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Matilda shook her head. “On the contrary. You proved a very worthy opponent. I’m impressed.”
He stepped up to the table. “Did she, Lady Matilda?”
“She did,” Matilda answered easily before she looked back at Evie giving her the smallest wink. “Perhaps you’d like to take my seat, Your Grace?”
“I would. Thank you.”
Lady Matilda rose and he slid into the empty chair. The table was small, not much bigger than the board itself and leaning over as he was, Evie was close enough to touch. She gave him a shy smile, her head dipping. “Your Grace.”
His voice dropped to a whisper. “Evie.”
A flush rose in her cheeks, a lovely shade of pink that made him think of sunsets and roses, her blue eyes rising to meet his again. Looking at her like this, he wondered why he questioned her interest at all. She flushed at the mere use of her name uttered from his lips.
He swallowed. She liked his company, it was obvious. Her blushes, the way she’d allowed him to hold her.
So why did he worry?
Perhaps it was because she never sought him out. Not once.
It was always him pursuing her. Was that just her nature? In some ways he’d found it refreshing. But did it mean that she wasn’t as enamored as he was?
“You shouldn’t use my nickname here. People will talk,” she whispered back, bending toward him.
“Talk?” He didn’t particularly like the ton or the endless gossip either, but in this moment, he cared far more about her than what anyone else thought. “I don’t give a fig what they think. The only person I care about is you.”
The flush deepened and this time she didn’t argue. “Do you really?”
That filled him with something warm. “I do.”
“I care about you too,” she admitted, leaning closer still as she began moving the pieces back to their starting positions. Their proximity created a bubble of intimacy around them.
Hope rippled through him. That was encouraging. “I’m glad.” He began rearranging his as well. Soon they were ready to begin play as Evie made the first move, taking a pawn from its neat line and pushing it two spaces ahead.
He mirrored her move, hardly concentrating on the board. He had a far bigger end game in mind. And hearing her say she cared, felt like a very good first move.
“You said you preferred the country,” he queried as they game picked up speed.
“That’s right,” she answered. “I much prefer the slower pace of life.”
He nodded, relaxing into his seat. He was much the same. He travelled to London as was necessary for parliament but he stayed in the country as much as he possibly could. “So you see yourself living primarily in the country?”
“I suppose I do.”
He pushed his rook up the board, taking one of her pawns. “What else do you see for your future?”
She responded by taking his rook with her knight. A move he should have seen but hadn’t. He was distracted. “Oh, what most ladies want, I suppose.”
“And what’s that?” His heart was speeding up in his chest.
Her fingers stilled as her gaze flitted away from his. “Marriage. A family.”
Under the table, he found her free hand, and he slipped his fingers over her palm. She sucked in her breath as she grasped his fingers back. “And you?”
“The same,” he answered, his voice dropping as he moved further out on his chair to be even closer. But he’d leaned too low, and in doing so, he knocked several of his own players and a few of hers off the board.
“Blast,” he growled out as he pushed back his chair so that he might reach down and pick up the pieces.
Evie did the same, both of them bent under the table picking up the scattered pieces and placing them in their laps.
