Eddard/Ned
Eddard and crew, including Robert, are on their way to the southron court. Robert wakes Ned early and they go out riding at the behest of Robert to avoid listening ears.
They babble a bit, Robert complains about the axle that keeps breaking on the wagon hauling Cersei and her children. He even threatens to burn it and force Cersei to walk the rest of the way, and leave her behind while she does so. Ned laughs half-heartedly. Robert continues the farce, talking of the two of them, vagabond knights on the kingsroad, swords at the hip and gods know what in front of them, and maybe a farmer's daughter or a tavern wench to warm their beds.
Ned says he would if he could but that they have duties now, to realm, to children, and him to his wife, and Robert to his queen. Duh. "We are not the boys we were."
Robert scoffs, and admits that Ned was never the boy he once was; and then he does something very stupid and brings up Jon's mother, trying to get the name from Ned again.
Ned tells him her name was Wylla, and that is the end of the story. He's very irritated when this comes up. He admits his fault, knows he shamed himself and Catelyn, and is sorry for his actions. Robert claims there was nothing wrong with it because Ned barely knew Catelyn.
Catelyn was pregnant with one of Ned's children.
Robert says that Ned is too hard on himself.
I hope Robert dies or is killed by the end of this book. I hate him, too. His disregard for faithfulness to one's wife is sickening.
After stumbling upon a graveyard, Robert eventually hands Ned a folded piece of paper; Ned reads it and wants to know the source of the information. We do not learn what the message contains until later. Robert informs Ned that Ser Jorah Mormont provided it to Lord Varys in King's Landing.
Ah. Now we have a current connection of the Starks/Baratheons/Lannisters to the Targaryens, as opposed to the old connection concerning the war and usurping of the Iron Throne.
We learn that Mormont tried selling some poachers to Tyroshi slavers, and since this is a crime, it put shame on the Stark name as well as the Mormonts because Bear Island is within Stark's lands. Ned traveled to Bear Island in the west to deal out justice with Ice, but Jorah had skipped town on a ship.
Now Lord Varys wants to bring Jorah back to the Seven Kingdoms and abolish Jorah's exile. Ned thinks this is a terrible idea and wants to kill the man. Robert asks what else he thinks of the report. He notes that Dany has wedded the Dothraki horselord. Robert admits he'd like to send her a knife and a bold man to wield it as a gift.
Ned does a quick /eyeroll; Robert's hatred for the Targaryen's is a fiery pit of surging fury. Robert wants to kill Viserys and Dany to prevent them from making more dragonspawn to cause trouble. Ned notes how unspeakable it would be to kill mere children.
And then Robert brings up Lyanna again and how Rhaegar raped her hundreds of times.
Robert, she died 15 years ago. Get over it.
He also admits that he doesn't like the marraige and notes that there are still houses in the Seven Kingdoms that call him Usurper. Most likely, when Viserys returns, they will side with him.
Ned assures they will be fine and once Robert names a Warden of the East ... he never finishes the thought because Robert interrupts him and askes Ned to lay off the Warden of the East and that he won't put a sickly boy on the throne. Ned suggests that he foster the boy unless Robert promised him elsewhere. Robert confesses that he submitted to Jaime Lannister's idea.
But this brings the problem of Warden of the West in to the mix. Jaime already holds that position and cannot hold both east and west effectively.
Ned and Robert continue to bicker when Ned gives up the truth of what happened in the castle of Red Keep the day Robert took over as king. Jaime Lannister took his house to Red Keep and duped the enemy into thinking they were coming to support the Targaryens. Lannister's army single-handedly took over the keep, and Jaime, sworn to Aerys Targaryen, had slain the man and he lay on the floor.
Jaime is a prick. And yet Robert trusts the man because he believes that Jaime played the same game of treachery the Targaryen's played. Ned told Robert that Jaime was sitting on the throne in Red Keep while they awaited his arrival. Jaime then laughed and left the seat saying it was much too uncomfortable.
Robert agrees, laughing all the while, and absolves Jaime of his sins. He then urges Ned to ride with him, to feel the wind in his hair again. He gallops off.
Ned doesn't follow immediately and begins to think of the work ahead of him. He knew he would not be able to change Robert's mind concerning much of anything, and that he belonged in Winterfell with Catelyn in her grief, and with Bran.
He admits that a man cannot always be where he belongs, so he gallops off after the king.
Ser Jorah and the Targaryen's
We know a little more history of the relationship between the Starks/Baratheons/Lannisters and the Targaryen's. And we know just how deep Robert's hatred is for the Targaryen's altogether. He feels as though he should have killed Viserys and Dany long ago when they were babes.
All because of Rhaegar and Lyanna. I know Lyanna ended up sick, but how? Did she contract a disease from Rhaegar? I wonder if that's why Robert hated the man so much and not even killing Rhaegar sated Robert's hatred of him.
We're a little bit closer to the connection between the current Targaryen's, Viserys and Dany, and Robert and Ned. Robert seems them only as vermin, but Ned only sees children. Hopefully things don't turn out poorly for Ned because the children were left alive.
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