Dorothea Hall Mysteries

Chess Moves

The woman put down the trunk, it seemed quite heavy, and studied us for a long moment. Had she been able to see Freddy when she examined the machine? Had she noticed us while playing chess with Mr. Harvey? I noticed, now that she was out of costume, that she bore a strong resemblance to Mr. Collins. They both had curly brown hair and green eyes and she was the same height. They could be twins. Maybe they were.

"Who do you want me to meet?" she asked.

"We were hired by Mister George Walker. Have you heard of him?" I asked.

"I've read his books. 'Chess Made Easy' is quite useful for new players."

Freddy said, "Yeah, I'm still working on it."

"What do you mean by being hired by him? For what?

"He wanted to find out about this new chess automaton," I said.

Freddy was less subtle, "He wanted us to prove it was a fake."

Her eyes went wide and she looked ready to flee. "I've been terribly rude. Let me introduce you to Miss Freda Atkins and I'm Mrs. Dorothea Hall."

She sighed. "Miss Leona Collins."

"Are you Mr. Collins' twin?" I asked.

"Yes, you have a good eye and so does your 'blind' friend. Why would I want to meet with someone who wants to ruin me and my brother's livelihood?"

"I suspect that once he meets you, he'll want to help you. I know my husband has been bemoaning the lack of women chess players. He's tried to get me interested in it, but it's not for me. How did you start playing?"

"My brother agrees with you, but our father insisted he learn. I used to dress as him and go to his chess lessons."

Freddy smiled. "That's cracking. Did you ever get caught?"

"Eventually," Miss Collins said, "but by then I was so good he couldn't deny I was the better choice for continued practice. Unfortunately chess competitions are not looking for women players."

"I think we could bring on the advent of including women players," I said." Mr. Walker is working to create an international chess tournament to be held here in London. Why not come and talk to him? Perhaps challenge him to a game?"

"I suspect if he would be interested in me playing chess it would be as a draw, 'The Lady Chess Player.' I'm not sure that would be better than playing stuck in the machine," she said.

"It didn't look comfortable to me squeezing yourself into that thing. Even if you're the only girl playing chess, won't that inspire other girls like me to give it a try?" Freddy asked.

"I don't suppose I could convince the two of you to tell Mr. Walker, you couldn't discover the secret of our machine?" We both shook our heads. "You have me at a disadvantage. Let's arrange a meeting."

She gave me the hotel she and her brother were staying at, picked up her trunk, and hurried away. I decided to call Bella and her husband to come to the meeting as well. After playing chess with her, I assumed Mr. Harvey would be on our side.