As a Dare, They Sat the Poor Companion at the Duke's Chessboard — Then She Took His Queen
Chapter 12
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"Eisgarth," he said. "Is it true they have sent her away tonight, in this?""It is true.""And you permitted it?""I did."The old man looked at him for a long moment, and the Duke made himself stand there and be looked at."I have been at this game for fifty years," said Count Belsky. "I have played kings, and I have played generals, and I have played a Pope's nephew in Rome. Tonight, I watched the finest player in England sitting in a gray gown in a corner being called a victim. And you let them put her out into the snow." He shook his head. "In my country, we would say you have thrown away your queen twice in one night.""Yes," the Duke said. "I know." He turned to Gallagher. "Saddle the gray, and the bay for yourself. Lanterns, blankets, brandy, a spade—anything that will carry.""Sir, the heath in this—""I know what the heath is in this. I was on the retreat from Burgos, and so were you."Gallagher was already moving. "I'll wake the grooms."The Duke picked up the letter from the floor where the brandy had not reached it, and put it back inside his coat. Then he went to the card room, which was dark now, and lit a taper from the embers in the grate. The chessboard was still on the table, the pieces where they had fallen. His king lay on its side. Beside it, where she had set them down, were the white pawn she had given him, and the black queen she had taken.He picked up the black queen and put it in his pocket.The night mail had been running an hour when the snow changed. It had been falling fine and dry all evening, sifting down like flour. Somewhere past the turnpike, it began to come in hard, sideways out of the north, in thick, wet flakes that clung to everything they touched. The coach lamps turned into two blurred yellow smears; the road disappeared.Thomasina rode outside on the roof because an outside seat was half the fare of an inside one, and she had exactly enough for half. She sat wedged between a young clerk of twenty with a cold in his head and the guard's empty seat, her trunk roped on behind her, her cloak pulled over her face. The snow got in anyway: it got in at her neck, her wrists, and the tops of her boots. After a while, she stopped being able to feel her feet at all, which frightened her more than the cold had.The guard, a big man with a horn and a blunderbuss, had gone down to walk beside the leaders and find the road for them. She heard him shout; she heard the coachman shout back.Then the whole world tipped sideways.The coach went over slowly, the way a tree falls: there was a long, grinding lurch as the near wheels slid off the edge of the road into the ditch, then a crack like a musket, and the roof went out from under her, and she was flying.