Page 19 of Wed to the Devil
When I look at Talia, I see a woman who is scared shitless and trying to act as though she isn’t afraid. I tilt my head and scrunch up one side of my face. I guess if I were in her position, a total outsider that is only in my world because she got knocked up, I would probably be just as scared as she is. She’s just one tiny person against the world. Talia starts to pull her hand out of mine, her mouth turning down into a slight frown. But I hold her there for just a moment longer, my eyes meeting hers.
At last, she touches my face with her free hand, cupping my jaw gently. She gives me a small smile and says, “Something to think about.”
Talia pushes me back and I go willingly this time. She goes into the kitchen and closes the door, leaving me to stare out into a darkening sky and a chill comes across the water that forebodes the coming storm. Much later, when I’ve locked down the command center of the boat and bolted down everything on the upper deck, I head downstairs and find Talia curled up on one corner of the couch in the living room.
Her eyes are fixed on the windows, two oblong cutouts that show the surface of the ocean around us. The wind is picking up outside and waves are battering the hull of the ship. Although I can only see a little glimpse of the sky above, I imagine that it is full of storm clouds and at any moment they will begin to pour rain down on us.
I enter the living room, if it can be called that. It’s only ten feet wide by twenty feet. One side is taken up by the long couch that Talia sits on and an extensive set of bookcases. On the other side, there are leather lounge chairs and a lightweight table. In the corner, there is a small bookshelf full of board games. I grab a heavy wooden box from the shelf of board games and bring it over to the table, where I open it to reveal a simple wooden chess board.
Talia notices me and watches me with some interest, but her eyes keep going back to the window. She monitors the weather outside and her brow furrows with concern.
“It’s going to storm,” I say. I take a seat in the leather chair beside the table, concentrating on setting up the chess pieces.
She gives me a funny look. “You think?”
I scowl down at the pawns that I line up but I don’t respond directly to her jibe. “You seem to be worried about it. But all the hatches are battened down. We are anchored in a sheltering bay. We have nothing to worry about.”
She quirks an eyebrow at me but she just presses her lips into a thin line. After a moment, she turns her head back to the board game that I’m setting up.
I glance up at her, keeping my face smooth and expressionless. “You play?”
She scoffs at me. “Of course I play. I went to school for liberal arts. I work in a bookstore. In what world would I not be able to defend myself on a chessboard?”
I nod to the chair on the other side of the table. “All right. Show me.”
She gets up, unsteady on her feet. As she wobbles, I notice her hand go to her belly. It’s funny, but I think I notice a vague swelling there. Not enough to remark upon but it is there nonetheless.
I don’t want to get my head bitten off for commenting on her shape at just this moment, so I bite my tongue.
Talia sits on the chair, pulling one of her legs up underneath her. She looks up at me, licking her lips. “Am I white, then?”
She gestures to the board, where I have set up the white pieces on her side and the dark pieces on mine. I shrug my shoulders. “I thought I should give you the advantage of the first move.”
Her lips twitch. She raises a hand and moves a pawn forward, seamlessly segueing into the first game.
I move several pawns. She moves a couple and then her knight comes out. It’s a bold move and the game progresses quickly. Talia is a very good chess player, quite aggressive and quick. It’s been so long since I have played that she knocks half of my pieces off the board before she corners my queen. She’s two moves away from a checkmate, looking quite smug as she moves her pieces around the board and slays my queen. At length, she puts my king into check several times and eventually I knock the piece over, conceding the game.
Talia sits back, putting her hands on the armrest and giving me a defiant smile. “That was easy,” she announces.
I haven’t ever seen this side of Talia before. Smug, superior, self assured. It’s annoying but also vaguely attractive. It reminds me of Daisy, truth be told.
“I think we should play again. And this time, we should make it more interesting. A wager.”
This seems to pique her interest. “What will we win or lose? And before you say it, I have no interest in playing strip chess so don’t even bring that up.”
I flash a smirk. “I was thinking that we would play for something more simple. I need us to come to an understanding before we head back to Harwicke. So perhaps we could play for one answer for each piece we capture.”
Her eyebrows fly up in surprise.
“One answer? To any question we ask?”
I nod. “That’s the idea.”
She purses her lips. “I don’t know. It’s hard to believe that you will be honest with me now. How do I know that you won’t just lie if I ask you anything that pushes your boundaries a little bit?”
I suck in a deep breath and release it slowly. “I promise to be honest. For this game, at least.”
Talia studies my face, her mouth bawling up tightly. She keeps looking at me for half a minute, making me fidget.