“She Can’t Understand Us,” They Laughed — Then the Duke’s Bride Silenced Them in Fluent Italian
Chapter 3
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Miss Farquhar lifted the fan. Her cheeks went pink to match her gown. "I only meant to help, Count.""You meant to hide the board. I have watched people do it in Petersburg. It is not a new trick."The Duke looked up at the ambassador and then down at the board, and something in the set of his shoulders changed: he had stopped being bored.Thomasina's father had been the parson of a garrison chapel, which meant that he had buried soldiers, christened soldiers' babies, and played chess with officers who could not sleep. He had carved the pocket board himself out of an old cartridge box, and he had put it in her hands when she was small enough to sit on a drum. The officers had taught her to lose first; then, one long, wet winter, they had taught her to win. By the time she was grown, not one of them would play her without a wager, and not one of them ever collected.Her father had died two winters ago. The pocket board was what he left her—that, and a trunk of sermons, and a debt to the chandler.She moved a castle out along the back rank, and she heard behind her the old Count let out a breath through his nose.The Duke's attack came all at once. He was a soldier, and he played like one: his knights came over the middle like cavalry, and his bishop cut down the long diagonal toward her king. Each move was quick, and each landed with a hard little knock of ebony on ivory."You are in trouble, Miss Companion," he said."Yes, Your Grace.""You could resign. It would save us all some time.""I will keep playing, if you do not mind.""I do mind. But play."The room was filling up behind them now. The whist tables had emptied. Ladies in emerald and garnet silk stood three deep around that end of the card table, and gentlemen stood on chairs at the back to see over them. Someone had brought a candelabra closer; the heat of the candles lay against Thomasina's cheek like a hand.Mrs. Strickland had come to stand beside the Duke, as if she might catch some of his glory by standing near it. She fanned herself slowly, and she watched her companion with small, pale, furious eyes.At the mantel, the gilt clock ticked on. Miss Farquhar had begun to count the moves aloud. She did it sweetly, the way a governess counts out a child's sums."Nine," she said. "Ten. Oh dear, only a little longer."Thomasina took one of his knights with a pawn. The Duke took the pawn back with his queen. Now the black queen stood in the middle of the board, tall and shining, and she looked at it for a long moment."Eleven," said Miss Farquhar.Thomasina moved a quiet pawn—one square that seemed to do nothing at all."Twelve," said Miss Farquhar. And then she stopped.