“Ye should wear a gown prettier than that,” Hannah said, interrupting Merida’s scowl. “It is to be your wedding day, after all. We will find something lovely.” She linked her arm with Merida’s and pulled her away.

“Eat them,” Merida called over her shoulder as they left.

“Ye best do it,” Cain said, nodding to the tarts. “She may have ye tied to a chair and tarts forced into your mouth. And like she said, ye forfeit nothing by eating them if they were brought up to ye.”

Her stomach growled in agreement, and Ella picked up one of the tarts, taking a bite. He swore her eyes floated to the back, but she refocused on the board, chewing quickly. The whole tart was gone in seconds.

“The white side starts,” he said, trying not to watch her tongue lick a drop of jam from her finger.

“Which is always you.” Her gaze scanned the pieces on the polished squares that made up the battlefield.

“I can be black this time.”

She waved him off without looking up, and he studied the swoop of hair she’d wrapped onto her head, held by small pins. “I feel rather dark today,” she said. “You go first.”

“Are you certain? I would not have ye calling me unfair when I win.”

She snorted softly and waved her hand at him to move. “Prideful cock.”

“Confident strategist,” he countered and moved a middle pawn forward. He preferred to bring his pawns to an inverted V formation in the middle of the board to block the straight-moving bishops and rooks. Then his knights could weave between, wreaking damage to her advancement.

She stared at the board with a frown, her gaze moving among the pieces. It was her serious study that revealed that she was a novice, one who very much wanted to win.

“Eat the other tart,” he said. He would not play an aggressive battle with her. Perhaps he’d let her feel like she was winning for a bit.

She picked up the other tart and gobbled it down. Unfortunately, she did not smear more jam on her fingers, so there would be no licking this time. He should ask the cook to put excessive jam in all the tarts.

She moved a pawn to mirror his so that they blocked each other. They each took several turns in silence, he building his inverted V pattern, and Ella hiding her king in the corner with her rook protecting it, along with the queen. They picked off each other’s pawns, but then she made a mistake, and he took her rook.