She'd been an Army noncombatant, but roadside IEDs didn't distinguish between armed troops and support services.

In black taffeta she gazes rigidly at the camera with a rookish head-tilt.

“No one knows why?” “No one will talk about it. The older ones give each other looks if the subject comes up—which it almost never does. I heard a rumor there was a geas against speaking of what happened.” My eyebrows shot up.

[…] shewing that all the lordes had bene with her grace in counsaill, and that she perceiued thay were well content with our commyng, but that we shulde not contynue.