"My daddy was a veterinarian." Daryl can't take issue with her talking about her own past, even if she stays away from what happened to the world. "Grew up on a farm. So I'm pretty good at mucking out stables."

And that's really what she can do to help around here. The Barrayarans all know horses, too; they can run the stables as easily without the outsiders' help.

"I'd rather work over here than the mess tent," she adds, as they walk (and clip-clop) out to the yard. "But they need all of us everywhere, eventually."