Ashes Of Victory

think.'

'I believe most people are more concerned over people they love than they are over themselves,' Maxwell agreed, his voice suddenly soft, and Honor looked up quickly. There was something behind that, something even more than a surprisingly keen perception of the bond between her and Nimitz, but she couldn't tell what it was. Only that it was very deep... and that the pain of it would never fully heal.

An odd stillness hovered between them, but only for a moment before Maxwell gave himself another little shake.

'Willard also said something about your having to return to Grayson, I believe,' he observed, 'but I wasn't clear on how soon that was. Is it likely to take you back to Yeltsin's Star any time immediately? And do you know how long you'll be there?' She cocked an eyebrow at him, and he raised one hand. 'If I'm going to require your signature or personal authorization for anything, it would be good to know if there's a time block when you absolutely won't be available.'

'I see.' Honor frowned as she considered her calendar. 'I won't be going anywhere at least before the end of the next semester at the Academy,' she said after a long moment. 'Protector Benjamin has asked me to come home — I mean, return to Grayson — for the opening of the new session of the Keys. Of the Conclave of Steadholders, that is. That would fall during the long holiday, which comes at the end of this semester anyway. So I'd probably be off Manticore for at least two or three weeks — more probably a couple of months — about then.'

'That's — what? Five months from now?'

'About that, yes.'

'And you'll be taking the Tankersley, I assume.'

'Actually, not this time around.' Honor wasn't surprised that he knew about her private starship. The small, fast vessel had been one of the best investments she'd made, and Willard Neufsteiler was the one who'd nagged her into buying it. But Maxwell looked a bit puzzled.

'I expect I'll be traveling commercial for this visit,' she explained. 'I'll have a sizable piece of cargo to take home, and Tankersley is designed for speed, not cubage.'

' `A sizable piece of cargo'?' Maxwell repeated.

'Well, actually—' Honor blushed slightly '—I've decided to spoil myself a bit. I mean, thanks to Her Majesty I hardly need to buy a place to live here in the Star Kingdom—' she gestured to the splendid office about them '— and it's almost as bad back on Grayson, but everyone's been pushing me to `relax' and `enjoy' myself. So—'

She shrugged, and Maxwell chuckled.

'And might one ask just how you've decided to spoil yourself, Your Grace?'

'Her Majesty gave me this place, she said, because it wasn't something I'd think of buying for myself,' Honor said a bit obliquely. 'So I decided to buy something no one else would think of giving me. I mean, all this money has to be good for something, doesn't it?'

'I'm sure it does, Your Grace.'

'So I bought myself a new ten-meter sloop for my parents' boathouse on Sphinx, another one for the marina here on Manticore, and a third for Gryphon. I'm keeping that one in a commercial marina until we get the duchy up and running. But Grayson was a bit harder, because no one in her right mind goes boating there. Not with all the interesting things dissolved in Grayson's oceans. So I decided to buy myself a runabout.'

'A runabout?'

'Something to let me keep my hand in at the controls,' Honor explained. 'I laid out what I want over at Silverman's three months ago.' Maxwell's eyebrows rose. Samuel Silverman & Sons was the oldest, most prestigious supplier of private space yachts in the Star Kingdom. HMS Queen Adrienne, the current, hyper-capable royal yacht, had come from Silverman's, and so had all three of her predecessors. Honor read his expression and laughed. 'Oh, it's nothing quite that big, Mr. Maxwell! Not hyper-capable. I've got Tankersley for that, and it's not likely I'd have the time to go haring off into hyper on my own, anyway. No, this is a little sublight ship, only about eleven thousand tons. Sort of a cross between a pinnace and a LAC, but without the guns and with a lot more creature comforts. I tried one like her in the simulators, and she should be exactly what I want. Small and lively enough to let me play, but big enough to be comfortable and have the intrasystem range for anywhere I might need to go.'

'I see.' Maxwell thought for a moment, then nodded. 'I imagine that is something no one else would have thought to buy you, Your Grace. But I can see why it would appeal to you, I think. I hope you enjoy it as much as I suspect you will.'

'I'll certainly try, as time permits, anyway,' Honor said, and then grimaced as her chrono beeped all too appropriately from her wrist. 'And speaking of time,' she went on regretfully, 'I'm afraid I'm due over at ATC for a conference in twenty minutes.'

'I understand, Your Grace.'

Maxwell rose, and Honor came to her own feet to escort him to the door. Nimitz curled in the crook of her arm, and LaFollet brought up the rear, as usual.

'Thank you again for coming. And for accepting the job,' Honor told him seriously as they headed across the echoing foyer of her preposterous mansion.

'You're very welcome. I look forward to the challenge, and to working with you and Willard,' Maxwell replied. 'I'll write up my acceptance and send it to Willard with a copy routed to you.'

'That sounds fine,' she agreed, and paused at the door. She couldn't offer him her hand with an armful of treecat, and he smiled as he recognized her problem.

'I see who really runs this household,' he murmured, and Honor laughed.

'You only think so. You won't see who really runs it until you meet his wife!'

'Indeed?' Maxwell cocked his head, then chuckled. 'I look forward to meeting her... and their children.' He shook his head. 'I must say, Your Grace, this looks like it may turn out to be even more interesting than I'd thought it might.'

'Oh, it will, Mr. Maxwell. I feel quite sure it will... in the ancient, Chinese sense of the word.'

'I beg your pardon?'

'An ancient Chinese curse,' Honor explained. ' `May you live in interesting times.' Think about it.'

'I don't have to,' Maxwell said. 'And with all due respect, Your Grace, I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that we wish you'd try to find something just a little less `interesting' to do with yourself for the next decade or so.'

'I'll try. Really I will,' she assured him. 'It's just—'

She shrugged helplessly, and Maxwell laughed.

'I imagine I'll get used to hearing that sort of thing from you, too, Your Grace,' he observed, and nodded farewell as MacGuiness opened the door for him.

Andrew LaFollet watched the door close behind him, then chuckled softly. Honor turned to him, one eyebrow raised, and he shrugged.

'I was just thinking how nice it was that you were able to hire a prophet for your chief counsel, My Lady,' he explained.

'A prophet?' Honor repeated in a slightly puzzled tone.

'Yes, My Lady. It's obvious he must be one.'

'And why, though I'm sure I'm going to regret asking, might that be?'

'Because he is going to get used to hearing you promise to try to be good, My Lady,' LaFollet said innocently.

'Are you suggesting my promises are less than sincere?' she demanded.

'Oh, no, My Lady! They're as sincere as they could possibly be... when you make them.'

Honor gave him a very old-fashioned look, but he only gazed back innocently, and she heard MacGuiness trying, almost successfully, not to chuckle behind her.

'It's all right, My Lady,' her armsman said soothingly. 'We know you try.'

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE