But she wasn’t joining for her brothers, Kuni reminded herself. In addition to keeping a vow to her ancestors, she was repaying a princess for the long hours spent training instead of earning her wages as a proper companion. She owed Mechtilda a great debt. The princess was counting on her.
Just as importantly, once Kuni was accepted into the most elite infantry unit in the land, other little girls would see her. Their future now heldchoices. The next generation of Balcovians could look very different. What could honor her country and the de Heusch legacy more than that?
When the sun started to set, she closed her guidebook. She would resume reconnaissance in the morning when the light was better.
What about Floris and Reinald? She opened a folded paper containing the copy she’d secretly made of her brothers’ required appearances as Balcovian diplomats. This evening, they were to meet with the Prince Regent. By now, they would already be in the castle. Kuni ignored the pang in her chest. Next time, she would be an honored ambassador, too.
She tucked the itinerary back inside her reconnaissance notebook and turned to Elizabeth. “Shall we return to your home?”
“Must we?” Elizabeth lifted her cane. “I have good days and bad days. On bad days, I can’t move. On good days, ’tis the villains who had better step out of my way. This is a good day. I don’t want to waste a moment of it.”
“What do you want to do?”
Elizabeth’s eyes danced with mischief. “What if I said I knew the location of some brigands that upstanding Guardswomen like ourselves ought to defend helpless citizens against?”
“Do you?” Kuni said warily.
“Are you armed?”
Two daggers on her thighs and six throwing knives just inside her pelisse. “Always.”
“Then we’re ready for Bond Street.” Elizabeth linked arms with Kuni and changed direction. “This is going to be so much fun.”
Kuni narrowed her eyes. “Is this where you intercept a bullet meant for me?”
“Oh, those cocky loungerswishthey were bold enough to try!”
“Those…what?”
“Arrogant, villainous loungers. Dreadful, ill-mannered, self-important blackguards down from university. They stroll Bond Street at twilight three or four abreast, in order to force hapless passersby off the pavement and into the muck. Oh, how they laugh!”
“What clapperclawed dung beetles!” Kuni could not imagine any such thing happening in pretty, polite Balcovia. “They sound as horrid as your filthy streets.”
“Worse. They drink their spirits and swing their walking sticks and try to cause as much trouble as possible—”
“So theyarearmed.”
“Armed!” Elizabeth scoffed. “All they use those sticks for is to trip better-dressed dandies and lift the skirts of mortified young women. They’re armed with nothing but too much self-confidence and a complete lack of conscience. To those ruffians, boorish behavior is an amusing jest.”
“Then what is our recourse?”
“Do untothem,” Elizabeth said with a hard smile. “Trip them and force them into the muck, as they do to others. The trick is to look helpless so that they sally forth with their little sticks and big laughs. And then”—several sudden sharp swipes with her cane—“we give them a taste of their own medicine.”
Kuni could find no fault in defending innocent passersby against such yellow-hearted antics, but something about Elizabeth’s zeal sent the back of her neck tickling with suspicion. “Were you one of the loungers’ victims?”
“I?”Elizabeth goggled at her as though Kuni had spoutedappelstroopfrom her ears. Then she glanced away and sighed. “Marjorie did not hear them come up behind her. Deuced unsportsmanlike. If I had been there, I should have poked holes in every last one of them.”
“Marjorie?”The tiny blond woman was barely bigger than a goose feather. “What cowards! I suppose the existence of such habitual bullies is yet more proof of England’s inferiority.”
“Pah,” scoffed Elizabeth. “If you never leave the palace, how do you know your peasants aren’t dealing with far worse?”
Elizabeth hunched suddenly, her grip on her wobbling cane unsure. Because their arms were still linked, Kuni’s own posture was thrown off-kilter.
“What—”
“Shh,” Elizabeth hissed. “Look helpless. Here they come.”
Up ahead were four young bucks, bold with drink. The smug quartet formed a barrier across the entire pedestrian pavement, forcing hapless women doing their shopping to ruin their gowns by stepping into the gutter or risk darting across the street and getting struck by a carriage.
