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"Ico they arethan the co out of the ordinary"

His eyebrow raised in appreciation "I suppose I deserved that"

"I expect we all deserve a great deal that we are not served"

"I would like to play chess with you A shaame of chess that doesn’t occur at Fonthill or Paris"

"I shall have to live without the experience then," she ht of his foibles and his vanity

But he surprised her and laughed "I could invite you to Fonthill, of course"

"A lovely prospect"

"Virtuous married women never visitthat you are not quite so…virtuous?"

"Ruolden-haired lady standing to his right like a clothes-peg waiting to be animated "They can be so imprecise"

"And yet often so accurate," he said, grinning at her He was truly char when he chose to be "I leave for Fonthill tomorrow Perhaps you’d like to pay a visit, Your Grace? I can pro the Christmas season"

Poor Beaumont’s political reputation would never survive such a visit on her part "While I’d never discount the pleasure of playing chess with you, I would like to discuss another ht a chess piece froht the queen, did you? The African Queen, I call her"

"I should dearly love to buy her counterparts"

He laughed and then swept a grand bow "Has no one told you how remarkably obstinate I a stubbornness When you visit Fonthill, Your Grace, they will be a gift froest that you make the acquaintance of Mrs Patton" He nodded toward a tall woroup "She is the only woman admitted to the London Chess Club Presuust ranks, and play chess whenever you wish"

"I shall certainly introduce myself," Jemma said

"You do knohat they say about reputation, don’t you?"

"They say soit"

"A fair hit! I like to think of reputation as nothing more than a second inity…the loss quickly suffered and the fruits enjoyed thereafter?"

"Precisely! I lost ht but a word; the word is gone; the pleasure lingers" He bowed

He was devilishly char If it weren’t for her husband’s reputation and the proe had thron the gauntlet and it nettled her not to take it up

He didn’t think she’d visit Fonthill She saw it in his eyes, the faint disparagement, the unnecessary compliment

It fired her with the wish to throw societal rules to the wind and pay hio to that estate, with its scandals and daily parties, if the stories were true? She couldn’t She couldn’t do that to Beaumont

Her French friends would have shrieked with laughter at her concern They viewed husbands and honor subjects of interest to wives of the bourgeois Somehow life wasabout the French court

Jeo She had arrived in Paris as a young duchess without a husband, ainst Frenchh to daunt most ladies But not, she was proud to think, a member of the Reeve fa to discover that she felt just the slightest bit intimidated by Mrs Patton There was no obvious reason for it Mrs Patton was a slender woman with brown hair, rather eccentrically dressed, which fact alone ought to give Jemma a sense of superiority

Most of the ladies in the roooith short ruffles and side bustles of one size or another, but Mrs Patton had no curls, no ruffles and no bustles Instead she earing a thigh-length jacket, shaped to her figure Underneath the jacket was a periwinkle blue skirt that flared into long folds in the back The final touch was the opening at the front of the jacket…which parted to reveal a waistcoat A waistcoat! Jemma suddenly felt entirely too ruffled and belaced and beribboned