"And the most terrible part is that he has never chided me for what I did, never
made me ask for forgiveness for being a foolish, immature, conniving wretch. All
he has done for fifteen years is try to make me happy, to help me be content
with my lot in life, as he is with his."
"Umm . . . that rather goes beyond impolitic, Gisela."
She spat a bitter sounding laugh from between white lips. "I know-it was near to
treason, except that I wasn't taken very seriously. I never do anything by
halves. And when I understood that it was hurting Rafael, I stopped and tried to
be good. I studied chess, pretending that the pieces were the inhabitants of
Darkov Castle, until I grew weary of that, and then I started to write a text on
chess, which filled the empty hours, and read my way through
