Now that you put it that way, maybe I *could* buy it if it was something One Esk had suggested? Like, something which both of them were putting in the same category as offering to bring her tea, or wash her hair in the bath, or lace up her undergarments. Seivarden might consider it one more aspect of her embarrassing past but not something she needed to be *extra* embarrassed about, and Breq might have considered it a regular part of officer maintenance... I'd still expect Seivarden to have more of a reaction to Breq bringing it up, though. idk, maybe it's wishful thinking on my part, i am totally with you on the AUGH NO train here

Alternate theory: Seivarden was having a passionate affair with Sword of Nathtas (this seems at least potentially less awful, no matter what Breq says we don't actually know that it didn't like her- Sword of Atagaris liked *Hetnys*, for God's sake, it's not outside the realm of possibility) and the whole fleet knew about it because they were incredibly unsubtle. "Yeah, you'd know from experience, wouldn't you, we all heard all about you and One Nathtas and your mutual inability to remember to lock doors," Breq mutters into her tea.