He moved the same piece on his side.
With the next move, Isabel moved to the other side and moved the third pawn in, which was exactly what Douglas wanted her to do. She moved it out two spaces.
He moved a pawn on the opposite side out two spaces as well, making way for the queen to move on a diagonal. But Isabel wasn’t watching that. She was moving to the front line of his pawns to clear them away so she could get to his king, but Douglas was already ahead of her. With his move, and hers, he was able to move his queen on a diagonal so that the spaces between his queen and Isabel’s king were wide open. When she realized this, her eyes widened because there was nowhere for her to go. Her king was fixed and she couldn’t move any of her other pieces in to block Douglas’ assault. Shocked, she looked up at him to see a knowing smile on his lips.
“Your king is in danger, my lady,” he said quietly. “I believe he belongs to me.”
As her mouth fell open in shock, Douglas moved his queen in to take Isabel’s king. In less than four moves, he’d ended the game, and Isabel was nearly beside herself to see what he’ddone. She had been focused on removing obstacles to his king while he had changed his strategy with every move she made.
Now he had her.
He’d won.
“That is not possible,” she finally said, looking at the board. “Was I truly that stupid?”
Douglas let his grin break through. “Nay,” he said. “You were simply focused on my king. I was focused on you.”
She shook her head in disbelief. “And I fell like a foolish knave,” she said. “I cannot believe it.”
“I was fortunate.”
Isabel couldn’t argue with him. “You were sharp,” she said, lifting her eyes to his. “Well done, Sir Douglas. It seems that I am to keep my mouth shut and let you do as you please.”
She was folding, just like that. Somehow, that didn’t make his victory very sweet. Had she fought him on it, Douglas would have taken the victory and gloated over it, but she wasn’t fighting him. She was conceding, with honor. Truthfully, up until this moment, he wasn’t sure she had any, but she did. She understood.
A seed of respect sprouted.
“Since this was over so quickly, I would not be opposed to playing a few more games,” he said. “Mayhap the best out of five?”
That seemed to surprise her. “But you have already won.”
He shrugged. “Mayhap I took advantage of a momentary lapse in your strategy,” he said, holding up his queen. “As a knight of honor, I would be agreeable to a few more games to settle this once and for all.”
Isabel heard her words and a weak smile spread across her lips. “You do not have to.”
He flashed her a smile, putting his queen back down again. “I know,” he said. “But I want to be fair.”
It was the first time they’d actually had a pleasant moment between them. He was smiling and so was she. Perspectives were shifting just a bit. An understanding was starting to happen. Perhaps Douglas wasn’t as bad as Isabel had originally thought.
And perhaps Isabel wasn’t such a shrew after all.
“Very well, Douglas,” she said, addressing him informally because the situation called for it. “Let us see if I cannot do to you what you did to me. Five games, you say?”
“Whoever wins three first is the winner.”
“Then be on your guard, knight. I am coming for you.”
That made him laugh. Settling back with his wine, he actually enjoyed the rest of the games. In the end, he beat her soundly, three games to two, but the truth was that Isabel didn’t much care. She understood a little bit more about Douglas de Lohr now.
And she wasn’t upset about it in the least.
CHAPTER EIGHT
No one wasspeaking to her.
With the exception of Davina and Helen, none of the ladies would speak to Mira, nor had they since yesterday. There was a pre-scheduled trip into the town of Axminster on this fine morning, part of their education on bartering and trade, and Mira chose to ride a palfrey rather than ride in the carriage with the rest of the ladies. If they were going to ignore her, then she wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of knowing how much it hurt her feelings.
She’d rather be alone.
