The Heart of a Wielder (Book One of The Wielders Trilogy) ✔️

Chapter Fourteen

Donovan was passing by the gardens when he happened to spot Lady Maren with a group of small children. She appeared to be minding them or at least helping to mind them, and he had absolutely no idea how she had ended up in that situation. As he was having dinner with her shortly anyway, he decided to investigate.

It was a scene of joyful chaos. Lady Maren was sitting on the ground with a small girl of about two or so in her lap while having an animated discussion with an older boy who was perhaps five. Two other children were playing together nearby. Another young woman he thought he recognized from the nursery was holding a babbling baby while yet more children ran around her in circles. Donovan was happy just to watch for a moment.

"Oh! Your Highness!" The woman from the nursery noticed him and attempted a curtsy while holding the baby, which was less graceful than she might have hoped.

"Children!" she called. "Come and say hello —"

He waved her off. "Please don't let me interrupt. I just happened to be passing by."

"Ah!" Lady Maren said, looking up at him. "I expect it's nearly dinner time, Your Highness."

"Nearly," he said and crouched down beside her. "And what's your name?" he asked the little girl in the lady's lap.

The girl, apparently shy, buried her face in Lady Maren's chest.

"Oh, it's all right, dear," Lady Maren said, patting the little girl's back. "This is Cora," she told him, and then to the child, "Cora, this is Prince Donovan. You don't have to talk to him if you don't want to, but I can vouch for him."

She winked at him.

Cora peeked at him and he smiled at her. She buried her face back in Lady Maren's chest. The lady smiled and patted the girl's back.

"Cora, I have to go now," Lady Maren said.

"Will you come back again, Mawen?" Cora asked in a small voice.

"Oh, I'd love to, sweetheart, as long as it's all right with Mistress Cassidy," Lady Maren told her.

"Anytime, my lady. I am so grateful for your help today," the other woman, apparently Mistress Cassidy, said.

Once Cora climbed out of Lady Maren's lap, Donovan offered her a hand to help her up from the ground.

"I was happy to do it," she told Mistress Cassidy.

Donovan held out his arm to her, and they set off for his apartment.

"So, how did that come to be?" he asked.

"Oh, I was just walking through the gardens and little Cora ran away from Mistress Cassidy and tripped and fell right in front of me. So, of course, I comforted her and took her back to the group and Mistress Cassidy seemed rather overwhelmed—it turns out the other woman who works in the nursery is sick—so I offered to help," she explained.

"That was kind of you," he observed.

"It was no trouble," she said. "I like children."

They had reached his receiving room when he said, "I must say it was...unexpected to see you with them."

"Oh?" she asked.

"Well, I mean...you know, with the stories..." he trailed off as Lady Maren turned to give him a look that mixed exasperation and amusement.

Donovan cringed, realizing he had suggested something quite offensive to her.

"Ah, yes! You have discovered my grand plan!" she said dramatically. "I hoped to be chosen at the Selection so that I could infiltrate the palace and steal a child! But, alas! Whatever shall I do now that I have been found out?"