At the end of chapter 15 of Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Admiral Oliver Jole found himself underneath an unexpected swarm of radials that had also been set on fire. Where did this leave him?
For starters, it left him shirtless. He removed his shirt to throw it over Alex and Helen, who he was also protecting with his own body. I thought about calling the shirt thing implausible, but I decided against it. I think we have all, at some time in our lives, been in a situation where our desperate need to remove our shirts has caused us to defy the laws of physics. Plus also, take that, ImpSec! Does your training course cover swarming radials? What about emergency shirt removal? Suddenly I realize that I forgot to mention Miles’ childhood reminiscences about shooting fish in a barrel last week. He got caught before he could try the plasma arc. He had a dustbin lid to use as a shield. No mention of the lake fishing trick with the stunner battery.
And what happens when a man removes his shirt and throws himself on top of two children in a burning swarm of stinging alien bugs? Half of Sergyar whips out their cell phones and starts filming, apparently. Sergyarans have skipped right over an intrusive and celebrity-obsessed press and gone straight to viral videos on YouTube. They are a self-sufficient lot. Cordelia’s secretary, Ivy, has plenty of material from which to assemble a highlights reel for Cordelia to peruse at her leisure. Does anyone know how Sergyaran radials fly? Because I am wondering about that tonight. Do they have wings? Or is this kind of a bumblebee-type situation where my feelings about the physics don’t matter because the radials fly anyway, and swarm where they will? Are they usually like very tiny hydrogen balloons?
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Being landed on by a swarm of burning acid bugs isn’t good for your health. Cordelia diagnoses Jole’s shock, and his next stop is the med tent. They have a team to remove the burning remnants of radials and treat the burns. Thank goodness they didn’t have to pick shirt fibers out off Jole’s back. It’s plausible that there are some components of Imperial military uniforms that provide reasonable protection against burning projectiles in this size range, but Jole’s casual daywear wasn’t it. Burn treatment involves a lot of drugs. There are enough drugs to get Jole through a public appearance at his birthday fireworks display. This is sort of the male equivalent of the Duchess of Cambridge posing for reporters on the steps of the Lindo Wing within hours of giving birth. I’m impressed with both Jole and the drugs. In the aftermath, the birthday party medical team sends Jole home with Cordelia to convalesce. The Viceregal Palace has a lot of guest rooms. And, more crucially, a lot of staff.
But Jole has things to do before he succumbs to the shock/drug/exhaustion trifecta that his birthday party has subjected him to: He has to talk to Miles. Miles is a good person to have around when you’re suffering from a serious injury. He has experience with that. And he’s very sympathetic—not at all inclined to compare your injuries to his or suggest that you should buck up and power through. He’s brought Jole some of the lovely local cider to go with his medically recommended electrolytes.
Miles is under the impression that Cordelia has offered Jole some eggs for his future offspring. Miles is, at this point, not in the loop on most of the story. Jole is very frank and forthright about filling him in. On everything. There is nothing left out here: Jole starts with Aral, and he does not hold back anything on Cordelia. But the more striking part of this conversation is how gracious both men are. Jole talks about how much he admires Miles as a father. Miles apologizes for not noticing Jole, and for failing to acknowledge the deep and personal nature of Jole’s loss at Aral’s funeral. This book makes a really powerful argument for putting things in the open, and I feel like this is the key piece. When a relationship is unacknowledged, its survivors mourn alone, and that’s incredibly cruel. The thing that makes Miles such a great character—despite all of his many flaws—is what he gives to the people he cares about, in most cases by saying “Why not?” Miles has a lot to process here, but he cares about Cordelia and Jole, so his response to this—both at the end and at a collection of intermediary points—is why not?
Jole can have this conversation with Miles now because he has solid information about his own decisions. He’s turning down Desplaines’ offer to take over at Ops. He’s retiring and having his sons. Miles suggests that the pelting rain of flaming snot did Cordelia a favor: If my mother had known that was all it would take, I’m sure she would have been willing to, I don’t know, set marshmallows on fire and fling them at you before now. Miles assumes a lot about his mother. But yeah, she might have.
Tune in next week when Cordelia resolves some of her other problems! With a bonus appearance from ghem Lord Soren.
Ellen Cheeseman-Meyer teaches history and reads a lot.
My guess is tiny hydrogen balloons, similar to the vampire balloons from Shards of Honor, but smaller. I’m basing this guess on their flammability, plus their existence within the same biome.
I think radials are hydrogen balloons shooting out gas to move around. (Think cow farts are bad- tryna planet full of radials!)
It was very heart-warming to see how well Miles took this news.
I think the shirt came off to further protect the kids.
@@.-@ I think Ellen is commenting on the speed at which he was able to get it off, throw it over the kids and then throw himself over them.
I’d need to doublecheck my copy, but wasn’t it Jole’s *jacket* he used to cover them? Would’ve been faster, since IIRC there’s explicit reference earlier to him undoing it as things relaxed and went along.
@PamAdams: Venting hydrogen’d just recombine with, mostly likely, oxygen, and most likely, harmlessly; it wouldn’t smell bad or cause a greenhouse effect and without a spark it shouldn’t explode.
Shouldn’t like to be around a Sergyarran forest fire, though.
Fun planet Cordelia’s got there. I imagine that Jole was simply and instinctively doing everything possible to protect the two children.
I’m not sure how much assumption is necessary; there’s always the head. (It always comes back to the head….). And remember “Laser, meet butter? Oops.” Aral told Miles that a reputation for being dangerous had its uses; Cordelia knows there are times when a reputation alone won’t do.
But I think Miles is wrong about the impact; Cordelia was already thinking about restocking on sex toys, and Oliver might have considered marshmallows just another game. (It’s hard to throw marshmallows with any impact; a local group used to have battles with them, decades ago.) Traditionally, the shock that leads to recognizing where one’s will lies needs to be a surprise; Bujold may have known “The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff”, a wonderful Sturgeon novella leading up to that premise. (Sometimes it’s used more sinisterly, as in Wilhelm’s “Baby, You Were Great!”)
The other side of the loss they’re unwinding is making the new link: Oliver telling Miles about the incipient semicousins to Miles’s children (which Oliver can commit to now that he’s decided to take up a local, self-made challenge rather than Chief of Ops) to make sure that they’ll be known as kin. I wonder who gets to explain to the public who these people are that Miles’s kids greet as family, but Barrayar is changing fast enough that the people who matter (e.g., Gregor, now that he’s in the loop and not blindsided) will simply make clear that this is not something to be fussed about. (Although I do think Oliver may want to wait until his kids are teenagers, or at least unusually well backboned, as somebody is going to make a public fuss that small children shouldn’t be unnecessarily subjected to.)
@@.-@: no, the jacket went a while ago; the end of the preceding chapter says shirt. I guess informal shirts don’t have cuff buttons.
@6: pure hydrogen is odorless — but this is biology we’re talking about rather than chemistry, and biology rarely takes one path when there are a lot of fun side-reactions available. (cf all the interesting flavors in ale.) What makes farts smell is not the methane that is the bulk of the volume, but the dashes of other compounds that come with it; unless sulfur is inexplicably absent from the radials’ diet, I suspect whatever jets they let off are not odorless.
The thing that makes Miles suggestion dangerous is not that marshmallows are thrown, but that burning marshmallows are thrown. Which will melt and caramelize the sugars in the marshmallows, and can create a sticky substance hotter than boiling water.
The fact that Miles imagines his mother deliberately inflicting that type of injury on someone she loves in order to influence their decision making is a bit disturbing.
Particularly because one of the best things about how his relationship with Eli was written is how it ended. There aren’t enough examples of people ending relationships respectfully, being able to say “go in peace, and may you find your best happiness elsewhere.”
And also because we see Cordelia deliberately recognizing her interests when she advises Oliver, and being very careful to give Oliver the same respect for autonomy in his choices that Miles and Eli gave each other. She would not want to fling burning marshmallows to make Oliver stay.
@8 – “The other side of the loss they’re unwinding is making the new link: Oliver telling Miles about the incipient semicousins to Miles’s children (which Oliver can commit to now that he’s decided to take up a local, self-made challenge rather than Chief of Ops) to make sure that they’ll be known as kin. I wonder who gets to explain to the public who these people are that Miles’s kids greet as family, but Barrayar is changing fast enough that the people who matter (e.g., Gregor, now that he’s in the loop and not blindsided) will simply make clear that this is not something to be fussed about. (Although I do think Oliver may want to wait until his kids are teenagers, or at least unusually well backboned, as somebody is going to make a public fuss that small children shouldn’t be unnecessarily subjected to.)”
Balderdash.
Children whose families are closely connected greet each other as family. People who make a fuss are shown to the door. It helps when you have armsmen, but that’s still how it works for a lot of people who don’t. Cordelia is really good at “things that aren’t secrets and aren’t public either.” She’s been doing it the whole book.
@@@@@ 10, Ursula:
The fact that Miles imagines his mother deliberately inflicting that type of injury on someone she loves in order to influence their decision making is a bit disturbing.
The fact that someone doesn’t realize that Miles is joking is a bit bemusing. It never occurred to me that it was anything else.
Earlier in the same conversation we have:
“So how long has my mother had this questionable fetish for bisexual Barrayaran admirals? I don’t think even the Betans have earrings for that one.”…Jole barked a laugh…Miles; “Is she trying to collect the whole set, or what?”
The conversation is on joking terms before the marshmallows reared their flaming heads.
“When did you decide this?”
“About four hours ago.”
Miles wrinkled his nose. “If my mother had known that was all it would take, I’m sure she’d have been willing to, I don’t know, set marshmallows on fire and flinging them at you before now.”
Jole vented an involuntary chuckle.
When the recipient chuckles, that’s a clue.
It was a joke.
I found the rain of fire confusing.
Jole ripped off his shirt, flung it around the twins, clutched to his torso, and bent over them. “Stay tight!” he yelled into their hair as they tried to bolt, or maybe just to see out. “Keep your faces down!”
And then his world turned into a rain of flaming snot.
Later:
Oliver’s shirt proved ruined…
If his shirt was ruined, why not his pants? Why wasn’t he bare-assed?
That one is not too difficult. We know from ACC that Denarii uniforms are fireproof. It stands to reason Miles learned that at home. It is fair to assume that Barrayaran uniforms are fireproof. For the picnic, Jole wore uniform pants and a mufti shirt, which was not fireproof.
But then…
The two collaborated on fitting a permeable thinbrane and a protective gauze over his back, with an annex to the back of his neck.
Why isn’t Oliver like opportunity? Forelock in front, burned bald behind?
I have no answer for that one.
@13 – To get his shirt off fast enough, Oliver would have had to rip it off. That would ruin it, even without burning radial snot.
I thought he was wearing a uniform shirt, as he started the day in full uniform, and then took off his jacket and rolled up his shirt sleeves and unbuttoned his collar in the afternoon after the ceremonies were over. The uniform is fireproof, so his pants are fine, and he uses the fireproof shirt to protect the children, rather than keeping it on to protect himself.
And of course, the video went viral, as having a handsome and fit man, even of 50, rip off his shirt is going to be worth watching. Even without the bonus of heroically saving children from falling burning radial snot. It’s a literal bodice-ripper.
@13 – it is possible that the shirt was ruined more by the “snot” bit than the “flaming”.
When the radicals exploded, it is likely that the bits actually on fire were hydrogen, and that the shredded radial parts were heated as a result of contact, but not heated enough to cause additional conflagration. Indeed, the fact that the party site did not itself go up in flames argues pretty strongly for this.
Oliver’s hair may have been slimy, but it appears to have done it’s job protecting his head. I assume he got to sit through the fireworks in a fresh pair of pants.
I suspect those YouTube videos of what happens when lots of radials blow up are a rich source for future safety training, if you take the opposite of Ivy’s approach to shirtless admirals.
@14: Leading to a new trope on Sergyar – to indicate that a book is a romance, the cover must include a shirtless Admiral on fire.
@12 – If it’s supposed to be a joke, it’s not funny. In general, the idea of people choosing to do things that would cause grave bodily harm isn’t funny. And it’s doubly not funny because Miles is making this so-called joke to someone who is actually suffering from the exact type of injury he’s making a joke of.
Plus, it undermines a major theme of the book. It’s a book about choices, and the importance of being able to make your choices for your life freely and uncoerced, and with good and complete information. We see Cordelia being exquisitely careful to support Oliver in his choices without pressuring him to choose in the way she would prefer. When they discuss his options, she’s very careful to be clear about the limits of her objectivity.
Cordelia’s just spent 40+ years unable to make free and uncoerced choices about her reproductive options, as her chances to have more children, the daughters she wanted, were stifled by the need to keep Miles an only child in order to avoid further complications to his inheritance of the Countship by adding consideration of a non-mutant possible spare to rival him as an heir. Even if they only had daughters, if they showed Piotr it was possible for them to have “non-mutant” children, it would have brought on new pressure from him to have a “non-mutant” son as an alternate heir. He only accepted Miles because he thought he had no other choice.
So Cordelia is very aware of how important it is for Oliver to make his reproductive choices without pressure or coercion from her. Or even his romantic choices – if he takes the job, their romantic relationship will probably end, as they’ll have little opportunity to see each other regularly.
Miles suggesting that she’d physically harm Oliver to influence his choices, when she’s been so careful to avoid closing any doors for him, is not at all funny.
Piotr died when Miles was seventeen. You can’t blame him for everything.
I’m wondering if discovering Aral and Jole were an item was actually a relief to Miles. What did he make of Aral’s closeness to a picture perfect Barrayaran officer? Did he sometimes wonder if Jole was a son substitute? The son Aral wished he’d had?
@18 – Piotr died when Miles was seventeen. That would mean, if they decided to have more children, a nearly 20 year gap between their first child and their next. And Cordelia does suggest, in this book, that by that point Aral thought he was too old to start over with new children. Which is not unreasonable, as he was around sixty by that time. Caring for young children takes energy, and by the time Piotr died, Aral was ready to consider being a grandfather, not a new father again.
Her chances at more children with Aral in her life were effectively cut off by Piotr’s, and Barrayar’s, reactions to Miles being an apparent “mutant.” By the time Piotr’s opinions were no longer an issue, Aral was old enough that he didn’t feel capable of starting over as a parent.
And yes, Piotr’s opinions remained an issue. Because, if a “spare” heir was born, Piotr could disinherit Aral in favor of the “non-mutant” child, perhaps making Aral the child’s regent until the child came of age, but still cutting Miles out of the picture.
Okay, you can blame Piotr for everything. Because Aral clearly had no power in spite of being Regent, and Cordelia no gumption. They just cowered before him.
@18-
I’m wondering if discovering Aral and Jole were an item was actually a relief to Miles. What did he make of Aral’s closeness to a picture perfect Barrayaran officer? Did he sometimes wonder if Jole was a son substitute? The son Aral wished he’d had?
That’s a really fascinating possibility, and – once the shock had worn off – I wonder if that might not be the case. (I bet, incidentally, that that occurred to other Barrayans, and might in fact have provided unintended cover for the relationship, since I can quite see lots of people struggling to understand that Aral could have been proud of Miles, especially as they didn’t know about his Imp Sec service, and feeling sorry for him and his lack of a satisfactory heir).
@11: I was referring to the public (who are already outside the door), or fellow Counts or other influencers (ditto), not to whoever might be in the house. (I suspect that anyone allowed in will not be surprised by anything Cordelia either did or assisted.) cf discussions in past threads about how much public media there is on Barrayar (and how much of it is The New York TImes vs The National Enquirer); then think about what the amount and balance will be 10-20 years from now.
I am currently staying in a facility filled with wounded warriors, and that flaming marshmallow joke is precisely the kind of humor they indulge in. The other day I saw a shirt an amputee was wearing that said something like: “How I Lost My Leg Stories – $20”. Military humor can be pretty brutal.
@18, 23 – I’m not military, but when recovering from major medical stuff, I have often appreciated people who will joke about it with me. It’s tasteless and the nurses hate it, but it was a vast relief to not have to deal with visitors being upset right at me, and joking feels pretty good. Whatever flaws we believe Miles has, I think it’s reasonable to believe he can read a room well enough to tell whether his joke will or will not be appreciated by his immediate audience.
Miles did take it … sort of well.
But I’d still like to see a fanfic in which Miles reveals the Big Secret, Oh Why Didn’t They Tell Me to Ivan, and Ivan saying he always knew but “it was none of my business. And I’ve been waiting years to say this … Miles, you idiot!¨
@22 – Then you have to think about how much time these children will spend having unmonitored conversations with random members of the public.
Which should be very close to zero. My 12 yo isn’t having long unsupervised convos with randos on the street. And when they are having conversations, those generally deal with general information (directions, weather) rather than personal exchanges of information. My kid *is* learning how to deal with some rude questions at what I consider an early age, but the answer to that is NOT “let’s deny that there’s anything about you that people might be rude about.” The answer to rude public comments is “extricate yourself and find a safe adult.” In situations where kids might encounter a lot of rude people (strangers on the street, homophobic family members at Thanksgiving dinner, whatever) you keep safe adults close at hand.
It’s no good protecting kids from information about themselves. Jole is already planning to talk to his sons about their parentage. And it’s not that new in the Galactic Nexus! Miles has a pair of great-grandmothers.
@23,24
Oh god yes, military and medical people can have the darkest humour imaginable, it’s a great coping mechanism to turn trauma into humour. I generally describe my most spectacular accident as “turns out doing cartwheels while skiing at high speed is a bad idea … who knew?”, and we all quickly came up with ways that having one leg shorter than the other could provide benefits like standing on slopes, and how easy it is now for me to touch some of my toes so I don’t need to stretch so much after all.
But that’s also very different to humour at the expense of the patient, and Miles is older now and far less prone to that sort of gaffe. I particularly liked the comment about collecting Barrayaran admirals.
@17 good grief. We know you hate this series and every protagonist in it. We get that you don’t want to get that a joke was made. But it really gets tiring to listen to you despise everything in this reread just because it’s world view does not match the one that you think everyone should live by.
Could you please tell me one thing positive you have gotten out of any of these book? Off of the top of my head, I can not remember you saying any.
@18, 21,
I’m remembering Miles meeting with Aral during The Vor Game, wearing his Admiral Vorkosigan persona. Jole kicks back in the outer office, clearly aware of the real story.
Miles might well ask ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ He’s a grown man for the entire relationship. He hangs out with sharp tongued Betan Hermaphrodites, he has affairs with genetic constructs who he fantasizes as enchanted princesses. He can cope with the knowledge that mum and dad are playing threesiesand it’s a serious committed relationship.
As it is Aral and Cordelia literally hid a member of his family from Miles.
@@@@@ 30, princessroxana:
Miles might well ask ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ He’s a grown man for the entire relationship. He hangs out with sharp tongued Betan Hermaphrodites, he has affairs with genetic constructs who he fantasizes as enchanted princesses. He can cope with the knowledge that mum and dad are playing threesies and it’s a serious committed relationship.
As it is Aral and Cordelia literally hid a member of his family from Miles.
Miles did ask about that, and other things, back in Chapter 12. The gist was the passage that began:
“So how old will Selig and Simone need to be before you tell them all about it? Ten?”
“Of course not ! That’s way too young for moral horrors.” He added after a moment, “Or any other horrors, if I can help it.”
“Twenty?”
“Twenty…is a very distracted age,” he ventured, obviously seeing where she was going with this and not much caring for the view.
“Thirty?”
“…maybe.” That shift look, so familiar from his adolescence, flickered over his features.
“Forty?”
“Forty might do,” he conceded, wryly.
“He should have gone for thirty-nine, apparently.”
@18. The soltoxin left Aral infertile and Cordelia mentions that Barrayar is not ready for test tube babies. That changes at some point but that’s several years later.
Also, while Cordelia says she wants lots of kids, we don’t ever hear Aral say that – I don’t know if he ever wanted more.
@31 – that convo is about Aral and Vorrutyer. My gut feeling is that the decisions about who knew about Aral, Jole and Cordelia weren’t just up to Aral and Cordelia.
@32 – When does Cordelia say that Barrayar isn’t ready for test tube babies? Cordelia is one of the parties directly responsible for importing uterine replicators to Barrayar, and for the existence of and advanced galactic reproductive clinic on Sergyar! Cordelia tells Aral, repeatedly, that any cell they can scrape up after an assassination can be used to go on making little Vorkosigans forever.
No society gets ready for test tube babies in advance of those babies making it out of the test tube.
I can think of a lot of reasons why Aral and Cordelia did not have more children. Miles even has that speech to Mark about his parents avoiding more children because they’d be pressured to disinherit Miles in favor of the non-injured children (which seems like a bigger issue to me than many others that have been raised in this thread). Until Gregor married and produced alternative heirs, Vorkosigan children would be plot magnets. Aral was pushing 50, and had first one all-consuming job (Regent), and then another (Prime Minister). Aral and Cordelia dedicated their lives together to government service, and didn’t have a lot of energy left over for children. Now that Cordelia is choosing for herself alone, she has decided to retire from active service and have those children she always wanted – Aral frankly always cared about Barrayar and the Empire more than Cordelia did. Cordelia cares a lot, but those things aren’t her heart the way they were Aral’s.
@31 – Except that Aral and Cordelia’s relationship with Oliver isn’t a moral horror, or any other kind of horror. So the parallel of confiding your moral weaknesses and failings to your children doesn’t apply.
An adult loved one forming a new, respectful, mutual relationship with a happily consenting adult is generally good news. While there might be some initial trepidation (is the relationship really a good one? Is this person good for the person I care about?) it’s not a horror to be kept hidden.
@@@@@ 17
so shall we add you to the long list of people in the books who don’t find Miles funny? They’re generally attempting to supervise and/or defeat him at the time.
Humorous or not, and Miles is plainly trying to get over heavy ground as lightly as possible, the marshmallows are a figure of speech and that’s all. Nobody is seriously suggesting that anybody fling flaming snacks at anybody else. The reaction in comment @@@@@17 is nearly as po-faced as the critic who (seriously) took one speech in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, where a novice nun tells the ruler of Vienna, who’s trying to blackmail her into having sex with him, that she’d rather be tortured than consent to rape, and interpreted it to mean that she was a secret masochist. Talk about missing the point by a country mile …
@35 I suspect the average Barrayaran’s reaction to their parents’ extramarital relations might be similar to Ivan’s in Memory
Five years later in CVA Ivan still is uncomfortable.
Miles having a reaction similar to Ivan’s might very well have been a political complication the principals would rather avoid.
@14: See, the thing I don’t get about *that* is, those vid clips show Jole being heroic and handsome and bare-chested *and getting severely injured*. That does not, to me, sound like a turn on. Although I know enough to know it apparently is for *some*.
@38 – I assume the videos were carefully edited – rip off shirt, grab the kids and take cover, burning snot just comes into view, and it cuts off. All the heroism, none of the injury. It seems clear that they were being shared by people who were quite admiring of Oliver and his actions, and who’d want to show him at his best, not him brought low by burns and shock.
Particularly since Cordelia’s aide was offering to share the videos with Cordelia – they’re going to be something she’d enjoy. And she’ll enjoy seeing Oliver heroically ripping off his shirt and saving her grandkids, but having to re-watch the details of his injuries, she wouldn’t enjoy.
Certainly the videos that Cordelia and Oliver choose to officially release to the press will be edited that way – show Sergyar’s leaders as heroic, not as weak and injured. Cut off the video before it actually shows the injury, then cut to him enjoying the fireworks show – he’s been successfully treated for burns that are mentioned but not shown, and is then shown to be up and about and fit despite any injury.
@38 – Jole’s injuries are not severe. He was released to the care of family the same evening – they don’t do that for severe stuff. In the military and medical sense, he’s only mildly injured. And in the “that was sexy” sense – the injury is sooooo not the turn on. The getting the kids through uninjured part is damned attractive.
@40 – Oliver is not released to his home, a typical one where you live on your own or with your immediate family. He’s being released to the Viceroy’s Residence, which is a household that has its own personal physician.
And I thought it was fairly clear that he wouldn’t have been released if that dedicated medical care hadn’t been available. He’s not well enough to be released to the care of family, unless that family is powerful and rich enough to command medical staff for their dedicated personal use.
@40 And the physician likes that the Vicereine is in charge
@41 – Where are we getting that the Vicereine’s household has a physician on staff?
Jole isn’t released to his own home because he lives alone. He is released to his lover – who happens to outrank him, yes, but mostly, who is a human being who can guarantee that he won’t just fall down on a couch and fail to hydrate because his meds make him too sleepy (or that, if he does, she will call backup). He would not have been released if he required IV fluids or ongoing treatment or monitoring (which is pretty common for severe burn victims), or had significant mobility impairments.
Of course the physician is pleased that the Vicereine is in charge! She was a Betan Survey Captain! She got a medically fragile infant successfully to maturity, so she must be reasonably competent, but that doctor is clearly uninformed about the Vorkosigan family history of post-operative adventures. (In the early weeks after my c-section and associated hemorrhage, doctors were alarmed to learn that I was driving to visit the baby in the NICU. At about that same stage, Cordelia went on a multi-day survival trip in the mountains. It was the first time she rode a horse.)
If the Vicereine’s personal physician exists (again, I don’t think there’s textual evidence of that), it sure is interesting that that person doesn’t show up in person to fuss over Jole on his arrival, take notes and records from the emergency tent, and suggest that maybe Miles can hear all these personal revelations in the morning, and take that six pack out with him when he goes.
@43 – See below, they definitely discuss that Oliver should be admitted for observation, and that Cordelia has her own on-call physician.
The physician wants to admit him to the hospital. Oliver thinks he can go back to his apartment. Cordelia suggests the Viceroy’s Palace, with an on-call physician and medical supplies and equipment equivalent to a field hospital. The doctor accepts Cordelia’s compromise, which involves both the presence of competent medical staff and someone outranking Oliver to make him behave.
The physician also doesn’t know that Oliver and Cordelia are lovers, or in a family-like relationship. Very few people know this at the moment, and we’ve not seen any evidence that Oliver or Cordelia have chosen to explain their personal relationship to a military physician they’ve just met.
@@@@@ 30: I don’t think Aral and Cordelia kept the relationship with Jole from Miles necessarily on purpose. Doesn’t Cordelia state that Miles was absent much of the time that it was going on, in fact that he was “dead” during that period too? It wasn’t something he “needed” to know. It was personal. And if 40 was an acceptable age for Miles to learn about Vorutyer, it might be the same for the trifecta of Aral, Cordelia and Jole. In other words, I don’t think they were protecting him, or hiding from him, it just didn’t come up at an appropriate time to discuss it. Just my take.
@45 – You don’t keep a relationship secret for years without conscious choice. Aral and Cordelia’s relationship with Oliver went on for years while Aral was Prime Minister, and, after a break, for more years when they were Viceroy and Vicerene.
Keeping the relationship secret meant deliberately excluding Oliver from a variety of family events where a co-spouse would normally be present under Cordelia’s Betan customs. E.g., Miles comes home on leave from the Dendarii, and they’re having a private family dinner to celebrate, but they then choose not to invite Oliver, who is also part of their family. Or Miles is visiting them on Sergyar, and Oliver is on his downside work rotation, but they’re keeping Oliver away. Or Miles is home from the Dendarii for Winterfair, and Oliver is in town, too, and they could have their private family celebration together.
I don’t think Miles would have had more than a short-term adjustment period. This was the time when he was having simultaneous affairs with Eli and Taura. (Both of which Aral and Cordelia knew about, thanks to security reports.) Running around the galaxy with Bel Thorn at his side. Miles is far more cosmopolitan than Ivan at the equivalent age.
There would have been dozens of opportunities to have a quiet meal with the four of them together, and share their good news that they’ve found someone else they love. Even if they didn’t want to share the news via their usual means of family communication, such as letters to Miles while he’s with the Dendarii.
Finally all the secrets come out and Miles barely blinks. They assumed he’d be old Barrayaran about it when he is in reality calmly Betan. Or maybe pragmatic high Vor. I’m willing to bet that Aral and Cordelia’s was far from the first unconventional marital arrangement between a Count and Countess. It is very much to Miles credit that his first thought is how the secrecy negatively affected Jole. He was ignored at Aral’s funeral rather than included in the family mourning and Miles regrets that. Oliver remembers well what it was like being trapped at the other end of the Nexus when Aral has his heart attack with only Cordelia’s gray faced, obviously terrified bulletins to cling too. It was hard on Cordelia too. She could surely have used a shoulder to cry on and somebody to share her fears with. It was a very rough time for her and a supportive co-spouse would have helped enormously.