War Of Honor

but a potentially serious setback, Michael.'

'A setback, certainly,' he agreed. 'Precisely how serious it may prove is another question, however.'

'Don't fool yourself,' she said flatly. 'Alexander and White Haven were both out for blood . . . and New Dijon wasn't any damned help, either. Goddamned Liberal hypocrite!'

High Ridge didn't manage to conceal his wince this time. Fortunately, the Chancellor of the Exchequer wasn't present. It had taken a little creative scheduling on his part to ensure that she would be otherwise occupied meeting with the Chairman of the Bank of Manticore and the Board of the Royal Interstellar Development Fund at the exact time he was 'forced' to schedule this meeting. He strongly suspected that New Kiev knew exactly why he'd done it, and the fact that she hadn't protested even mildly suggested even more to him. On the other hand, she'd undoubtedly managed to assuage her own conscience by reflecting that her good friend and fellow Liberal Sir Harrison MacIntosh would be present to deputize for her and see to it that their party's interests were represented. Which he was. And at the moment, he looked almost as unhappy with Descroix's characterization of the Earl of New Dijon as New Kiev would have looked.

Not that High Ridge had any personal quibble with Descroix on that particular point. New Dijon had always been careful to distance himself from the current government. That hadn't meant he was unaware of which side of his bread was buttered, however, and while he'd been careful to maintain his public stance of independent thought, his actual voting record had been another matter.

But today had been different. The fact that William Alexander and his brother would lead the attack had been as inevitable as the next sunrise, and no one had been surprised when a dozen other Opposition peers piled on with their own pointed questions. But three of the Independent peers who had routinely supported the Government had joined the Opposition in indicating serious concern over the Republic's new, more aggressive negotiating stance . . . and so had New Dijon.

'Actually,' the Prime Minister said after a moment, 'New Dijon's position may work out in our favor.'

'Excuse me?' Descroix looked at him incredulously, and he shrugged.

'I don't say that's what he had in mind, but the fact that he publicly 'took us to the woodshed,' as my grandfather used to put it, could actually help us out down the road. As far as the newsfaxes are concerned, he's indicated his independence of thought and willingness to speak his mind. And the questions he asked were actually on the mild side, you know. So he's positioned himself to act as a sort of buffer without doing us any real additional harm. Which means that if he later expresses himself as moderately concerned and yet confident in Her Majesty's Government's handling of the negotiations, his statement will carry even more weight because of his earlier doubts.'

'Do you honestly believe that's what he had in mind?' Descroix demanded in obvious disbelief, and High Ridge shrugged again.

'Personally, I doubt it,' he conceded. 'His support, however indirect, has always been shakiest where our foreign policy was concerned, you know. I think, however, that he's clearly indicated his awareness of the consequences for the authority of the House of Lords if this Government should fall. So I wouldn't be surprised if his own party leadership was able to convince him of the necessity of supporting us against this particular attack. Wouldn't you agree, Harrison?'

He looked at MacIntosh, and the Home Secretary scowled. But then, obviously against his will, he nodded slowly.

'I'm sure,' the Secretary of Trade put in, 'that the Earl will be . . . open-minded if we approach him properly.'

Everyone at the table glanced in the direction of the Earl of North Hollow with varying degrees of openness. Interesting, High Ridge thought. He hadn't realized the North Hollow Files might contain anything useful for influencing New Dijon.

'However that may work out in the end,' Descroix went on after a moment, her voice slightly less acid, 'we got hurt today. There's no point pretending otherwise.'

'I wish you were wrong,' High Ridge said. She wasn't, of course. Alexander had hammered away at the exact nature of the Pritchart 'proposals' with merciless energy. Descroix had managed to avoid simply handing over the note from Secretary of State Giancola, which had at least allowed her to paraphrase the taut, uncompromising way in which some of those proposals had been phrased. But nothing she'd been able to do had been sufficient to conceal the fact that the Republic of Haven had, indeed, taken a much harder line. It was painfully obvious that Eloise Pritchart was done responding to Manticoran proposals. She clearly intended to put her own demands on the table and insist that Manticore respond to them, instead.

That had been quite bad enough, but then Alexander's insufferable brother had dived into the fray. What, he had asked, was the Government's view of the effect the Republican Navy's newly revealed combat capabilities was likely to have on the future course of the negotiations?

Descroix had insisted that the consequences of the Republic's naval strength would be minimal, particularly in light of the steps the Government had already taken to offset the so far unproven increases in Haven's capabilities. It had been an unfortunate position for her to maintain, in some ways, given White Haven's earlier insistence that the Government's naval reductions were dangerously unsound. Yet it had also been the only one she could possibly take, and so she'd done her best to defend what was at best a weak position.

She had not come off well in the confrontation.

Yet for all that, High Ridge reminded himself, the Government's position in the Lords almost certainly remained sound. At least fifteen or twenty of the peers who'd managed to find reasons to be elsewhere during today's session could be counted upon in a pinch to vote to sustain the Government. They'd absented themselves to avoid potential embarrassment, perhaps, but like New Dijon, they knew where their own interests ultimately lay. And they'd actually lost even fewer of the Independent peers on the vote to sustain Descroix than he might have expected, under the circumstances.

'I think you handled Alexander about as well as anyone could have,' he told her after a moment, and it was probably true. Under the circumstances, no one could have prevented the Opposition leader from making an unfortunate amount of political capital out of the situation, yet Descroix had managed to at least somewhat blunt his attacks.

'Do you?' she asked, her mouth twisting as if she'd bitten into something spoiled. 'I wish I could say the same where his asshole of a brother was concerned!'

High Ridge grimaced, partly over her language, but far more because he agreed with her assessment. White Haven had hurt them on the military preparedness issue. Possibly hurt them badly, although that remained to be seen.

'Tell me, Edward,' Descroix went on, turning her scowl upon Janacek. 'How would you have responded to his little inquisition?'

'I've already had to do that, thank you,' Janacek said sourly. 'This is the first time you've had to deal with it, but we haven't been quite that fortunate over at Admiralty House.'

'Well, perhaps if you'd seen it coming and managed to give any of us any warning,' she said icily, 'it wouldn't have been quite so embarrassing for you. Or for the rest of us, either.'

'And perhaps if anyone at the Foreign Office had been awake enough to warn us that Pritchart was going to start issuing demands when you'd assured us you were completely in control of the negotiating process, that wouldn't have embarrassed us, either!' Janacek shot back.

'Which wouldn't have mattered if they hadn't managed to sneak their fleet increases past you,' Descroix rejoined hotly. 'Without having improved their military position, they wouldn't have had the gall to take this sort of high-handed tone with us!'

'I'm not as sure of that as you seem to be,' Janacek growled. 'And another thing, I'm getting tired—'

'That will be enough.' High Ridge didn't quite raise his voice, but its hard edge cut through the burgeoning quarrel like a knife, and Janacek closed his mouth. That didn't keep him from bestowing a final glare on Descroix, who returned it with interest, but at least it shut them both up.

'I think,' the Prime Minister continued, 'that we're all in agreement that our position today is weaker than it was a few months ago.' He shrugged. 'That sort of thing happens in politics, and the same trends that are working against us right now may well turn around and work in our favor once the current furor's had an opportunity to quiet down. After all, the Opposition has been crying wolf for so long that a substantial portion of the public is tired of hearing it. At the moment, Alexander and his crowd may have managed to engender a certain degree of