I'll have to warn the readers that there will be some light torture scenes...
About two hours later Lord Stark went to the King's private Solar, followed by Lord Bolton and Ser Wendel Manderly, who tugged with them a bound and gagged Master of Coin.
The Lord Hand was also accompanied by his daughter Minisa though he actually tried to forbid her from coming with them, only to be met with her scoffing answer that in a few moons time, the ways of her husband-to-be would become hers too and wouldn't it then be better if she could find out in beforehand how she would react to them and have her father by her side while doing so?
And so Lord Stark had allowed his daughter to come along with them to the King and watch the questioning of the Master of Coin.
The King had invited female company into his rooms and was just in the process of disrobing the Lady of the Night when from the outside his door was pounded heavily.
Robert Baratheon growled and stomped to the door, opened it a bit and looked angrily at Ser Preston Greenfield. The Kingsguard tough was innocent, it was not him who had disturbed the Kings evening entertainment but the Lord Hand himself.
Eddard Stark was standing in front of the door and asked the King that he was allowed to enter with his companions.
King Robert was surprised but then nodded and opened the door wide, stepped back into his rooms, looked to his female entertainment who had hastily redressed herself and then he went to his chair, sat down and poured himself a Cup of wine.
He thought to himself that he certainly would need.
The Lady of the Night watched the people that entered the King's rooms and while she was surprised to see a young and pretty woman among them, she was absolutely shocked to see her employer bound and gagged and being tugged between two large Northerners.
Her eyes widened, just for a moment but long enough that Lady Minisa had seen it. The Stark daughter had looked at the Kings female entertainment right at the time that said woman had stared at the Master of Coin.
Minisa Stark touched her father's arm and when the Lord Hand bowed his head to her curiously, she whispered into his ear the reaction that she had just witnessed and her father looked for a moment over to where the whore was standing and then nodded.
Behind them all the door was now closed again and the normally so spacious rooms of the King looked smaller with so many big men inside.
The King straightened himself a bit and looked thus a bit more imposing than it should be possible, seeing that he was clothed in a wine-stained and opened shirt and crumpled jerkins but as he was not only a fat man but also a tall one, he still pulled the imposing look off quite well.
"Why are you disrupting my evening Lord Hand?"
"I had not planned to do so originally your Grace, the situation now calls for it though. Lord Baelish tried to run when i questioned him about his deeds as Master of coin but he was luckily caught by Lord Bolton.
Four men of the royal Houseguards were given were ordered to bring Lord Baelish into the Cells where he should be questioned later but when Lord Bolton and i arrived there half an hour later, the Master of Coin was nowhere to be found.
I ordered a search for him but only a new minutes later Ser Wendel here came from the Keep's kitchen building, tugging a snarling Lord Baelish behind him.
We bound and gagged your Master of Coin and i decided to just bring him here, so that he will be questioned in front of you."
"And your girl, your daughter will watch this questioning too?"
" Minisa reminded me that she will be soon Lady Bolton and that it will be good for her to know how her fiance works."
The King looked surprised to the young and pretty woman who was the oldest daughter of his best friend. Said girl looked happily and full of excitement back at him. Robert Baratheon then looked to the whore that should have made his evening and night a happy one and saw that she had lost all color of her face and that her breathing was rapid but shallow.
Before he could asked her though, Minisa Stark already went to her and tugged her with her over to a corner where two chairs were standing. She pushed the Lady of the Night into one of those chairs and then sat down in the second one.
"We are out of the way father, so that Harbold can assist you if you would like to ask the Master of Coin your questions now and the King can hear his answers."
Eddard Stark sighed, his daughter was so forward and wolfblooded sometimes but then he nodded. Better to be done with now and if Minisa was right and the whore knew Lord Baelish, it would surely be helpful to have her look while this thief was questioned. The Lady of the Night might have some informations too and would surely tell after having witnessed some traditional ways of the Norreys and maybe even the Boltons.
The Lord of the Hand gave his signal and Lord Bolton and Ser Wendel unbound the Master of Coin and then stripped him of his outer layers until he was only standing there in his smallclothes.
Eddard looked to the shivering Baelish and saw the thick ropey scar that went from his breastbone down his belly. This was the scar that this man had received from his brother Brandon so many years ago and for a short moment Lord Stark felt sorry for this slight man in front of him.
Non the less, this man had stolen from the Crown, this man had stolen from Robert, his friend and King and with this thoughts, the Lord Hand dismissed his pity for the old injury and instead stepped to Lord Baelish to tug of his gag.
Ser Wendel then brought a chair from the other side of the room forward and he and Lord Bolton bound the now barely clothed man onto it. Then both men stepped back and settled themselves against the inner side of the door that led to the hallway.
Instantly the Lord from the Fingers tried to bring the King to his side by swearing that he did nothing wrong but Lord Stark gave him a backhanded slap that quieted him.
"His Grace will sit there and watch while i ask you. You will answer me. You will not beg to his Grace. You will answer my questions and only if his Grace finds it necessary to interrupt my questioning and he himself asks you something, then you can talk to him."
Lord Baelish tried it non the less to beg King Robert himself only to receive another backhanded slap. That though worked to make him understand and he nodded with his cheeks rapidly turning red.
The next half hour rapidly went by with Lord Eddard asking about the correct sums, about hidden ledgers, about lost taxes and wrong numbers but the Master of Coin always only denied, his eyes going from the King to the Lord Hand and back to King whenever Eddard asked new questions.
He denied everything, he denied that taxes disappeared without a trace and that numbers were forged. Lord Baelish declared himself a loyal and true servant of the King and that he never would betray the Crown and that Lord Arryn, the former Lord Hand had trusted him and all these accusations of the new Lord Hand were false.
The Master of Coin begged the King to believe him and that most of the problems came from the Queen and since she was now dead, certainly the sums would become more positive in the future.
Robert Baratheon had listened to his friend, had groaned after hearing how much money was missing. He always had thought himself above counting Coppers but these numbers had went so far away from mere Coppers that it was really not forgivable anymore.
Only half of the taxes that North had sent all these years were found in the books, was it the same for the taxes of the other lands too?
Were there only half of the taxes from the Reach and from the Westerlands to be found in the books too?
Where was the other half then?
How much taxes did his treasury receive from the Iron Islands, the Riverlands, the Vale, Dorne, the Crownlands and his own Stormlands?
Well, the King was not sure that he received any taxes at all from Dorne and the Iron Islands, but these two unpleasant lands aside, he really wondered what he and his treasury got from the other lands that he ruled over.
King Robert looked at his oldest friend and remembered the uncomfortable feeling a couple of days ago when Eddard had shown him how much money he had squandered for whores and turneys and other pleasures of live. He had reminded his fosterbrother that he was the King but Eddard had only answered that every Lord of his lands needed to know how much money was available and when to stop.
And now, King Robert thought to himself while hearing all these accusations against his Master of Coin and while listening his best friend stating the yearly sums of the taxes that the North had given and reading the miserable sums that Littlefinger had written down in his ledgers instead, now he found himself becoming angrier with every number that he heard. Now he wondered if all the debts that he had managed to acquire for his pleasures were really as high as it was always told to him.
The Ruler on the Iron Throne would always be the first to admit that he had no head for sums but now he wondered if his beloved fosterfather had been really too trustful too.
They all had believed the young and eager Master of Coin, he had always managed to find new ways of getting quick money for the royal life and pleasures and only told Jon Arryn that they must be paid back with this or that percentage. The debts were piling high but he had still always managed to find money for the King but only money that would be needed to be paid back with interests in the future.
Robert wondered if all these loans would have even been necessary if his treasury had received the true amount of tax money and not only half of it.
In front of him was standing his friend and Eddard Stark closed the Ledger from which he had read just a moment ago. The Lord Hand then asked Petyr Baelish once again if he would finally tell the truth about the sums and forged Bookkeeping but once again the Master of Coin denied it all and instead once more asked the King to believe him.
But the Lord of the Seven Kingdoms just shook his head, gulped down his wine and bid the Lord Hand to proceed.
"Since you are not trying at all to cooperate with me Lord Baelish, i will introduce you now to the traditional questioning of Lord Boltons House."
With these words Lord Stark nodded to his future goodson and Lord Bolton came forward. There was a little bag hanging from his belt and when he stepped to the front of Lord Baelish, he opened it and grabbed carefully what was inside.
In his big hands there were now five spiky iron objects.
"Call them iron thistles in my birthlands, we do. Good things they are. Helping many a thief to loosen his tongue."
He gave four of the five objects to Lord Stark who carefully took hold of them and brought the one left in his hand to the eye level of Lord Baelish.
"It's easy with them you see. I take this one, and put it in your left hand and then i close your hand around it and then i squeeze your hand with mine, so that the spikes enter you inner hands skin."
The Master of Coin closed both his hands to tight fists but Harbold tugged the left one open, finger by finger by finger till he could put this Iron thistle into the palm of the hand and then he closed the fingers of Littlefinger around it and squeezed the hand from the outside.
Petyr Baelish SCREAMED and Screamed andscreamed and Harbold Bolton bound the left, bleeding hand in a manner that still put pressure on the hand to the armrest of the chair.
Lord Stark asked Lord Baelish again a couple of questions but the Master of Coin only cursed all Northmen and so Eddard Stark nodded to Lord Bolton.
Harbold took another one of the Iron thistles from his future goodfather and knelt in front of the chair to which Petyr Baelish was bounded.
He took the left foot of the Lord from the Vale and bent it back so that the sole was touching the chair leg. Then he put the Iron thistle in between the foot sole and the chair leg and put pressure on the outside of the foot.
Blood was running down the chair leg and joined the red pool that was already on the floor and that came from the left hand.
Lord Baelish SSCCRREEAAAMED even louder or so it seemed to everyone in the room and his cursing turned to whimpering when Lord Harbold secured the foot in this position with more rope.
He then looked to the father of his fiance and Lord Stark just nodded and gave him another thistle.
Lord Bolton now grabbed hold of the right foot and repeated what he had done to the left one.
Littlefinger screamedscreamedscreamed and cried and was panting painfully and his tears ran down his face like his blood ran down the chair legs.
"I confess... hhhhh...aaaaa...oh gods i confess. I had used my position for all that you had said Lord Stark...i confess..."
"Where are the real ledgers Lord Baelish, surely you have had written down the real numbers somewhere? Where are they?"
"Hhhhhhhh...hhhhh...aaaaa...in my Whorehouses...hhhhhh...aaa...hhhh..gulp..i have the correct books in my whorehouses."
The Lord Hand nodded solemnly.
"It had not been neccessary for you to feel this pain, if you would have just been honest to me. I would asked his Grace for you to be simply beheaded or sworn into the Nightwatch. You could have really spared yourself this pain."
The bound man scowled after hearing the Lord Hand's words and even though he was in great pain, he spit at Lord Stark and yelled at him.
"TO HELL WITH YOU STARKS. YOU AND YOUR DAMN BROTHER HAD STOLEN MY CATELYN FROM ME. IT IS ALL THE FAULT OF YOU DAMN STARKS THAT I WAS ONLY LEFT WITH LYSA. THIS STUPID COW IN BED INSTEAD OF CATELYN. AND MY BEAUTIFUL CAT DIED TO GIVE BIRTH TO YOUR DAMN BRATS. YOU DAMNED STARKS.."
Everyone was quiet after hearing these words. Lord Stark gave not much heed to the words about his first wife because Catelyn came into the marriage bed the same way as he, Eddard Stark himself did. Both had never bedded anyone before and the wedding night was a mixture between embarrassment and curiosity.
The screamed words about Lady Lysa Arryn though, they roused the King out of his thoughts.
And so, before Eddard could stop his former fosterbrother, Robert Baratheon had already stormed over to the bound Littlefinger, roared how he dared to cuckolding Lord Arryn and buried his thick fist in Petyr Baelish's face.
Unfortunately the King had been so enraged that he had forgotten to not put all his considerable power into the punch. He had not controlled himself and actually managed to kill the bound Master of Coin by punching so hard that Petyrs nosebase went straight into his brain and also his entire head snapped back from the impact with such a force that the hit broke his spine.
The Master of Coin was dead instantly.
The King was huffing enraged and Eddard Stark asked himself how many whorehouse there might need to be searched for the real tax ledgers.
Harbold stood up quickly and looked over to Ser Manderly. This was not the outcome that anyone had planned for.
In the corner though, Minisa Stark stood up from her chair and tugged the Lady of the Night with her till they both stood in front of her father.
"Father this here is Shae and she has quite some knowledge about the now late Lord Baelish's establishments and possible hiding places."
All men alive in the room looked to the two young women after hearing these words and Eddard Stark hoped that this whore had told the truth to his daughter.