"That's my son you're talking about," Ned warns her good-naturedly. It was hard to be very cross when one was eating tomato soup with extra basil. "I'm obligated to be loyal. He did his best." 

Of course, he knows nothing about her own people's history, but it is a familiar story. Kings who care nothing for their people, only for themselves and grasping more power. And women whose voices would never be heard. "That was not the kind of Lord I was," Ned says, thoughtful. "I kept a seat open beside me at my table so that I might speak with someone each day. Man or woman, high or low, it did not matter. They need only to come to me and ask." Just as they were doing now. Although with less asking and more fulfilling what Eponine had clearly needed.

"What happened to your emperor?" he asks between spoonfuls.