'I'm sorry, Your Majesty, but I think we may have a situation.'
'What sort of 'situation'?' Elizabeth's voice sharpened and her eyes narrowed. 'You know I always hate to hear that word from you, Allen!'
'I'm sorry,' he repeated, 'but I'm afraid it's accurate. Have you seen a news broadcast in the last hour or so?'
'No. I've been tied up with the Ambassador. Why? What's happened?'
'Lady Harrington just killed my cousin Denver.' Elizabeth's eyes widened, and Cromarty shook his head. 'No, I'm not upset about it. Or, rather, I am, but not because she killed him. You know how he's hurt the family for years, Your Majesty. He took a positively sadistic pleasure in doing it.'
'Yes, I do know.' Elizabeth's voice was quiet, and she nibbled her lower lip. 'I knew they were going to meet, of course. I imagine everyone in the Kingdom did. And, given what you've just said, I won't scruple to tell you that I'm as relieved as I am surprised that she won.'
'I think we were all wasting our worry on the wrong party this time, Your Majesty,' Cromarty said flatly. 'She hit him four times before he could fall, then put a fifth bullet right through his head.'
Elizabeth's eyes widened still further, and she pursed her lips in a silent whistle.
'That, however, is the least of our problems,' the duke went on. 'The media were there in force. They've splashed every gory moment of it over the services on a system-wide hookup—and they've also been carrying Lady Harrington's statement, as well.'
'Statement?' The Queen sounded puzzled, and Cromarty nodded.
'Yes, Your Majesty, her statement. She's formally accused the Earl of North Hollow of paying Denver to kill Tankersley—and her.'
'My God,' Elizabeth whispered, and the duke felt a sort of masochistic satisfaction at her obvious shock. He watched her eyes narrow and waited patiently as the wheels began to turn. It took her less than thirty seconds to run through all the permutations he'd already considered and look squarely back out of the screen at him again.
'Did he?' she asked, and Cromarty shrugged.
'I have no evidence one way or the other, Your Majesty. It's certainly possible, and I very much doubt that Lady Harrington would accuse him unless she had some sort of proof to back it.'
Elizabeth nodded, rubbing her cheekbone with a knuckle. 'If she does have evidence, she'll act on it.' She might have been speaking to herself, but her eyes never looked away from the Prime Minister's. 'For that matter, she never would have told the media unless she planned to kill him.' She nodded to herself, and her voice sharpened. 'How bad will the fallout be if she does?'
'Bad, Your Majesty. Possibly very bad. If she kills him the same way she did Denver, it may even be disastrous.' The Prime Minister shivered. 'You haven't seen it yet, Your Majesty. I wish I hadn't. If she takes North Hollow out the same way, the Opposition will go mad. We may be looking at a crisis even worse than the declaration fight.'
'Damage control?' the Queen asked crisply.
'Difficult, but not impossible—maybe. We'll probably lose the Conservative Association, whatever happens, but we've brought in almost enough Progressives to offset that, and the New Men are on our team, at least for now. The Liberals are almost certain to join the Conservatives in demanding Harrington's head. Even if we give it to them, they'll probably go even further into Opposition. If we don't give it to them, the Progressives will go with them. Even in the best case, this is going to hurt us badly, Your Majesty.'
'But your majority will survive?'
'If we give them Harrington it will, Your Majesty. Or I think it will, at any rate. I can't be certain. At this point, I can't even begin to guess how the Commons will react. Harrington's been almost a patron saint to them ever since Basilisk, but with something like this—'
He shrugged, and Elizabeth frowned. He let her think about it for several seconds, then cleared his throat.
'I see only one optimum solution, Your Majesty,' he said.
'Really?' The Queen chuckled without humor. 'I fail to see anything 'optimum' about this one, Allen!'
'I happen to know that Earl White Haven has already ordered Lady Harrington not to pursue a challenge to North Hollow,' the duke began, 'and—'
'Ordered her?' Elizabeth's face hardened, and a dangerous sparkle crept into her eyes. 'He ordered her not to challenge him?'
'Yes, Your Majesty, he—'
'He violated the Articles of War is what he did!' Elizabeth snapped. 'If North Hollow were still a serving officer he would have been within his rights, but he doesn't have a leg to stand on in this case! Dame Honor would be fully justified in filing charges against him.'
'I realize that, Your Majesty.' Cromarty realized he was sweating and made himself not wipe his forehead. He recognized the signs, and Elizabeth III in a temper was not something he cared to confront. 'I believe,' he went on carefully, 'he was concerned with the consequences to her career. And while he undoubtedly exceeded his authority, his concern was certainly justified.'
'And Hamish Alexander has always been willing to ignore the rules when he thought he was right,' the Queen added in a flat voice.
'Well, yes, Your Majesty. But he generally is right, and I don't think, in this case, that we—'
'Oh, stop defending him, Allen!' Elizabeth brooded in silence for a long minute, then shrugged. 'I don't like it—and you can tell him so for me—but you're probably right. It's not my affair unless Dame Honor does elect to file charges.'
'Yes, Your Majesty.' Cromarty managed to hide his relief and leaned toward his pickup. 'But the point I was going to make is that he was right, both about the effect on her career and about the political fallout.' Elizabeth nodded unwillingly, and the duke put on his most persuasive expression. 'Since he was right, and since Dame Honor clearly has no intention of accepting his arguments or his order, I thought perhaps—'
'Stop right there.' The hardness was back in Elizabeth's eyes. 'If you're going to suggest that I order her to drop it, you can forget it.'
'But, Your Majesty, the consequences—'
'I said I won't do it, Allen.'
'But perhaps if you simply spoke to her, Your Majesty. If you explained the situation and just asked her not to—'
'No.' The single word came out flat and cold, and Cromarty closed his mouth. He knew that tone. The Queen looked at him for a moment, her eyes harder than ever, but then her face softened and a strange expression crossed it, one almost of shame.
'I won't pressure her, Allen.' Elizabeth's voice was very quiet. 'I can't. If I asked her not to, she probably wouldn't, and it would be utterly unfair to her. If we'd done our job in the first place, North Hollow would have been convicted of cowardice. We wouldn't have cashiered him, Allen; we would've shot him, and none of this would have happened.'
'You know why we couldn't, Your Majesty,' Cromarty said softly.
'Yes, I do, and it doesn't make me feel one bit better. We failed her, Allen. It's already cost her the man she loved, and it's our fault. My God, if this Kingdom ever owed any of its subjects justice, it was her, and we didn't give it to her.' She shook her head. 'No, Allen. If this is the only way Dame Honor can finish the job we should have done, I won't stop her.'
'Please, Your. Majesty. If not to avoid the political consequences, think of the effect on her. There won't be any way we can protect her. She'll lose her career, and we'll lose one of our most outstanding young captains.'
'Do you think Dame Honor doesn't know that?' Elizabeth asked softly. Her eyes demanded the truth, and Cromarty shook his head silently. 'Nor do I. And if she knows the price and she's willing to pay it, I'm not going to tell her she can't. And neither are you, Allen Summervale. I forbid you to pressure her in any way, and you tell Earl White Haven the same goes for him.'
