thinking in dynastic terms, but what happens if you wait another twenty or thirty years and then have a child? Under Grayson law, that child would automatically supplant Faith, whatever special provisions the Conclave may have made in her favor when everyone thought you were dead. So there's Faith... who's spent thirty or forty years thinking of herself as the Harrington Heir Apparent and suddenly finds her nose put out of joint by a brand new infant nephew or niece.'
Honor looked at him, and he sighed.
'I know Faith is a wonderful child and she loves you dearly, Honor. But this is Grayson. We've seen a thousand years of those dynastic politics you don't think in terms of, and there have been some really ugly incidents. And the ugliest ones of all have usually happened because the people they happened to were so sure they couldn't arise in their families. Besides, even if no overt problem crops up, would it really be fair to Faith to yank the succession out from under her like that? Unless you produce a child fairly soon, she's got to grow up thinking of herself as Miss Harrington, with all the trappings and importance of the job. You didn't do that, but she's in a totally different position, and it's going to be fairly central to her self-image, you know.'
'Maybe so, but-'
'No buts, Honor. Not on this one,' Benjamin said gently. 'It will be. It has to be. I know it was a lot harder for Michael than he ever let on, and he never wanted the Protector's job in the first place. But he was in exactly the same position Faith is, and when Bernard Raoul came along and pushed him out of the succession, he was almost... lost for a while. He needed to redefine who he was and what he was doing with his life when he was suddenly no longer Lord Mayhew.' The Protector shook his head. 'I was discussing this with Howard just last month, and he said-'
It was Benjamin's turn to break off suddenly as Honor's face tightened in remembered pain.
'I'm sorry,' he said after a moment, even more gently. 'And I don't mean to be exerting any unfair pressure. But he was concerned about it. He loves Faith almost as much as he loves you, and he was worried about how she'd react. And,' he smiled crookedly, 'I think he was sort of hoping he'd have a chance to see your child.'
'Benjamin, I' Honor blinked rapidly, and Nimitz crooned soothingly in her ear.
'Don't,' Benjamin said, and shook his head. 'We don't need to be discussing this right now, and you don't need me reminding you that we're losing him. I wouldn't have brought it up at all, but I think maybe Cat was right to at least put the thought before you. Now we've done that, and you can think about it later. And as far as Howard himself is concerned, of course he loves you. He told me once that he thought of you very much as his own daughter.'
'I'm going to miss him so much,' she said sadly.
'Of course you are. So am I, you know,' Benjamin reminded her with a bittersweet smile. 'I've known him literally all my life. He's been an extra uncle, one I've loved almost as much as he sometimes exasperated me.'
'And one whose death is going to make a hole in the Conclave,' Katherine observed sadly.
'I've discussed my choice for his successor with the Standing Committee and the Chair of the Administration Committee,' Honor said. She inhaled deeply, deliberately and gratefully turning to the change in subject. 'I think it should go as smoothly as anything could, under the circumstances.'
'And you're not supposed to discuss it with me, My Lady Steadholder,' Benjamin pointed out.
'And I'm not supposed to discuss it with you,' Honor conceded. 'Which is, if you don't mind my saying so, one of the stupider of Grayson's innumerable traditions.'
'I suppose when you spend as long assembling them as we have, one or two suboptimal selections may make it through the filtering process.' Benjamin shrugged. 'Overall, they work pretty well for us, though. And the fact that you're not allowed to discuss it with me doesn't mean my various spies and agents don't know exactly who you're planning to nominate. Or that I don't heartily approve of your selection, for that matter.'
'Well, since we've gotten all of that out of the way without ever transgressing, perhaps we could discuss some of the things we are allowed to talk to Honor about,' Katherine suggested.
'Such as?' Her husband raised his eyebrows at her, and she gave him an exasperated look.
'Such as what the Admiralty is going to have her doing, for starters,' she said.
'Oh. That.'
Benjamin glanced at his elder daughters. Jeanette favored Elaine at least as strongly as Rachel favored Katherine, with her biological mother's fair coloring and blue eyes. At the moment, both young women seemed torn between attempting to appear invisible or mature and insightful, whichever was more likely to let them go on sitting exactly where they were.
'Sword rules apply, girls,' he said. Both of them nodded solemnly, and he turned back to Honor. 'What are they going to have you doing?'
'I can't really tell you for certain yet,' Honor replied, watching the young women from the corner of one eye. Rachel had reached up to caress Hipper's ears again, and her expression was intent. Understandably, since she would be entering the Royal Manticoran Navy's Saganami Island academy in less than a month. Honor had delivered the traditional 'Last View' address to the senior class two weeks before; the other forms' abbreviated wartime summer leaves would be up in ten days, and Rachel would be returning to Manticore aboard the Paul Tankersley to report to the newest class of snotties. Jeanette looked curious and sober, but she'd never been the navy-mad tomboy Rachel had.
'I'm not trying to be mysterious,' Honor continued. 'Things have been so crazy ever since I got back from Sidemore that it seems the Admiralty's strategic thinking changes on an almost daily basis. The numbers ONI is coming up with keep getting worse, not better, and they keep whittling away at what was supposed to be Eighth Fleet's order of battle.' She shrugged with an alum-tart smile. 'I suppose it's almost a tradition now that building up anything called 'Eighth Fleet' won't go smoothly.'
'And you say we have some stupid traditions,' Benjamin snorted.
'Well, it's not as if anyone wants it to be that way, Benjamin. But after the hammering we took in the opening phase, nobody's about to uncover Manticore, Grayson, or Trevor's Star. So anything Eighth Fleet gets is going to be what's left over after our minimum security requirements for those systems have been met. Which isn't going to be a lot. Not right at first, anyway. And to be totally fair, Eighth Fleet doesn't really exist yet. I'm Commanding Officer (Designate), Eighth Fleet. My staff and fleet HQ haven't even been formally activated yet.'
'I know. And, to be honest, I was actually a bit surprised they made the announcement that Eighth Fleet would be reactivated as publicly as they did. Relieved, but surprised.' Benjamin waved her into an armchair beside the hearth and seated himself facing her. His wives went over and sat beside their daughters, and Carson Clinkscales walked across to stand beside Honor's chair.
'I'm pleased at the evidence that the Admiralty is thinking in offensive terms,' the Protector continued. 'After the pounding Theisman gave us, it must have been dreadfully tempting to revert to a totally defensive stance.'
'I'm sure it would have been for a lot of people,' Honor said. 'Not for Thomas Caparelli and Hamish Alexander, though.' She shook her head again. 'The difference between them and the Janacek Admiralty is like the difference between day and night.'
'Which, if you'll forgive me, My Lady,' Lieutenant Commander Clinkscales said, 'may be because they can find their posteriors without approach radar.'
'I think you could safely describe them as possessing that degree of native ability, Carson,' she observed, and he blushed slightly.
'Sorry, My Lady,' he said after a moment. 'What I meant was that it was because Janacek and Chakrabarti couldn't find their backsides.'
'Actually, that's a bit unfair to Chakrabarti, I think,' Honor said. 'But Janacek-and those idiots Jurgensen and Draskovic!' Her mouth tightened, and she shook her head. 'In their cases, you certainly have a point. But my point was that Sir Thomas-and Earl White Haven-have been in this position before. They're not about to panic, and they know we're going to have to take the fight to the other side as soon and as hard as we can. We can't afford to leave the initiative completely in Thomas Theisman's hands. If we do that, he'll hand us our head within the next six months. At the outside, a T-year.'
'Is it really that bad, My Lady?' Clinkscales asked quietly.
'Almost certainly,' she replied, her soprano voice quiet against the background crackle of the flaming logs. 'It's starting to look very much as if Admiral Givens' initial estimates may actually have been low.'
'Low?' Benjamin frowned at her.
