Spinster's Gambit by Gwendolynn Thomas

Author:Gwendolynn Thomas [Thomas, Gwendolynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chocolate Elephant LLC
Published: 2015-03-11T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Aspen felt his own eyes widen in shock when the woman looked up and simply met his eyes, her gaze frank and even. She was still plain, that was immediately obvious. She was a little too sharp, her cheek bones too prominent and her nose cuttingly thin. But her eyes looked softly into his own, unflinching, set somewhere between green and gray in utter contradiction to her dark, almost black hair. It was a stunning combination he thought, glancing over her face again until he realized that her eyebrows were rising slowly, waiting for a response.

“Oh, er-” he said stupidly, feeling a blush crawl up his cheeks and neck.

Fool, he thought, before he composed himself and gestured over at the chessboard still set up with his last night’s game with Lord Monson. Miss Holcombe nodded her agreement and Aspen felt himself sigh gratefully, glad to have a chess game to escape into for a short while.

He kept his eyes off her as she sat at the small chess table, knowing his mother would be watching him. Miss Holcombe started to set up the board, her thin fingers moving deftly. Aspen joined her quietly, thinking. It made no sense that he'd met the twenty-six year old woman in the guise of an untitled, awkward young man but still he couldn't throw off the feeling that when Miss Holcombe met his eyes he'd met the same gaze but three weeks before in the eyes of his friend. The two cousins truly did look alike. Jack must have told her to meet his eyes when he’d spoken to her last. For that, at least, Aspen was grateful.

~~//~~

You are without a doubt the most impulsive woman on the planet, Jac berated herself after Aspen made his move, watching her steadily. She couldn't win this game, she told herself as they brought their pieces into the game, struggling for the central squares. Aspen would see too much of her. He fought well, but he didn't have a concrete understanding of the value of central pawns and when the smoke cleared from the opening game he had traded pieces evenly but was in a far weaker position.

Jac saw too many ways to sack the game for herself, but they all felt disrespectful to the man across from her. She did not want to lose without ever having fought, when she had once sat across from this man in his own home and taken all of his pieces without deception.

Just play, she told herself finally, feeling her brain kick in for the first time in too long. She'd wait and find a decisive enough way to turn the tides against herself when it was necessary. It was too tempting to be able to play with someone but her brother across the board from her.

~~//~~

Aspen knew he was playing with a stronger player within ten minutes of their game. She was more confident with greater and greater complication while he struggled to make sense of it all. The game was not difficult for her.

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