14:17 November 3

"You can't avoid her forever," Cohen said, settling himself unceremoniously into the empty chair opposite McKenna. The conference room was ready for the planned meeting, but the senior ministers hadn't yet started trickling in. Cohen and McKenna were the only two in the room and it was as good of a time as any for the conversation.

McKenna looked up from his papers briefly to comment, "I'm not avoiding anyone." Then he returned to his reading, almost as though there had never been an interruption.

"Like hell you're not," Cohen declared. "You wouldn't even so much as look at her yesterday at the caucus."

"Who're we talking about?" Brickhill interrupted, coming into the room. By his usual standards, he was dressed fairly formally for the meeting; his tie was still on and he'd brought his jacket. "Monaghan?"

"What'd you have to tell him for?" McKenna accused Cohen, sounding more like a child than the prime minister.

"He hasn't told me anything," Brickhill maintained. He pulled a couple of chairs out from the table, testing the spring in the backrest before dropping himself down into his chosen chair. That was the reason he was early to meetings; he could take his choice of the seating. "But it was pretty obvious that she'd done something. What'd she do? Declare war on the Qumaris without asking permission first?"

"I wasn't ignoring her!" McKenna repeated, dropping his sheaf of papers to the table in frustration.

Cohen shrugged one shoulder and tilted himself back further in his chair. He didn't say anything, but let his eyes rest on McKenna.

"I wasn't," McKenna maintained.

Cohen just sat and looked at McKenna for a long moment. "She wasn't a patronage appointment, David," Cohen said after a moment.

"Monaghan was a patronage?" Brickhill asked, his eyes narrowing a bit.

"So it would seem," McKenna sighed.

"She wasn't though," Cohen maintained. "DuRocher knew her grandfather and that was all. Hell, David, he knew your grandfather, too!"

"My grandfather sat on the other side of the aisle," McKenna asserted. "He was a died in the wool Conservative and stayed that way until the day he died. I don't even think that he voted for me."

"That's because you ran against him," Brickhill reminded McKenna.

"I meant after that," McKenna sighed.

"Monaghan's grandfather wasn't even in politics. Like I told you last week, I think that he was with the United Nations for a while. If Monaghan was a patronage appointment, then so were you," Cohen pointed out.

"You've had her in the doghouse because you thought she was a patronage appointment?" Brickhill asked in surprise. "You've made patronage appointments."

"Who?"

"Burnett."

"He was parliamentary secretary for Fisheries long before I made him minister," McKenna argued.

"What about government leader in the House? Did he have the same qualifications for that?"

"He was a vocal critic on everything, not just Fisheries," McKenna justified. "He probably could have tried for leader, even as a parliamentary secretary."

"Seidel was strong in the party, too," Cohen noted.

"Yeah, but Seidel…"

"But Seidel ran against you and Burnett tossed his support behind you," Brickhill interrupted. "You might not have been thinking about it that way, but naming Burnett leader of the government in the House was a way of rewarding him for his support. That's patronage right there."

"Is she doing a good job?" Cohen asked. "Honestly."

"Yeah," McKenna admitted. "I've never known her not to."

"Then does it really matter that DuRocher knew her grandfather?"

McKenna sighed. "It's the principle of the thing."

"If you're going on principle," Cohen pointed out, "then you're just as bad as she is. Did DuRocher pay more attention to the two of you because he knew your families? Probably. Does it make an impact on how well you can do you jobs? Not in the slightest."

"Let her out of the doghouse," Brickhill said. "She's having a hard enough time with Seidel already."

"Is he still giving her trouble?"

"Is he still giving you trouble?" Cohen asked with a laugh.

McKenna just rolled his eyes. "I can't remember the last time that he wasn't."