[At first, he nods slowly: to her agreement, and to the way she looks at him in light of his confession, and her memory of resting against his chest, her ear to his heart. And when she leans on his shoulder, he leans his head against hers for a long moment, then pulls back slightly to explain.]

It's a long story. I will tell you more of it some other day.

For now, it's enough to say that I was Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. The men choose their Lord Commander, and the vote had been a narrow thing. When I made... an alliance with an old enemy, to fight a worse one... some disagreed. It was our only chance, but some disagreed. They had not seen. They did not know what we would face.

[He is now trembling, but only a little.]

The word of the Lord Commander should be law, and once a man is made Lord Commander, he is Lord Commander for life.

Claire, I didn't live. [It's hard to say this, but if she ever sees the scar over his heart, she will know. No man could survive that wound.] I was dead and cold on a table for two days until a priestess brought me back. I don't remember anything, but believe me when I say I was dead in truth.

[This might go some way to explaining his insistence, even through the years of their marriage, that he was not a god, only a man. Back at Castle Black, in his last days there, he had had to insist on it.]

I only don't want the scars to surprise you.