CHAPTER FIVE“Checkmate!” Verena declared.
The Duke stared at the chessboard with a rueful expression on his face.
“You cannot have won again?” he said almost incredulously.
“I have,” Verena replied. “You left your King exposed. And that is something you should never do!”
“I have until now believed myself to be a good player.”
“Would you like another game?” Verena asked.
The Duke put his head back against the high velvet armchair which had been drawn up to the window so that he could breathe in some air from the open casement with sunshine on his face.
It was amazing to the Duke when he thought about it that he had now been the uninvited guest of General Winchcombe for six days and yet strangely enough he was neither bored nor in any hurry to leave.
It was true that for the first fe
