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“Wager accepted. Let’s play.”
They ate and started to play with careful enthusiasm. Their plates and teacups were long empty, and their attention was still glued to the chessboard. The marquess was an incredibly patient and calculating player, his moves bold and decisive. Pippa was more impulsive but no less brilliant in her moves than he was.
“You are very good.”
“I know,” she whispered, moving a pawn to capture his pawn, strengthening her control of the board’s center. “I must say you are rather brilliant yourself, my lord. My friend Agatha, who isverygood, would be impressed.”
The marquess smiled at Pippa’s next move, which was meant to give him a false sense of security. He canted his head, analyzing the board from all angles until nervousness knotted low in her belly. The dratted man appeared as if he saw through her strategy, which plotted for almost seven moves ahead.
“Who taught you, Pippa?”
“My mother. Recall I was incredibly shy as a young girl. Mama used this game as a way to…understand my quite introspective spirit, as she called it. I grew to love the game very much because it was our special time, and then it became so much more.”
That seemed to surprise him. “The countess seems to be an incredible player.”
“That she is,” Pippa said, pride in her smile. “Who taught you, my lord?”
“My grandfather. Whenever he was troubled, he would sit and play himself. He believed having oneself as an opponent reinforces strategic thinking when dealing with problems, giving one the advantage of understanding multiple points of view. I was a mere lad of six years when I climbed onto his lap and watched the board with him. We did not speak, and the old marquess did not rush me away like most adults.”
The marquess made his move claiming her pawn, forcing her to rethink her planned moves.
“The old marquess simply decided to teach you one day?”
“Hmm,” William said, without looking up from the board. “I must have sat on his lap for months watching grandfather play himself. Then one day, he was about to make a move, and I stopped him, seeing the error. Suffice to say, my grandfather was thrilled with my aptitude for the game. Since that day, it became our…pastime to sit and play and discuss many matters.”
“I can tell that you miss him,” Pippa whispered.
Cynical humor entered his eyes. “It is our nature to miss that which is gone. My grandfather lived a good, rewarding life.”
“Are you so afraid of sentimentality you cannot admit you miss him?”
The marquess’s gaze gleamed. “I miss him.”
“Check, my lord, you are about to lose.”
He arched a brow, smiled, and made another move. “No, I am not, my lady.”
Pippa peered hopefully at the board. “You should resign.”
“I would never,” he said drolly. “I mean to collect on our wager.”
Drat. Pippa wanted to win that wager. Staring at him, she suddenly chortled.
He arched a brow. “What is it?”
“I figured out how to beat you.”
That arrogant brow lifted once more. “Impossible, I say.”
At her smiling silence, he took the lure.
“How do you plan to?” he drawled. “Indulge my curiosity.”
“Why, I plan tocheat.”
“You dare say that so boldly?” he remarked beneath his breath.
“Of course,” she answered candidly.
