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Miss Elizabeth lowered the stocking. “He is six, Mr. Darcy. You cannot expect him to see three moves ahead.”

“I merely informed him that his bishop is endangered.”

Darcy thought he detected an amused glint in her eye. “That is very generous of you.”

“Lizzy,” Miss Margaret said from the other table, “is this straight?”

Miss Elizabeth turned. “Which part?”

“The address.”

Miss Eleanor answered before her cousin could. “It leans.”

“It does not.”

“It does.”

“It is not your card.”

“I can still see it.”

Mrs. Gardiner did not look up from her correspondence. “Margaret, if the recipient can determine that the card is intended for her, I think we may call it a success.”

“It appears straight enough to me,” Miss Elizabeth assured her younger cousin.

Miss Eleanor crossed her arms across her chest. Miss Margaret examined her work again, clearly unconvinced.

He had called her Miss Gardiner on his first visit, which seemed to please her, but Mrs. Gardiner had asked him to call her Miss Margaret and her brother Master Edward, for there were a sufficient number of Gardiners in the room already.

Master Edward moved his bishop directly into the path of Darcy’s rook.

Darcy looked at the board, then up at his opponent.

“What?” Master Edward demanded.

Darcy considered whether one was morally obliged to tell a six-year-old that he had just substantially worsened his position after being warned against it.

“Nothing,” he said, as Master Henry emerged from beneath the table.

“Did you have Christmas when you were a boy?” the smallest Gardiner asked, his face turned up to Darcy’s.

Darcy turned to him while Master Edward stared at the board. “Yes.”

“Was there snow?”

“Sometimes.”

“Did you have a Christmas pudding?”

“I believe we did, yes.”

Master Henry pulled himself into the empty chair beside his brother. “You do not remember?”

“I was very young and not generally consulted about the pudding.”

Miss Elizabeth laughed softly.

Master Henry said gravely, “Nobody asks me anything either.”