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Vorkosigan crest:

A stylized maple leaf in front of three triangles, which represent the Dendarii Mountains, it was originally used to seal the bags of District tax revenues. In an attempt to curry favor with Miles, Enrique Borgos gene-splices the Vorkosigan crest onto the back of a group of butter bugs, not realizing it's a terrible insult to the family. (CC)

Vorkosigan, Ekaterin Nile Vorvayne Vorsoisson:

A Barrayaran from the South Continent, she is the wife of the administrator for the Serifosa division of the terraforming project on Komarr. She has rich brown hair with amber highlights and light blue eyes, and is withering under the stress of her unhappy marriage. She has three older brothers and lost her mother when she was a teenager. She lived with her Aunt Helen and Uncle Vorthys in Vorbarr Sultana for two years before marrying Etienne Vorsoisson and, a decade later, is living in Serifosa, on Komarr.

Ekaterin feels closer to her aunt and uncle than to her father. She has a passion for growing plants and is very intelligent. She is not happy with her husband, and when she finds out he has taken bribes, lost most of their savings and pension on a Komarran trade fleet, and is still not going for help for his illness as well as blocking her son's treatment, she leaves him. After his death, she gets Nikolai into a hospital for treatment of his Vorzohn's Dystrophy, and prepares to leave Komarr to travel back home to Barrayar. At the jump-point station to pick up Helen Vorthys, they are both taken hostage by Arozzi, and held prisoner where the engineers are planning to try to close the wormhole. Ekaterin escapes and ends up breaking the wormhole-closing device. She and Helen are put into an airlock, with the engineers threatening to space both of them, until Miles convinces them to surrender. She ends up going back to Barrayar, with the promise of seeing Miles again very much on her mind.

When she and Nikolai arrive on Barrayar, they live with her Aunt and Uncle Vorthys in Vorbarr Sultana and she plans to attend school. Despite Miles trying to keep her under wraps, she is inundated by gentleman callers, but has no intention of getting married again. Miles gives her a garden design job and she enjoys her time with him, but just as she is letting her guard down, he is forced to propose to her in the middle of his disastrous dinner party, and she storms out, thinking he was trying to manipulate her.

She accepts work from Mark and Kareen redesigning the butter bugs to be more consumer-friendly. Eventually she comes to realize, after carrying around Miles's heartfelt letter of apology and listening to the slander of him by her suitors, brother, and former brother-in-law, that she is in love with Miles.

Brought to Castle Vorhartung by Gregor so he can protect her son from her overbearing relatives, she attends the Council of Counts vote, and when the false charge that Miles murdered her husband is made by Richars, she proposes to Miles to prove that he is not manipulating her into an unwanted marriage. During the preparations, she is naturally jittery about marrying again, but forges onward. When a poisoned gift choker of pearls makes her very ill, at first she thinks it is nerves, and is relieved to find the illness stemmed from poison. Rather than feeling frightened at the assassination attempt, she continues with the wedding, wearing the now-clean pearls in defiance of her husband's enemies.

While honeymooning with her husband, Miles is sent to Graf Station to adjudicate a dispute between the station security and the Barrayaran fleet escort. She assists where she can, especially at the end, where Miles must reach Cetagandan space with the haut-fetuses to return them back to the Empire, and also be treated for the parasites that are killing him. She receives a Warrant of the Celestial House from the Cetagandans in acknowledgment of her actions in saving the haut-lords' children. (K, CC, DI, WG)

Vorkosigan House:

A large, gray stone mansion that is more than two centuries old. Built by Miles's great-great-great