Truly a Wife (Free Fellows League 4)

Daniel studied the board. “Why?” He moved his bishop.

“Do you see any bandages on my person?”

Daniel leaned forward and leered at the front of her dress in a manner no gentleman should ever do unless invited. “No bandages.”

“Daniel!”

He raised his eyebrows in an expression of pure innocence. “You issued the invitation.”

“So I did.” Miranda imitated his wide-eyed look. “Check.”

Daniel looked down at her move, then back at her. “Damnation.” She’d distracted him long enough to put his king in jeopardy.

She smiled at him.

He returned her smile. So that was how she intended to play. “Your eyes are blue,” he said softly, truly surprised by his discovery. “I always thought they were green.”

“They change colors,” she replied, watching as he managed to save his king.

He arched an eyebrow in query.

“When I wear green my eyes appear to be green and when I wear blue, they look blue.” Miranda made her next move. “Check.”

“Extraordinary.” He didn’t look at the board. There was no need. He couldn’t go anywhere.

“Mate,” Miranda added, doing her best not to grin.

Reaching over, Daniel grabbed a spare pillow and passed it to her. “Get comfortable. We may be here a while,” he said as he reset the board for another game.

She took his advice, bunching the pillow beneath her and adjusting her skirts so she could stretch out on the coverlet.

“No fair,” Daniel decried when her new position placed her bosom into prominence and wreaked havoc with his concentration.

“All’s fair …” she began.

“In love and war?” he prompted, completing the quote.

“I was going to say ‘in chess,’ ” Miranda told him.

“Chess is a form of warfare, Miranda,” Daniel reminded her.

“So is love, Your Grace.”

Hours later, he opened another game by advancing his king’s pawn.

Miranda recognized the opening gambit and quickly countered it.

Daniel shifted his weight on the bed, resting his back and his aching ribs by relaxing against the pillows. He countered Miranda’s move, then smothered a yawn.

“Is it the company?” Miranda spoke for the first time in half an hour as she advanced another chess piece. “Or my strategy?”

He glanced over her head to the clock on the mantel across the room. “I think it’s the hour.”

Miranda followed his gaze to the clock. It was nearly three in the morning. She started to get up, but Daniel stopped her.

He moved a rook. “Not until we finish the game.”

“That could take hours,” she said, advancing a bishop.