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visited with your staff and read three books.” She held up three fingers for emphasis. “The contest is less than three weeks away, my Lord. Can you spare a bit of time tonight?”
    “After dinner,” he promised , looking amused. “Unless you’d like me to go bathe and change first.” He baited her with an innocent look.
    “No, but if this disheveled appearance is a tactic to scare me away, it won’t work.” She leaned forward to pluck a leaf out of his dark hair, arrested by the silky feel of it beneath her fingertips. He seemed a bit wild tonight, and utterly thrilling.
    “No?” He gave a rough laugh and grabbed her hand. “I’ll have to use other methods to scare you away. You’re very intrepid, Mrs. Blake. For now, I’ll try to stay downwind.”
    She grinned in reply , loving the feeling of his hand on hers. He had exaggerated about smelling. She’d caught a faint whiff of him when she’d leaned toward him, and it was anything but unpleasant.
    As soon as the dessert dishes were cleared, he led her back to the study where they’d played before. He poured them each a glass of brandy this time, and then they sat up the board in companionable silence.
    “Do I still get to go first?” she asked, once they were ready to play.
    “Of course,” he told her with a wink. “You need all the help you can get.”
    After she made her first move, she took a drink of her brandy, letting the smooth liquid warm her throat as she watched him carefully consider his move. His confidence made her nervous but she was determined to really analyze his play this time. “Can you tell me after each move why you chose to do what you did?”
    He looked surprised for a moment, but then nodded. “ All right.”
    He began to offer her a brief explanation after each move, and she could tell he was being more deliberate now, really thinking things through so that he could explain them to her.
    “Tell me about your family. Do you have any brothers or sisters?” she asked, wanting to learn more about him.
    “No siblings.” He looked down at the game, pretending to concentrate.
    “ Nor do I,” she said, sensing some loneliness in his eyes. “And what was your childhood like?”
    “ There were tutors of course, and neighborhood friends. My father didn’t spend much time with my mother and me. He was always in London, attending to his duties in the House of Lords. My mother missed him terribly, which led to a certain amount of melancholy. But she was still a lively woman, full of warmth.”
    “ They are no longer living?”
    “No.” He drained his tumbler of brandy, obviously a bit uncomfortable with the question. “My father met my mother in Greece on his Grand Tour. He said she was like an exotic flower, full of passion and vivacity. He must have loved her once but his desire to work took precedence over her. I could never understand why he convinced her to leave her home and family behind, only to dump her here in cold England, out in the country, all alone. I’m sure this wasn’t what she expected when she married him.”
    She could see the same Greek passion in his tan face but it seemed to be buried deeply under a controlled surface. “It must have been very difficult for her.”
    “I feel guilty for having left her alone myself so often after my father died. I knew how important my visits were to her, but as my fame from the Chattel game grew, I came home less and less. I was too busy going to parties. And then she died.” He poured himself another glass of brandy, his mood darkening.
    “Did she die suddenly or was she ill for some time?” she asked softly.
    “It was sudden,” he replied. “I wasn’t here when she passed. All I knew was she’d had a sharp pain in her knee, which the doctor attributed to age, but shortly thereafter she came down with a strange fever she never recovered from. By the time word reached me, she was already gone.”
    And he’d obviously been blaming himself for it ever since.