Page 7 of Rapunzel's Gambit (All That Glitters)

“I did.”

The knowledge that he would be putting his life on the line deepened my anger toward my father, which drove me to flirt even more with each one of my subsequent dance partners. Each time I lavished a new dance partner with attention, Father’s eyebrows contracted from where he watched me.

Delighted that I’d succeeded in arousing his suspicions, I would cheerfully wave at him each time I caught his eye, then lean a little closer to whichever man I was dancing with to whisper into his ear. Any other girl might have envied my position. The men who flocked to my side were all well-built, well-dressed and groomed, and eager to give me attention. But I couldn’t help feeling that their affections were just as false as mine.

Frankly, it astounded me that each of these men would jump at the chance of marrying a princess as flirtatious as I was acting. Did it not concern them that their future monarch was throwing herself at every man in the vicinity? Perhaps they simply didn’t care what I did as long as they had the opportunity to gain power and position.

Father wasn’t as easily fooled. Throughout the evening, his eyes became narrower and narrower until they were barely more than slits on his face. Finally, he cut in between my partner and me in the middle of a dance.

“What are you doing?!” Father hissed out of the corner of his mouth as he claimed the dance. He moved stiffly, as if by doing so his displeasure would go undetected by the surrounding crowd.

My eyes widened to show my innocence. “Have you not been encouraging me to greet each man very personally? What good, obedient daughter would reject her father’s wise counsel?”

“We both know full well that this is a ruse,” Father spat in an undertone. “I want to know why.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about. But I certainly have garnered a great deal of interest. After all, marrying me would come with an entire kingdom, even if it is one currently plagued by a dragon’s presence.”

“This is just to get out of the dragon-slaying offer,” snarled Father. “Isn’t it? Are you hoping to become engaged so my offer today is useless?”

A coy smile toyed around my mouth that was at odds with the innocence of my eyes. “But Father dearest, what do you mean?Youarranged this ball, not I.”

“BeforeI made the offer about the dragon!”

“And who am I to refuse the fortunate timing? Would you rather I rebuff all the advances of the gentlemen here? Perhaps some will bemorewilling to consider such a dangerous quest now that they know I’m so interested in them.”

Father glared as he spun me under his arm and raised his eyes to glance around. Several of the men I had flirted with were casting sideways expressions my way, waiting to swoop in and claim the next dance. “I don’t know what your game is,” he hissed into my ear when we cut through the dance floor again, speaking so low that only I heard, “but if you botch this proposition for me, I swear I will marry you off to a peasant. I want you to…to sit out of the dancing for a few minutes.”

I laughed aloud, which only incensed Father further. “Are you treating me like a misbehaving child?”

“Why not? You’re acting like one,” he retorted, then raised his voice so it carried to everyone nearby. “Of course you can get off your feet, Rapunzel dear. I’m sure you’re exhausted. Come along.”

He steered me to a chair next to a chess table. “Here. You like chess. Sit. Play with…with him.” Father snatched at the arm of a passing man, who turned out to be Prince Ijor, the prince with the lisp. Ijor sat down heavily in the chair, looking somewhat confused as to how his attempt at getting to the refreshment table had landed him across the chess board from me.

“Princess, ah…it’s nice to see you again,” he said, somewhat startled.

“And you as well. It seems we’ve been told to play chess.”

“I’ve heard you are very talented,” Ijor told me politely, hastily setting up the pieces.

I raised one shoulder. “Oh, I play a little.”

Ijor offered me the white pieces, but I shook my head. “I favor black, if you don’t mind.” I caught Father’s eye as he watched us. “I like a challenge.”

As expected, Ijor moved hisepawn up two squares for the traditional opening, and I countered by advancing my own pawn the same number of squares on the same file. Hisfpawn soon followed, and I brought out mydpawn. I flicked my eyes up to meet his, but his gaze was fixed on the board.

A curious knot of onlookers trickled in as Ijor and I played, growing with each move we made. Oftentimes, when one of us would execute a particularly brilliant move, people would gasp or groan, depending on who they were rooting for.

Ijor played well. It was obvious his military knowledge was not limited to how to swing a sword. Chess was a compulsory unit of study for all knights as it provided the foundation upon which all military tactics were derived. But for as well as he played, my tactics were superior, and he knew it too. I could see the anxiety in his face as the end drew near, and I remained several points up while I forced trades for the remainder of his pieces.

Finally, he shook his head and moved his king a few final times with a resigned air before I delivered checkmate. I reached across the board and shook his hand. “Good game.”

He grinned back at me good-naturedly. “It was a good game! You’re a very skillful player.”

After Ijor rose from his seat, Ivan took it, determined to prove that whatever his brother could do, he could do better.

He was worse.

It only took eight moves for me to checkmate him with a variation on a simple scholar’s mate, a humbling experience for the brawny man. After Ivan’s quick defeat, many of the men I had danced with formed a line, each eager to match their wit against mine.

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