I see. As much as one can see through such a tangled web. My condolences for your loss. [Because that's just manners, even if it doesn't seem that Byerly's misty-eyed over recollections of being bounced upon the man's knee.] So, Beta's a haven for warrior women and twinks, while on Barrayar you're all manly and butch. I wouldn't last five minutes, would I?

[He's sympathetic, really, to Byerly's being the last man standing - at least Prior's planet represents itself well here, even if none of its people are truly his. - all the same, were his compatriots to wake at any time it seems unlikely their association would continue. Embarrassing past peccadillo or not.]