“Very well, My Lord.” She inclined her head in a slight bow. “I thank you for your solicitous discharge of your responsibilities in bringing this news to me. I’m sure it must have been a most unpleasant task. And since there are undoubtedly many matters which require your urgent attention in the wake of this unprovoked aggression, I won’t keep you longer.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” he got out in a strangled voice. “With your permission?”

He bowed considerably more deeply to her, and she watched with pitiless, unflinching eyes as he withdrew.

Chapter Fifty-Eight

“HOW do you think we did back home, Sir?” Captain DeLaney asked quietly as she and Lester Tourville rode the lift car towards RHNS Majestic’s flag briefing room.

“Well, that’s the million-credit question, isn’t it, Molly?” the admiral responded with a tight grin. His chief of staff gave a small grimace of agreement, and he chuckled. “I admit I’ve done the odd bit of speculating myself,” he confessed. “And despite my irritating conclusion that there’s absolutely no way to be certain, I also have to admit that I feel fairly confident. Assuming that the NavInt estimates in the sitrep Starlight brought out with her are as accurate as they’ve tended to be for the last couple of years, First Fleet should have pinned the Manties’ ears back. Now,” his expression sobered, “whether or not all of this was a good idea or a bad one is another question, of course.”

DeLaney looked sideways at him, faintly surprised even after all these months by his pensive tone. It was easy for even Lester Tourville’s own staff to sometimes confuse the always aggressive public persona with the reality, but she’d been with him for the better part of three T-years now, and she knew him better than most.

“Did we really have a choice, Sir?” she asked after a moment, and he shrugged.

“I don’t know. I feel certain President Pritchart did her damnedest to find an alternative short of this one, and from Starlight’s dispatches, it’s obvious the diplomatic situation got even worse after we’d been sent out. And I feel as confident as I imagine anyone could that Operation Thunderbolt is going to—has already, I suppose I should say—succeed in its immediate objectives. And if we’re going to be completely honest, I suppose I want revenge on the Manties as much as the next man.

“I’m a little more doubtful about our whole end of the operation,” he admitted, not really to DeLaney’s surprise, “but if our estimates of Sidemore’s strength are accurate, we should be able to pull it off. And I have to agree that the potential advantages of doing that, from a political and a morale standard, as well as a purely military one, make it worth the risk. I can’t quite avoid the suspicion that we’re being just a little too cute, a little too clever, about it all, but as some ancient wet-navy type from Old Earth said a long time ago, it’s a natural law that those who refuse to run risks can never win. On the other hand,” he smiled again, tightly, “there’s always the fact that we’re talking about attacking Honor Harrington.”