“You’re fond of him,” she said.
“I am fond of people who try,” he returned. “And he tries very hard to keep track of eight with a personal system that involves freckles.”
She laughed. He watched the sound leave her mouth and try the air like a comfortable bird.
“Something from you,” he said. “Unimportant.”
“I dislike apricots,” she said. “Everyone expects a lady to like apricots.”
“I prefer pears,” he said. “Too much honesty in apricots.”
“You’re a menace,” she said, drawing to seventeen and wisely stopping. “Show.”
“Nineteen,” he said, lying down. “You’re going to accuse me of cheating if this continues.”
“I’m going to accuse you of being tall,” she said, flicking him another coin. “And insufferable.”
They played two more hands. He won one; she scraped a victory in the next with a smug twenty-one and a small flourish that made him grin in spite of himself.
“Ah,” he said. “There she is.”
“Who?”
“The woman who likes winning more than breathing,” he said. “I missed her.”
She looked at him over the edges of her cards. “You only met her recently.”
“Frequently enough,” he said. “Deal.”
She dealt. He drew a card, frowned at it, and then set his hand down. “Hold.”
“Coward,” she said.
“Strategist,” he corrected. “Tell me: did Mrs. Walsh bully the fishmonger?”
“She did,” Maria said. “She sent him a lemon. One lemon. With a note that said, ‘Try harder.’”
He coughed a laugh. “I have never been prouder of a woman I do not dare dismiss.”
“She likes you,” Maria said.
“On alternate Tuesdays,” he replied. “You told me.”
“She told me,” Maria said. “I’m beginning to think it is true.”
They paused to debate whether Mr. Pike would ever learn to announce his opinions without sounding like a funeral. Stephen was putting two pennies onneverwhen she said, too casually, “You were different this afternoon.”
“In what way?”
“You didn’t pretend to be annoyed about the shrubs,” she said. “You simply were annoyed about my hands.”
He flicked a glance at her fingers where they rested on the table. “How are they?”
“Alive,” she said. “And insufferable. It would have been useful if you were angry about the spending. I had a speech ready.”
“Save it for the butcher,” he said. “He sent me a bill for twelve nonexistent chickens.”
She smiled, soft and quick. “You are learning to let me win.”