singing open the great gates

[middlingalong]

The following day, very little happens, except for Vorreedi mentioning that Yenaro has been arrested (by the civil police, for theft, on charges from a ghem-lord Miles has never heard of, as opposed to by Cetagandan security for treason).

Also, Ivan gets bored - with all the bodyguards Vorreedi now requires for them after the incident at the bioestheties exhibition, the possible spontaneity of going out with his ghem girlfriends is much reduced.

But the next day they get to attend the Singing Open of the Great Gates.

And oh, is there ever singing.

Comments

[thisvorlunatic]

"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."

[isthisart]

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

[thisvorlunatic]

"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."

[isthisart]

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

[thisvorlunatic]

"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."

[isthisart]

"...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."

[thisvorlunatic]

"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."

[isthisart]

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

[thisvorlunatic]

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

[isthisart]

"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."

[thisvorlunatic]

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

[isthisart]

"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."

[thisvorlunatic]

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

[isthisart]

"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."

[thisvorlunatic]

"True, I suppose."

[isthisart]

"Honestly, if you hadn't been right there offering a viable route off-planet she probably could have tempted me to stay rather than, say, making a second essay at the Betan Embassy or stowing away to Illyrica. No one would try to drive the Empress's favored errand girl out of her constellation to be awarded to some arbitrary ghem-lord. But you were there."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I was there," he agrees. "And now we're here."

[isthisart]

"Yes."

On impulse, she scoops him up again, in a careful hug, and sits down on the bed with him in her lap again. (He's so scoopable!)

[thisvorlunatic]

"Eeeee," says Miles, snuggling into her lap. "Hello."

[isthisart]

"It is is more or less constantly tempting to scoop you up," she informs him.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Well - I'm glad you mostly refrain in public," he says. "But feel free to give in to the temptation in private."

[isthisart]

"Understood." Snuggle. "I gather Lord Vorpatril would be obnoxious about it."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Ivan is frequently obnoxious."

[isthisart]

"What's it like, having an approximately conventional family?" she wonders.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Um... approximately conventional, I suppose. Very approximately. I'd hardly describe my parents as conventional people."