If Jaime could find a really tall mountain and throw himself off it, he was sure the fatal landing would be less painful than Alys's piercing glares every time she looked at him. If Ned's daughter—poor Ned, he was just more proof that the Starks had been down on their luck since Rickard, Brandon and Lyanna, Robb and Catelyn after the Red Wedding, and now his daughter was trapped in the Lannisters' clutches.

He had fallen so in love with her. That had been the first time he had seen her in Winterfel, but that had been before the war and her father's execution.

Brienne followed him to King's Landing to ensure he honored his word, and yet he failed to honor his promise and free Alys, Sansa, and Arya.

There's nothing I can do, he reassured himself, they won't kill her. My father will negotiate. Jaime was the one negotiating—for Tyrion's release—and Tywin offered him Alys as a damned spoil of war.

He should be happy. And it was. She was his now, without a doubt, and he could love her as a husband should love his wife, but she hated him.