A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

silk cloak trimmed with black fox, and his customary mocking smile.
    Ned greeted him coldly. “Might I ask the reason for this visit, Lord Baelish?”
    â€œI won’t detain you long, I’m on my way to dine with Lady Tanda. Lamprey pie and roast suckling pig. She has some thought to wed me to her younger daughter, so her table is always astonishing. If truth be told, I’d sooner marry the pig, but don’t tell her. I do love lamprey pie.”
    â€œDon’t let me keep you from your eels, my lord,” Ned said with icy disdain. “At the moment, I cannot think of anyone whose company I desire less than yours.”
    â€œOh, I’m certain if you put your mind to it, you could come up with a few names. Varys, say. Cersei. Or Robert. His Grace is most wroth with you. He went on about you at some length after you took your leave of us this morning. The words
insolence
and
ingratitude
came into it frequently, I seem to recall.”
    Ned did not honor that with a reply. Nor did he offer his guest a seat, but Littlefinger took one anyway. “After you stormed out, it was left to me to convince them not to hire the Faceless Men,” he continued blithely. “Instead Varys will quietly let it be known that we’ll make a lord of whoever does in the Targaryen girl.”
    Ned was disgusted. “So now we grant titles to assassins.”
    Littlefinger shrugged. “Titles are cheap. The Faceless Men are expensive. If truth be told, I did the Targaryen girl more good than you with all your talk of honor.
Let
some sellsword drunk on visions of lordship try to kill her. Likely he’ll make a botch of it, and afterward the Dothraki will be on their guard. If we’d sent a Faceless Man after her, she’d be as good as buried.”
    Ned frowned. “You sit in council and talk of ugly women and steel kisses, and now you expect me to believe that you tried to protect the girl? How big a fool do you take me for?”
    â€œWell, quite an enormous one, actually,” said Littlefinger, laughing.
    â€œDo you always find murder so amusing, Lord Baelish?”
    â€œIt’s not murder I find amusing, Lord Stark, it’s you. You rule like a man dancing on rotten ice. I daresay you will make a noble splash. I believe I heard the first crack this morning.”
    â€œThe first and last,” said Ned. “I’ve had my fill.”
    â€œWhen do you mean to return to Winterfell, my lord?”
    â€œAs soon as I can. What concern is that of yours?”
    â€œNone … but if perchance you’re still here come evenfall, I’d be pleased to take you to this brothel your man Jory has been searching for so ineffectually.” Littlefinger smiled. “And I won’t even tell the Lady Catelyn.”

CATELYN
    â€œM y lady, you should have sent word of your coming,” Ser Donnel Waynwood told her as their horses climbed the pass. “We would have sent an escort. The high road is not as safe as it once was, for a party as small as yours.”
    â€œWe learned that to our sorrow, Ser Donnel,” Catelyn said. Sometimes she felt as though her heart had turned to stone; six brave men had died to bring her this far, and she could not even find it in her to weep for them. Even their names were fading. “The clansmen harried us day and night. We lost three men in the first attack, and two more in the second, and Lannister’s serving man died of a fever when his wounds festered. When we heard your men approaching, I thought us doomed for certain.” They had drawn up for a last desperate fight, blades in hand and backs to the rock. The dwarf had been whetting the edge of his axe and making some mordant jest when Bronn spotted the banner the riders carried before them, the moon-and-falcon of House Arryn, sky-blue and white. Catelyn had never seen a more welcome sight.
    â€œThe clans have grown bolder since Lord Jon died,” Ser Donnel said. He was a stocky youth of twenty years, earnestand homely, with a wide nose and a shock of thick brown hair. “If it were up to me, I would take a hundred men into the mountains, root them out of their fastnesses, and teach them some sharp lessons, but your sister has forbidden it. She would not even permit her knights to fight in the Hand’s tourney. She wants all our swords kept close to home, to defend the Vale … against what, no one is certain. Shadows, some say.”