Read Miss Gabriel's Gambit for Free Online Page B

year old boy. My niece is a nodcock!”
    “Actually, it your footman who assumed it was the child I wished to see,” David said stiffly, somewhat confused by his own irritated reaction to the woman’s disparaging tones. After all, had he not made much the same assessment of the girl? “It was a natural mistake on your servant’s part and I cannot claim to be sorry of the error. We had an opportunity to speak of the late Sir Miles, who was a dear friend.”
    Mrs. Gabriel digested this information with a grimace. So, it was not Caroline that he had come to call upon. “Still, Sylvia should not have put herself forward so, but then, what can one expect from a girl who was raised almost entirely by a bachelor uncle? The child has not the vaguest idea how to go on in society.”
    “Indeed,” David said. “Then your task is formidable, Madame, for I understand that introducing a young lady to the Ton is a vast undertaking. To care for both your daughter and your niece will be a double effort.”
    Mrs. Gabriel’s florid face flushed even more and David noted absently that her stocky neck was nearly as red as a rooster’s comb. Just then, further conversation was forestalled as the butler entered with cakes and ratafia. Sylvia, however, did not reappear and David found himself wondering about the girl’s place in the household scheme. Although he usually did not concern himself with matters of dress, it was clear by contrast that her clothing was far inferior to the garments of her cousin and aunt. He would wager that they each wore a year of Harjit’s wages on their backs; however, Sylvia had been garbed simply.
    Finally, the butler withdrew.
    “My niece’s circumstances ... “ Mrs. Gabriel began.
    “What Mama is trying to say is that Sylvia is not to come out with me,” Miss Caroline declared, finding her voice at last. “And I think-”
    But David was not destined to hear what the girl’s thoughts were upon the matter. Her mother finished the sentence, giving her daughter a glowering glance of warning.
    “It is a pity, milord, that poor Sylvia’s circumstances are at such a pass. Sir Miles was the oldest of his family and a confirmed bachelor. My dear departed husband was next in line, so my little Miles inherited the title. Sylvia is the daughter of his youngest brother, John.”
    “John Gabriel?” David queried.
    “You have heard of him?” Mrs. Gabriel asked, surprised.
    David nodded. “Truly, I wonder that I did not make the connection long ago. John Gabriel was one of the foremost chess players of the previous century. Why, ‘Gabriel’s Gambit’ is one of the foremost opening attacks that the game has ever known. He was the brother of the late Sir Miles, then?”
    “Yes, although they were separated in age by nearly a score of years, John was as chess mad as his oldest brother. I can only thank my stars that my dear Horace was spared the malady,” Mrs. Gabriel declared vehemently. “For I can tell you that chess has caused a great deal of misery in this family. That ne’er-do-well John dragged his family all over Creation in search of the perfect game and of course, Miles, my other brother-by-marriage, was always staring at the board. ‘Tis no wonder that Sylvia has not the foggiest idea of how to get on in the world.”
    She observed his face hoping for some appropriately negative reaction but finding none, she added. “Bad enough that Miles had no notion of suitably educating the girl, but to so utterly ruin her future! I vow, he must have run quite mad in his old age, with his crazy will full of chess mutterings. Do you know that he actually requested that no proper period of mourning be observed? As if we would be so lost to propriety to bring Caroline out only a few months after his death!”
    Despite his annoyance at Mrs. Gabriel’s malicious tongue, David found himself intrigued. “Chess mutterings?”
    “Sylvia and her brother had a fortune, you see, of which our uncle was sole