Page 22 of The Cornish Inheritance

“Nat can play chess,” Aunt Agnes said. “Why don’t you give him a game, my girl?”

Was she talking to Miss Fairfield? Nat, who had been staring into the fire intent on not having to talk to anyone, glanced sideways at Caroline and found her eyes already on him. “Would you like a game?” she asked, face demure and innocent.

It would be rude to refuse. “I am a little rusty.” In truth, he hadn’t played the game since he’d been in Spain, with a chess set one of his troopers had carved from bone and walnut. But he’d always been a skillful player, schooled by his grandfather, and that wouldn’t have left him.

She smiled, her eyes still firmly fixed on his. “Then we shall play while Sam teaches Yves how to play draughts.”

Hetty returned clutching a board and a box of draughts. “We’ll need a second table. Mr. Beauchamp? Might you help Yves fetch that one over?”

Nat watched as Sam and Yves set up their table and Hetty showed Yves how to lay the pieces out, a memory of his own father teaching him the game leaping into his head. The little dog, a faithful creature, settled itself at Yves’s feet.

“I’ll be on your side and help you learn the moves,” Hetty said, squeezing herself onto Yves’s stool beside him. “You’ll like this better than chess because it’s easier to learn.”

When Nat looked back, Caroline had rearranged the chess pieces ready to play. “White or black?” she asked.

“Black,” Nat said, trying to keep the gruffness out of his tone. No doubt a woman would not be much of an opponent. Their minds were not constructed for being tactical. And he had the advantage that there’d not been much else to do in the evenings on campaign, so he’d taken the opportunity to play a lot of chess with his fellow officers.

Aunt Agnes leaned forwards, smacking her withered lips in anticipation.

Ennion unobtrusively brought in a tea tray and set it down, but now the games were in hand, no one paid it any attention. Nat lounged back in his seat, his gaze on Caroline.

As she was playing white, she opened the game by moving her queen’s knight forward to in front of his bishop’s pawn. Nat retaliated by bringing his king’s pawn forward two squares. So far so good. Did she not want to gain the vital central squares? Well, he wasn’t here to teach her how to play. Just to beat her.

Her brow furrowed in concentration, Caroline moved her other knight forward to occupy the square in front of her other bishop’s pawn, mirroring the first. Interesting move.

Nat frowned as well. What was she playing at? He moved his queen’s pawn one square forward to open up his back row a bit.

Aunt Agnes cackled with laughter but apart from that stayed silent. She’d been a chess player in her youth, although not as good as his father, and many were the times she’d beaten Nat as a small boy with this exact chess set. The memory surfaced of how pleased he’d been the first time he beat her.

“You hop over the draughts like this,” Hetty said, and the sound of Yves doing just that tapped on the draughts board.

“This is much more fun than chess,” he cried.

Caroline moved her king’s pawn forward to sit facing Nat’s king’s pawn.

“I wondered when you’d do that,” he remarked.

She raised her head and smiled at him. She really was quite transformed when she did that. “Oh, was it something I was meant to do?”

He shrugged. “Up to you.” And he moved his king’s bishop’s pawn forward two squares to threaten her pawn. His favored opponent had been Captain Carnegie, until… No. He wouldn’t think about that.

Caroline drew in her bottom lip under her top teeth as though not sure what to do next. Her hand hovered over the board in apparent indecision, then settled on her king’s rook’s pawn and moved it forward one square. She sat back, a puzzled frown on her face as though she thought that might have been a mistake.

Nat took her threatened pawn, capturing two of the central squares. She was playing into his hands.

She took his aggressive pawn with her knight. Nat studied the board, thinking about what to do next.

“I won!” cried Yves in delight. “Can we play again?”

“You’re a natural,” Sam replied, his throaty laugh rumbling round the laden bookshelves.

Nat brought out his queen’s knight. She’d probably take his pawn next with her knight, and then he could retaliate and take her knight.

She didn’t. Instead, she moved it to the right. So that was her game, was it?

“One more game,” Sam said, laughing. “And then I really must go and see Mrs. Treloar and complete the mission my wife gave me.”

Nat moved his queen’s pawn out two squares to consolidate his possession of the center.