Barbrey Dustin

"My mother served Lady Dustin for many years, my lord."

- Arya Stark to Tywin Lannister

Barbrey Dustin, née Ryswell, is an unseen character mentioned in the second season.

Background
Barbrey Dustin is a member of House Ryswell by birth and House Dustin by marriage. She is the Lady of Barrowton.

Season 2
When Tywin Lannister calls out Arya Stark on her refined speech for sounding too highborn rather than baseborn, she lies saying that her mother was a handmaid to Lady Dustin. As a result of working for a Lady, the fictitious mother taught her daughter to speak well.

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Firenovels Barbrey Ryswell is the head of House Dustin and the widow of Lord Willam Dustin, who fought alongside Ned Stark during Robert's Rebellion. Lord Roose Bolton was married to her late eldest sister, Bethany.

Eddard Stark's older brother Brandon took Barbrey's virginity and she hoped to marry him, but his father Lord Rickard Stark was advised by his maester that it would be more beneficial to forge an alliance with House Tully, Lords Paramount of the Riverlands, by betrothing Brandon to Catelyn Tully. Barbrey has hated maesters ever since. Brandon and his father died at the outbreak of Robert's Rebellion, but the planned alliance between the Starks and Tullys continued with the marriage of Catelyn Tully to Brandon's younger brother Eddard. Barbrey's husband Lord William Dustin died at the end of Robert's Rebellion, fighting with Eddard Stark against King Aerys' surviving Kingsguard. Barbrey never forgave Eddard for William's death, and particularly because he wasn't able to bring William's bones back North to bury in his ancestral home. Combined with her anger at the late Lord Rickard because he forbid Brandon to marry her, Barbrey became very bitter towards the Starks over the years.