Chapter Eighteen
“A break will be called before the final, where I will play Lady Liberty,” Mr. Hasslebach said loudly.
Liberty looked to where Toby still stood with her brother and his ward. Toby had a ward. If she hadn’t seen the little girl, she would not have believed it possible. When had she come to live with him?
He held her high in his arms, and hers were around his neck, which told Liberty she was happy to be there. She searched for a maid, or nanny, and saw no one nearby, just Tobias and the child, plus, the golden Labrador sitting on Tobias’s foot.
Where was the girl when she’d seen him traveling from London the day her carriage wheel had broken?
She had so many questions, and no wish to ask them of him.
No wish to spend time with that man if she did not have to.
He disturbed her, and those feelings she’d long shut away were rising.
Especially seeing him smiling at Florence.
That smile was one he used to use with her. She hadn’t seen it in many years.
Liberty looked at Edward, who was stroking the top of the dog’s head, seeming comfortable with the man who had crushed her that day many years ago. She started toward her brother… not Tobias.
“I am going to purchase a cup of tea. My throat is parched, Edward,” Liberty said in a harsh tone. The little girl looked at her wide eyed.
“Soften your tone, Liberty,” Edward said, looking at the child.
“Sorry. Hello, Florence,” Liberty said, forcing a smile onto her lips. “My name is Liberty. It’s very nice to meet you.” It wasn’t the child’s fault that the man holding her had become her enemy.
“Have you been eating my brother’s lemon drops and roasted chestnuts?”
“Yes,” Florence whispered.
Edward held out the bag of nuts to her. Liberty took one. “I suppose you ate all the lemon drops, too?” she said instead of, How is it possible you are a ward to this sweet little girl, Tobias?
“All gone I’m afraid. Florence has a taste for them,” Edward said.
“He ate them,” the girl then added, pointing to Edward.
“Not all surely?” Liberty teased her.
“Nearly all,” Florence said solemnly.
“Would you like me to get your tea for you, seeing as I have been basking in your success, while the men around me groan loudly?” Edward asked.
“Excellent. I am useful for something, then, and I can get my own tea,” Liberty said.
“I knew you would come in handy at some stage,” her brother said with a cheeky smile. He then handed his chestnuts to Tobias. “I suppose you want tea too, my lord?”
“No,” Liberty said as Tobias said, “Yes.”
“Would you and Barnaby like to come for a walk, Florence? You can help me carry the cups,” Edward said, ignoring her.
“Yes.” The little girl wriggled to get down.
Toby lowered her to her feet gently. He then dug into his pocket and handed her some money. “You can pay for our tea with this, Florence.”
She nodded, eyes serious, and then took Edward’s hand and walked away.
“Why are you talking to my brother?” Liberty rounded on him when Edward had walked away. “What game are you playing?”
“Those are the questions you want to ask me when I’ve seen your eyes on Florence?” he said calmly.
She closed her teeth with a snap.
“She is my cousin’s child. He and his wife recently passed away, and I am now her guardian and the owner of Barnaby.”
She wanted to ask how he, a man who appeared to care for little but himself, could care for a child, but she didn’t. The kind boy she’d once known was hopefully still inside him. Plus, she’d seen him holding the little girl gently. Those weren’t the actions of a callous man, surely?
“Now about Bidham,” he continued. “I think it is definitely smuggling that is taking place there. But I also believe the village is under threat. I sent a man to investigate. No one would talk to him. But the magistrate, who was called in to deal with Sally’s death, said it was murder and that, to his mind, there is something odd going on in Bidham. ”
She felt the pain lance through her at the thought of Sally’s death.
“I’m sorry her death upsets you, Liberty.”
“That is neither here nor there,” she said, watching Edward and Florence walk away with Barnaby. “But I need to tell you something, my lord.”
“As I am standing before you, now is as good a time as any,” Tobias said.
She glared at him. “We don’t like each other, and I’m fine with that. So once this is done, we will carry on with our mutual animosity.”
“I believe I told you I don’t dislike you—”
“Stop,” she hissed. “No one speaks to me the way you did. Ignores me the way you have, and can say they don’t dislike me.
” She then inhaled through her nose. “It matters not anyway. What I wanted to say is that Edward and I just saw Cecil Todd driving a cart similar to the one Helen’s brother was driving, and he stopped at the same place.
He and two other men I’d seen before then unloaded the barrels. ”
“Tell me you didn’t go back to the warehouse and ask more questions.”
“Not that it is any concern of yours what I do, but I did not.”
“At least in this you are showing sense.” His dark eyes were narrowed now.
“I continually show sense, unlike you,” she snapped back.
“No good can come of continuing this conversation, so I will ask you where exactly is this warehouse location?” Tobias said.
He was right, no good could come of them arguing. Their only focus should be Bidham. The problem was Liberty felt irrational around this man. Before she could speak again, her brother and the child returned.
“She put honey in yours because I told the lady serving that you had a sour disposition, Liberty,” Edward said. “Florence also got some in hers, but that was just to make her sweeter.”
The little girl had a small smile on her face as she looked at Edward.
“I’m not entirely sure why I love you,” Liberty muttered taking the mug.
Edward handed Toby his.
“Tell him where that place was Cecil drove the cart to this morning, Edward. I think Mr. Hasslebach wants to begin, and as I want this over before mother hears about it, I will see if I can beat him quickly.”
“Liberty,” Toby said.
“What?” She looked at his left ear.
“Have you noticed since you started playing that the crowd has grown and changed?”
She looked at the people now two deep around them and saw the women.
“You are championing these women; don’t forget that,” he said.
“I expect you to win, Sister, and when you do, I will heckle the men in the crowd,” Edward said loudly. “I believe in you, Liberty. Plus, Florence told me she wants you to win. Apparently, her mother was excellent at chess.”
“Was she?” Tobias asked, looking down at his ward. She replied with a nod.
“Thank you for your belief in me, Edward.” She then bent to talk to Florence. “And thank you for your support too.” The little girl patted her cheek.
Leaving Tobias, Edward, Florence, and Barnaby, she went to where Mr. Hasslebach now stood beside the table they’d play at.
“Good luck,” he said, but Liberty didn’t feel like he really meant it.
Twenty minutes later, Liberty was sure Mr. Hasslebach was trying to put her off her stride. He was humming and tapping his fingers. Liberty despised tapping as much as she despised someone crunching loudly nearby, which her brother constantly did.
It was also the height of rudeness to do what the man was doing, and he would know that. But Liberty knew his actions were because she was good at chess, and he was in danger of losing.
The match was close, and Liberty had to shut out all the noise and distraction, especially the fact that her brother stood with her enemy… perhaps enemy was harsh, but the man had crushed her.
“Go on, Love, you show him,” someone in the crowd called out.
Mr. Hasslebach glared at the woman.
“Stuffy old goat,” she muttered.
“Excuse me, but there is no need for name calling.”
Liberty tried to shut out the exchange taking place a few feet from her as voices rose.
“Exactly that, madam. He is a stuffy old goat.”
Those words had come from Edward.
“You men aren’t happy because that lady is beating one of you,” a woman said.
Concentrate, Liberty, she reminded herself as the debate raged on.
“I fear she’s right, Polebrook,” came the deep words of Tobias.
That man, Liberty thought. She wished he’d exit himself from her life once again. She hated that her heart beat a little harder when he was near.
Focus!
Recalling her favorite chess book, Liberty made a move that had Mr. Hasslebach inhaling sharply.
A loud crunch told her Edward was closer and still eating chestnuts. Liberty refused to look at him or Tobias and that sweet little girl.
“She won’t have the pluck to finish it,” a man said.
“She’s had the pluck to do so, thus far,” Tobias said.
Mr. Hasslebach countered, and she moved again. The concentration was making her head ache, which sometimes happened, and the doctors said may go on forever, or one day stop, which was frustrating, but Liberty had no time to worry about that now.
Focusing on the pieces on the checkered board before her, she worked through her next moves in her head. When Liberty saw the pathway, she made her first move. She knew Mr. Hasslebach had seen it too because he made a choking, coughing sound in his throat as if to clear it.
“Checkmate, I believe,” Liberty said quietly two moves later. Mr. Hasslebach gasped.
“She just said checkmate!” a woman’s voice cried.
“How is that possible? No one beats Mr. Hasslebach.”
“You have read The Elements of Chess?” Mr. Hasslebach asked when he could speak. He was studying the board.
“I have, yes.”
He rose then and held out his hand. Liberty rose too and shook it. Then pandemonium broke out, but only from the women watching. They cheered and clapped, and a few even hugged each other in excitement. Many of the men in the audience looked angry.
“I never watched it before, but I’ll be sure to now if women can play and win!”
“I say she has to have cheated,” a male voice said.
“Agree.”
“No one has been able to beat Mr. Hasslebach. How can she? A woman.”
Liberty ignored the words. She was used to people’s opinions where women were concerned; she and others faced them daily.
“Take that back,” Edward said in a loud voice, which drew her eyes. Her brother was now standing toe to toe with a much larger and older man than him. Liberty moved closer, but before she could reach her brother, Tobias appeared, nudging Edward to one side. He then handed him Florence.
“She won that match using skill, and the fact you would say otherwise, Lucas, speaks more to your character than hers,” Tobias said in a hard, cold voice. “Now apologize for your words at once.”
The crowd had turned from the chess game to watch Tobias and Mr. Lucas, who Liberty had danced with a few times, and didn’t like at all. She’d agreed with Alice when she’d said his eyes were too close together.
“I say, Corbyn, we were just chatting,” another man said, but she couldn’t see his face as he stood behind the crowd.
“If Lady Liberty were a man, she would call you out for what you just said, Lucas. Apologize at once.”
Liberty held her breath, waiting to see what would happen, and then Mr. Lucas muttered an apology to Tobias, who looked mean enough to punch him.
“It is not to me that you need to say sorry, Lucas,” Tobias then said, looking at Liberty now. “Come closer, my lady,” he said holding her gaze. “Mr. Lucas has something he wishes to say to you.”
She didn’t want to come closer, or make the already-created scene worse, but she knew she had no other option. Liberty approached, wishing herself anywhere but here.
“Well done.” A few of the women called out to her as she walked. “Congratulations, Lady Liberty.” Lady Yarrow, who was a close friend of her mother’s spoke these words. She was going to be in so much trouble when this news reached her.
“Say the words, Lucas,” Tobias said when she stopped beside him. A muscle ticked in his jaw. She remembered seeing it a time or two when they were children, and it had been she back then who had provoked him.
“I’m sorry for my words, Lady Liberty.” Mr. Lucas looked like he’d swallowed a mouthful of ten-day-old haddock.
She nodded. He then bowed and walked away with haste, taking his friends with him. They threw quelling looks at her over their shoulders.
Oh, this was bad. Her parents would surely hear, and then when she stepped into society she would be the center of attention, which she loathed.
“I’m sorry, Florence,” Tobias was saying then as he took the girl back in his arms. “For raising my voice.” She patted his cheek as if to say she forgave him.
The sight of this handsome man holding that sweet little girl, with the dog at their feet had a few women nearby smiling, but not her. You loathe him, she reminded herself.
“Did you have to humiliate him?” She looked at Tobias after shuffling sideways and putting some space between them.
“Yes. I would have punched him if there weren’t a crowd, and Florence wasn’t with me,” Tobias said, now calm.
“I’d like to have seen that.”
“That will do, Edward. You are becoming entirely too bloodthirsty,” Liberty said.
She should thank Tobias for standing up for her honor, but what she’d rather do was walk fast in the opposite direction. But she was no coward.
“You did not need to step in, but thank you just the same for it.”
“If that was you being grateful, it was a pathetic attempt.” His brown eyes held something she’d not seen in a long while as they looked at her. There was a wicked glint in them now the anger had gone.
“It is the only one you are getting. Now come along, Edward. It will be a miracle if mother doesn’t hear about this.”
“Oh, she’ll hear. I just saw Mrs. Minton,” Edward said, looking happy considering they would both be in a world of trouble when they got home.
“My lady, this is yours.”
Mr. Hasslebach came to her side, holding out a chess piece for her. “The winner of this competition keeps it until the next tournament is called.”
She took it. “Thank you, and of course I will return so you can win it back,” Liberty said, feeling sorry for the man now. He looked like a lost puppy. Clearly, it hurt that she’d beat him.
“I’ve never lost that piece to anyone,” he added solemnly.
“Don’t do it.” The words were whispered in her ear as Liberty moved her hand to pass it back to Mr. Hasslebach.
Liberty ignored Tobias and clenched her fingers tighter around the chess piece. How dared he tell her what to do.
“My sister will, of course, be happy to challenge you at your earliest convenience, sir,” Edward said.
Mr. Hasslebach pulled out a card and handed it to Edward with mournful eyes, instead of Liberty, who would actually be the person he needed to contact.
He then walked away. Without a backward glance, Liberty did the same, needing to put some distance between herself and Tobias Corbyn, and his sweet-faced little ward.