“I collected every word ofthatreport myself, yes.” She nodded toward the other. “Graham Wynchester compiled that one for me.”
She returned her gaze to him and his family, her knuckles pale as she gripped the rail. She missed him so much already, it was as though the blades in her spencer had punctured straight through to her heart.
“Your reports. They’re…” Reinald didn’t finish his sentence.
She ignored him. Her eyes were only for Graham. Besides, there was nothing to find fault with. It would have taken them years and an entire network of informants to gather half as many details as Graham had provided.
Floris said something to Reinald beneath his breath.
Reinald replied in obvious amazement.
Floris tapped one of the journals on Kuni’s shoulder. “All right.”
She kept hands locked on the railing and her gaze on Graham and his siblings. As much as she would rather be safe in her cabin than exposed out on the railing, the Wynchesters were getting smaller and smaller, and she didn’t want to miss a single moment.
“All right, what?” she asked without turning.
“All right, you’re right,” Floris said. “You’ve got it under your knee. Your books make our notes look like we never stepped off the boat. This will be the most prepared the Royal Guard has ever been for an international visit. We should have taken you seriously.”
“A little late for that,” Kuni muttered. Graham and his family were much too small now to make out faces. Just a colorful smudge at the end of a brown pier. The boat was turning around a bend. The sky was dark gray. Soon she would no longer be able to see him at all.
“It isn’t too late,” Reinald said. “You’re not eligible to participate in the men’s trials—”
“My report will speak for itself,” she said firmly.
“But perhaps we can change that,” her brother finished, his voice gruff. “Floris and I have seen you copying the soldiers since you could toddle. Father used to say you learned to march before you learned to talk. But this…”
“It’sgood,” her other brother said. “I didn’t believe it of you, but Father was right to call you capable and talented.”
Reinald made a frustrated sound. “We both underestimated you. Have probablybeenunderestimating you for twenty-five years.”
“I’m sorry, Kuni,” Floris added quietly. “We won’t let the king make the same mistake.”
“Wh-what?” She turned to face them, heart pounding. “Youwill give a personal recommendation? Both of you? The king’s two most trusted and decorated Royal Guards?”
“It’s in your blood,” Reinald said grudgingly. “You’ll do our family proud.”
Floris gave a crooked smile. “You’ll makeFatherproud.”
Kuni sucked in a shaky breath and turned back to the railing. Graham was no longer visible. Even the pier was just a memory refracting in muddy water. It was only her and her brothers now. And a shining future as a Royal Guard, protecting Princess Mechtilda.
This was what she had wanted. What she had dreamed of, what she had worked for. It was why she was standing here on this ship, sailing back to Balcovia. With Graham’s album and Floris and Reinald’s support, her acceptance was no longer in question. On the next voyage, she would be wearing arealuniform.
Why, then, did the victory feel so hollow?
She squinted across the water. There were other piers. Countless boats, large and small. Dockworkers. Even some sort of fish market off to the right.
But Graham and his family were gone.
The water had turned as dark as the clouds overhead. It was as though the ship were sailing off at sunset rather than sunrise. The wind picked up next, slicing through Kuni’s gown and whipping straight through her heart.
Reinald and Floris were her elder brothers…but no longer Kuni’sonlyfamily. The Wynchesters had taught her that family was more than blood. Family was anywhere you weretreatedlike family. Anywhere you were welcomed, and cherished, and loved.
They didn’t need her to prove herself better than everyone else. She didn’t need tobebetter than anyone else. Being the best possible Kuni was already enough.
Her connections to Princess Mechtilda did not affect the Wynchesters’ opinion of her. They viewed everyone as worthy, not just royalty. No wonder they did not understand her desire to spend the next few decades as a Royal Guard to a princess—wherever Mechtilda might be sent.
Wasthat future still what Kuni wanted?
