Foreigner Of Time [Book II]

7

The second day of the new year.

It was a day for married daughters to return and visit their parents' home.

Jennie was the fourth in line; she had three older sisters, but none of them were Ruby's children.

Early this morning, these three ladies who had already moved to their husband's homes for many years returned to the estate with their husbands and children.

Eddard still treated his few daughters rather well.

He had not sacrificed his daughters' happiness by choosing partners with higher statuses for them.

He made all of his illegitimate daughters marry lower instead, and they became the first wives of merchant families who were less influential than the Stark.

Jennie's oldest sister had the best marriage partner among the three married sisters.

Her husband's home was by the sea, and he had inherited the craft of making fine salt from his ancestors, along with three salt selling places.

Since the kingdom's commercial economy was flourishing like never before, the selling of salt and iron had also advanced a little under the previous reign's model of operation.

Salt merchants handed the salt to the local authorities who registered the collection, then the merchants would go to another department to show their documents and buy the salt back again.

Once that was done, they may take the salt to the markets and circulate it, paying all of their taxes at the end of the year.

Jennie's oldest sister saw a business opportunity within it; she expanded her husband's business using her generous dowry.

Nowadays, Jennie's brother-in-law was the biggest local salt merchant. Although his total property was nothing compared to the Stark's wealth, he was still the most wealthy among the three husbands.

During the family feast, Jennie's brother-in-law seemed extremely proud of his success.

He talked energetically about the interesting things that he encountered while selling salt.

Lisa's eyes lit up when he mentioned that foreigners with golden hair and curly beards would go to his place and exchange for salt using their goods every year.

She leaned close to Jennie's ear and asked quietly, "Is your brother-in-law the one who gave you that striking clock in your study?"

Jennie nodded, then she replied, "The province that my brother-in-law lives in is one of the three big 'foreign trade locations' that the court opened to the public. Ships from overseas come every year, and apparently those foreigners have very unusual features. They will only stay for a month or two until they have traded all of their goods. Once they have filled their ships with new goods again, that is when they will leave. That striking clock is something that my brother-in-law received in a trade with a foreigner. He gave it to his father for his forty-first birthday present, but father thought that it was inauspicious to receive a clock on his birthday, so he gave it to me instead."

Lisa chuckled behind her hand for a while, then she finally reined it in once Jennie rolled her eyes at her.

"When do the foreign ships usually come?" Lisa asked her in a hushed voice.

"At the second or third month each year."

"I want to check it out, want to go together? Let's take Kristen and those few ladies with us too."

Jennie raised her eyebrows a little, then she nodded.

A trace of joy appeared in Lisa's eyes, then she whispered next to Jennie's ear again, "Do you have a complete map of the kingdom?"