So I was reading GWTW last week at the hospital and there is a part where John Wilkes kisses Scarlett when he is leaving for war. I found that the inspiration for this chapter... also chess...lol I am getting damn good soon I will kick someone's ass...then I will play a game of chess :D
Rosemary rested her fingertips on one of her black pawns and bit her bottom lip thoughtfully. The Pawn couldn't advance on the column because it is blocked by one of Scarlett's White Knights and it couldn't capture on the left diagonal because the square was empty.
"And you say you've never played Chess before?" asked Rosemary as she weighed her moves. There weren't many available and Rosemary sighed before moving one of her bishops instead.
After enjoying a leisurely breakfast the sister in laws had searched for something they could do to pass the time. Scarlett wanted to work on the Rhett's books after lunch but otherwise the day loomed empty for her with him at the Landing and the children not arriving till the next day. It was then that Rosemary suggested teaching Scarlett how to play chess.
"I have a beautiful board, Rhett bought it in England years ago. I could teach you as we play, you have a very analytical mind, and I really think you might enjoy chess."
Scarlett laid her fork down on the plate of eggs that she had barely touched. Rosemary, having never been a parent, never noticed whether or not she was eating. Lately she had just been too nauseated by the pain in her legs and hips to eat. Every time she would move the wrong way pain and unpleasant tingling would cause her breath to catch in her throat.
Last night after Miss Eleanor had left her she had tried to practice getting out of bed. Rhett had almost made love to her last night, whether she was sick or not and the infamous Butler resolve could only hold him in good stead for so long. She had to get back on her own two feet, for him. A crimson flush colored her cheeks. By her estimation it had been nearly three years since she and Rhett had made love, in a bed anyway. Had it really been only two weeks since Rhett had made love to her on the beach after their accident? His mouth on hers, the way she could feel drops of rain on her skin as the wind picked up blowing a smattering of rain into their shelter, his voice calling her name and begging her to open her eyes …calling her his life, his love, darling over and over.
Her mouth opened slightly as she sucked in a startled breath. She had remembered him telling her at the cottage that he didn't want her, that what they had done was a mistake, that he only used her body. But now as she searched her memory, desperate to remember his words, she could hear his voice, there was a terrible fearful tone in it as he called her name and called her his life. He truly did love her. Even though he had said earlier that evening after he kissed her that he was unsure of whether or not he could love her again, he did. He had told her as recently as two weeks ago.
Now with real purpose she would push herself forward till she could walk again. It had taken forever just to manage to get her feet on the floor. When she stood a wave of dizziness crashed over her causing her to close her eyes in pain. She rested her palms on the featherbed and willed herself to stand up straight. Rhett wouldn't want an invalid as a wife. She couldn't simply put herself into Doctor Cross's hands and allow him to take complete control of his recovery. He was use to treating faint-hearted fragile ladies, not an O'Hara. He didn't realize that he could push her harder than he normally would push one of the china doll fragile ladies in his care. She wouldn't hobble around on a cane for months like a crone in a child's fairy tale, if she had to push herself she would walk and sooner than anyone imagined.
Bringing her attention back to Rosemary's eager face Scarlett feigned a shrug of disinterest. "Chess? I don't know Rosemary. I thought chess was a game for intellectuals?"
"Please, I could teach you and maybe," she suggested slyly, "you could play with Rhett, he loves it. He was the one who taught Ross to play. Then Ross taught me, although we stopped playing once I started winning."
Wearing the same expression a Christian martyr might wear while being led to the lions, Scarlett sighed. "Fine, if it will make you happy, I'll try and learn from you."
Rosemary sprang up and hurried to her room to locate the chess set. She figured she better hurry before Scarlett changed her mind. It would be nice if Scarlett took to chess, she would love to have someone to play regularly with.
Scarlett picked up Toby as he tried to scramble back onto the bed. She placed him on her lap and rubbed his silky ear between her thumb and pointer finger, appreciating the soft downy quality of his fur.
She hadn't played chess since she was sixteen, but the rules were still firmly entrenched in her memory.
John Wilkes of all people had taught her to play chess during the fall she was sixteen. Ashley had been on an extended visit with his father's family in Virginia, Honey had been at finishing school and India had gone to stay with a cousin of her mothers, a Burr, if Scarlett remembered correctly.
She had been lonely in a way that she couldn't ever recall having been before. Everything seemed out of sorts that fall. Her heart ached for Ashley. She had finished her education the year before and now to be home without Suellen to annoy was draining some of the vitality from her spirit.
She took long rides, trying to alleviate the nervous energy that consumed her, but that didn't work. But something did come from those rides, one afternoon on the dusty road that ran along the front of several plantations she came upon John Wilkes. He chastised her gently for riding without a groom and elected to escort her back to Tara. They rode along making genial small talk. Under normal circumstances Scarlett would have only given him a polite greeting and continued her ride but when he said that Ashley had enclosed a small gift for her in his last parcel from Virginia she found herself wanting to somehow integrate herself with John Wilkes. She wanted him to see her as an excellent choice as a wife for Ashley.
He asked her why she looked so sad and while she denied being sad she found herself talking about her feelings of being unsettled. It was then that John Wilkes spontaneously offered to teach her chess.
Initially she made some neutral comment about that sounding interesting but she didn't think that she would understand such a complicated game.
He looked sad at her polite refusal and told her that he missed playing with Ashley.
That immediately sparked her interest.
"Does Ashley play chess Mister Wilkes?" she asked trying to sound as though her interest was nothing more than polite inquiry. If Ashley played then of course she would do everything she could to learn.
"Ashley learned to play years ago. He is very good, but unimaginative when it comes to strategy."
"Do you think I could learn," she asked, suddenly shy of John Wilkes. She harbored hope within her heart that some day this man would be her father in law. Honey and India would marry their cousins and go off to set up their own households and Scarlett would reign as mistress supreme of Twelve Oaks. Her parents would be right across the creek at Tara and she could see Ellen everyday. Life would be perfect.
John Wilkes rode with her back to Tara and after talking to Gerald about politics and the harvest he broached the possibility of teaching Scarlett chess with Mammy there to chaperon. Though John was nearly three times Scarlett's age he was a wealthy widower and it wouldn't look right for him to entertain Scarlett without a chaperon.
Gerald dismissed it out of hand. "Tis kind of you to offer John, but my puss wouldn't have the head for chess I'm thinking."
It was Ellen who turned to her husband and spoke in her usual soft dignified manner. "Mr. O'Hara I think it would be wonderful if Scarlett could learn to play chess. My sisters and I all played when I still lived in Savannah. If Scarlett learned it would be nice for me to have someone to play against on occasion."
"I didn't know you played chess Mrs. O'Hara?" replied Gerald.
"Not for many years but I would enjoy taking it up again."
If knowing how to play chess was good enough for the sainted Ellen then in Gerald's eyes Scarlett should learn. So twice a week Mammy accompanied Scarlett to Twelve Oaks where she and John Wilkes would spend hours before the fireplace in the library contemplating moves. In time, under his tutelage, Scarlett became more than a competent player, she became a formidable opponent.
He praised her daring and her live or die strategies. She always worked toward check never a draw or stalemate. It took her nearly five months to finally beat him in endgame but when she did, she was elated. It was in the hardest form of endgame that she took her first long worked for victory.
She was playing white as she always did and the game had gone on for nearly three hours. Mammy had grumbled about the lateness of the hour but John Wilkes was every bit as intent on the game as Scarlett. He had told Mammy to tell Denna, his cook, to bring in a tray to them. They would play till draw.
"We'll play till check Mister Wilkes," she corrected gently. She wanted him to see her as a great lady such as his late wife, such as Ellen.
"At this point I think you should take what's offered Miss Scarlett."
"Are you offering draw," she asked the light of battle began to glow in her eyes, "because if you are I'll know that you gave me this game. I see at least three moves for black."
Mammy had left the library and so John smiled and gave her a wink. "I see five."
Scarlett surveyed the board once more and moved her knight. "My mistake, now it's three."
He smiled as he exhaled a small puff of breath through his nose. "And so we leave middlegame."
The line between middlegame and endgame is often not clear, and many times it had occurred in a matter of one move, taking Scarlett completely unaware, But gradually she had learned to focus on long term strategy. She learned to bring herself further than the plays on the board but to the plays that would be on the board.
Often she lost long before endgame. She always refused offers of a draw, playing for survival, sacrificing everything to buy herself another move. John Wilkes had silently admired the brash spirited girl that sat so demurely across from him making move after move with careful consideration. He had offered to teach her chess because he knew of her interest in Ashley and he had hoped to save this beautiful young girl the heartbreak that came from wanting what wasn't meant to be. He had hoped to use their weekly games as a way to better know her and to find the words to tell her that a girl like her would never be happy with a man like Ashley.
But then he became greedy. He came to enjoy spending Tuesday and Thursday afternoons playing chess with her, telling her stories about his late wife Leigh and about his own life in Virgina, years ago before he had come to Georgia to build Twelve Oaks. He came to eagerly await Maxwell, his butler, coming to the study to announce her arrival. Twice he had nearly offered his own hand in marriage for Gerald's consideration but he kept that locked inside his mind.
It wasn't that Gerald would refuse his suit, he actually thought that he might give him Scarlett. But how could he take a free spirited girl who had a whole life to live and make her into a companion to an old man. The idea of marrying her was just a foolish old man's fancy
She loved his son and saw him as a link to Ashley. Nothing more. Soon India and Honey would return. In February Ashley was due to return from Virgina and their games would have to come to an end. India's sharp eyes would see what there was to be seen. His admiration of Scarlett was tempered by something deeper, desire. He was only glad that Scarlett had been such a quick learner and that through her persistence and daring they had come to a point where she was sure to take a game from him before they came to their own endgame.
The endgame, however, tends to have quite different characteristics from the middlegame, and the players have quite different strategic concerns. In particular, pawns become more important; endgames often revolve around attempting to promote a pawn by advancing it to the eighth rank. The king, which has to be protected in the middlegame owing to the threat of checkmate, becomes a strong piece in the endgame. It can be brought to the center of the board.
Currently Scarlett was at the center of his thoughts, just as she had been since last fall. Ashley was leading her to believe that perhaps he felt more for her than he did. He had no doubt that Ashley was fond of Scarlett, but fond of her like he was fond of a dear friend, not a woman. He hadn't seen her in nearly five months. She was a woman now. The child Ashley had said goodbye to and occasionally sent gifts for was now a woman with a woman's passion.
John knew that she was waiting for Ashley. He knew his son, he would marry where his father told him he must, but would he secretly desire Scarlett, so full of passion and fire? Could he allow Ashley to marry Scarlett if he wanted to marry her in spite of the understanding he had with Henry Hamilton, cousin Melanie's guardian?
No, he couldn't. He couldn't have her sit across the table each morning and retire to his son's bed each night. No. Even if Ashley asked his him to ask Gerald O'Hara for Scarlett he would tell his son no. It would be the only selfish act of his life.