The look Phalue gave her was partly exasperated and partly incredulous. “That’s a complicated ruse. The girl is clearly half-starved.”

“All gutter orphans are half-starved.”

“Yes, and the likely explanation here is that she was hungry, saw an opportunity to get some money for a bite to eat and took it. She didn’t expect us to pursue her so hard. And she put up quite the fight when I caught her. This little thing? That must have taken a lot out of her. I’m not surprised she passed out.”

They climbed the path, Ranami hiking her skirts and cloak to jump over spots where the rain had made rivers. She envied Phalue her longer legs.

Phalue cleared her throat as they rounded the bend. “Ranami, when we do end up adopting an orphan, will you still feel this way? After all, any child we adopt will have access to the palace.”

Would she feel this way? When she’d thought about adopting the gutter orphans all she could think about was how hungry she’d been as an orphan, how tired, how in need of a dry place to sleep and a kind word. She hadn’t done much to imagine things from the other end – with her in the place of benefactor and a child she didn’t know well in her home. A home that was now a palace, stuffed full of valuables and secrets. “It’s complicated,” she said.

“You trusted the caro nut farmers when we stole that box of nuts for them.”

“Yes, but…” How could she explain? “Halong trusted the farmers and I trusted Halong, so that went a long way for me. And, if I’m being honest with myself, I was trying to prove something to you. I was angry.”

Phalue considered this, her jaw moving as though she were chewing the words. “Do you want to adopt to help the orphans, not because you want to expand our family?”

The words hit Ranami with the force of a storm gale; she could barely stay on her feet. Her boots stuck in the mud. Was it true? She’d always assumed that if Phalue and she ever did work out, they would eventually adopt. It made sense, especially with Phalue as the governor – she’d need an heir. Now, she tried to think through all that this meant. It would mean taking in a child that she didn’t know, living with them, teaching them… loving them. Was she even capable? She’d been born to a mother; she must have had a father – but she had only vague memories of the woman who’d birthed her. Mostly her memories consisted of the streets, the other orphans, the scraping and the grasping and the hunger. She called Halong her brother, but they’d met when they were teenagers. Phalue had stopped and turned to look at her.