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as minister shows the new Margrave that His Majesty’s government bears Midanich no ill will. After all, Sir Gilbert departed the court under trying circumstances, and I—”
    “ Trying circumstances ? I was tortured and humiliated!” Sir Gilbert blurted out.
    Humiliated, yes, and Alec understood Sir Gilbert’s humiliation. It was not every day the most senior ranking diplomat at a foreign court was expelled; a subordinate, yes, but never the minister. But torture? It was the first Alec had heard of this and he blinked in surprise.
    “Tortured?” he asked, concerned, and waited for Sir Gilbert to elaborate.
    With all eyes upon him, Sir Gilbert squirmed, cursing himself for his uncharacteristically belligerent outburst. He was suddenly sheepish.
    “Two nights locked up without food and then unceremoniously bundled into a coach for the coast, and forcibly put on a boat! That’s torture in my books.”
    Alec thought of his own harrowing experience, at the abuse he had endured at the hands of Prince Ernst and his sister, the Princess Joanna, and Sir Gilbert’s assertion was so ludicrous by comparison he could think of nothing to say. So he inclined his head to Sir Gilbert’s definition and suppressed a smile that it took the mention of food, or lack thereof, for the rotund little gentleman to be at his most animated since entering the drawing room. When his uncle rolled his eyes to the plastered ceiling, Alec’s smile widened into a grin.
    “You read some mighty tame books, if you think that’s torture!” Plantagenet Halsey huffed in dismissal, a pointed glare at the man’s paunch.
    “Listen here, Halsey—” Lord Cobham began, and was cut off before he could launch into a spirited defense of his subordinate
    “And yet, despite such depravation, Sir Gilbert has elected to return to Midanich as His Majesty’s representative,” Alec said smoothly. “This will surely indicate to the new Margrave that past wrongs are forgotten by His Majesty. It also lets Margrave Ernst know that you, Sir Gilbert, and English sovereign interests, are not to be trifled with.” Alec looked to Lord Cobham. “No doubt this was what you had in mind to tell Her Grace all along, was it not, my lord?”
    “Had in mind…?” Lord Cobham repeated slowly, as if surfacing from a trance. He came to life when Alec continued to look at him expectantly. “Yes! Yes! Couldn’t have said it better myself. That is precisely my reasoning!”
    “Couldn’t have said it at all,” Plantagenet Halsey muttered within his nephew’s hearing.
    “No one is more in support of His Majesty showing this Margrave we English are not to be trifled with,” the Duchess agreed, somewhat placated. “Sir Gilbert can throw his weight about wherever and at whomever he likes, but what does it matter who is minister of this or anything else when all that is truly important is rescuing Emily and Cosmo?”
    Alec kissed the Duchess’s hand and smiled down into her moist eyes.
    “My pride is not the least injured Sir Gilbert heads the legation,” he told her quietly. “He is an excellent choice for Minister Plenipotentiary. His appointment frees me up to concentrate exclusively on Emily and Cosmo’s situation. No doubt Cobham and Sir Gilbert have worked out some plan with the help of the department, and His Majesty’s blessing. Perhaps they are going to offer the Margrave favorable trade terms or ships, or whatever else he desires, to aid me in my endeavors? So in effect you have all of us working for the same goal, but coming at the problem from different corners of the room. Does that ease your mind just a little?”
    “A little,” the Duchess conceded with a pout, mollified by Alec’s reassurances. She looked past his shoulder at her nephew, tongue firmly in cheek. “Of course that’s precisely what you were also going to tell me, wasn’t it, Clive?”
    “To the word, too,” the old man added, and for his cheekiness got a poke in the ribs from the