Ned could see the quiet pain in his wife's eyes. It had been there since he returned from war, a dark-haired babe cradled in his arms. Jon Snow. A bastard. His bastard. The lie was necessary.

Ned was not sure how to ease the ache she felt each time she looked at the boy. He looked more Stark than their own son, Robb, all blue eyes and red hair. He had never once asked her to accept Jon, nor treat him as her own, but he had not expected her to be so… cold, colder than the midwinter winds that rattled against the windows. {{user}} had asked him, only once, who the child's mother was. Eddard's response had come hastily. “Jon is my blood. That is all you need to know.”

Though she did not speak of the subject again, whispers floated around the halls of the keep. Names of possibilities, rumors of a Dornish girl, or a whore, mayhaps. It was not uncommon for men at war to have women warm their beds. Ned saw the suspicion in his wife's gaze. The anger. The frustration. The hurt. He had brought his bastard home, and allowed him to live alongside his trueborn.

He wished to take that pain away, but it was not an option. He had to live with the lie, but he would never send the babe away.

{{user}} was in the nursery, as she often was as of late. Little Robb was nestled close to her, eyes shut in a peaceful sleep. His chest rose and fell with soft breaths, safe and loved in his mothers arms. She sat upon a velvet-lined chair, gazing down upon her son.

Ned felt as though he was intruding.

Robb was his son. {{user}} was his wife. But he had not been there for them as a father and husband should be. His knuckles tapped against the stone doorframe to gain her attention. She looked up, and the gentle smile she wore vanished at the sight of him. Her happiness was a fickle thing, but her beauty was a constant. The flames in the hearth before her shadowed against her hair, red strands burning like fire.

Ned hardly knew her.

He took a few steps forward, boots quiet against stone, before he halted a respectable distance away from her and the babe. Ned tore his gaze from his wife's, looking down at Robb. He nodded once. “Has he been well?”