her fan. Near the far wall she spotted Mrs. Reed in a modest dress that seemed painfully plain beside the imported silks. The widow raised her chin in greeting. That small motion steadied Clara more than a hundred compliments could have done.
Julian stood near the chess table, answering questions with a polite smile. When he saw Clara, the smile vanished into something more difficult to name: concern, admiration, perhaps regret for the years they had squandered. His black coat and gold waistcoat made him look as though he belonged without question among these wealthy men. Clara knew better now than to mistake a convincing appearance for a person's loyalties. He crossed toward her, but before he could speak Harrow stepped between them and greeted her with the exaggerated warmth of a host displaying a valuable possession.
"Your father would have been pleased to see his board honored," Harrow said. Clara answered, "My father would have been pleased to know the families he helped could afford supper." The remark carried farther than she expected. Several faces turned, and Harrow's smile sharpened. He began speaking of generosity, financial discipline, and the unfortunate necessity of resolving past mistakes. Then he addressed the entire room and invited Julian, whom he called a notable chess player, to demonstrate a game for the evening's entertainment.
Someone suggested that Clara take the opposite seat. Harrow seized the opportunity before the invitation could be withdrawn. "Surely Miss Ellison inherited her father's cleverness, even if his judgment was less fortunate," he said. Clara looked at the empty chair and at the bishop resting where Jonathan had placed it so many times. She could decline and be called a coward, or sit down and risk giving the room one more spectacle at her family's expense. A third possibility appeared to her, slender and dangerous, as she remembered her father's instruction to look beyond the obvious pieces.
"I will play," Clara said, and the murmuring crowd drew closer. "But I should like one condition." Harrow folded his hands before him. She asked that if she won, he allow the waiting subscribers and trustees to examine the receipts she carried before anyone signed the proposed settlement. If Julian won, she would listen without interruption while Harrow presented his plan. It was an unequal bargain, and Clara knew it; nothing in the law required her to wager her rights on a chess game. Yet Harrow was so eager to see her publicly humbled that he accepted before considering what a victory might force him to acknowledge.