“I think that’s an excellent idea, Your Majesty,” Honor agreed.

* * *

“And just who’s minding the store back home while you gallivant around the galaxy?” Elizabeth asked the better part of an hour later.

“Floyd has things under control, I’m sure,” Benjamin replied, waving his iced tea glass cheerfully. “I won’t say he was delighted with my decision to go traipsing off, but the way I see it, it’s good practice for him.”

Elizabeth hadn’t personally met Floyd Kellerman, the Chancellor of Grayson, but she’d exchanged quite a few messages with him, and William Alexander had met him. On that basis, she suspected Benjamin was rather understating Kellerman’s reaction. The Protector had chosen him as Chancellor because of his native ability, but he wasn’t quite forty yet, and some of Grayson’s more senior steadholders tried to bully him into doing things their way…especially if they thought Benjamin might not notice.

“Saying Floyd wasn’t ‘delighted’ is something of an understatement, dear,” Katherine Mayhew pointed out dryly, confirming Elizabeth’s suspicions. “I think he was of the odd opinion that things like negotiating treaties with allies is the reason you have a Foreign Minister.”

“Such a stodgy, conventional attitude.” Benjamin shook his head mournfully. “Besides, Uriah’s busy.”

“Oh?” Elizabeth cocked her head. She had met Brother Uriah Madison, the Grayson priest Reverend Jeremiah Sullivan had personally recommended to Benjamin when Lord Berilynko, the previous foreign minister, retired, and she’d been impressed with him. “I wondered why you sent Michael to initial the draft agreements instead of Brother Madison. Is this one of those things another head of state can ask about, or should I remain tactfully incurious?”

“Actually,” Benjamin said, “I sent Michael instead of Uriah for two reasons. One was that given the potential objections some of the more recalcitrant Keys are bound to nurse about concluding peace with someone we’ve been fighting for so long, I wanted a Mayhew personally involved in the treaty process. We’re still a very traditional people, Elizabeth, and the Mayhew name carries weight. With Mike’s signature on the treaty, it’s going to take a particularly hardy steadholder to oppose ratification.”

“I can see that.” Elizabeth nodded. The Winton Dynasty had been known to use family members as plenipotentiaries for much the same reasons. For that matter, that was precisely what she’d done, in a way, by sending Honor to negotiate with Haven.