"Ivan thinks I'm going to be, um... disappointed in the area of marital relations," mutters Miles. "Which I'm not - I mean - disappointed isn't the word - I wasn't going to assume, just because you married me - it's not like I actually have any others to be proverbially forsaking, it all works out the same in practical terms - "

She puts her pen away - and then she interrupts him by scooping him up off the floor and bringing him up to a level where she can place a gentle little kiss on his lips.

"Thank you," he says, mainly on automatic. His brain is still crackling with fireworks of delight.

"You're very cute, I actually like you, I don't know about doing much about it right now while we have really only barely met and you still have force screen bruises all over you but - what were you going to do if this hadn't come up in conversation?"

"Um... wait indefinitely for you to either bring it up or - not," he says.

"Okay... so - no promises on scheduling. I didn't have any love-poems back home to give me an idea of how, in practice, I will want things to go. But it is not out of the question, and in full generality you are allowed to talk to me. Okay?"

"...Okay," says Miles. "Uh, as regards how-in-practice-you-will-want-things-to-go - Beta Colony exists. It's possible to have, um, outside help figuring some of these things out. If that sounds like an appealing option."

"...Not really, since the first thing I am sure of is that I don't want to figure it out with someone I don't know at all. But out of academic curiosity - how does that interact with the monogamy custom?"

"Well... on Beta Colony it's perfectly normal for a monogamous couple to go to an LPST for, er, couples therapy, so to speak. Individually or jointly. If they're both fine with it. On Barrayar not so much, but people on Barrayar who would object don't need to hear about it."

"Ah. To be clear, when I asked whether monogamy was customary on Barrayar this was mostly an oblique way of inquiring after your expectations."

"My expectations... are a more complicated question," he says. "I mean - if we get married the Barrayaran way, I give my personal oath to be your husband and no one else's - 'spouse and helpmeet, forsaking all others' is the exact phrasing - also 'for as long as we both shall live', but that doesn't rule out divorce as an option, we'd just have to show up in Father's court and ask, not that I'm advocating this, you understand, I just think it's fair to give you all the relevant information - anyway, but that just governs my expectations of me; my expectations of you are mostly... not."

"Why are your expectations of me - not? Do the vows not match, or do you just think I won't take them seriously?"

"No, they match word for word, except for the part where you insert your full name sans any titles. But, look, you're not Barrayaran. You don't have to take them seriously, and I won't make you take them seriously. If for some reason you wanted to get married all over again the Barrayaran way, with the groat circle and the witnesses and Seconds, and then ignore the literal meaning of the vows and go have, I don't know, ten mistresses and five boyfriends on the side - I'm not saying this would be my ideal married life, but I wouldn't try to stop you. I wouldn't consider it a, a breach of honour, I wouldn't go crying to Father for a divorce. Although adultery does technically provide a legal basis."

"...Noted, I guess. I may not be Barrayaran - but as a matter of personal policy I try not to lie outside of extreme circumstances. You aren't proposing to wedge me into any extreme circumstances. I'm not saying that if I make oaths it will hold up against unanticipable pressures on me long after the fact, but if I make them at all it will be because I mean them at that time. Which, in the case of - what is a groat? - in the case of the Barrayaran marriage ceremony would include strongly expecting not to want a passel of extramarital affairs."

"A groat is a hulled whole grain of any of various types; they're a staple Barrayaran food, and for some reason at weddings we dye them pretty colours and pour them in circles on the ground for the people marrying each other to stand in."

"I wonder if that's where Lisbet got the circle idea. Our wedding was not quite standard."

"Huh. I wouldn't be surprised. Lisbet seemed - not quite standard, herself."

"I have very high hopes for how things will be with her as Empress. But I don't think she'll get things done fast enough to suit me - impatience is my besetting flaw - so I still wanted to leave."

"I... tentatively share your high hopes."

"At any rate, if she finds Cetaganda much the worse for lack of Linyabels, she can let my designer make me a half-dozen sisters."

"Who will all subsequently grow up and demand to be dispensed to outworld husbands?"

"Plausible outworld husbands don't show up every day, and Lisbet will have a while before they grow up to arrange matters more to their liking."