Puckentine Moments

GoT AU: Part I

There wasn't a single soul in the Northern lands that hadn't heard of the upcoming visit of the Puckett family. Most particularly, there wasn't a soul in all Seven Kingdoms who hadn't heard of the betrothal between Prince Beck Puckett, heir to the Kingdom, and the Princess of the North, Lady Tori Valentine.

For weeks, the servants in the castle wouldn't stop fussing around, running from place to place, delivering and taking orders. The ladder of chaos was upon them, and the Puckett's weren't even close to the Northern lands. That's why Cat preferred to spend her time at the stables, helping with the care of the horses. And sometimes, when she heard the unstopping singing of a hammer clashing with metal, she would silently sneak into the forge where her friend Jade was surely working.

Jade Snow had grown accustomed to the visits Cat paid to her almost weekly. She'd even developed some affection towards the redhead, not that she'd admit it, not even to herself.

Cat would sometimes find Tori in the smithy by the time she showed up. Whenever those encounters happened, it only meant Tori's mother, The Lady of the North, Lady Holly Valentine, wasn't anywhere to be found.

Cat couldn't even begin to imagine how outraged Lady Holly would be if she discovered her only daughter hanging out with two bastards, one of them a lowborn.

Lady Holly wasn't a bad person, Cat knew it herself. She'd seen her tend to her children, Lord Robert, Lady Tori and Lord Fredward, who also happened to be Cat's half brothers.

Caterina Snow, or the bastard of the North, like most smallfolk in the village were to used to call her.

Cat was the illegitimate daughter of Lord David Valentine, guardian of the North. He brought her back to the North with him after the War was over, when she was just a baby. She never experienced any loving care from Lady Holly's part, but she never really expected to. She was a reminder of the vows her father had broken, a cause of sorrow and shame to Lady Holly.

They'd never mistreated her though. Her half-brothers were kind to her and loved her endlessly, so did her father. She was confident Lady Holly cared for her too, a little bit a least. Cat swears she saw Lady Holly kneel next to her bed and pray to all the gods once, when she was five and was horribly sick.

It could have been a dream, a hallucination caused by the high fever she was experiencing, but she liked to believe the opposite.

The day of the regal visitor was finally upon them, and Cat was awakened early in the morning by one of the cooks, urging her to wash and get ready. She was used to be present in the room whenever her family greeted visitors, usually in the far back with the servants, handmaidens and cooks, and she was never supposed to address any of the visitors unless they addressed her first. And even then, her responses were supposed to stay short and direct.

This time, however, Cat was informed she was going to be standing next to Fredward, the youngest of the Valentine family. Her stomach flipped over and her body started to shake tensely. She didn't want to be nervous; it would only mean she was excited. And she'd grown up convincing herself that she did not care if she wasn't a real part of the family.

No matter what she told herself however, by the time the Valentines were waiting for the royal carriages to arrive near the Eastern gate she was basically preventing herself from jumping frantically as she took her place next to Fredward, at the end of the line. True, she was older than the ten-year-old Fredward Valentine and was supposed to be next to Robert, the eldest Valentine and heir to the North, but she was not going to push her luck any further.

Tori smiled at the redhead's obvious excitement while Fredward held her hand tenderly in support. The carriage crossed the gates, and the time stopped for Cat.