Dame Dalmar worked as a teacher at a school in Del. Britta was one of her students. One day she had been teaching her class about the coastal city of Broome. Dame Dalmar had told her class that the people of Broome were loud, wild and vulgar. One of her students - Benn, a boy she found impertinent - put up his hand and said that the captain of the palace guards had married a woman from Broome. Irritated Dame Dalmar argued that strange bonds were formed in times of war. She said that she would not dream of questioning the captain's choice of wife, but she herself would not care to know a person with no idea of proper manners.