[He only nods, a little blankly, at the first part. Then he listens.
What he hears is: she loves this other man. They have children, something she and Jon could never have had. She had missed Jamie when she was summoned... but then, less and less.
Jon's fist flexes, then loosens. He wants to smash the man's face in. Poor man, who has done nothing to him but be born somewhere, at some time; a man whose great crime had been to meet Claire first. He wonders what he would do if he rounded a corner and met Ygritte. Her body is ashes in the wind scattered all across the North now. He has tried to let her go, however long it has taken. No man can hold to ashes forever.]
And that's what we were?
[Some of the skepticism in his expression relents when he goes on to explain, gently as he can,]
You don't know everything about me, either. You know more than most, but not the things I couldn't remember -- same as it is with you. I was not made to forget anything like a wife, I am free to marry if I wish, but other things. My duty is to rally the defense of the North, and I am nowhere near the North. They took me from it.
[Still, one thing stands out in everything she has said: somewhere in all of this, she has loved him. Their life together had been as true as it might be, for all that it had been an illusion. He adds,]
no subject
What he hears is: she loves this other man. They have children, something she and Jon could never have had. She had missed Jamie when she was summoned... but then, less and less.
Jon's fist flexes, then loosens. He wants to smash the man's face in. Poor man, who has done nothing to him but be born somewhere, at some time; a man whose great crime had been to meet Claire first. He wonders what he would do if he rounded a corner and met Ygritte. Her body is ashes in the wind scattered all across the North now. He has tried to let her go, however long it has taken. No man can hold to ashes forever.]
And that's what we were?
[Some of the skepticism in his expression relents when he goes on to explain, gently as he can,]
You don't know everything about me, either. You know more than most, but not the things I couldn't remember -- same as it is with you. I was not made to forget anything like a wife, I am free to marry if I wish, but other things. My duty is to rally the defense of the North, and I am nowhere near the North. They took me from it.
[Still, one thing stands out in everything she has said: somewhere in all of this, she has loved him. Their life together had been as true as it might be, for all that it had been an illusion. He adds,]
I hate that you are wedded.