This novella delves into "old Barrayar", in the back-country, where men are men and mutants are killed at birth. Miles is sent to investigate the death of a child with a cleft palate, facing up to the nastier realities of being lord of a people.A melancholy piece with a fitting conclusion. Since this was written before the advent of wide-spread mobile phones, the question of limited communication can be passed over, though I really have to shake my head at how slowly modernisation seems to be moving in backwater Barrayar.
