“Oh, don’t worry,” she told him, almost as if she could read his mind. “I detest the woman, and I’m quite sure she detests me, right back. But we’re both fully aware of how much we need one another right now, and neither of us is likely to do anything stupid.”

“In the end, however,” she went on, promptly undermining his momentary sense of relief, “we’re either going to accomplish what made us political bedfellows in the first place, or else Alexander and the Queen are going to manage to take us out of office before we do. In the first case, I think we can take it for granted that there’s going to be a certain… acrimoniousness to the ultimate dissolution of our partnership. And in the latter case—which, I hasten to add, I consider an unlikely, worst-case scenario—you can bet anything you like that Her Majesty’s going to be out for blood. Our blood. Either way, there are going to be plenty of sharp knives waiting to be parked in someone’s back, and Reynaud could be one of them.”

“I think you’re worrying unduly,” the Prime Minister said after a moment. “There are always… irregularities of one sort or another, but neither side has any interest in making them public when the government changes hands. After all, as you’ve just pointed out, it will always change hands again at some point. If the incoming government smears its predecessors over every potential little discrepancy, then it invites the same treatment when it’s time for it to leave office, in turn, and no one wants that.”

“With all due respect, Michael, we’re not talking about ‘little discrepancies’ in this instance,” Descroix said coolly. “While I would be the first to argue that our decisions were completely justifiable, they hardly represent unintentional errors or sloppy paperwork. There’s not much point in pretending that someone like Alexander couldn’t exaggerate them all out of proportion and start some sort of witch hunt. And whatever he might want to do as a realistic and pragmatic politician, the Queen is going to want the biggest, noisiest witch hunt she can possibly arrange in our case. In fact,” Descroix smiled thinly, “I’m pretty sure she’s already stockpiling wood for the barbecue at Mount Royal Palace.”

“It’s just a bit late to be developing a case of cold feet, Elaine,” High Ridge told her. “If you thought we were taking unjustifiable risks, you should have said so at the time.”

“I just finished saying that I felt they were justified,” she said with calm deliberateness. “I’m simply pointing out that that doesn’t mean I’m blind to the potential consequences if they come home to roost later.”

“And just why are you so assiduously pointing it out?” he asked in a tone he realized was beginning to verge rather too closely on querulous for the Prime Minister of Manticore.

“Because Reynaud’s attitude towards Clarence crystallized my concerns about them. I’ve been aware of them from the beginning, but the need to concentrate on day-to-day tactics has tended to push them further down my list of things to worry about. Unfortunately, if we don’t start worrying about them now, then we’re going to spend a lot more time worrying about them later.”