Piers suspected that the honest answer, the true root of it, was simply that Emmaline had always been a bit daft for underdogs. Elves, servants, the simple working people of her land that so many in the upper classes took for granted... and the scrawny, unwanted bastard son of a crooked man who did just that. She had her causes, and she could be as dogged, as stubborn as a Dwarven merchant in pursuing them. That she had not involved herself openly in the boy's life spoke a great deal more of politics than a lack of affection, for Piers knew exactly how closely the two matters were, in this case as in so many for the nobility, intertwined.
Piers seemed amused, in his genteel fashion. "My wife had her peculiarities. For myself, I would estimate the cause as one part curiosity, another prudence, and a liberal dose of those aformentioned old habits and how bloody hard it is to kill them. I was pleased, by the way, to hear of your knighting. Perhaps a considerably belated congratulations is in order." He smirked, just faintly. "I wonder, did Reynold ever speak to you after? It seems like he might do- but perhaps I am crediting him too much." Too much greed, perhaps, directly at war with his vindictiveness and pride. To have a formerly worthless son suddenly elevated very publicly to a Knight and hero... would that have tempted Reynold enough that he would cease to spurn a bastard?