Tower of the Hand, about an hour later after the incident in the Garden.

There were sitting two men in Lord Eddard Starks Solar, one was Lord Stark, Hand of King Robert himself and the other was Lord Petyr Baelish, Master of Coin for King Robert.

Lord Baelish had recovered quickly after the punch he had received from the Lady Minisa Stark, though Lord Eddard had smiled inwardly with pleasure that his lovely daughter's right hook had managed to split the upper lip of the Master of Coin. His Mina had always been a strong girl.

"Lord Hand, i thank you that you allowed me to visit the Maester before i joined you here, my lip needed to be looked over and the Grandmaester was kind enough to give me something to stop the bleeding.

I have to say that i was quite shocked about your Lady Daughter's behavior though. Not that i would not admit that some was my own fault of course, for speaking so forward to her and her fiance but surely you agree that non the less, your daughter reacted more violent than necessary."

"My daughter, Lord Baelish, is a Stark and thus blessed with the Blood of Wolves. She, like all my children, protects her loved ones by any means necessary, even if the loved ones can protect themselves. She is also fiercely possessive of her loved ones and abhors it if the people that she cares for are slighted by others."

"Of course Lord Stark and it is an admirable characteristic to be so protective and to care so much for beloved ones. Your daughter surely inherited many important qualities from you but i am sure she also inherited quite a lot from her dear Mother."

"My children never knew their mother, she died while giving birth to them."

"Of course Lord Stark, i remember that sad time quite clearly."

"You remember..?"

"Certainly I do. Dear Catelyn wrote me of her being wedded to you a good week after the ceremony. You might surely remember to have heard that i was fostered in Riverrun for many a year, till your Goodfather made me leave. I practically grew up together with your wife and her sister and brother."

Lord Eddard Stark leaned back in his chair after hearing these words. This Lord Baelish had better connections than he had thought possible. Eddard remembered that his brother Brandon fought against a fosterson of Lord Tully for Catelyns honor and hand. A mock fight against a little idiot of a halfgrown manchild, that was what Brandon wrote of, a fight that was over before it had really begun. Catelyn had asked for the fostersons life and Brandon had let him stay alive. Eddard Stark remembered these words quite clearly, even after all these years. His long gone brother had hated writing letters and so every letter that he received from him while he himself was fostered in the Vale was welcome and packed away safely. Even now, many years later Eddard still kept the letters that he had received from his family in a large box in his Solar in Winterfell and sometimes had reread them.

Lord Stark remembered that his brother had written him too, that while Lady Catelyn asked for the life of her fosterbrother, she had not cared for him afterwards but her sister had screamed the wounded boys name and cried annoyingly loud about her poor Petyr. Brandon had written of how annoying this sister of his fiance was and that he believed that she fancied the weakling of a fosterson. Sadly then Brandon had started again how he would preferred not to be married to these fishes at all.

Eddard Stark straightened himself in his Chair. Could it be? Could it really be, he asked himself? Was Catelyn's sister the reason for Petyr Baelish's rise?
Lady Lysa Arryn, born a Tully of Riverrun and now Widow of his own fosterfather Jon Arryn, former Lord Hand. Could it really be a coincidence that this Petyr Baelish was that talented with money that the Lord of the Vale himself noticed and promoted him till he had became Master of Coin? Or was it more that a foster sister was still enamoured enough with her foster brother to help him rise up?

"Tell me Lord Baelish, since you surely knew all you foster siblings quite the same, do you remember the younger sister of my first wife?"

Eddard Stark narrowed his eyes but barely when he saw the reaction of the other man to the mention of Catelyn.

Just a tiny tick in the jaw of Lord Baelish, nearly to be overlooked if one would not be watching closely. Eddard Stark looked really closely though, he had told Robert that he suspected the Master of Coin to be useless or a thief and with every passing moment that he spent in Lord Baelish's company he became more sure that it was a manipulating thief who was sitting in his Solar and not an useless idiot.

"Of course i remember dear Lysa, a sweet girl, though of course not as lovely as your own wife. The Lord Hand and she had a good marriage, so i was told at least."

"So you would like to tell me that my wife had written you letters after i wedded her but Lady Lysa had not? Where you not as close to Lady Lysa as you had been to my first wife Lord Baelish?"

Eddard congratulated himself to be sounding so clueless and harmless when he could see the startled eyes of the Master of Coin.

"I just met Lady Lysa a couple of times here at the Court after i became Master of Coin, of course. Other than that we had not much contact for all the joy of the Tully family died with Lady Catelyn of course."

Eddard ignored the mention of his first wife completely now.

"You just met Lady Lysa a couple of times here after you became Master of Coin. But as the King told me, you only got this high and important position because Lord Arryn himself brought you from the Vale. That is true, right?"

"I had the honor to have attracted Lord Arryn's eyes upon me after i managed with great talent to make Gulltown much more productive and profitable for the Vale and thus the former Lord Hand himself."

Eddard could nearly smell the arrogance of his prey. This thief thought himself so smart, it was nearly amusing and reminded Lord Stark himself of his dealings with Roose Bolton before he cut of his head.

Time to secure his prey Eddard Stark thought and felt his own, mostly subdued, Wolfsblood rising.

...

"You had managed to attract Lord Arryn's eyes, so you say. By making Gulltown much more productive and profitable, so you say.
I would like to know then, how it comes that you had managed to not do the same for the Crown."

Petyr Baelish looked angry after hearing these words from Lord Stark.

"Lord Stark, if you would look into my bookkeeping for his Grace, then you would without a doubt find out that my work is honest. The problems here are laying in the ways of how his Grace and his now dead wife had spent the coins. My bookkeeping is correct but since i could never stop our beloved King from being generous, the treasury is still empty and the King in debt."

Eddard disliked this smug little smile in this man's face entirely. He just knew that the Master of Coin had cheated the Crown out of money, a lot of money.

"Lord Baelish, as Master of Coin you will not address me in my name, for i talk right now with you as the embodiment of his Grace and so you will address me with the title of my office when we talk about the business of the Iron Throne's money, do you understand that?"

The other man looked like he swallowed something unpleasant after hearing the Lord Hand's words but then nodded respectfully.

" Of course Lord Hand, i beg your pardon. I had not meant to be disrespectful, i was just so hurt that you find my work not to your satisfaction."

"I dislike your attitude Lord Baelish and your sheer outrageousness. You actually dare to lie to me, to lie into my face and dare to tell me that your bookkeeping is correct. It is false i say, because you are using false numbers."

"Lord Hand, with all due respect to you and your high office, i must strongly protest against this accusation of yours. The former Lord Hand, Lord Arryn and his Grace himself had never had any problems with my numbers."

"I know his Grace since we were boys together Lord Baelish and his Grace always trusted Lord Arryn, he had certainly never a doubt if Lord Arryn did not have had one. I am just interested in how you managed to betray my predecessor in the first place and when it had started."

The Master of coin managed not quite entirely to suppress his little twitching of his mouth.

"Lord Hand, you have no evidence of any betrayal done by me."

Eddard leaned back his chair and touched his brows with his left hand as if he was in deep concentration. He was silent.

For a few moments only the breathing of both men were to hear in the Solar but then the Lord Hand straightened himself again and stood up. He walked over to the Wall that was the furthest away from the doors and opened a large trunk that was standing there. Then he grabbed a couple of Ledgers from the trunk and opened one.

The Lord Hand looked into it for a moment, nodded then to himself and closed them. He looked up and over to where the Master of Coin still was sitting in his chair.

"You were away these last couple of weeks, you were visiting the widow of Lord Arryn, were you not? Lady Lysa Arryn, sister of my first wife. Your childhood friend as you told me yourself."

Petyr looked slightly startled about this question.

"I was visiting my own Keep and honor and good manners forced me of course to also give my condolences to the mourning widow of my Liege Lord."

"You see Lord Baelish, the King and i and my people arrived here two days after you left. The second day that i was here, i started to look into the financial situation of his Grace. A few days later i ordered my most trusted Bannermen to help my work through your numbers. A couple of days after that, we found a little secret in your books. Namely how you twisted the numbers for a long time with the help of a secret little clever code that gave way to a double bookkeeping system.

You are a really clever man Lord Baelish but i have turned over the years into an rather distrustful man. Your numbers were simply too good to be honest and true."

Ned could see a little vein starting to throb on Lord Baelish's brow.

"I am an honest man Lord Hand and so i tell you honestly that the problem lay not with my numbers, nor do i have a secret bookkeeping, nor a secret code, the problem is simple that the royals are spending way too much coins."

Ned Stark looked to the man sitting in the chair near the doors with a barely disguised wolfish grin on his lips. Lord Baelish tried to look as if he was angry about being called a dishonorable man but he really had started to sweat and was squirming slightly. Just a bit longer, thought Eddard to himself and this thief would surely crack down enough to confess.

"I know the taxes of my lands Lord Baelish and can quite surely estimate the taxes of the southern lands and your numbers tell of less income from taxes than there should be. Evidence enough for me is the fact that i know absolutely for sure all the taxes that i had sent south from my lands over the years and in your books i found them halved.

You can imagine my surprise, my shock that somehow half of the northern coins disappeared before they reached the royal treasury, at least if i should believe your honest bookkeeping."

Petyr Baelish's face became pale at these words and then he jumped so suddenly from the chair and ran to the door that led out of the Solar, open it and escaped the room, that Eddard Stark was too surprised to follow him quickly enough.

But the Master of Coin had not managed to get that far away because just outside he ran into the strong arms of Lord Harbold Bolton who had accompanied his fiance in the walk up the Stairs to talk to Lady Minisas father.

Lord Stark arrived now outside of his Solar too and looked at the squirming Littlefinger who had no chance to escape the tight grip of Lord Bolton.

"Lord Bolton, you would do me a great favor if you would be so helpful and show this man in your hands the trade of your family. I would like some answers from him."

"I could start with Norrey traditions Nir Magnar, it's a light but interesting way to ask people questions which they didn't want to answer."

Lord Eddard Stark looked thoughtful for a moment but then nodded in agreement.

Minisa Stark looked excited, she knew only the old stories about the Norrey way of questioning people and now she might get a chance to actually see it.

Lord Baelish swallowed heavily and started to sweat in fear. He had to find a way to escape these Northerners as soon as possible.

...

Nir Magnar = Mylord in Old Tongue