"Purity and chastity," he answers at once. He knows flower meanings intimately well, of course - all that nonsense and bullshit is very much part of the Barrayaran social scene. A young Byerly once sent magnolias in a flower bouquet to a would-be lover and got laughed at for days. Not exactly his favorite memory.

"So it could work. After all, you cannot have sex in trees, unless you have sex with the trees, which I'm sure they do on Beta, or would do if they had any trees." He shrugs a little bit, then says, "And you know what you can get away with by trying to get away with it. Obviously. They don't exactly have an introductory guide on how to comport yourself as a prisoner."