Echoes Of Honor

'You’re the one doing all the social engineering tonight, love,' he told her. 'You decide.'

'Decide what?' Katherine asked.

'Whether or not to taint the first hooky-playing Mayhew family outing in two centuries with a little business after all, I suspect,' Benjamin said lazily.

'Something like that,' Allison admitted. 'I’d planned on discussing a couple of possible approaches to corrective genetic therapies with you, but that can certainly wait for another time. Besides,' she grinned, 'now I know which Mayhew I should discuss them with, don’t I, Katherine?'

'Science with me and finance with Elaine,' Katherine agreed comfortably. 'Unimportant things like wars, diplomacy, and constitutional crises you can take up with Benjamin.' Her right hand made an airy gesture.

'Oh, thank you. Thank you all so much!' Benjamin said, and shook a mock-threatening fist at his smiling wives.

'Well, leaving genomes and such aside, there are still a couple of things Alfred and I did want to announce tonight,' Allison said in a more serious tone, and looked over at the card table in the corner. 'Miranda?' she asked.

'Of course, My Lady.' Miranda raised her wrist com to her lips—a maneuver made a bit more complicated than usual by the need to reach around Honor, who was now parked firmly in her lap with Farragut clutched in her arms and an enormous smile on her face—and spoke into it quietly. The adult Mayhews looked at one another curiously, but no one said anything for several seconds. Then someone knocked lightly on the door.

One of the Mayhew armsmen opened it, and James MacGuiness stepped into the library.

'You needed something, Milady?' he asked Allison.

'Not something, Mac—someone,' Allison replied gently. 'Please, sit down.' She patted the chair beside the couch she and Alfred shared.

MacGuiness hesitated, his natural deference warring with her invitation. Then he drew a deep breath, shrugged almost microscopically, and obeyed her. She smiled and squeezed his shoulder gently, then looked back at the Mayhews.

'One of the things Alfred and I wanted to tell you is that Willard Neufsteiler will be arriving from the Star Kingdom aboard the Tankersley next week. When he does, he’ll be bringing Honor’s will.' A chill breeze seemed to blow through the comfortably furnished library, but Allison ignored it. 'Because almost half of her financial and business activities were still based in the Star Kingdom, the will has already been probated under Manticoran law, although I understand the portions which affect Grayson will have to be formally probated here, in turn. All the legal details, investment cross links, and tax options make my head hurt—give me a good, simple chromosome to map any day!—but Willard has sent along a precis, and Alfred and I wanted to share the rough outlines with you tonight, if no one objects.'

Benjamin shook his head silently, and Allison looked at MacGuiness. The steward’s face was stiff, and pain flashed in his eyes, as if he’d realized why she wanted him here and wanted nothing to do with yet another formal proof of his captain’s death. But then he, too, shook his head, and Allison smiled at him.

'Thank you,' she said softly. She took a moment to collect her thoughts, then cleared her throat.

'First of all, I was quite astounded to discover just how large an estate Honor left. Excluding her feudal holdings here on Grayson as Steadholder Harrington, but including the value of her private interest in Sky Domes and your new Blackbird Shipyard, her net financial worth at the time of her death was just under seventeen-point- four billion Manticoran dollars.' Despite himself, Benjamin pursed his lips and whistled silently, and Allison nodded.

'Alfred and I had no idea the estate had grown to anything that size,' she went on matter-of-factly, with only the pressure of her grip on her husband’s hand to show how dearly bought her outer calm was. 'For that matter, I’m not at all certain she realized it, especially since over a quarter of the entire total was generated out of the Blackbird Yard in the last three years. But Willard had things superbly organized for her, as usual, and he seems to have managed to execute her wishes completely.

'The biggest part of what she wanted done was her instruction to merge all of her personal holdings and funds in the Star Kingdom—exclusive of a few special bequests—and fold them over into Grayson Sky Domes. Lord Clinkscales will continue as CEO, and Sky Domes will be held in trust for the next Steadholder Harrington with the proviso that all future financial operations will be based here, on Grayson, and that a majority of the members of the Sky Domes board of directors must be citizens of Harrington Steading. Our understanding is that Willard will be relocating to Grayson to serve full-time as Sky Domes’ chief financial officer and manager.'

'That was very generous of her,' Benjamin said quietly. 'That much capital investment in Harrington and Grayson—and in our tax base—will have a major impact.'

'Which was what she wanted,' Alfred agreed. 'There are, however, those special bequests Alley mentioned. Aside from a very generous one to us, she’s also establishing a trust fund of sixty-five million dollars for the treecats here on Grayson, adding another hundred million to the endowment for the clinic, and donating fifty million to the Sword Museum of Art in Austin City. In addition, she’s going to establish a trust fund for the families of her personal armsmen in the amount of another hundred million and—' he looked at MacGuiness '—she’s bequeathed forty million dollars to you, Mac.'

MacGuiness stiffened, going white with shock, and Allison gripped his shoulder again.

'There are just two stipulations, Mac,' she said quietly. 'One is that you retire from the Navy. I think she felt she’d dragged you through enough battles with her, and she wanted to know you were safe. And the second is that you look after Samantha and the children for her and Nimitz.'

'Of... Of course, Milady,' the steward husked. 'She didn’t have to—' His voice broke, and Allison smiled mistily at him.

'Of course she didn’t ‘have to,’ Mac. She wanted to. Just as she wanted to leave Miranda twenty million.' Miranda inhaled sharply, but Allison went on calmly. 'There are some other minor stipulations, but those are the important ones. Willard will bring all the official documentation with him, of course.'

'She was a remarkable woman,' Benjamin said softly.

'Yes, she was,' Allison agreed. Silence lingered for several seconds, and then she drew a deep breath and rose.

'And now, since this was a ‘supper’ invitation, I imagine we should get on to the supper in question! Are we ready, Mac?'

'I believe so, Ma’am.' MacGuiness shook himself and rose. 'I’ll just go check to be certain.'

He opened the library doors, then paused and stepped back with a wry grin as a quartet of treecats came through it. Jason and his sister Andromeda led the way, but Hipper and Artemis trailed along behind, keeping a watchful eye on them. The ’kittens scurried forward, with an apparently suicidal disregard for the possibility of being trodden on, but Allison wasn’t particularly worried. She had been initially, but treekittens had incredibly fast reaction speeds, and somehow they always managed to be somewhere the foot wasn’t at the moment it came down.

Now she watched them stop and sit bolt upright as they caught the emotions of the Protector’s daughters. The ’kittens’ ears pricked sharply, their green eyes intent, for it was the first time they’d tasted the emotions of human children, and their tails twitched. Artemis plunked down and watched them with a maternal air, and Allison’s earlier comments to Katherine flickered back through her brain. There were a great many similarities between treecat and Grayson notions of child rearing, she reflected. And a good thing, too. The Peeps hadn’t said a word about it, but every member of Honor’s extended family—human and ’cat alike—knew Nimitz had not survived her. More often than not, ’cats suicided when their adopted humans died, yet that was almost beside the point here. For the Peeps to hang Honor, they had to have killed Nimitz first; it was the only way they could have—

Allison’s thoughts broke off abruptly as something jabbed at the corner of her attention and pulled her up out of the bitter memories. She blinked, attention refocusing on the library as she tried to figure out what her subconscious had noticed, and then her eyes widened. Artemis was watching the ’kittens as the Mayhew children swarmed forward—suitably cautious after a sharp word from Elaine but still bubbling with delight—to greet the ’kittens. That was hardly surprising, for Honor had told Allison how the children had loved Nimitz, and these were ’kittens. Brand new, cuddly, wonderful ’kittens!

But if Artemis was watching with amused affection, Hipper wasn’t. He was crouched on all six limbs, leaning forward almost like a human sprinter poised in the blocks before a race, with his tail straight out behind him. Only the very tip of that tail twitched in quick, tiny arcs; aside from that, he was motionless, and he wasn’t