"He once called himself the emperor's stirrup-man," Raven-sensei confided.  "I wasn't sure if that meant a guardsman who rides at his leader's side, or a man who holds the stirrup while he mounts.  Very Barrayaran turn of phrase, though, I thought."

"Rides at his side is more correct," said Vorlynkin.  "Although the other isn't out of line."

Jin's mother tilted her chin in interest.  Aunt Lorna's eyes widened a bit.

"I didn't know he was that important," said Jin, thinking back to his first view of the tattered lost druggie.  And a great deal of really strange behavior and babble subsequently.  Miles-san had never acted at all high-nosed or stuffy.  On the other hand, he'd never acted like the rules applied to him, either.

"His father, Count Aral Vorkosigan, is Viceroy of Sergyar," Vorlynkin explained to Jin's interested female relations, "and his mother, the famous Countess, is Vicereine in her own right—her title's a co-appointment, not a courtesy just because she's his wife.  His viceroyalty caps a long career in service to the Imperium."

"Very hard act for Miles to follow, I gather," Raven-sensei put in.

Jin thought of his own father, frozen in time by his death more permanently than by any cryonic procedure.  Jin would never be more than seven, in those fading memories.  Never seventeen, or twenty-seven, or almost thirty-eight from the other side.  What would it be like to have a father when you were both grownups at the same time?  It seemed a strange, uncomfortable, tantalizing thought.

"Royalty?" asked Mina, who had drifted back to her mother's other elbow in time to hear this.  "Is Miles-san's daddy some kind of prince?"

"A viceroy is a—hm," Vorlynkin paused as if to choose words especially for her.  "Emperor Gregor can't be on all three worlds at once.  So he stays on Barrayar, mostly, and sends people to represent him on the other two planets.  The Imperial Councilor on Komarr, the Viceroy and Vicereine as a team on Sergyar.  Same jobs, really, just under two different titles because the planets are rather different."  He glanced at Jin's mother, as if to check how she liked this explanation about his home.

"So, they're like . . . deputy emperors?" asked Jin.

Vorlynkin's brows rose in approval.  "Yes, actually.  Except they are appointed, serve terms, and then stop.  Emperor is a life sentence.  So to speak."  A wry smile crossed his lips.

"So Miles-san has an important job and an important family," said Mina, testing out these ideas.  Jin wondered if she was thinking about those ponies.

Aunt Lorna grimaced. "Is his important relative why he was given the important job?"

"No," said Raven-sensei judiciously, "I expect Miles was given his job because he's a damned weasel.  There's a reason ferret out means what it does.  You have to have noticed that the man is a hyperactive lunatic, surely."  With a fair-minded air, he added, "To the benefit of me and mine, to be sure."