Ashes Of Victory

know something, she thought, but whatever it was, he didn't expect it to have serious or unpleasant repercussions. There wasn't enough worry in his feelings for that. But there was a hefty dose of wicked amusement, a sense of anticipation that fell short (barely) of gloating but was definitely of the naughty little boy 'I've got a seeeeecret!' sort.

She eyed him with scant favor, and he smiled beatifically. Like their shared laughter of a few moments before, the amusement flickering in his depths was a vast relief compared to the emotions he had no intention of ever expressing to her, and she was glad. That did not, however, make her feel a bit better when it came to worrying over just what sort of land mines could afford him so much anticipatory delight.

'There've been a few problems back home in the Star Kingdom that I do know about, however,' he went on after a moment. 'For one thing, your title was passed on to your cousin Devon when you were officially declared dead.'

'Devon?' Honor rubbed the tip of her nose, then shrugged. 'I never really wanted to be a countess anyway,' she said. 'Her Majesty insisted on it — I certainly didn't!—so I really can't complain if someone else has the title now. And I suppose Devon is my legal heir, though I hadn't thought much about it.' She grinned crookedly. 'I suppose I should have considered it long ago, but I'm still not really used to thinking in dynastic terms. Of course,' she chuckled wickedly, 'neither was Devon! Do you happen to know how he took his sudden elevation?'

'Grumpily, I understand.' White Haven shook his head. 'Said it was all a bunch of tomfoolery that would only get in the way of his research on his current monograph.'

'That's Devon,' Honor agreed with something very like a giggle. 'He's probably the best historian I know, but getting his nose out of the past has always been all but impossible!'

'So I was told. On the other hand, Her Majesty insisted someone had to carry on the Harrington title. She was quite firm about it, according to my brother.' White Haven paused, and Honor nodded her understanding. William Alexander was Chancellor of the Exchequer, the second ranking member of the Cromarty Government. If anyone was likely to be privy to Queen Elizabeth's thinking, he was. 'She personally discussed it with your cousin... at some length, I understand,' the earl added.

'Oh, dear!' Honor shook her head, her good eye brimming with delight. She'd had her own experience of Elizabeth III in insistent mode, and the thought of dear, stuffy, bookish Devon in the same position filled her with unholy glee.

'Well, she also got around to actually providing some lands to go with the title, as well,' White Haven told her. 'So at least the new Earl Harrington found himself with the income to support his new dignities.'

'She did?' Honor demanded, and he nodded. 'What sort of lands?'

'Quite a nice chunk of the Crown Reserve in the Unicorn Belt, I believe,' he said, and Honor blinked.

The term 'lands' was used in the Star Kingdom as a generic label for any income-producing holding associated with a patent of nobility. It was a sloppy term, but, then, both the original colonial charter and the Constitution tended to be a bit sloppy in places, as well. The same term had been used from the very earliest days of the Manticore colony to refer to any income source, whether it was actual lands, mineral or development rights, fishery rights, a chunk of the broadcast spectrum for HD, or any other of a whole host of grants, which had been shared out among the original colonists in proportion to their financial contributions to the colonizing expedition. Probably as much as a third of the Star Kingdom's current hereditary peerage held no actual land on any planetary surface as a direct consequence of its ennoblement. Well, no, that wasn't quite true. Virtually all the hereditary members of the Lords had at least acquired properly titled seats somewhere to support their aristocratic dignity, but the real income which had permitted them to do so often came from very different sources.

Still, it was highly unusual these days for the Crown to dip into the Crown Reserve to create those income sources, if for no other reason than that the Reserve had dwindled over the years since the Star Kingdom's founding. The usual procedure was for the Crown to request the Commons to approve the creation of the required 'lands' as a charge on the public purse, not to split them off from the bundle of lands which still belonged personally to Elizabeth III, which was what the Crown Reserve really was. And that was especially true for a hereditary title like her own, since unlike the grants for life titles, its holdings would remain permanently associated with it. So if the Queen had irrevocably alienated part of the fabulously wealthy Unicorn asteroid belt from the Crown in Devon's favor, she'd clearly been serious about her desire for the Harrington title to be properly maintained.

A sudden thought struck her, and she stiffened in her chair.

'Excuse me, My Lord, but you said Devon inherited my Manticoran title?' The earl nodded. 'Do you happen to know what Grayson did about my steadholdership? Did they pass it on to Devon, as well?'

'I believe there was some discussion of that,' White Haven said after a moment, and Honor's eye narrowed as the sense of amusement she'd already tasted peaked momentarily. 'In the end, however, they made other arrangements.'

'Such as?'

'I really don't think it would be proper for me to go into that, Milady,' he told her, with a commendably straight face. 'It's a rather complicated situation, and your sudden return from the dead is only going to make it even more complicated. And since it's a purely domestic Grayson problem, I'm not entitled to any say in its resolution. In fact, it would probably be inappropriate even for me to express an opinion about it.'

'I see.' Honor regarded him very levelly for a moment, then smiled thinly. 'I see, indeed, My Lord, and perhaps someday the opportunity will arise for me to repay your admirable self-restraint in kind.'

'We can always hope, Milady,' he agreed. 'On the other hand, I doubt very much that I'll ever make a dramatic return from the dead following my very public execution.'

'If I'd guessed that whatever it is you're so darkly hinting at was waiting for me, I certainly would have thought twice about the idea,' Honor said tartly, and he chuckled. But then his face and his emotions sobered.

'In all honesty, Milady, and all jesting aside, Grayson was thrown into far more disorder by the report of your death than the Star Kingdom was. We have scores of earls and countesses in the Star Kingdom; there are less than ninety steadholders on Grayson. There were all sorts of repercussions there, and that's why I agreed with Admiral Kuzak and Governor Kershaw that you ought to return to Grayson first.'

Honor nodded yet again. Although White Haven's Eighth Fleet was based on Trevor's Star while it prepared for operations elsewhere, Theodosia Kuzak was the system's military CO. She was junior to White Haven, but her Third Fleet was still tasked as the system's primary defensive unit.

Governor Winston Kershaw was her civilian counterpart: the Manticoran Alliance's official administrator and head of the commission overseeing the organization of San Martin's post-liberation planetary government. He was also a younger brother of Jonathan Kershaw, Steadholder Denby, and one of Benjamin IX's stronger supporters, and he'd been quite... firm about how best to handle the political aspects of Honor's return. In particular, he'd been adamant in insisting that word of her return must remain completely confidential until she'd had a chance to meet personally with Benjamin.

'I still don't know if I completely agree with the Governor,' she said after a moment, but White Haven shook his head.

'I think he's absolutely correct,' he disagreed. 'The political and diplomatic consequences of your escape are going to be enormous, and Grayson deserves to know the full details first. We'll send a courier boat ahead to both Yeltsin and Manticore, but the dispatches will be classified at the highest level available to us. Not even the courier boats' crews will know what they say, and we're clamping a security blackout on the story here. I can't guarantee it, but I doubt very much that Her Majesty will allow a hint of the information to leak into the system data nets until the Protector's government has had an opportunity to debrief you in person and decide how to deal with it.'

'Are you certain about that, My Lord?' Honor asked him. 'I don't question the basic logic, but why not send me in a courier boat rather than a dispatch? And why the long way around instead of by way of Manticore? It's going to take over three weeks for me to get to Grayson without using the Junction. That seems like an awful long time to try to keep the arrival of so many people on San Martin a secret!'

'As far as keeping secrets is concerned, there's no real problem. Oh, I doubt the secret will keep very long in local space. The story's just too good. It's bound to get out, sooner probably rather than later, but we control both termini of the Junction. That means nobody outside this system will hear a thing about it until we let the word