Page 23 of The Cornish Inheritance

“What mission is that?” Hetty asked.

Quite unexpectedly, Caroline moved her queen out on the diagonal to sit beside her knight and threaten Nat’s king. “Check,” she said, sounding quite surprised.

“I’ve come to invite you all to a ball at Carlyon Court,” Sam said. The draughts pieces rattled as they were laid out again.

Sam brought his king’s knight’s pawn out to threaten Caroline’s queen. She’d have to get out of that for her next move.

As he’d expected, she moved her queen back two squares along the diagonal to protect her other knight.

“A ball?” Hetty gasped. “All of us? When?”

“I don’t want to go to a ball,” Yves protested.

Hetty laughed. “I don’t think Mr. Beauchamp means you.”

Nat brought his king’s knight out of the back row.

“A ball?” Caroline said, leaning back for a moment as though their game were nearly over and didn’t matter to her. “That will be lovely for you, Hetty.” With casual indifference she moved her other knight forward out of Nat’s pawn’s way and sat it between Nat’s queen and the second knight. “Oh, I believe that’s check again.”

Damn it. So it was. She had no need to sound quite so surprised about it. He needed to concentrate better.

Sam joined in the laughter. “I don’t think small boys go to balls.”

“Thank goodness,” Yves muttered.

“You’ll want to one day,” Hetty said.

Aunt Agnes let out a rather random cackle of laughter.

To get out of check, Nat brought his king forward one space to threaten the pesky knight. He couldn’t take the knight though, as it was protected by Caroline’s queen.

“But I would like to go,” Hetty said. “I’ve only been to one social event so far, at the Assembly Rooms, and it was such fun, but not the same as a ball at someone’s house.”

Caroline took one of Nat’s two pawns in the center of the board with her knight, which put Nat’s king back in check again. Damn it. Was she perhaps better at this than he’d given her credit for? Nat countered by moving his king again, feeling as though he was very much on the back foot here but not sure how he’d got there. Women were not meant to be this good at games of strategy.

“I’m sure your mama will let you go,” Caroline said, her head tilted slightly to one side as she studied the board. No doubt in search of another way to check him. And she found one. What was going on here? She moved her second knight onto another of the central squares Nat had thought she’d had no hope of gaining. “Check, I think…”

Nat took her other knight with his king, painfully aware he’d left this important piece exposed and that he couldn’t take the other knight with it because of Caroline’s queen.

“Do you think Mama will let me have a new gown?” Hetty asked. “No, move that piece, Yves. Haha! Got you, Mr. Beauchamp.” Clink clink went the draughts piece as Yves hopped over Sam’s. Probably Sam was letting him win. Not a good thing for a child. Nat’s own experience of playing board games with adults had been being beaten time after time, which had made the joy of finally winning all the sweeter.

“You can but ask her,” Caroline said, bringing out her king’s bishop to threaten Nat’s king. “Check.”

Nat took the bishop with some little relish, goaded into recklessness by her play.

“I’m winning again!” Yves crowed. “I like this game.”

Caroline slid her queen horizontally to take up position threatening Nat’s king once more. Drat it. He couldn’t take the queen without being taken himself. The only escape he could see was to move back onto the central squares out of the queen’s reach. For now. He had a nasty feeling he wasn’t going to win this game.

Caroline chuckled and slid her queen along two squares. “Checkmate, I think.”

Yves craned his neck. “Did you beat Cousin Nat, Caroline?”

Hetty got up to come and look. “You did! Well done.” She clapped her hands together. “And Yves and I have beaten Mr. Beauchamp, again.”

Nat looked up from the board, and found Caroline’s eyes resting on him. No trace of triumph resided in them, just calm innocence. “You play a good game,” he said. “I’ve not met an opponent such as you before.”

She smiled, her eyes suddenly misting over as though she might be about to shed a tear. “I learned from a master. My father liked a game but could never find anyone to give him a good contest. So, he taught me.”

Nat’s eyes narrowed. Part of him held back from asking her anything further, as clearly memories of her father pained her. Instinct had him recoiling from prying into her past life and thus becoming more involved in her present, as that was the last thing he wanted to do. But another part of him felt curiosity at what might have brought a girl to be a governess whose father had plainly had enough time to spend turning her into the accomplished chess player she was.

He couldn’t resist. “And your father no longer plays?”

She shook her head, the sparkle of a tear in the corner of her eye. “No. He does not.” She clamped her lips together. That was all he was getting from her.

Sam Beauchamp stood up. “Perhaps I’d better go and see Mrs. Treloar now, and deliver my invitation.” He smiled at Caroline. “Ysella sends her felicitations to you, Caroline, and hopes you will also attend the ball. The invitation is for all of you.”

“Oh, that would be wonderful,” Hetty exclaimed, reaching to catch Caroline’s arm. “How perfect. And you are not old and wrinkled like Miss Hawkins was, even if you are no longer in the first flush of your youth. I would be so happy if you were to accompany Mama and me. So much more fun to have a friend like you to go with. At the Assembly Rooms I had to stay with Mama the whole time and it was awful. She insisted on vetting all the young gentlemen who wanted to dance with me in the most discouraging way.”

Nat almost laughed out loud at both Hetty’s remark and Sam’s suggestion. Mama was not going to think much of the idea of taking her nephew’s governess to a ball, that was for certain. Good luck to Sam Beauchamp at succeeding in that.