A Wager Of The Heart

14. Back in the game

:::Kent:::

I scowled down at the game board and moved another piece forward, knowing even as I did so that Brandan would win the game again. "Blast!" I said angrily.

Brandan chuckled and reset the game. "Something on your mind?"

"The air is stale in this room," I grumbled as I looked at the innumerable books and many overstuffed chairs and sodas. "It is exhausting to spend so much time trapped within the same room, but my Lady doesn't wish to move." I finished under my breath.

"I thought it was something else entirely." Brandan remarked with a slight smile on his face. 

I grimaced and looked across the room to where Geraldine sat reading quietly with Charity sitting next to her. The beautiful angel seemed completely unaffected by the absence of my pursuit. She was playing with a loose threat absently and staring at the sunny day on the other side of the window, completely oblivious to me. 

I turned back to find Brandan watching me closely. My scowl deepened and I turned from the game, completely abandoning it. I heard Charity laugh and I turned to watch her touch her mistresses hand and make a quiet remark. Geraldine smiled and put her book down to talk animatedly for a few minutes. I frowned, the relationship between Lady and maid was deeper than I could have even imaged possible. Geraldine must have lived in a fish pond to be this close to a servant. I ran my hair through my hair, disheveling it angrily. 

After finishing her tale, both woman laughed and Geraldine picker her book back up. Charity smiled contentedly and rose to stand by the window. The sunlight lit her face and she closed her eyes to smile into it. That bewitching smile that hid such fire was almost as tantalizing as her silver eyes. Almost. No matter how I discouraged it, I still felt that quickening of my pulse whenever I found myself drowning in her pewter gaze.

I turned back to Brandan to dislodge the spell that woman seemed to work on me. My friend was staring absently into the room. "You look distracted." He jumped and looked at me. I smiled, a little of my wickedness returning.

"I was thinking, wondering actually, why you have halted your plan of wooing the maid." Brandan said quietly, lest he be overheard. "Or have you fallen for the Lady and have resigned yourself to your fate?"Brandan tried to hide it, but I saw the smile creep across his face.

I grimaced and said, aggravated, "Of course not!" I felt my anger burble to the surface once again as my last interaction with Charity played over in my mind. I appeared to have been bested by this young girl and Brandan knew it. "No, the game is still on. I must only reevaluate my approach."

Brandan chuckled and went back to his day dreaming. I turned my attention back to the dark beauty in the room. I smiled, scoff as she wished, anyone could see her exquisite radiance. She stood with her hands on the windowsill and staring intently outside. I will have to change my strategy but I was definitely still going to win this wager. 

I smiled to myself and moved a game piece with purpose.