Concur. She was clearly not privvy to the Red Court/Black Council schemes in Storm Front, given how she reacted to one of her's being targeted. Given that I doubt they'd (the LotON) have trusted her with the Big Picture even if they (the Red Court) were actually aware of Nemesis or Cowl's schemes (Im assuming here that Cowl at least was 100% aware of it all).
After I posted earlier, I re-read that bit of
Grave Peril. Interestingly, Bianca herself seemed very surprised by Harry's reaction to her scheme, when he started blasting away and summoned up the shades of their former victims, Bianca seemed stunned, amazed, shocked that he would risk war over Susan.
But Bianca was never the sharpest fang, if you know what I mean. I'm more convinced than ever that she didn't really have a clue what was going on, even with her own Court. The Red Court was ready for war, and ready to use Harry and Susan as the pretext to start it, but I'm not sure
Bianca understood that that was what was going down. I think she'd been manipulated by the higher ups in her own Court to think that this was all about sticking it to her personal enemies, including Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden.
My guess is that Ortega was there, in part, to make sure Bianca did what they needed her to do and didn't upset the applecart.
Now, regarding Ortega...
Given that Arianna was probably a member of the black council/Circle, and that Duke Ortega was technically her vassal, I could totally see her ordering him to go, offer this to Winter, and he was clueless.
Yeah, if
anybody among the Reds had some idea of what was happening at that party, it was probably Arianna. She was likely planning a coup against the Red King, and she was apparently at that infamous 'dinner party' many years ago that might have been when all this was set in motion.
But even if Ariana knew
some of it, I doubt she knew it all, or anything close to it.
Wasn't there a WoJ that said Bianca's gifts were to the people she considered her enemies? I'd have to go hunting for it, it's the ghost of a glimmer of a hazy remembrance.
If I'm wrong, then you make a good point. I didn't even think of that.
It works either way.
For ex, Bianca probably doesn't think of Ferro as her enemy. It's hard to imagine Bianca having Ferro as an enemy and still being around long enough to be a headache for Harry, Michael, and Thomas. Yet Ferro got a gift.
But Bianca probably thought her 'special' gifts were for her enemies, like Harry's tombstone. She might not even have given the athame a thought.