Right. He rubs a hand along his cheek and shrugs roughly. He formulates his excuses, saying - "What would you have done? You know him." He takes a breath. "If I had a woman arguing my cause, Vorkosigan would have hated me even more. He'd have been even more determined to make me into someone brutal instead of someone weak. And it would have compromised your relationship, wouldn't it? He'd have been furious with you. And I know that if I'd told you, you would have tried to help me, wouldn't you?"

He shakes his head, then, meeting her eyes directly. "You know that this - in the Dendarii Mountains - it's not my Barrayar. I'm from a very different sort of place - " And then he lifts his hand in a subtle, quelling gesture, a sort of keep your secrets gesture, because the last damned thing he needs is to seem more interesting to Diya and whoever else might be listening in, and he doesn't need Sonia to start chatting about alternate-dimension Barrayars or time-travel - "Vorbarr Sultana. And this Barrayar, the Dendarii Rebel Barrayar, was going to be the death of me."