In the split second it took her to leap to her feet, he had launched himself up the roots of an enormous tree, onto a low branch, and atop the edge of a stone wall no taller than Kuni, with a width she could span with her hand.
His grin only widened at her disgruntled expression. He made a come-this-way-if-you-can gesture with his hand and scampered backward along the uneven, narrow wall, paying absolutely no attention to where his feet might fall, and somehow managing to step perfectly in the center without looking.
She tried to follow his trajectory, starting first with the protruding tree roots. She launched herself from the tallest root toward the lowest branch with as much power as she could—and did not even come close to landing atop it.
At the last second, she was forced to grab a taller branch and swing herself up onto the one he’d used. The rough bark scraped her palms. Luckily, the skin did not break. She trained often enough that her skin had lost its baby softness years before.
But she hadn’t trained likethis. Now she was on her feet on a tree branch…hunched awkwardly beneath several other protruding branches. How the devil had he managed to springupfrom here, and leap onto the stone wall? If she attempted to jump, she’d either hit her head and shoulders on one of the branches, or fly face-first into the gray stone wall without reaching any altitude at all.
She expected Graham to laugh, or perhaps to make a smirking comment about women who believed themselves capable of being soldiers, as her brothers and the other royal guards would have done.
Instead, he ran back toward her, his steps light and sure despite his gaze being fixed solely on Kuni. As he neared the tree, he crouched down as he ran, then took a flying leap, sailing over her head to a branch on the other side, pausing there barely long enough to tremble the leaves before dropping to the ground just beneath her.
He held out a hand. “You want to start from the beginning? I’ll show you.”
Her heart knocked into her ribs. Graham wasn’t going to mock her ignorance. He was going totrainher to follow his moves.
He wasn’t the only one withmoves. Two could play at this game.
She reached for his hand. Instead of daintily leaping down, as soon as her fingers locked around his palm, she pulled him forward and off-balance. As he straightened, she flipped head-over-heels from the high branch, pulling her daggers from her thighs as she spun to land in a crouch, blades at the ready.
Kuni smiled at his confounded expression. “Teach me yours, and I’ll teach you mine.”
“It’s a deal.” He held up his palms in supplication. “No need to impale me with knives.”
Kuni made them vanish as quickly as they’d first appeared. She blinked at him innocently as she held up her own empty palms. “What knives?”
14
Graham could not help but be impressed. No one ever got the upper hand on a Wynchester. Kunigunde had managed to turn the tables on him twice.
He now suspected that when he had pinned her beneath him against the grass…he had actually not done any such thing at all. She had allowed herself toseempinned beneath him. If she’d wanted to be free, she could have arranged it in the blink of an eye, with or without the appearance of her daggers for extra flair.
Her pretty black eyes shone with enthusiasm. “Show me how to leap onto the wall.”
If it had been anyone else asking, Graham would have hesitated. Most people, regardless of sex, did not purposefully attempt Graham’s unorthodox method of climbing trees or scaling walls.
Kunigunde, he suspected, not only wouldn’t let the occasional bump or scraped knee slow her down, but actually have the maneuver committed to memory before noon.
“Let’s start with the tree,” he said. “I’ll show you how to pick the best branches.”
Her smile lit her face so bright, it warmed him from the inside out. It was as if he’d offered her a treasure chest full of gold and diamonds, rather than the quickest path to scraped hands and a bruised backside.
“I’m watching.” She stood beside him, her limbs relaxed but ready.
He pointed out not just the “good” branches, but also the “bad” ones, explaining in which circumstances each was useful, and when it would be best to select another.
“The key,” he explained, “is being able to make the calculation midair. Sometimes you won’t know until you’re halfway up an alley wall that the ledge you’dhopedto spring off would crumble from the weight of a flowerpot. You’ll often have less than a second to make a decision that will determine whether you continue up or land on your arse.”
She looked at the tree doubtfully.
“Good. You should look at every surface just like that. Never trust anything to be sturdy or solid. In most cases, you won’t even need it to be. You’re just tapping your toe long enough to change direction or launch yourself a little higher.”
“A tree seems full of unnecessary obstacles and easy-to-snap twigs.”
“It’s also close enough to the ground that you won’t injure yourself overmuch if you fall from it. And it’s a great opportunity to learn for yourself which branches make better jumping points, and why.”
“WhenI fall, you mean.”
