Lucius bit his tongue, though with every passing phrase he wanted to say that yes, he knew - it had been a death sentence for his son, Narcissa had been very much alone, and his sister-in-law was a queen among lunatics. It was familiar territory.
The rest of the news was enough to halt his breathing for a moment. There was little he wanted less than to give the Dark Lord a reason to target his wife - the one thing it seemed He hadn't thought to take from him, yet - and this was ... Well, it was hardly the worst sort of treason, as she'd only enlisted solidly loyal followers. But it was hard not to let his imagination run away with him, having come directly from dealing out a traitor's usual reward to a couple of clueless dotards who'd done nothing. He stared at her, trying to come up with a good reason why he shouldn't be frightened.
"Well," he said after a long silence, the pain in his arm all but forgotten. "... It worked, I suppose." He couldn't think why Severus would have agreed to it, unless he had gone a little mad with his present prestige. "No one else knows? - Bella will keep her mouth shut, of course. Draco doesn't know, does he?" He had no faith at all that the boy could keep something like that to himself. "There's no reason it should have to come up, at all. Dead is dead, no matter who did the killing. No doubt He wouldn't mind one way or the other."
He was probably saying it to reassure her, because he certainly didn't believe it. His hand clenched briefly at his side. "... And you didn't think you'd mention it?"