The Long Winter | Jaime Lannister X Stark OC | GOT/ASOIAF

Harridan

Ross entered her brother's solar without knocking, first thing after breakfast that morning. She never would have dreamed of doing the same thing when the room belonged to their father - she would have gotten a switched hand for her lack of manners - but Ned was Ned, not her father. 

She walked inside, to see Ned stood at his desk, alone, looking more solemn than ever.

"Robert asked you to be Hand of the King?" He nodded tersely, once. "Well I can't say it was a surprise. He spoke of little else to me on the journey north," She looked at him. "Are you going to take it?"

"Catelyn wants me to," His own disagreement went unspoken but Ross caught it anyway.

"If you don't want to go, then don't," She said flatly, sitting down in the chair in front of the desk. "You know better than I do that although Robert will rant and rage all he wants, it'll all be forgiven and forgotten in a moons turn, most likely before he returns south," Ned's silence was acknowledgment enough that he knew she was right.

"He's my oldest friend," Her brother sighed instead. "It's my duty to stand with him, especially after Jon's death," He paused. "That's the other issue. Luwin found this in his tower late last night," He nodded to a carved wooden box. Ross eyed it for a moment before reaching to pick it up, turning to Ned with a questioning look.

"Left in his tower?" She raised an eyebrow. "No courier? No note?"

"Nothing. No one even reported seeing a rider," Ned confirmed. "It must've been someone from the royal party. Luwin brought it to me as soon as he found it, knowing no more than we do. See what you think," Ross carefully lifted the lid, frowning at the contents, a single Myrish lens. Removing the lens and placing it on the desk, for those were valuable, she upturned the box, tapping on the other side. "There's a false bottom,"

"There was a note concealed inside," Ned's expression was grim. "Bearing the Arryn seal. It was from the Lady Lysa, Cat's sister," Ross knew Lysa Arryn all too well, but listened in silence, and he continued. "Written in a secret language they'd made up as children. It said that Jon Arryn was murdered,"

"That's... not impossible," Ross said slowly. His sudden descent from perfect health - for a man his age, anyway - to dead had happened rather quickly, and the Hand of the King was never without enemies. "Did it say who?"

"The Lannisters," Her brother's voice was cold. "The queen," There was a long pause.

"I met Lady Arryn in King's Landing," Ross said eventually. "She's impulsive, soft, weak-willed, easily impressionable and foolish,"

"Don't say that in front of Cat," Ned gave the ghost of a smile, and Ross pulled a face. 

"It's true. Her son is six, yet she barely lets him out of her sight - she still suckles the boy," Her expression bespoke her distaste. "And he is the most vile, spoilt child I have ever laid eyes on, save perhaps the crown prince," She thought hard. None of it made sense. "But the woman can't be mad with grief. She had no love at all for her husband, she wouldn't care if he lived or died. But then that raises the question as to why she'd bother writing to Catelyn at all. Perhaps she feels threatened too, and it's self-preservation," She broke, looking at her brother. "You've already made up your mind, haven't you?"

"Even after the letter, I'd much rather avoid that viper's nest of a city," He admitted, turning to glance out the open window. "But it was something Catelyn said... Robert is as good as my brother, and I cannot leave him to the dogs,"

"Catelyn," Ross said, rather sourly. This was another reason why her and her goodsister had never quite been friends. For all her time as Lady of Winterfell, Catelyn still didn't understand the north, and she was far too full of southron ambitions. "Has she forgotten your real brother died in that city? And Father," Her eyes flashed. "I haven't. I was there to watch, and I can still see it in my head as though it was yesterday. Starks don't do well in the south, Ned, you know that,"