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Linya unpacks. She is introduced to the armsmen and the other householders, and those of them younger and less thoroughly worn smooth by experience than Pym react to her with various combinations of glassy-eyed staring and suspicion - none of which fails to retreat at a well-timed throat-clearing, though, so she is able to bring one along with her for protection when she makes a trip to a music store for piano tuning tools. It goes without incident. She also makes sure she will be able to find food in the wee hours of the morning when she's up late or early.
She well-tempers the piano, and plays one of her relatively few memorized pieces (there are, in fact, a lot of them, but fewer than musicians of her acquaintance acquire for their repertoires) to make sure it's how she wants it.
The next morning, she draws Miles a diagram of the cascade braid and lets him practice it until he's got it down and she can wear it out. Cordelia mentions that she has invited Gregor over.
Linya tries groats with maple syrup on them for breakfast and, unexpectedly, loves them. (She does not try ethanol in any form, nor animal meat, this early in her residence.) She gets her pen to connect to the Barryaran comm networks. She meets, by comm-call, the Vorkosigan family accountant Tsipis, with whom she gets on absolutely famously; after fifteen minutes they have an enthusiastic agreement to talk thrice weekly so he can teach her economics and keep her up to date on how he's doing with errands for her nascent pen development business - sourcing materials and tools for her prototypes, materials and tools and manufacturers and programmers for scaling up when she has a solid consumer version.
She starts teaching herself the local form of Greek and has another bowl of groats in the dimness when there's nobody about but the night guard.
She slips into bed with her husband contentedly and snuggles up and goes to sleep.
isthisart
thisvorlunatic
The bed in their new suite is much bigger and cozier than the one in their cabin on the courier ship. Miles approves. It makes waking up in the morning even more of a delightfully cuddly event than it already was.
isthisart
Cuddles and delight! What a combination. They go very well with kisses.
thisvorlunatic
Yes. All those things. Together. What an excellent combination.
isthisart
Anyway, the groats Linya had last night will not keep her going forever, so after some quantity of delight and physical affection:
"Breakfast?"
thisvorlunatic
"Breakfast!" agrees Miles. And off they go to breakfast. (Groats are once again available, although Miles does not choose to avail himself of them.)
isthisart
Linya has a small quantity of groats, although she also has other things alongside them, since the novelty has worn off.
thisvorlunatic
"You're really fond of groats," Miles observes. "It's cute."
isthisart
"They're good. And they make an excellent maple syrup delivery mechanism."
thisvorlunatic
"Hopefully your enjoyment of maple won't be ruined by sheer abundance."
greatcomposure
While Miles is gazing adoringly at his wife, Cordelia appears carrying a small hardbound paper book.
"There you are. Good morning," she says, handing it to Linya. "I found you this."
The title is United in Love: A history of wedding vows.
"There you are. Good morning," she says, handing it to Linya. "I found you this."
The title is United in Love: A history of wedding vows.
thisvorlunatic
"Ooh," says Miles, peering at it. "A print book in the Latin alphabet. Rare beastie."
isthisart
"Very," agrees Linya, taking the book carefully. "I own two paper hardbounds and only one in this alphabet. A Shakespeare omnibus and an electrical engineering reference so I can get the power back on." She opens up the book and pages through it.
thisvorlunatic
"There's tons of them lying around Barrayar, but mostly in the native alphabet. We rediscovered galactic English and galactic information technology at around the same time, you see. But evidently we didn't immediately burn all the old printing presses..."
isthisart
"I imagine there's less wasteful kindling to be had," chuckles Linya. "Thank you, Cordelia."
greatcomposure
"You're welcome. Gregor should be coming by around noon. We can have a nice quiet lunch."
isthisart
"Is there a specific agenda for that conversation besides 'meet and greet'?"
greatcomposure
"'Meet and greet' about covers it. Were you expecting something else?"
isthisart
"I don't know what to expect," says Linya. "That's why I asked."
isthisart
"Anyway, I'll arrange not to be occupied with anything distracting around noon."
