Adeline raised her gaze from the board. ‘It’s handmade to my specification.’

‘May I?’ Laure reached over and took up a king. The figure had cropped hair and armour and wore a tabard quartered with armorials bearings on which the British lion was evident. ‘Am I imagining it or is this Henry V?’ She picked up a second figure which was of a young man with a scarf wrapped a couple of times around his neck. ‘Hamlet?’ She gestured to the board. ‘Characters from Shakespeare?’

‘That’s right.’

‘A compliment to the English?’

‘I think there’s an argument for saying that Shakespeare is beyond nationality.’

Again, Laure translated for May who said, ‘I agree.’

Laure held the Hamlet piece in the palm of her hand. On the board were the pawns: a flowing-haired Juliet, a diminutive Feste, a willowy Rosalind dressed à la garçonne. Here were the fools and heroes. The reckless and the asinine. The noble and the wastrel – the bundle of human characteristics and follies were represented by those figures. ‘It’s surprising how recognizable they are,’ she commented.

‘If you know Shakespeare,’ intervened May in stumbling French.

‘I commissioned it as a wedding present. The person who made these was a fine craftsman. He’s dead now.’ She sighed, a sound gusty with regret. ‘He understood that each piece had to repay being handled. It was vital that they were beautifully made and beautifully balanced.’ One manicured hand darted across the board and a white pawn was positioned for the fight. ‘You might like to know I’ve just made a classic opening gambit.’ She waited for Laure to translate. ‘I’ve won with it on a couple of occasions.’

May was fascinated. ‘So, if you had to counter it how would you do it?’

In response, Adeline LeDuc moved the black pawn to face the white. ‘That’s put those two out of action and given me the advantage to move the bishop.’

As happened in some of these museum encounters, there were discoveries. ‘Madame LeDuc, tell us why you wish to donate such a beautiful thing?’

May muttered, ‘To be or not to be and – presumably – it wasn’t?’

Laure sent her a look.

‘My husband was also a major chess player,’ said Adeline. ‘We had it set up in our bedroom. Sometimes, in the night, if one or other us were puzzling over a problem in a game we would get up and work it out on the board.’ She touched the second king, Macbeth holding a dagger. ‘We thought it would work. At the beginning, we promised each other that we would not mind if one or another won more tournaments and made more money. It didn’t turn out like that. I kept winning games but lost the marriage. Pierre tried. We both tried. He hid his jealousy and I made light of my winnings. Sometimes, I concealed them from him. Once, I deliberately fluffed a major tournament.’

Laure translated.