[ He lets her go and all but helps plant her at his side, reaching over the table to bring closer some bowls of buttered potatoes and a thick slab of roast beef. Anything she'd be given at home is picked out, and Ned helps himself to it too, a hand patting her choppy hair down now and then. ]

Eat and drink your fill, and let's hope your lady mother arrives after you've done so or I'll be charged with keeping a wild girl at the table without first having sent her to wash.

[ He doesn't care for all that, but it's a familiar enough thing to say in order to try and put her at ease. Her spirits are so far downcast that Ned would do almost anything to lift them again, keeping an eye on the crowd for anyone they know while Arya is by his side. ]