"This party is more or less intended to demonstrate to people that I am nontoxic. And get a read on who is unwilling to make the experiment of being in a room with me," says Linya dryly.

"Oh. Well - I don't think you seem to be toxic at all. Although I would be surprised and alarmed to find you on my dinner plate," says Madame Vorsoisson.

"I feature in no comestibles whatsoever. The actual name for the party that was used while we were planning it was the 'Lady Vorkosigan Doesn't Bite Party'."

...She starts giggling again, both hands over her mouth.

Linya grins.

Madame Vorsoisson grins back.

"So far it's going well, although I haven't talked to most of the guests. Perhaps they are all quietly mollified by the piano playing."

"I hardly know anything about music, formally I mean, but it sounded very good."

"It's by a Barrayaran composer and I picked it up more or less specifically to appease suspicious guests. Though there were a few places to improvise, which is what I'm most accustomed to doing."

"Hmm?" she says, in a please-feel-free-to-elaborate sort of way.

"On Eta Ceta I belonged to an improvisational music group. We didn't maintain a standard repertoire, or even properly rehearse together - we'd just collect where music was needed, especially on short notice, and meander around in response to each other's cues. I have some repertoire, but much less than I would have if I'd taken up music in any other respectable-for-a-haut-lady capacity."

"That seems - clever of you, to find a respectable way to make music that didn't need rehearsals - did it save you a lot of time?"

"Quite a bit. And the piano in particular was my instrument because if I'd chosen something that is not played in a stationary fashion I'd have been expected to learn to dance at the same time, and I have been known to fall over while changing direction at speed, which is very embarrassing in a haut constellation."

"Oh," she says sympathetically. "Well, doubly clever, then."

"Thank you. The drawback is that I don't operate as well solo - I can produce pleasant sounds for a few hours without any cues, and I can read music, but I'm accustomed to a musical environment I can't readily duplicate here. My bandmates weren't close personal friends, but we could read each other and it was fun. If something similar is available to be had here - well, for one thing, it's anyone's guess if they'd have me, and for another I haven't managed to locate them."

"Oh. I'm musically hopeless, or I'd volunteer," says Madame Vorsoisson.

"I appreciate the thought regardless. At least when I moved in here there was a piano that no one minded my retuning. And it's not like I can't retrain for solo playing insofar as I want music to go on occupying my spare time."

"Well, that's not so bad, then. If you wanted to take up, I don't know, companionable gardening, I might have a little more to offer."

"How does one companionably garden?" wonders Linya.

"I don't know, I only just invented the phrase."

"Ah, a pastime unfettered by tradition. I don't think I even know for sure what activities principally constitute gardening. Weeding, I suppose? Planting things? Depending on the time of year."

"Yes. And planning, of course, and going out and getting things to plant - where I grew up we often had to do a lot of soil enrichment before Earth life would even grow, but here that's been less of an issue. And watering and otherwise caring for the plants. Once they are planted."

"And in gardens I'm familiar with there is often non-plant decoration around the plants - stones, water features, that sort of thing? Does that count as gardening?"

"Yes, I suppose so."

"And then of course," continues Linya with a perfectly straight face, "if one has planted any carrots, at the appropriate stage of development one must teach them to tapdance."