He wanted to tell her the truth about the babe, but he couldn't find his voice again. The joy on his mother's face was so genuine and it acted like a balm on his weary heart. He couldn't bring himself to take it away and become a disappointment once again. He couldn't tell his mother that he had fooled her and the whole Tarly Household. Mayhaps the babe and Gilly were better off here. Aemon Steelsong would become Sam Flowers instead, and be raised here, in the south, in luxury and warmth. The bastardy might earn him a snide remark or two down the line, but he would want for nothing in Horn Hill.