The Vorkosigan Companion - Lillian Stewart Carl [198]
She is captured by Aral Vorkosigan while surveying the planet later known as Sergyar. As his prisoner, she discovers that there is much to admire in her putative enemy. Before they have reached his ship, the two have fallen in love. Back at Aral's ship, she is instrumental in stopping a mutiny before being rescued by her crew. Afterward, she serves in the Betan Expeditionary Force, commanding a bulk freighter used as a decoy to lure Barrayaran warships away from a wormhole to Escobar. After being captured by the Barrayarans again, she is interrogated/tortured by Admiral Ges Vorrutyer before he is killed by Sergeant Bothari. Aral comes to her rescue, only to discover that she has already rescued herself. He hides her in his cabin while Vorrutyer's death is investigated. Cordelia is then sent to a prison camp, where she is repatriated back to her home planet of Beta Colony and treated as a hero. But her government suspects her of having been suborned by the Barrayarans. Their attempts to cure her almost cause her to have a nervous breakdown. When she discovers that she is suspected of being a deep-cover spy, she escapes, travels to Barrayar, and marries Aral.
Soon she is pregnant with Miles. After an assassination attempt on Aral using soltoxin gas, Cordelia's fetus is severely damaged, and must be removed and placed in a uterine replicator. During the coup attempt by Vidal Vordarian, Cordelia becomes the de facto protector of Gregor while they are in hiding in the mountains near Amie Pass. Once Gregor and Cordelia are safe again, they learn that Vordarian is holding Miles's replicator hostage. Cordelia leads Bothari, Droushnakovi, and Koudelka on a mission to save her son. After saving Alys Vorpatril from Vordarian's goons and helping deliver her son Ivan, Cordelia continues on to the Emperor's Residence, where she finds Miles's replicator. Captured by Imperial Security guards, they escape with Vordarian as a hostage, until Cordelia orders Bothari to execute him, which he does with Koudelka's swordstick. Cordelia takes Vordarian's head back to Aral, and tells him to end the war.
As Aral serves as Regent of Barrayar, Cordelia sees to the raising of Gregor and Miles, as well as doing her best to bring Barrayar into the modern age without losing its virtues, or her own. Among her other ventures, she helps fund the medical facility in Hassadar. Half the people there are oath-sworn to her in exchange for their schooling. Even after her children are grown, she frequently serves as a voice of reason for them. She accepts her clone-son Mark as her and Aral's own, and tries to help him assimilate to his new life. She also buys Mark a ship to go and rescue Miles from Jackson's Whole after his cryo-revival.
When Miles nearly destroys his relationship with Ekaterin, she gives him relationship advice that gets him back on track. She invests in Mark's bug butter business, and brokers an agreement between Mark and the Koudelkas after his relationship with Kareen becomes difficult.
Cordelia's name and title keep changing throughout the Vorkosigan sagas. She begins as Commander Cordelia Naismith, then becomes Captain Cordelia Naismith. When she marries Aral Vorkosigan, her name/title becomes Lady Vorkosigan. When Aral is appointed Regent, she becomes Regent-Consort Lady Vorkosigan. After Piotr's death, she becomes Regent-Consort Countess Vorkosigan. Then Aral and she move to Sergyar, where Aral becomes viceroy, and Cordelia becomes Vicereine Countess Vorkosigan. (All except FF)
Vorkosigan, Countess, the fifth:
No first name given. An ancestor of Miles's who suffered under the periodic delusion that she was made of glass. One of her irritated relations eventually dropped her off a twenty-meter castle turret, killing her.