That's always true of Emperors, [Miles says immediately. He has not a little stake in the subject, given that by one (extremely poorly reasoned) line of succession, he's second in line to the throne for Barrayar. It's not a job title he's ever wanted, but that doesn't dim his intense loyalty to the current Emperor, Gregor.]
Not that it isn't ever a contrived plot. Hardly. As I understand it, the previous Emperor was close with the current one, wasn't she? That could make it more likely it was an assassination-- except Evandau seemed genuinely enraged when he executed the murderer. I know that look. No, I think he's on the level about that. Damn, but I wouldn't want his job right now.
[Miles is reasoning out loud as he walks, an automatic function for him. He's already thought of this before, and he's aware that he's revealing to Annie that he's not nearly as clueless as he was putting across. He wouldn't want her to think he was uninformed; just the opposite. He'd spent the entire morning trawling the network. He hadn't read everything, obviously, but he'd paid particular attention to the politics of those in power, as was his habit.]
no subject
Not that it isn't ever a contrived plot. Hardly. As I understand it, the previous Emperor was close with the current one, wasn't she? That could make it more likely it was an assassination-- except Evandau seemed genuinely enraged when he executed the murderer. I know that look. No, I think he's on the level about that. Damn, but I wouldn't want his job right now.
[Miles is reasoning out loud as he walks, an automatic function for him. He's already thought of this before, and he's aware that he's revealing to Annie that he's not nearly as clueless as he was putting across. He wouldn't want her to think he was uninformed; just the opposite. He'd spent the entire morning trawling the network. He hadn't read everything, obviously, but he'd paid particular attention to the politics of those in power, as was his habit.]