Page 45 of Make Mine a Marquess

“So is Mr. Adian,” Landon said. “They can keep watch together.”

No wonder Beatrice readily volunteered.

A loud meow drew his attention. “Who have we here?”

“Mimi! She must have followed me.”

“Is she yours?”

“Yes. She usually keeps to my room or wanders outside through the kitchens.”

“She has pretty markings.” He reached out a hand and the cat immediately padded over and rubbed against him. “Affectionate, too. Let her stay.”

At his acceptance of the cat, or rather, of Mimi’s acceptance of him, Phoebe relaxed. He went to his desk and picked up an ornate-looking rectangular playing set and placed it on the table before her. He pulled out the chair across from her and sat.

“Once you learn the rules of backgammon, I’m sure you’ll find it entertaining and addictive.”

Her eyes widened at the ornate box with mother-of-pearl inlay. “It’s lovely.”

“This set has been in my family for generations.” He unhooked a little latch and opened the board. “The entire board is made of Egyptian beechwood and inlaid with mother-of-pearl.”

She gasped. It was even more beautiful inside. With a series of long points of dark wood around the board, there was more mother-of-pearl inlay. A velvet bag held the playing pieces.

“Backgammon is an ancient game and popular in the Middle East and Mediterranean. The Armenians pronounce it tavlou, the Greeks say tavloo, and the Turks tavla.”

“Tavlou,” Phoebe repeated the foreign word. “Do you play with Mr. Adian?”

“I do.”

“Then why teach me? Certainly, you would prefer a skilled competitor.”

“We play often enough. I’m looking for a new challenger.”

A new challenger.

His words excited her, despite her not fully understanding. Why her? Why not one of the men? Just then Mimi brushed against his leg, then settled on a settee and curled on a pillow. She watched them with her brilliant yellow eyes.

Phoebe sat forward in her chair. She was intrigued by the board and wanted to learn. That he’d be her teacher warmed her insides. “Teach me.”

“The twenty-four long triangles are called points. The points alternate in light and dark color and are divided into quadrants.” He pointed to the parts of the board with his index finger.

Next, he reached for the velvet bag and poured white and black markers onto the table as well as ivory dice. “You can be white.” He showed her how to arrange the markers on the board.

“How does a player win?”

He looked at her with amusement. “You must learn how to set up the board and play first. The object of the game is to roll the two dice, then move all of your markers home and then remove them, or bear them off, from the board entirely. There are more rules that I’ll show you as we play.”

Phoebe moved her chair closer to the board. He was a good teacher, and she grasped the rules quickly. She slid her markers from point to point and quickly learned that she could break up the values of the two dice into separate moves, and if she rolled a double the numbers on the dice were played twice.

“Bravo!” Landon said when she landed on one of his single markers in a “hit” which sent his marker back to the beginning. She looked up at him. Her heart thumped uncomfortably, and her cheeks warmed under the heat of his gaze. “I knew you would be a quick learner.”

She found the game addictive. So was the man.

“You said tavlou is popular in your culture. I know little about the people from the Mediterranean and Middle East. Can you tell me more?”

“My mother’s family is from both Lebanon and Syria. The land has a coast along the Mediterranean Sea as well as mountainous terrain. Because of its strategic location and coastal region, the country has been a center of trade for centuries.

“The markets thrum with people bartering, haggling, and selling a vast array of goods. The sights and smells of spices and grilled meats and fish can make even a full man’s stomach grumble. Beautiful hand-woven carpets are sold beside trinkets and solid gold cups and jewels of every color of the rainbow.” His expression looked wistful as he spoke of the faraway place. “Different languages are spoken, Arabic, Armenian, and Turkish. Sometimes the haggling can become heated, and men have been known to fight at the markets. But I never tired of attending them.”