“Should I assume he asked you to drop by to see me?” she went on.

“Not specifically. But Elizabeth had invited him to the Palace as the Leader of the Opposition to hear the official briefing on the latest inspirations to strike High Ridge and his flunkies.” Lady Harrington looked up from the gun case to dart a sharp glance at the Earl, but he either failed to notice or pretended that he had. “The official message inviting the Opposition Leader to the briefing had somehow gone astray. Again.”

“I see,” she repeated, and closed the gun case with a snap. She reached for her accessory bag, but White Haven’s hand got to it before hers, and smiling, he slung it over his own shoulder.

She smiled back, but her eyes were troubled. LaFollet wasn’t surprised. The Steadholder had come an enormous distance from the politically unsophisticated naval officer she’d been when LaFollet first became her armsman. Which meant she was unaware neither of the fresh contempt in White Haven’s voice when he spoke of the Prime Minister, nor of the pettiness of High Ridge’s obviously intentional failure to advise Lord Alexander of the briefing.

Like the Steadholder, although to a lesser degree, the colonel had become better informed on Manticoran political processes than he’d ever really wanted to be. Because of that, he knew there was no specific constitutional requirement for the Prime Minister to invite the leader of his opposition in Parliament to the Queen’s official weekly briefings. By long tradition, however, he was supposed to invite the Opposition Leader to the regular briefings, both as a matter of common courtesy and to ensure that if there were a sudden change of government, the individual who would almost certainly replace him as Prime Minister was as fully up to speed as possible.

No one expected any politician, even the Prime Minister of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, to invite his main political rival to Cabinet meetings, or to special Crown briefings. That would have been both unreasonable and foolish. But the twice-a-week general briefings were another matter entirely, and LaFollet knew Duke Cromarty had been scrupulous even at the height of the war against the Peeps about inviting High Ridge, who’d led the Opposition at the time, to attend them. It was typical of High Ridge to “forget” to extend the same courtesy to the man who’d been Cromarty’s political second-in-command.

“Was it your impression there was a specific reason this particular invitation might have ‘gone astray’?” the Steadholder went on after a moment.

“Not really,” White Haven admitted, “although I doubt very much that he was overjoyed to see Willie, given the nature and content of the briefing. On the other hand, he might have been better off because Willie was there anyway.” Lady Harrington tilted her head inquiringly, and the Earl chuckled. “My impression is that Her Majesty actually behaves herself a bit better when Willie’s present to act as a buffer between her and her Prime Minister,” he said dryly.