8I Do Not Own A Song of Ice and Fire
Barbrey Dustin formerly Ryswell, disliked, maybe even hated the Stark family. This was a well known fact among the Northern Houses.
Many attributed this hate to Barbrey wanting to have been the Lady of Winterfell, and husband to the late Brandon Stark...they were wrong.
Barbrey's hatred of the Stark family began with Brandon.
While sent to foster with Lord Dustin at Barrowton, Brandon liked to ride in the nearby Rills. The Rills were the lands of house Ryswell, the house of Barbrey's birth. The Rills were vast open grasslands, with plenty of small creeks and rivers that made the place ideal for raising horses. It was those horses that house Ryswell had built their fortunes on. Barbrey had been riding horses herself for as long as she remembered.
That was how she had originally met Brandon Stark.
Brandon had been handsome, and Barbrey could admit she'd been charmed by him. She had certainly considered the possibility that she could one day be the future Lady of Winterfell. But she had already heard a bit of Brandon's reputation as a womanizer. What's more, Barbrey knew her value as a bride wasn't the greatest, due to her maidenhead having been broken years before due to horse riding. Barbrey had no need or desire to further sully her own reputation by bedding Brandon, by being a simple notch on his bedpost.
And to be honest, the young woman found herself more attracted to the much shyer son of Lord Dustin, William. He was a few years older than Brandon, more muscular and handsome too in Barbrey's opinion.
So when Brandon had tried to bed her, Barbrey had turned him down...repeatedly. Eventually she'd actually had to full on knee the whore-monger in the balls when he tried to get more physical with her. That had been the Stark heir's last attempt to seduce her.
Unfortunately, Brandon decided to brag about taking her maidenhead to all who would listen. It soon became accepted as fact that Barbrey Ryswell had bedded Brandon Stark and was sullied goods. She'd overheard many a maester advise their lords not to wed their sons to Barbrey when she traveled with her father as he attempted to make marriages for her and her younger sister Bethany. It was the biggest reason she hated the Grey Rats, among others.
As a result, Bethany, her younger sister, was not only married, but with child before Barbrey was. What was almost worse, was that Bethany was married to Roose Bolton. And as sinister as the Bolton's reputation was, they were still one of the most powerful and influential houses in the North.
Luckily for Barbrey, it seemed that Willam Dustin was, in fact, enamored with her. After his father passed, and Willam took up the title of Lord Dustin, he ignored the advice of his maester and requested Barbrey's hand in marriage.
Then, once more thanks to the Starks, everything was ruined.
Lyanna Stark, Brandon's younger sister, was kidnapped by Prince Rhaegar. How the girl was stupid enough to be out alone, when she was the daughter of a Lord Paramount, Barbrey had no idea. But the fool Brandon had to ride down to King's Landing, the capital of the Seven Kingdoms and seat of the royal family, House Targaryen, to demand that not only his sister be returned, but that Prince Rhaegar come out and die.
It was no surprise the fool was arrested by King Aerys, better known as the Mad King. Not only were the man's insane whims well known at that point, but even if he was sane, there was no way The King could ignore a threat like Brandon's to his eldest son and Heir. Lord Rickard, Brandon and Lyanna's father, being summoned to King's Landing to account for his son and heir's action was again, not unexpected.
Then the King had to have one of his insane whims. He had Rickard burned alive, as Brandon strangled himself in a futile attempt to save himself and his father. Then he called for the heads of Eddard Stark, Brandon's younger brother who was now Lord of Winterfell with his father and elder brother's deaths, and Robert Baratheon, Lyanna Stark's betrothed. Both boys were fostered by Lord Jon Arryn, the Lord Paramount of the Vale of Arryn and Warden of the East. As Robert was also a Lord Paramount himself, of the Stormlands, it was no real surprise that The North rose in rebellion against the crown, alongside the Vale and Stormlands.
After just over a year of marriage, with no children, Willam left her to ride to war. Barbrey gifted him a beautiful red warhorse, the finest horse from her father's herds, as a gift to keep him safe in battle. In a cruel twist, Willam survived the war, but rode south with Lord Eddard to find Lyanna. When Lord Eddard returned to the North, he returned Willam's horse to her, and told her he fought bravely against Aerys' Kingsguard.
He didn't even have the decency to bring Willam's bones back to bury in the family crypt, yet was able to bring home the bones of his own sister to bury in Winterfell. And he had refused to offer any real explanation as to why the small group of men that included himself and her Willam had to fight the Kingsguard to begin with, as both Aerys and Rhaegar were dead at that point, as were Rhaegar's own children, and Rhaegar's younger brother had fled across the sea to Essos somewhere.
Then Eddard did something that was truly unforgivable to Barbrey. He had a small sept built in Winterfell for his wife.
Sept's were a place of worship for the Seven, the dominant religion in southern Westeros. Only two regions, the Iron Islands and the North followed different religions. In the North, they primarily followed the Old Gods. When the Andals had invaded, bringing their religion of seven gods as one, only the North was able to resit conversion. Before the Targaryen's had united Westeros, wars had been fought between the North and the rest of Westeros over their worship of the Old Gods. And while the Seven were not banned from the North, and there were worshipers of them, to have a sept built within the walls of Winterfell itself, the bastion of the North and the Old Gods, was like a spit to face to those that had fought, bleed, and died for the Old Gods to survive in the North.
Barbrey was not the only other Northern Noble to feel this way. The difference was that other nobles still respected the Stark Family, and Barbrey had lost all respect already.
It was for those reasons Barbrey hated the Starks, why she had no qualms about badmouthing them, even as they were all but extinct now thanks to the War of Five Kings and the Red Wedding.
But Dustin men had died in the War. And Dustin men had died at the Red Wedding. And the bastard that Barbrey suspected killed her nephew, the son of her late sister Bethany, sat in what should be his seat.
The North Remembers...and so does Barbrey Dustin.
Hope you enjoyed this, slightly, different take on Barbrey Dustin.
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