9
Kunigunde doesn’t need a plaque for people to know she’s important,” Graham said. “Shelivesin a castle.”
“What?” All the siblings started talking over each other again. “Graham practicallydidrescue a princess?”
“I told you so,” he said arrogantly.
“Actually…” Kuni hesitated. She wanted her words to do Balcovia justice.
The siblings leaned forward, listening eagerly.
“There are two principal royal seats. A beautiful Gothic castle to the north and the modern palace to the south. Although I am not royalty, I was born in the Summer Castle. As companion to the princess, I spend most of my time there and in the Winter Palace.”
“Born in a castle,” Jacob repeated. “Companion to a princess.”
“Andshe carries knives,” Elizabeth added.
“Graham will never let you go,” Tommy teased. “He probably considers himself royal by proxy.”
Graham’s cheeks flushed. “You laugh, but it’s true. We’re now only one step away from actual royalty. We know someone who knows a princess!”
Jacob rolled his eyes. “If one could sit about all day watching royals live their lives, Graham would choose that over attending a play with substance.”
“Why would I want to watch fiction, when there are endless true things happening at every moment?” Graham said reasonably.
While the brothers bickered, Tommy leaned toward Kuni. “What is it like in Balcovia? Do hangers-on like Graham plague you at every turn, or do your peasants not give a flying fig what the royals do?”
Hesitantly, Kuni did her best to explain the stratified classes, and how most ranks did not mix except during parades and festivals, and even then, the royal family held themselves apart.
Graham staggered as though he had been hit with an arrow. “Dash it! There go my dreams of meeting Balcovian royals in the flesh.”
Kuni laughed at the idea. The princess would be far too well guarded to rub shoulders with commoners.
“What are the festivals like?” Jacob asked.
“And the food?” Tommy added.
The Wynchesters listened to Kuni’s replies with rapt attention, never once making Kuni feel self-conscious about her accent or any grammar mistakes. They let her answer their questions in her own way and at her own pace, without interrupting when she paused to think of a word or to rephrase her answers. It was so different from how they behaved with each other, she was surprised to be treated with such patience. Perhaps it was the subject matter, not her.
Kuni so adored speaking about her beloved country, that it wasn’t until she’d been answering queries for nearly an hour that she realized an obvious questionsheshould have asked in the beginning.
She turned to Graham. “How did you recognize my accent as Balcovian?”
His brown eyes softened. “Because that’s where my father is from. The great and noble Baron Vanderbean.”
“Simmering snickersnees!” Kuni reared back in the sofa, away from him. “Thank heavens you did not mention that to my brothers. They would have chased after you for an entirely different reason if they had believed you aneligiblebachelor.”
Graham blinked. “I…don’t know whether to be flattered or gravely wounded.”
“Both,” Tommy suggested. “Also Bean was my father, too.”
“And mine,” echoed all the others but Philippa.
“Bean—that is, Baron Vanderbean—was our adoptive father,” Jacob explained. “And as white as any English aristocrat.”
Graham added, “The only exception is Queen Charlotte and her children, whose features and distant African ancestry are gossiped about relentlessly. Is it really that different in Balcovia?”
“Very. Because Balcovia was founded on abolitionist tenets, one can find diversity of color not just amongst the soldiers and Royal Guard, but also the companions to our royal princesses. And companions often marry members of the lower nobility and younger sons of the highest titles.”
