Chapter 84

Ned sat on his room overlooking the settlement growing outside Dreadfort and gazed out at the horizon while drinking wine from a glass.

He was usually not one to give in to his vices but the wine was made by none other than Lord Bolton. A wine made from fermented rice.

He still didn't know what to think about it.

It was a decent drink, he would admit. And cheap. So cheap that even the small folk could easily afford it without much difficulty.

It was no match for Arbor Gold or Dornish Red but he doubted it was supposed to match those drinks. But it kept him warm.

He had seen it being sold in the taverns owned by Lord Bolton. Rice wine along with another new drink called Whiskey. Made up of fermented Rye, Wheat and Barley.

"How's the drink my lord?" Celly Jeastro, the CEO (he still had no idea what that word meant) of the various businesses owned by Lord Bolton asked in a soft voice from the chair beside him.

"It's… more than good enough for the small amount of copper that has been paid for it." He replied diplomatically. Hah! And wasn't that a joke. Him, Eddard Stark, being diplomatic. Well, let it not be said that he didn't try.

"A wise answer." Celly said with a small smile "I've no doubt that you heard the term wine and started comparing it to the vintage made by the Rewynes. But in truth, this particular vintage along with Whiskey are much easier to make. So easier to make in fact, that Lord Bolton could open a small distillery in any village within his lands and they'll be able to provide him with a steady supply of Wine and Whiskey after a little instructions."

"I… see." He didn't. He had no idea why she was trying to offer him these vintages or telling him about the ease with they were made.

If it was done by the lady of some poor house then he would have thought that they were trying to ask him to invest in this small venture of theirs.

But by now, he had seen enough displays of wealth to know that the Boltons were far ahead of the Starks in terms of wealth.

"Do you?" the woman asked with a raised eyebrow and a challenging stare "Do you really understand the significance of the presence of a wine distillery in each and every village in the Bolton lands?"

"No. I don't." He said, reverting back to his usual cold bluntness. So much for diplomacy.

The woman smiled once again. But it was not a condescending smile. Even if it irritated him to no end.

"The presence of a wine distillery in each and every village will mean that the people of that village will have another source of income aside from farming." She told him "Another means to earn gold and grow richer. After they've paid back the loan for the distillery first. Of course."

"Lord Bolton want… his small folk to grow rich?" he asked in slight confusion.

After all, in all his years in the North, he had never heard of any lord actively trying to increase the wealth of his small folk.

In fact, many would consider it foolish to give more power to the small folk and do everything in their power to make sure that the small folk doesn't rise from their status.

"He prefers to call them peasant." The woman replied with a soft and warm smile "Or 'his people'. But yes. He want his people to grow richer. In fact, he wants everyone around him to grow richer."

"Yet he takes away the small folk from his nearby lords." He replied, being bluntly honest once again. "Tell me Lady Celly. How does that make anyone aside from him richer."

Celly simply raised an elegant eyebrow at that his blunt accusation "Tell me Lord Stark. When you hear Lord Bolton 'stealing' small folk from the lands of nearby lords. What do you think is happening behind the scenes. Do you think lord Bolton sends his men to kidnap the small folk from the other lands in the dark night. Or does he holds their family hostage and threaten them to come to his lands. Or does he send his men from town to town and bribe them for a better future? Tell me lord Stark. The lords who sent you those letters of complaints. Did they ever tell you, why their people left their lands, their homes and travelled all the way to the Bolton lands?"

He stayed silent for a long moment, taking sip from the glass to hide the uncertainity he was feeling over this whole mess "No." He replied in the end. Blunt honesty. Right there.