Gentleman Jole and the SPOILER Queen

I know it's been a few days since it was requested, but here's a SPOILER thread for Bujold's latest installment in the Vorkosigan series.

It's not been a great winter for taking in new things for me, so I confess that I haven't read it yet. As a result, my image of the book at the moment is a conversation between two characters from elsewhere in literature...

Desire waited in the carriage. Again. The thing with Norton had been a setback, but this one should be easier. Royalty, taken as a whole, was pretty venal. That's how they got to be-and stayed-royalty. And Pain was a good salesman. He'd even sold himself his own nostrums. Still, it was frustrating. He talked so quietly that only one side of the conversation was audible.

"You call that an offer? I've seen offers in comparison with which that would be a confiscation! Besides, queens never make bargains."
(Cajoling from Pain)
"When I want a thing, that means that I lack it. But to lack a thing is not to have it. And if I see something, it's mine, and what I cannot see, I cannot miss."
(Slightly confused response from Pain)
"OFF WITH HIS HEAD!"

Pain returned to the carriage, carrying his head in his hands. The gore from his neck stained his shirt a deeper red. "That didn't go very well."

(I know I've mapped Gentleman Jole to an extremely unlikely character.)