Throne and Kin

Twenty years ago the crown prince of the empire went missing, and a woman named Margaret Benson saved him by chance. The boy grew up and took the throne. Margaret's own life went the other way in those years. Her husband betrayed her and was later reported killed in battle, and her son, Thomas Sterling, turned her out. Once the Emperor has his power he sets about repaying the woman who saved his life. He names Thomas top scholar of the examinations, has Margaret's husband found alive, and arranges to honor her as his godmother at the banquet for the new scholars, with the standing of an empress mother. That puts her inside the palace and inside the affairs of the Sterling family, which Edward Sterling heads and which is caught up in fights over power at court and a scheme to corner the grain supply. Thomas goes in with Lord Ashford on a plot against the throne, and mother and son end up on opposite sides. Margaret works at bringing the family's crimes into the open and getting grain to the common people, and the Emperor backs her.