Ser Hugh of The Vale

[Mad Monkey]

Varys was definitely speaking of Ser Hugh. If he was speaking of both him and Petyr, a lot of what he says does not fit and would not really be any way to test Ned,

If anything, it is a nod by GRRM for those doing re-reads.

But it was 100% Ser Hugh.

I have to agree with that. On a metatextual level Varys could be talking about both Baelish and Hugh, but the actual description he gives fits Hugh much more accurately (he mentions the armor that Hugh was wearing and how nice he looked when he was competing in the Hand's tourney). The only way that you can interpret that line as referring to Littlefinger is if you had a physical copy of A Game of Thrones in your hand and could see that there is a dialogue tag between the first half of Varys's statement -- the part that is ambiguous -- and the second half, the part that refers to Hugh explicitly. There's no way that anyone in the books could pick up on that though.

[Lost Melnibonean]

But if LF told Cersei that Hugh was the poisoner, who did Cersei think gave him the order (cause even Cersei would know Hugh wasn't working alone), Pycelle? I think that's a stretch. I think Hugh actually had nothing to do with Jon's death, but LF wanted Ned to believe the opposite. So LF told Ned that Hugh had stayed in KL and advised him to send someone from his household to talk to him, in case Cersei's spies were watching. So then, Cersei's spies saw Jory talking to him, or maybe even LF told Cersei that Ned had an interest on Hugh, and Cersei automatically assumed that Hugh knew about the incest, so that's why she had Gregor kill him, not because she suspected he was the poisoner. Ironically, by her doing this, Ned, Pycelle and maybe Varys (maybe not) immediately suspected her.

That's pretty good. I'm still going with Sandor, but I like your idea.

[aryagonnakill#2]

It seems perfectly reasonable to me that things are exactly the way they appear. LF tells Lysa they can be together if she gets rid of Robert Aryn and he gives her the tears of lys. Lysa then tells the then squire Hugh that all he has to do to get knighted and rewarded was to put this little vile of liquid/powder in Jon's dinner/ wine/whatever. Pycelle thinks Cersei did the deed so he moves in to finish Jon off.