THE LITTLE PUP (EDITING AND REWRITING)

Chapter 25 | Grief and hurt

Lilia stood inside her chambers as she cried silently. She had closed the windows, the curtains, everything that would make light get inside her room.

Images of what had happened to her father replayed in her head as tears streamed down her face. She was never going to see her father again, she was never going to talk to him again, she was never going to feel safe under his protection. Her father was gone and she was alone in a place surrounded by liars.

Her father always spoke the truth. He was an honest man, a true friend of the crown. He would have done everything for the King he knew was the rightful one, and he knew that Joffrey wasn't that King. He died for a cause, he died for his friend, he spoke the truth in order to make his friend's will the truth. And yet, they named him a traitor and they removed his head.

After they took his head, the King's Guards took Lilia back to her new chambers. The Tower of the Hand was no longer hers to live in. She was now the disgraced daughter of the traitor Ned Stark.

Her mind was turned to her siblings and her mother. She knew Robb was marching with the northerners against the Lannisters. He had called up his bannermen and he marched South to free their father. However, now that their father was dead, what would Robb do? How would he react to their father's death?

And her mother... did she know already? Did anyone inform her that the man that she loved, the father of her children, was dead? She remembered when she heard her father say that the life of a widow did not suit his wife. But now... now that he was dead, Lady Catelyn Stark was widowed with a bunch of children to care for.

Her eldest boy was no longer a boy, he was now a man, the Lord of Winterfell and the Warden of the North. But she knew Robb better than that, she knew he didn't care about the titles, he cared about his family. She hoped he would fight for his sisters and beat the Lannisters, bring them home again.

Once he won the war, he would enter the city and storm inside the Red Keep, and he would find his two sisters – Lilia and Sansa. And then, he would give them both the traitor's head.

Then, Robb would grab them and head back North, victorious and to the rest of his family. She would see Bran and Rickon all over again. Bran would be a cripple, but Lilia would love him anyway, and little Rickon would be bigger and also taller. In her dreams, Robb had found Arya and sent her back to Winterfell.

After that, they would close the gates to Winterfell and they would never get out of there ever again. They would live inside the walls of Winterfell, they would bury their father in the crypts with his brothers and then, Jon would come all dressed in black to see them.

Jon... had the news already reached the Wall? And if they had, how was Jon holding up with his father's death? Ned was the only parent Jon ever had, he had promised him that they would speak about Jon's mother once they saw each other again. Now they would never get to have that conversation and Jon was never going to know the truth about his mother.

And then, her thoughts were suddenly on Theon Greyjoy. She remembered the day he reached Winterfell. Her father had left home months ago to fight at the war, leaving her with her mother and her siblings – Robb, Jon and Sansa. The rest of them weren't born yet. Lilia was around four years at that time, her hair wasn't very long back then, and she would like to wear her hair lose, without stupid braids or fancy hairstyles. As once her mother would make them, she would take them off, and eventually, Lady Catelyn stopped trying.

When her father got home from the war, all his children were quick to rush to the gates and hug their father whom they hadn't seen in the longest time. Lilia remembered that back then, she would always chase her father around for hugs and kisses. She was a little girl spoilt with too much love and affection for her father.