“Yes, he did,” High Ridge said coldly. “And I can understand that you’re irritated, Edward. At the same time, however, I have to say that angry as I am over the Graysons’ high-handed actions—yes, and over White Haven’s involvement in them—it may not be all bad.”

“What?” Janacek stared at him in disbelief. “Benjamin and his precious Navy have just openly defied us in our own space, and you say ‘it may not be all bad’?! My God, Michael! Those neobarb bastards have just put their thumb right in our eye in front of the entire galaxy!”

“Indeed they have,” High Ridge agreed with a dangerous calm. “On the other hand, Edward, your refusal to invite Grayson to do precisely what it’s just done unilaterally was called to my attention during my visit yesterday to Mount Royal Palace.” He smiled thinly. “Her Majesty was not amused by it.”

“Now, wait a minute, Michael,” Janacek said sharply. “That decision was endorsed by you and by a majority of the entire Cabinet!”

“Only after you’d already rejected White Haven’s arguments in favor of seeking their assistance,” High Ridge pointed out icily. “And only, or so I hear, after Admiral Chakrabarti had made essentially the same argument to you. That was before he resigned, of course.”

“Who told you something like that?” Janacek demanded around the sudden sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach.

“It wasn’t Chakrabarti, if that’s what you’re wondering,” High Ridge replied. “Not that the source changes the implications.”

“Are you telling me that you disapproved of the decision not to ask Grayson for help?” Janacek shot back. “Because it certainly didn’t sound that way to me at the time. And I don’t think the minutes of our meeting or the memoranda in the files sound that way, either.”

The two of them glared at one another, and then High Ridge inhaled sharply.

“You’re right,” he admitted, although he clearly didn’t enjoy doing it. “I may not have thought it was the best decision possible, but I’ll concede that I didn’t protest it at the time. Partly that was because you’d already effectively committed us to it, but if I’m going to be honest, it was also because I don’t much care for Graysons—or for the thought of owing them some sort of debt of gratitude—either.”

“Still,” he continued in a stronger voice, “the fact that they’ve seen fit entirely on their own to send such a substantial reinforcement to Trevor’s Star may not be entirely a bad thing. At the very least, the fact that they did so so openly is going to have to give Pritchart and her war party pause. And God knows anything that does that can’t be all bad!”

Janacek made an irate, wordless sound of angry agreement. He might enormously resent Benjamin Mayhew’s actions, and Hamish Alexander’s part in them might only add fresh fuel to the First Lord’s smoldering hatred. But with the diplomatic situation so rapidly going to hell in a handbasket, any factor which might slap Pritchart and Theisman across the face with a dose of reality had to be a good thing. Of course, it would take a while for news of the… call it ‘redeployment’ to reach Nouveau Paris. Once it did, however, even a lunatic like Pritchart would be forced to recognize that the Manticoran Alliance remained far too dangerous to casually piss off. A reminder, judging by the recent exchanges of diplomatic correspondence, of which she stood in serious need.