“She Can’t Understand Us,” They Laughed — Then the Duke’s Bride Silenced Them in Fluent Italian
Chapter 7
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"Madame," he said, "I have played in Petersburg, and Paris, and Vienna, and I have not seen that knight played so well in thirty years. Who taught you?""My father, Count. And his officers.""Then I salute your father and his officers. And I beg you, as a favor to an old man, to play against me tomorrow, if you will, before I must go back to London."A sound went through the crowd. The ambassador of the Tsar had asked the companion for a game.Thomasina felt her face go hot. "If my employer can spare me, Count."Every head turned toward Mrs. Strickland.Mrs. Strickland had gone the color of a boiled ham. At first, she could not speak. Then she said, "Of course, of course, Count Belsky! We are so proud of her. I always said she had a clever little head.""You said," said Count Belsky without turning around, "that her wage would be stopped if she wasted the Duke's evening. I heard you. We all heard you."Mrs. Strickland's mouth opened and closed.Miss Farquhar tried to laugh; it came out thin and high. "It was a trick, surely," she said. "Some parlor trick her father showed her. She cannot really play. Nobody really believes a companion could beat His Grace."The Count turned and looked at her, and his hard old face was perfectly polite. "Mademoiselle, you pulled out that chair so that a woman would be humiliated in front of this whole company. She has not been. That is all that happened here tonight. Everyone saw it."There was a silence. It was a different kind of silence from the one before: it pointed at Miss Farquhar. A lady in garnet silk who had been standing beside her moved a little away. So did the gentleman on her other side. The men who had taken her bet did not look at her at all.Miss Farquhar stood alone by the table in her pink silk. She shut her fan with a snap. Then she turned and walked out of the card room with her chin up too fast, and one of her satin slippers caught on the edge of the carpet so that she nearly fell. Nobody went after her.Mrs. Strickland stood where she was a moment longer, red to the ears. Then she murmured something about seeing to the supper, and she went out too, and did not glance at her companion as she passed.Thomasina sat very still at the chessboard. She could not stand yet; her knees would not trust her.The Duke had not moved. He sat where he had sat all evening, looking at his fallen king. At last, he raised his eyes to her. For a moment, she thought he was going to say something—something that mattered."Your fourth move," he said. "Where did you learn it?""I told you, Your Grace. From my father's officers.""No officer I ever knew played that.""Then you did not know the right officers."