"Yes?" answers Cat shakily.

"Are you hurt?" Asks the septon, concerned.

"No, I was simply overjoyed to see the river in the afternoon light. The sight of it from this room has long been dear to me," she lies easily.

Ned rests his face against her back, trying to suppress a laugh.

"Of course" says the septon, sounding satisfied.

They hear his footsteps leave. Ned lets out his laugh.

"Who would have known Lady Stark had such a talent for lying."

"Well one of us has to be able to think quickly." She replies teasingly.

He kisses her neck and thrusts lightly before finding the rhythm he had before being so rudely interrupted.

She peaks with his name on her lips and, after a few more thrusts he shouts her name as he comes undone.

They break apart and Ned pulls up his breeches before turning turn pull her into a light embrace, his lips resting on her forehead.

She wraps her arms around him and they stand like that for a while, enjoying the simple intimacy of having the one you love in your embrace.

After a while they break apart and Cat frowns.

"What is it, my love?" he asks softly

"I have just realized that I have not seen to the children all day," she replies, distracted.

"I am sure your septa has them well in hand." He says, though he has doubts, about Arya in particular. She is barely a year old and yet she is more trouble than the other three (no, two) put together. Yet he is enjoy the tour too much to let it stop now, and the castle staff can surely deal with three young children, after all most are apparently still the same as those who tended Catelyn and her siblings.

"Mmm." She shakes her head as if to shake off the thoughts.

"I have two more places to show you," she says, returning to the matter at hand.

"Oh?" he asks.

"First, a place you have already been, though under considerably more stressful circumstances."

They exit the bright room. Thankfully there is no sign of anyone else who may have overheard them.

They walk past the Great Hall, continuing to the northern end of the castle and enter the sept.

...

The afternoon sun illuminates the coloured glass forms of the Seven. Though it is not his faith, Ned can see what his wife loves this place. He did not notice its tranquil beauty when he was here last, the day of their wedding. He had been too worried about the war and nervous about the ceremony and the ensuing bedding (how things have changed!) to take in his surroundings. Now, however, he stops and gazes at it.

"It's beautiful, Cat," he whispers. Then guilt washes over him.

"I wish I could have built one that was this beautiful for you at Winterfell."

She walks over to his and takes his rough hands in her soft ones.

"I love the sept you built me. It is different from this one, yes. Their physical beauty is not so important. I has The Seven and it is the one you had built for me. It was a gesture of respect and a place of tranquility for me at a time when everything seemed so strange and forbidding. It is mine for my new family. The family we made, though of course they will learn of the Old Gods as well. This one is for the family I was born too. They are both very special to me, love."

He places his hands on her arms and searches her face, but he sees no Duty there, only happiness.

"I meant it as a gesture of love too Cat." He replies, gruff but soft.

She smiles in agreement.

"And a gesture of love."

...

Finally, she shows his into a grand room with a massive oak table stretching down the center. High-backed chairs are positioned around it.

"I loved this room. This was where decisions were made. Everyone in here had a purpose. In this room, I was more than a helpless little girl. I was Lady Tully." She says this with pride. He knows how she hates to not be able to do anything, how helpless she must have felt when her mother died. In doing her duty she found her purpose and she relied on that when times were hard, just as she had in those first months at Winterfell when he had welcomed her with a bastard (not his, though he mustn't say it) and many times since.

"Where was your place?" he asks.

Cat walks over to stand behind a chair at the far side of the room, the one to the right of the ornate chair at the head of the table.

He follows her over and lifts her onto the table beside her chair, giving her that smile that resembles a wolf, the one he knows she so loves.

"It seems to me one should be rewarded for such loyal duty to one's family," he growls as he moves to kneel before her.

He kisses both of her knees, and then moves slowly towards her center, placing kisses on the insides of each thigh as he goes. When he gets close, he lightly draws his tongue from her inner thigh to her folds, where she is ready for him.

She gasps and curls her hand into his hair when he pushes his tongue inside of her.

Her cries start out as his name, but soon devolve into strangled moans of pleasure as he sucks and licks her to her finish.

He raises his head to look on her face, still flushed.

"It is a good thing we are not in Winterfell. Had we done this on the throne of the Winter Kings I do not believe I would ever be able to sit in that room without becoming quite red." She says playfully, if very much out of breath.

"A situation I shall soon have to remedy, my lady." He replies gravely.

A bell joins to the sound of her laugh and he realizes it must already be time for supper.

They both look towards the door.

"I am sorry to leave my lord in such a state," Cat says, with a pointed look at the straining laces of his breeches, "but it would not do to be late for supper, and we have yet to make ourselves presentable."

She slides gracefully off the table and he stands, catching her arm.

"I have married a cruel woman," he mocks, before kissing her harshly.

She responds in kind, nipping his lower lip, but pulls away.

"My lord was not satisfied with his tour of the castle and grounds?" Her face is deceptively innocent.

It is his turn to laugh.

"Cat, if you should wished to continue your tour of the southern lands, I do believe I would follow you all the way to Dorne."

She kisses his cheek lightly.

"Come husband, let us get ready for the feast."

…

Some time later, at the feast, Cat blushes bright red and he nearly chokes on his ale when her father asks Ned

"Lord Stark, how did you enjoy your tour of the lands? Did Cat show you and her siblings used to go swimming?"

This is one of the few times he is glad that most people think his face is carved of ice, for Lord Hoster's face is merely satisfied when he answers

"I enjoyed it very well, Lord Tully. Very well indeed."