As the biggest contributor to most of those divorces, Sigrid had no comment. She had opened up a law firm with Lord Bailey which specialized in helping clients with their marital and divorce suits.
She stayed in the background, taking on an advisory role and left all the work to Lord Bailey and the four counselors they hired. They had even hired clerks and secretaries.
At the time, she had no idea that Lord Bailey would be the biggest champion of free love, encouraging unhappy spouses to divorce. They were raking in gold coins in terms of legal fees as if they owned a gold mine. It had not taken a week before more law firms popped up in the capital. Nobles had smelled the gold like sharks smelling blood in the water and everyone wanted a piece of the pie.
Sigrid had also played a role in Galen’s divorce three weeks ago. He had come looking for advice because both of his wives wanted an amicable divorce and he felt the same way. The cause of the divorce was cited as emotional disconnection and differing interests. In truth, the women were tired of the political intrigue.
She had assisted him through it, his wives had moved out of his castle to one of his houses in the next city. They would not return to the capital for a year. By that time the divorce would be off everyone’s mind. As for the children, three in number, Galen had kept full custody but the mothers had visitation rights.
The Lord mage broke off a piece from one block of chocolate, diving it into three pieces. He passed a piece to Sigrid and another to Roland. "Someone said Lord Bailey said free love should be advocated more than arranged marriages on order to build happy families that will result in a happy society. One statement he made casually has sparked off the divorce craze.
Which brings me back to Prince Galen. Am I the only one curious about the newly single noble prince and the titled young lady mage who is blushing red more than the fire stroking these cauldrons? Is he courting Mauve Rosewood?"
"Well...none of of here us blind so we can all judge for ourselves what we see." Sigrid muttered. She narrowed her mouth and sucked on the piece of chocolate in her mouth, finding it too sweet for her taste. "I have never seen Mauve turn that red before." she muttered, her tone dripping with amusement.
The Lord mage cleared his throat and said, "Well to be fair, we don’t know why she has turned that shade of red. Maybe she is embarrassed because everyone is watching them and giggling."
"And yet she is still standing close to him." Roland scoffed.
"If she is attracted to him, I don’t blame her. Prince Galen does have a certain wicked magnetism. He is like a rogue, the charming bad boy that you know will break your heart and yet you still go ahead and let him court you anyway." Sigrid found herself taking another bite of the chocolate and sharing her opinion care freely.
"One day, you find yourself behind the hedge sharing a kiss and the next day, you see him walking around town arm in arm with someone like Lady Echolyn Sterling.
You wave at him, he pretends not to see you so you run home and cry in your mother’s arms. In the evening he shows up with flowers and again, you find yourself kissing him behind the hedge." She took a deep breath and looked at Roland.
He appeared to be gobsmacked, as did the Lord mage.
Roland raised an eyebrow, "Magnetism? Wicked magnetism!!! Kisses behind a hedge! Bad boy!!! I think you give Galen too much credit."
"No.." The Lord mage shook his head. "She is right about that magnetism. I have a daughter that is a fool for him, she thinks he is more charming than Benjamin. They do make a handsome couple, Mauve and Galen."
"They are not a couple." Roland almost groaned. He could foresee trouble at the Vale if those two became a couple. "The man’s just fresh off a divorce. And he is responsible for those children of his--what are their names again? Havoc, Frenzy and Hullabaloo?"
The Lord mage laughed while Sigrid rolled her eyes. Roland’s relationship with Galen’s children that were all under the age of eight was like the one between her and Sunny. He loved the children but they had too much energy and left chaos in their wake all the time.
"Close, it is Harry, Fiona and Henrietta." The Lord mage corrected.
"Both wrong." Sigrid chimed in, "They are named Hadley, Faith and Hannah. I know this because we have a weekly play date which includes tea and whatever snacks Mauve prepares. The younger one, Hannah she loves Mauve to pieces, they even had a sleepover three months ago. This thing between Mauve and Galen, I don’t think it is new, I think it just didn’t have the opportunity to bloom before."
Even though nobody could hear what Mauve was saying, the fact she twirled a lock of her hair sent everyone into a tailspin. It was official, she was flirting. The servants were almost tripping over each other as the attempted to whisper discreetly while separating and packing the chocolate bars and powder.
"I heard he sent his wives packing because they could not bake a cake for their lives." One maid said, her eyes wide.
"It explains his interest in our Lady Mauve then, who in Eldoria bakes better pastries than her?" another laughed.
"He has a reputation of a rake though. Before he married, he was nicknamed Lord Barkington because Lady Erica called him a dog for courting her and her best friend Lady Cherish at the same time." Butler Charles whispered.
"Nonsense." Jesting rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Prince Galen has never courted any Lady. His wives were picked for him by the queen as soon as he turned eighteen."
"You are wrong." chimed in a stable boy. "Before he wed, he did fool around, but it was not with any titled ladies. It was with an opera singer. He took her in as his private courtesan for a while. He left the house after he wed, she is now Lord Fabian Valemont’s secondary wife."
Jesting was ready with a response to combat the knowledge of the stable boy. One thing his fellow butler Charles was right about is that the city was filled with gossip among servants.
Back to Sigrid, Roland and the Lord mage, Sigrid was troubled with all the rumors going around. Pretty soon, Lady Silver would probably be by to address the issue.
"Do I stop them?" she asked Roland.
"No," Roland shook his head. "He is courting her publicly. It is not as if he is kissing her secretly behind the hedges." He broke off and snorted, then laughed.
As the trio watched, a servant bumped into Galen and he landed head first in a bowl of warm liquid chocolate. It was a pretty funny sight when he raised his face. Mauve rushed to clean him up, her concern barely masking her laughter.
"Well, at least we are being entertained." Sigrid said.