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

Chapter Twenty-One

The rumor about Lady Maren did run its course and die out more quickly than Donovan had expected. That was because it was replaced with a scandal.

A young noble, Lord Braxton, had been found in a compromising situation with one of the members of the staff. That in and of itself would not have been particularly problematic were it not for the gender of the staff member in question. If it had been one of the young maids, there would have been some eye-rolling and back-patting, and it would have been an amusing story instead of a scandal. But it was one of the drivers, so it was a scandal.

It wasn't a legal scandal, not like if it had been discovered that there was a Light Wielder at Court, but it was absolutely a social scandal.

Much to Donovan's chagrin, his father had asked him to deal with it.

"To be honest, Son, this is the sort of thing I prefer not to get involved in, but the Minister of Culture has been rambling on about restoring morality at Court. And I would like him to be quiet more than I would like not to be involved," his father had said.

"And you're asking me to deal with it —"

"Because, as you'll see one day, when you're the King you can sometimes delegate less pleasant tasks to your sons."

Donovan had to chuckle at his father's frankness, but he was still annoyed this had somehow become his problem.

Fortunately, he had dinner with Maren and Alec shortly thereafter, so could at least complain about it to someone.

"And what, by gods, am I supposed to do about it?" he asked them.

"Why should you do anything at all?" Lady Maren asked.

Donovan sighed. "I don't want to, but it's not as though I can tell the King 'no' when he asks me to handle something."

"Not doing something is doing something though, it's saying the monarchy doesn't pass judgment on private relationships," Lady Maren argued.

"Is that the message we should send? I don't know," Donovan said.

"What does the Minister of Culture want you to do?" Alec asked.

Donovan sighed. "'Restore the morality of the Court,' whatever that means. At a minimum, he wants Braxton banned from Court."

"Banishment seems rather severe, not to mention it'd ruin his business prospects for life," Alec said.

"Did Braxton force the driver?" Lady Maren asked.

"Not so far as anyone has said," Donovan answered.

"Then it shouldn't be a problem," she said.

Alec seemed surprised, "Do you really think so? That's a very liberal attitude."

She laughed and sipped her wine. "I'm a very liberal person."

Donovan smiled at that. She wasn't really liberal in her person, he'd rarely met anyone more insistent on following proper manners. But she was liberal, or at least more outspoken, in her political views to be sure.

"Regardless, I have to do something," Donovan said. He wasn't sure how he felt about what Braxton had done, but he did know he would've preferred not to be involved.

"How about this, send Braxton on some sort of royal expedition that'll take him away from Court for a while. It will get him out of town until something else scandalous can happen. The Minister can quit complaining, but you don't have to actually punish Braxton," Alec suggested.

Donovan thought about it for a few moments. It seemed like a reasonable suggestion. He just had to come up with something reasonable for Braxton to do out of town. Perhaps inspecting some of the military forts outside the Capital.