She appeared at the railing before him as promised, looking very much like she might be ill over the side. Her brothers flanked her at once. With visible effort, she pulled her panicked eyes from the lapping waves and swung her terrified gaze toward Graham. She was twenty feet away, but the gulf between them would only grow.
He wished she had stayed a few seconds more. He longed to know if she’d really meant the message the epaulet had always symbolized to her.Love.His fingers brushed the soft fringe. Could she really love him as he loved her?
She met his eyes and nodded shyly. She peeled one hand away from the railing just long enough to touch her fingers to her heart and lift them to the sky.
His chest tightened and his throat grew dry. He didn’t know when she’d learned the Wynchester salute, but it could only mean one thing.
Twothings:
She did love him.
And it wasn’t enough.
41
Kuni gripped the railing. Her knuckles were pale, her muscles tight and trembling. The ship would sail at any moment.
Panic coursed through her veins. This time, not only due to the choppy water. Seeing Graham on the dock below, six meters and a world away, ripped her in two.
Floris and Reinald hovered at her sides. Guarding her, as they were trained to do. Because females had such delicate sensibilities, one never knew when they might swoon or find themselves in danger.
For once, they were right. Part of her wanted to leap over the railing and into Graham’s arms. It was too far—she’d crush him—but the compulsion pulsed just beneath her skin.
He wore her father’s epaulet. That was another piece of her, left behind.
Ever since Father’s death, his epaulet had never been far from her heart. Now Graham never would be, either. She did not need a token from him to pin to her breast. She carried him with her, inside her soul.
Kuni was certain the only reason his family wasn’t with him now was because they hated her for rejecting their brother. She didn’t blame them. They were probably sorry Graham had bothered to come. She could see the hurt on his face. Why would his siblings come all the way to the port to see her off, when they hadn’t even waved goodbye to her carriage from their front garden?
“What in the forked spleenwort were you thinking?” Floris chided her.
Reinald looked angry enough for his ears to pop off and cow’s-tails to peek out. “Kissinga man in broad daylight, as if you’ve no proper breeding!”
Ah, yes. Kissing Graham goodbye was a far more serious concern than Kuni having stowed away on a guarded ship and successfully eluded their attempts to capture her in order to spend the past forty days on her own in a foreign country performing reconnaissance for their king.
“I told you—” she began.
“Baron’s heir or not,” Reinald interrupted, “if someone had seen you—”
“Someone who matters,” Floris added helpfully. “Someone from Balcovia.”
“—you could have beenruined.”
Or…forced to marry Graham. Kuni’s chest thumped. She kept her eyes on him, rather than her brothers. Hearing Balcovian again after all this time made her feel off-kilter. The familiar sounds did not soothe her, but rather increased her sense of dread.
Reinald wasn’t finished. “If your royal suitor had any idea what you just did—”
“Juffrouw de Heusch,” squealed a familiar voice.
“Ada!” Kuni kept one hand locked around the railing and turned to her lady’s maid. “How have you been?”
“Lovely, except when forced to speak to your family—”
Reinald glared at her.
Floris merely looked amused.
“—but the real question is howyouhave been!” Ada looked at her expectantly.
