Chapter 16: Ned Stark's Confidence

The summons arrived folded without wax — a detail Elspeth noticed before she had fully unfolded it, because a man who seals nothing is a man who does not expect to be read by the wrong eyes, which was either the mark of extraordinary trust in his household or extraordinary naivety about it.

She suspected, with the specific grief of certainty, that it was the latter.

*Lady Elspeth — if you find yourself at liberty this afternoon, I would be grateful for a moment of your time. My steward will show you up. — Eddard Stark.*