“I think it would’ve been a marvelous name,” Henke told her with an impish grin.

“I’m sure you do,” Honor said repressively. “I, on the other hand, don’t. Leaving aside the entire question of modesty, can you imagine how High Ridge and his crowd would have reacted? It would have been tailor-made for their op-ed pieces!”

“Um.” Henke’s grin vanished at the reminder of the unpleasant political realities inherent in the existence of the High Ridge Government. Those realities had become progressively less pleasant and more personal, for Honor at least, over the last three-plus T-years. Which, Henke knew, was the real reason her friend had been so delighted to return briefly to Grayson to attend to her obligations as Steadholder Harrington. It was also one of the reasons Henke herself had shown such alacrity in accepting the invitation to spend her own leave as Honor’s guest here.

“You’re probably right,” she said, after a moment. “Of course, in any properly run universe, High Ridge would never have become Prime Minister in the first place, much less held onto the office for so long. I think I’ll complain to the management.”

“I do that every Sunday,” Honor assured her with very little humor indeed. “And I suspect the Protector has Reverend Sullivan do the same thing, just to put a little more horsepower behind it.”

“Horsepower or not, it doesn’t seem to be working,” Henke observed. She shook her head. “I can’t believe they’ve managed to hang on so long. I mean, Jesus, Honor, most of them hate each other! And as for their ideologies—!”

“Of course they hate each other. Unfortunately, at this particular moment they hate your cousin even more. Or feel sufficiently scared of her to hang together, come what may, in opposition to her, at any rate.”

“I know,” Henke sighed. “I know.” She shook her head again. “Beth always has had a temper. It’s too bad she still hasn’t learned to keep it muzzled.”

“That’s not quite fair,” Honor disagreed, and Henke arched an eyebrow at her.

Michelle Henke, thanks to the assassination which had killed her father, her older brother, the Duke of Cromarty, and the entire crew of the Queen’s royal yacht, stood fifth in the line of succession for the Crown of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. Her mother, Caitrin Winton-Henke, Duchess Winton-Henke and Dowager Countess Gold Peak, was Queen Elizabeth III’s aunt, the only sibling of the Queen’s father, and now Michelle was her mother’s only surviving child. Henke had never expected to stand so high in the succession, or to inherit her father’s title, for that matter. But she’d known Elizabeth all of her life, and she was only too familiar with the fiery Winton temper which the Queen had inherited in full measure.

Despite that, she had to admit that Honor had actually spent more time with the Queen over the last three T-years than Michelle herself had. Indeed, the visibility of Duchess Harrington as one of the Crown’s staunchest supporters in the Lords (and as one of the inner circle of “kitchen advisers” the Queen turned to for advice instead of the members of her official government) was one reason the pro-Government media had spent so much time trying to discredit Honor in any way it could. The subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) vilification which had come her way had been downright ugly at times. But however that might be, she admitted, Honor had not only spent more time working with Elizabeth but also possessed certain advantages others lacked when it came to evaluating people and their emotions. Still…