” Catelyn interrupted, laughing. “Oh, I fear you have mistaken my mother’s concerns, sir. She would no more support my choosing my own husband than she would my running off to join a circus! I know she loves very much. She wants me to be happy, yes. But she most definitely believes she knows best what will make me happy—certainly better than I could possibly know myself. She simply disagrees with my father’s insistence upon this particular match.”
“She’d rather not sell her daughter to the Jew,” Ned said bluntly.
“She would never speak to you or of you like that!” Catelyn shot back.
“No. Your mother is a well-bred, courteous woman. But that is her problem with match, is it not? That I’m Jewish?”
Catelyn sighed. “Part of it. Please, Mr. Stark . . . Ned . . . do not think ill of my mother because her concerns are not about you personally, or your father or family, truly. I swear it. She’s mostly afraid for the immortal souls of her grandchildren if they don’t follow Jesus—I heard her crying about it to my father when he first started speaking about wedding me to Brandon. And those fears are very real to her—because she loves me and because she will love any child of mine with all her heart, and damnation for all who fail to accept Jesus has been preached to her all her life.”
“It’s been preached to you as well. Are you frightened for your children’s souls?” Ned asked her quietly.
“I’m frightened of many things. But I’m not frightened of you.” She bit her lip once more, and he realized it meant she was considering her thoughts or words. “I have depended upon Jesus all my life to walk with me when I’m frightened. That’s what my mother taught me from the time I was born. Long before I ever heard of hell. And whether you believe it or not, I know that he has. I’ve felt him with me when I’m troubled and I’ve felt his guidance when I pray. And right now, I’m far more at peace sitting in this room having this . . . uncomfortable conversation . . . with you than I was in there listening to my mother’s insistence that all my children be raised Christian. If I truly trust Jesus to guide me correctly, then I should trust the peace he’s given me here with you, shouldn’t I? Even if I don’t understand everything about how this will all work out.”
She had never looked away from him, and she had bright tears glistening in her eyes but they did not fall. Ned had the absurd desire to take her in his arms and comfort her, but that would be wildly inappropriate and probably terrify her. “Our children will have every opportunity to know your Jesus,” he said firmly, knowing that his own mother would likely faint if she heard him speak those words. “And they will pray to God as I and my family have done for generations as well. And as they grow, we will both teach them to be good people, love them well, and assure them they are loved by God.” He took a deep breath. “If we wed,” he added softly.
“I wish my mother had heard you say that,” she said softly. She took a deep breath of her own. “Ned, I do wish to marry you. I know I am in some ways terribly old fashioned—I have been told so often enough by friends and my sister. But I do believe that I have some duty to my family. They have raised me with love and care and taught me to be the woman I am. Family is important, and I want mine to be well cared for. This marriage is good for my family. You are a good man. Even my mother says that. She told me last night she believes you to be one of the finest young men she’s ever met. She’s never said that about anyone else—not even the young men she’s pushed toward me over the past few years. I think we can assuage her eternal concerns eventually. As for her other concerns, there’s nothing to be done about the distance from here to Winterfell, but business concerns will keep us visiting fairly regularly. Her fears that I will be looked down upon or shut out by certain people for marrying outside our faith—well, I don’t particularly care about that, and I won’t be living here anyway, so . . .” She shrugged. “That covers all my mother’s objections. My father has none, obviously. So I think this marriage has far more to speak for it than against it.”
Ned hesitated to ask the next question. In spite of his own initial resentment at being coerced into this marriage, in spite of his sister’s assertion that he was a spineless puppet abandoning his own life for his father’s whims, in spite of an irrational, uneasy feeling that he was somehow stealing from his dead brother, he found that during this conversation he’d progressed through no longer hating the idea of this marriage to in some small way actually wanting it. But if she answered this question in the affirmative, he would walk away.
“So you are not bothered by objections from within your family. What about from outside it? Is there anyone else who would . . . object to this marriage? Anyone you might rather . . .”
“A man, you mean,” she interjected, saving him from the discomfort of speaking further. “You can ask me plainly, Ned. I’m not offended. You asked me to speak truthfully always, even if I feared you would not like my words. I ask the same of you, Mr. Stark.” She smiled at him then which took some of the sting from her gentle rebuke. “There is no one. Neither my heart nor my hand is spoken for by anyone. My parents have introduced me to quite a few young men, and some of them I found quite charming. But I’ve formed no attachments to any of them. I know you’ve heard about what happened with my sister and the Baelish boy. If that’s any indication of where falling in love leads, I’ll say no thank you.”
“You’ve never been in love?”
“That’s an impertinent question, sir. But I did tell you to speak your mind whether I’d like it or not,” she laughed. Then she sighed. “No, I don’t think so. Not really, I don’t think. There have been a couple of young men who made my heart speed up a bit when they smiled at me or took my hand, but nothing more.” She gave him a very direct look. “Are you in love with someone, Ned? Please tell me truthfully because I won’t marry you if you are. It wouldn’t be fair to either of us or to the woman you love.”
He sputtered to the point of coughing as she so plainly asked the question he’d not been able to quite get out and then echoed exactly what he’d intended to say to her had she indicated she did already care for someone else.
“So you do love someone,” she said softly, and he thought he saw disappointment in her eyes.
“No, no!” he managed to choke out as he coughed. Then he held up a hand as he caught his breath, and she waited silently for him to continue. “No. There’s no one. Not now. I fear my reaction was to your forthrightness, Miss Tully. I wished to say that very thing to you—that I could not in good conscience wed you if you did love another, but I stammered through my question making you guess at its meaning, and you simply spoke your mind. I admire you for that very much.”
She dipped her head slightly in recognition of the compliment, but quickly addressed words he barely realized he’d spoken. “Not now, you said. So there was someone you loved?”
Silently, he damned his inability to say what was needed and keep himself from saying what was not. He hadn’t meant to bring up Ashara at all as it was in the past and had no bearing on any of this. But Catelyn was looking at him expectantly and they had asked each other to speak truthfully.
“Yes. You know I went to school in the Vale?” She nodded. “I met a young woman there my first year, and we fell in love. She wasn’t Jewish. My parents would never have approved of her.” Catelyn snorted at that, and Ned acknowledged the irony of it. “Yes, I know. But my sister had just been brought home from school—kicking and screaming, I might add--because my parents discovered she was dating a Catholic so I pretty much ruled out the idea of taking her home to meet them. She didn’t hold to any religion particularly, nor with notion of marriage—or so she told me on one occasion. And she hated the cold in the Vale so she would have despised the North. She was Dornish.”
“Dornish?” Catelyn exclaimed. “She probably would have considered it cold here! I’ve only been to Dorne once, and it’s so hot, I felt like I was on the sun!”
He laughed. “She told me I’d hate it there. Anyway, I did love her. And she loved me. But I think we both knew it wasn’t something to last. We were two very different people and neither of us could see ourselves living in the other’s world. When we came back to the university for our third year, she told me she’d met someone over the summer. And that was that. We tried to remain friendly for awhile, but . . .”
“When did you see her last?” she asked softly.
“Oh, it’s been over two years at least. She didn’t come back to the Vale for our last year. Transferred to someplace closer to home.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I don’t regret it, you know. The time with her was a wonderful part of my life, but one destined to end. We actually used to joke about how we’d make each other miserable if forced to spend too long together.”
She was silent for a long time. “I wanted to go away to a university. My father didn’t see the point when there were perfectly good schools I could attend here, and I could live at home where my mother could keep perfecting my social skills and my father could teach me all there is to know about Tully Holdings.” She looked at him carefully. “She sounds very lively and free-spirited. If you knew you couldn’t spend forever with her, do you think you could be happy tied forever to such a dull old fashioned girl?”
“You aren’t old fashioned,” Ned said instantly. “And you’re a long way from dull. You speak more plainly and think more deeply about things than anyone I’ve spoken with in a long time—maybe ever. You’re dutiful to your family, yes, but that isn’t a fault. At least I certainly hope it isn’t, because I’m the same. That’s why I came here to meet you and even consider doing this. And this conversation has certainly demonstrated that you aren’t dutiful to the point of blind obedience. You simply love your family and want to do right by them. I admire you for that. As for old fashioned,” he laughed. “You want to run Tully Holdings, Catelyn Tully. That’s been clear every time it’s been brought up since my parents and I arrived. You love it, you’re good at it, and you want to do it for real even if you do have to do it in the name of your father, your husband, or your son. I’d like to see you do it in your own name for all the credit someday, and I think you’d like that, too. That’s hardly old fashioned.”
“That’s a pipe dream.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. But you can’t tell me it isn’t appealing to you.”
“You think you know an awful lot about me for a man who met me three days ago.”
“Am I wrong?”
She looked down at her hands. “No.” Then she looked back up at him. “I know my responsibility is to be a good wife and mother, and I intend to be. But I have a very good head for business. My father says I’m as good as he is.” She grinned. “My Uncle Brynden says I’m better. I just want the chance to know if he’s right. Does that bother your sensibilities as a husband?”
“I’m not your husband yet, but absolutely not.” He paused. “Catelyn, I’ve never told my parents or my brothers about Ashara—that was her name. Not because I was ashamed of her. I wasn’t. But because I always knew it was going to end, and I didn’t see the point in complicating my life at home by forcing them to accept things they wouldn’t like. Once it did end, I felt it was something in the past that had no bearing on my present or future and therefore I haven’t spoken of it with anyone since then. I didn’t intend to speak with you about her because . . .”
“It’s in the past?”
“Yes. But I’m glad you asked and even gladder I answered. Because my experience with her is part of who I am now. And I want you to know who I am now. I also want you to know that if we wed, I do not intend for you to become a part of my past. That means I will ask the people in my life to accept things that are uncomfortable for them if it is important to you. Because we will make some people uncomfortable, and we have to be prepared for that.”
“I’m already working on it,” she smiled, indicating the books on the table. For the first time, he took note of the titles.
“Jewish Holiday Traditions?” he asked, picking one of them up.
“I’m looking forward to my first Seder,” she said. “Although we probably shouldn’t invite my parents until they’ve had more time to adjust to the idea. And I suppose we’ll have to ease yours gently into anything to do with Christmas.”
“We’ll definitely do Christmas as well as Hanukkah,” Ned said definitively.
“Will your parents allow any Christmas celebration in Winterfell?”
“We won’t be in Winterfell for Christmas. We’ll need to set up our own home. I think we should consider White Harbor.”
“But Winterfell is your home!”
“And Riverrun is yours. Nothing will ever change our family homes, and we’ll spend time in both. But we need a home of our own. White Harbor is the largest city in the North. I’m there at least half the time now anyway for the firm. There’s a large synagogue, of course, as expected in the North, but it’s a seaport with people from all over so there is also an enormous Catholic church and a number of different Protestant churches. I have two Jewish friends there who married Christians. One of them had both a rabbi and a minister at their wedding. We could do something like that if you wish.”
“Wait, you’ve moved on from selecting a home to planning our wedding now?” she laughed.
“I suppose I have,” he laughed with her. “Do you want to depend upon our parents to plan it?”
“No,” she said definitively. “We could wed in White Harbor then. It’s a reasonable distance from both our homes. Can you think of a suitable location that’s not a synagogue or church?”
“My favorite park in the world is in White Harbor and has lovely views of both Old Castle and the sea. It’s large enough that both our fathers could invite anyone they like.”
“Oh, I like the idea of a wedding by the sea! My favorite weddings here have been outdoors where you can see the river. And I definitely want both a rabbi and minister. Presbyterian would make my mother happiest, but any Protestant would do. Just not a Catholic priest. I’m afraid a Catholic priest and a Jewish rabbi officiating over her daughter’s wedding would put her in an early grave.”
Ned laughed. “I’ve never understood why practitioners of every little branch of Christianity look askance at practitioners of every other branch. Aren’t you all brothers and sisters in Christ? Or am I missing something?"
She laughed again, and he decided her laugh was becoming one of his favorite sounds.
“You aren’t missing anything, and it’s a mystery to me, too. I mean, there are differences between denominations if you’d like to get into that discussion, but they aren’t substantial enough that they should really divide people who all profess to follow Christ. I think maybe people are just too determined to divide themselves sometimes. But, in the interest of keeping peace where we can as we leap across the big Christianity-Judaism divide, let’s just make certain the Christian minister is Protestant, all right?”
Ned laughed once more, feeling somewhat off-balance but oddly happy as he sat here planning his own wedding to a woman whose middle name he didn’t know. Or if she liked dogs. Or whether or not she took sugar in her coffee. “No priest,” he agreed.
“There’s still the matter of what day of the week. A Sunday afternoon, perhaps,” Catelyn suggested. “That way Christian guests could attend their religious services in the morning before the wedding, and we’d still have all evening for our fathers to wine and dine everyone in celebration of the union of our families.”
Her words caused him to pause. “The union of the two of us,” he said softly.
She looked at him questioningly.
“This isn’t a business merger or a trade deal, Catelyn. Yes, it has benefits for both our families. Yes, it brings our family businesses into a whole new relationship. And that’s why this wedding is happening in the first place. We both know that. But when the ceremony is over, you and I will be husband and wife. A marriage is not a business venture. It’s a sacred covenant . . . in both our faiths.”
“I know that, Ned,” she said softly. “And it will be our marriage. Let our parents go on all they want about where we should spend our time or how we should worship or raise our children. As you said earlier, they cannot compel us. Those decisions will be ours. Yours and mine. Promise me we’ll make them together, even when it’s hard. And that our agreement to always speak truthfully to each other will extend long past this afternoon in the library.”
“I promise,” he said solemnly. “I also promise my fidelity. I know we don’t know much of each other now, but I do look forward to getting to know you and allowing you to know me. You will be my wife, Catelyn, and I promise I will do all in my power to make you happy.”
“I promise, too. To make decisions together, to speak truthfully, to be faithful, and to try to make you happy.”
They sat there simply looking at each other for a moment, something between them that neither could quite name. They weren’t in love. How could they be? They were strangers still for all that they’d just pledged themselves to some pretty heavy promises. Maybe he was crazy. Lyanna certainly thought he was. But looking at Catelyn now, he realized he had no desire to take any of those promises back.
“So we’ve now gone from deciding a home site to planning a wedding to exchanging vows,” she said softly, breaking the silence. “Shall we go tell them where we’re getting married and watch them all find objections to throw at us?”
“Our fathers shouldn’t object too much to anything we suggest if it ends up with us married,” Ned countered. “It is what they want, after all.” It’s what I want, too, he thought. I want to see what we can be. What we can make together.
“Indeed it is,” she said, standing up and reaching for his hand. “Let’s go tell them our plans are non-negotiable. We can throw them a bone and let them pick whatever Sunday they like as long as it’s warm and not in the rainy season since we’re having an outdoor wedding.”
She spoke lightly and her smile seemed genuine, but he needed to be certain.
“Are you really sure you want to do this?” he asked, taking the hand she offered and standing up with her. “I am committed. I meant everything I just promised you. But I will not hold you to any of it if you have doubts. I don’t know you well, Catelyn, but I already care too much about you to push you toward a marriage you don’t really want.”
She smiled at him. “Ned, I had nothing but doubts when I fled my father’s office earlier. Now I haven’t a single one. I have a million questions still. But I’m willing to figure out the answers with you. Maybe that makes me naïve or even crazy, but I believe we can do it. I want to do it."
“Then I have only one question at the moment. And I’m not going to stumble over this one.”
“All right,” she said curiously.
Ned reached for her other hand, and then holding both of her hands in his, he faced her and smiled before asking, “Catelyn Tully, will marry me and do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
That delightful pink color crept into her cheeks once more and her smile warmed him more than he thought possible. “Yes, Eddard Stark, I absolutely will marry you.”
He leaned forward and kissed her then. Only a quiet, chaste brush of the lips, but she returned it and did not let go of his hands when their lips parted. They stood there smiling at each other for a moment, her cheeks a bit redder than a moment before.
“Are you irritated with me?” he asked her.
“What? Why would you think that?”
“You called me Eddard,” he said with a grin.
She did pull her hand from his then, but only to smack him playfully on the arm.
He chuckled and offered that arm to her. “Shall we proceed to your father’s office, Catelyn?"
She took his arm, and then leaned in to whisper in his ear, “My family calls me Cat."
“Cat,” he murmured as they walked from the library. “I like it."
She laughed at him and squeezed his arm, and in that moment he felt more certain than he had felt in a long time that God truly did grant blessings in the most surprising circumstances.