But the fact that her friend hadn’t been born to power and nurtured within the ranks of the Star Kingdom’s hereditary elite also created some dangerous blind spots, Henke reflected with carefully hidden anxiety. Blind spots that left her unaware of dangers someone like Henke herself would have recognized instantly, despite any distaste for politics. In spite of all that had happened to place Honor at the very pivot of political power in two separate star nations, she continued to think of herself—and her private life—as the yeoman’s daughter she had always been.

Michelle Henke faced her friend and wondered yet again if she should say something to her, remind her of how her private life could and would be used against her by her political foes if she gave them an opening. If she should ask Honor if there were any truth to the rumors beginning to be whispered ever so quietly.

“That sounds like it makes sense,” she said instead, after a moment. “It still surprises me to hear it coming from you, though, I guess. May I ask if Lord Alexander shares your analysis?”

“Of course he does. You don’t think I haven’t discussed it with him—at length—do you?” Honor snorted. “Between my own position in the Lords and my role as Benjamin’s friend at court, I’ve spent more hours than I care to think about in skull sessions with the man who ought to be Prime Minister!”

“Yes, I suppose you’d have to,” Henke agreed slowly, and cocked her head ever so slightly. “And has Earl White Haven been able to add anything to your perspective, as well?”

“Yes,” Honor replied, reaching down to stroke Nimitz’s spine. Her eyes, Henke noticed, dropped to watch her own hand on the treecat’s silken pelt rather than meet her guest’s gaze, and the brevity of her one-word response struck Henke as… ominous.

For one moment, the countess considered pressing further, making the question explicit. After all, if she couldn’t ask Honor, who could? But the problem was that she couldn’t, and so she only leaned back in her own chair and nodded.

“That tallies with what Mom was saying, too,” she said then. “And I guess she figured I should have known enough about what was going on to understand it without her drawing a detailed map for me the way you just did.” She shrugged. “Sometimes I think she never realized how much I left all that sort of thing to Cal. I was too busy with the Navy.”

A fresh memory of sorrow flowed across her face, but she banished it quickly and produced a lopsided smile.

“Now that you have explained it, though, I see what you meant about historical imperatives. I still say Beth’s temper didn’t help things any, though.”

“No, it didn’t,” Honor agreed, looking up from her lapful of ’cat once more with a slight air of what might have been relief. “If nothing else, it made the stakes personal for High Ridge, New Kiev, and Descroix. But from the moment the Duke of Cromarty and your father were killed, it was almost inevitable that we’d wind up where we are. Except, of course, that no one on either side could have realized what was going to happen in the People’s Republic while we were tending to our domestic squabbles.”