Chapter 50

Catelyn Stark POV

Ned was worried.

To anyone else, his stoic face might look like it has always been. After all, he had never been good at showing any emotions and hid behind his icy expression whenever something bad happened. But Catelyn has lived with him for a decade so she knew.

She knew that he was worried about something.

But she also knew that he would never share his burdens with others so she decided to confront him about it after dinner at bed once their children had been sent off.

And once she confronted him about it and learned what had worried him so much, she was shocked.

"Four times the amount of food? And 15 times the amount of iron?" she asked, not really believing what she had heard.

After all, how was it possible that the peasants a particular land are able to increase the quantity of their food production by such a large amount within the duration of a few years,

Had the Bolton lands suddenly turned as fertile as the lands of the Reach and the Riverlands?

Such a thought was rather foolish but how else were the peasants within that area able to produce so much grain.

As for the 15 times iron being produced by the Boltons, she had no idea what to even think about it.

After some prodding, she found out that before Domeric Bolton became the lord of Bolton lands, they only had 2 mines, they now have 16. And the increased amount of miners from both the Iron Islands and the Westerlands made it so that each Iron mine is producing much more Iron ore than it earlier did.

Not only that, the Boltons now also had a Silver and a few Copper mines.

She almost felt her mind shut down from all the information.

Where did all these mines sprung up from within the Bolton Lands?

Was it true that Domeric Bolton blessed by the old gods?

Once upon a time, she would have laughed at the absurdity of such a thought but now she was not so sure anymore.

And from the way her husband was looking at the paper, she knew that he had similar thoughts about Domeric Bolton even though he would never admit it to anyone else.

Still, did they not know of the significance of a person owning a Silver mine.

It was after all, the second most precious metal in Westeros followed only by the Gold.

Did her husband not understand how much wealth a person could accumulate if they just own a Silver mine.

From the worried look on his face, she felt that he had a good idea about what having a silver mine might mean but so far Lord Bolton had not done anything wrong so her husband didn't knew how to deal with this situation.

Still, The Boltons had been the enemy of the Starks for a long amount of time and watching your enemy grow stronger day by day was very frustrating.

She should know.

After all, she might be born a Tully but she was a Stark now and had children with the same name whose lives will be in danger if the young Lord Bolton continued to amass his wealth and power like that.

"Ned. What do plan to do about the Boltons?" she asked and couldn't help but shake her head at the irony of it as there was only a single Bolton alive in the North at the moment.

A single Bolton who has taken his house to the height of prosperity never reached before by any Northern house.

"Nothing." Her husband said with a self deprecating smile.

"Nothing?" she asked incredulously.

"Yes. He may be gaining power but growing crops and opening new mines as well as creating paper and books is no crime Cat." He said with a tired sigh.

"Yes. But we still need to do something that would curb his growing power. Or the Boltons would become too powerful and we won't be able to do anything in the future." She said imploringly but her husband simply shook his head with a sigh.

"I truly cannot do any harm to him without any reason. He has done nothing wrong except for making his lands more prosperous. Something that every lord desire to do. It would not be honorable."

She almost grimaced at that. Almost.

Because even if she was proud of her husband being an honorable man, she knew that sometimes honor can create more problems in the long term than solve it.

After all, if Lord Tywin Lannister forgave the Raynes and Terbacks because of honor then the Westerlands would always remain in the brink of Civil war because of their presence.

Sometimes, honor needed to be sacrificed in order to do what is right. Unfortunately, this was a lesson that her husband never managed to learn.

But after thinking for a while, she was able to see a solution that would not go against her husband's sense of honor but that would stop the young Lord Bolton from plotting against them.

"Lord husband." She said and sensing the change in mood, he put down the paper and turned to look at her with a serious expression.

"What is it my lady?" he asked gently.

"Lord Domeric Bolton is a bachelor." She said.

"Lord Domeric Bolton has not even reached his teenage years. Of course he's a bachelor." He said with a smile though she could feel that he understood where she wanted to go with this but didn't want to say the words himself.

"Our little Sansa is only a few years younger than him." She said imploringly and he grimaced as soon as he heard those words.

"I'm not going to betrothed one of my daughter at such a young age." He said with a sad expression and a faraway look on his face. "I don't want to put such a heavy responsibility on her at such a young age."

"I don't want to do such a thing either." She said, thinking about her young and naive girl "But we need to bring Lord Bolton in the fold somehow. And what better way to do so other than form a marriage alliance with him."

He still didn't look all that convinced so she sat up and looked at him seriously.

"I know you don't want to do this Ned. But this is something that needs to be done. And quickly before Lord Domeric Bolton is betrothed to someone else."

"I know." Her lord husband said miserably "I just… hoped that I wouldn't have to betrothed my children for the benefit of the family."

"Yes. But doing so might stop a civil war in the Northern land in the future." She said, hoping he would realize how serious this situation was.

Because if the reports that they occasionally receive about Lord Bolton were true then House Bolton must have already gained more power than House Stark. Something which was a clear recipe for a disaster.

And her husband understood this as well because after thinking about it for a while, he took a deep breath and nodded at her.

"I'll see what I can do." He said and she knew that she had convinced him for betrothal.