Only A Northern Song ~ Game of Thrones / Willas Tyrell ~

Chapter Three: The Godswood

Every night the whole Stark family joined together to eat dinner. Lord and Lady stark were on either side of the head of the table, their children sat around them, whilst Jon and Theon were sat at the table as far away as possible from Lady Catelyn. That night in particular, Eddmina was sat next to Robb and Sansa, across from Bran and Arya. Jon was sat next to Rickon, with Theon across from them. They usually had someone from the household dine with them as well, but that night in particular, the seat closest to their father was empty, the break from tradition bothering Eddmina slightly, not used to it just being the family.

That night in particular, Theon kept looking over at her. Eddmina tried to distract herself, focusing on eating her meat and vegetable stew, but occasionally she felt Theon's gaze boring into her. Whenever she dared to look over at him, he winked at her, making her roll her eyes. Robb, noticing the tension between the two, glared at Theon to signal for him to stop, but if anything it just encouraged him.

As much as Eddmina liked Theon, he really could be irritating sometimes, and that night was a perfect example. She knew that if he wasn't going off to find a brothel that night after dinner, she would have yelled at him to compose himself around others, but instead she would have to settle with just glaring at him, unless she got to shout at him the next morning.

"How was your ride, Edda?" Catelyn Stark asked her daughter over the dinner table, snapping her out of her thoughts of Theon. Eddmina let out an unheard sigh of relief, realising her mother had bought her previous lie, and despite Theon's lack of subtlty, they were still unknown.

"Nice," Eddmina nodded to her mother, keeping her face straight as she kicked Robb's foot, feeling him staring at her, making it obvious that she was lying. "I just went to the Wolf's wood and back, it was nice weather actually, maybe our house words are wrong,"

He words made her father chuckle slightly, and even her mother cracked a smile at her comment. The table was unusually tense that night, and the momentary lightness in her parents mood sent relief to everyone at the table. There was something wrong with them, Eddmina decided, knowing her parents were usually far warmer to them than this. They were acting off, with Ned hardly touching his food, and Catelyn looked sullen, almost on the verge of tears. Something was going on, and whilst Eddmina had no idea what it was, it was making her nervous, not being able to remember her parents ever acting like that before.

"Can I go riding with you tomorrow?" Bran spoke up from the other side of the table, looking over at his sister almost desperately, and Eddmina knew it was because Bran, only eight, desperately wanted to be included in his older sibling's activities.

"Of course, though it depends if the septa wants me," Eddmina nodded to him, making him grin.

"I want to go too," Arya told her, a small smile on the girl's face. Eddmina knew that people classed her as strong-willed, so she couldn't help but wonder how they were going to categorise her younger sister, who was already far more stubborn and wild than Eddmina had ever been.

"Then I'll take you both riding," Eddmina nodded, a bright smile playing across her face, before she turned to look at her father. "That's alright, isn't it?"

"What? Oh, yes, of course, love," he said absentmindedly, before offering his eldest daughter a sad-looking smile. Eddmina frowned, knowing her father's thoughts were somewhere far from the dinner table, wondering what he could possibly thinking about.

Either way, Eddmina didn't want to stick around to find out. Bored with the tense atmosphere, she quickly finished her food before asking to be dismissed. Her request was met with a prtest from her mother, before her father eventually nodded, letting her leave.