HITCHING HERSELF forward on one of the drawing room’s faded red chairs, Jewel jumped one of Ford’s checkers with hers and palmed her new captive. “Your turn. Will Rowan come tonight, do you think?”
“I have no idea what he’ll decide. I don’t understand children.”
“But Uncle Ford, you like children, don’t you?”
He’d never thought he had particularly. But as he looked at his charming niece, he didn’t have the heart to say so. “I like you.” Studying his position on the black-and-white board, he lifted one of his dark-stained counters. “And I’d wager Rowan does, too,” he added to put a smile on her face. “He seemed much more fond of you after your jest. That was brilliant, baby. You certainly know your way to a young man’s heart.”
Click-click-click. Three diagonal jumps over her natural wood pieces, and his darker piece was at her end of the board. “King me,” he said with a self-satisfied smile.
Draughts. He was reduced to playing draughts. And she’d beaten him three times already. He couldn’t remember the last time someone had beaten him at draughts; he must have been seven years old.
For all his intentions to come home to Lakefield to focus on work and not women, the opposite seemed to be happening. When he wasn’t paying attention to his niece, he was fretting over his shabby estate. Rather than unlocking the secrets of the universe, his ingenuity was aimed at persuading a young woman named Violet Ashcroft to spend as much time here as possible.
Jewel crowned his piece with one of the hostages she’d taken. “Do you like Rowan?”
“I do. He’s very interested in my laboratory.” Too interested. But at least the lad had a good brain and a healthy curiosity.
“Do you think Rowan’s big sister is pretty?”
Did he? He’d initially thought Violet was nice-looking at best. But now when he pictured her he saw a bold and vivid face, softened by the thoughtful expression in her brandy-brown eyes…
“She’s pretty,” he said, surprising himself.
They both looked up as Hilda came in. “Harry seems to have disappeared,” the housekeeper said. “Where is he?”
Ford shrugged. “I don’t know.” There didn’t seem to be much he knew these days.
“He went to Rowan’s house,” Jewel said nonchalantly, jumping two more of Ford’s men.
Hilda smoothed her wide white apron. “And why is that?”
“I asked him to take a letter there.”
“A letter?” Ford frowned at the board, where his pieces seemed to be disappearing at an alarming rate.
“A letter to Rowan,” his niece clarified. “An ap-ap—” She glared at him, as though daring him to help her. “An a-pol-o-gy.”
“You wrote a letter?” Hilda asked.
“You wrote a letter?” Ford echoed. “All by yourself?”
“Well, I know how to write, you know. Mama taught me. What’s so hard about that?”
Ford took his turn, removing none of Jewel’s pieces. “It’s not the writing of it, baby, it’s thinking to do so in the first place. I’m impressed.”
“Mama says even a tomboy should have good manners.”
“I like the way your mother thinks,” Hilda said.
“Besides, I like getting letters. Nobody ever sends me letters.”
Seeing her pout, Ford made a mental note to send her a letter after she went home.
Jewel perused the board. “I thought a letter might make Rowan like me.”
“He likes you,” came a voice from the doorway. Harry walked in, his florid face split by a big smile.
Suddenly Hilda’s face wore a frown. “You could tell me when you leave,” she scolded, then immediately bustled out past him.
“Women,” Harry muttered. “More trouble than they’re worth.” He turned to Jewel with a courtly bow. “Present company excepted, of course.”
Ford stared. Clearly the girl had won him over. Just as she had Rowan. She looked so innocent in her powder blue gown. So young and vulnerable. Which sat at odds with her fully developed feminine wiles and intuition.
Jewel bounced on the ancient chair so energetically he feared it might break. “What did Rowan say?”
“Well, I didn’t talk to him, you understand.” Harry relayed the details as seriously as if he were a hired spy. “But his oldest sister came out and said she would bring him after the sunset to see the stars.”
Jewel squealed and wriggled in her chair, so excited she botched her next few moves. As a consequence, Ford won the game. And Violet was coming with Rowan.
Things were looking up.