Black Queen Read Online Free

once, springing down off the sundial and bounding up the steps to meet me. He purred as he ate, his tail trembling with pleasure. It worked! So far as Rambo was concerned I
was
Mrs Blume, I
was
the Black Queen. I even felt confident enough to stroke him, and he didn’t seem to mind at all. I went back into the house and fetched another bottle of milk. I poured it out for him and crouched down to watch him lap at it, dipping his pink tongue in and out so delicately.

    Then, a sudden movement out of the corner of my eye! Rula! Rula was peering at me over the garden fence. All I could see of her were two little hands and a round red face. Her eyes were wide with fear.
    I knew then that this was the moment of truth. “Hi there,” I called out as breezily as I could. I sounded just like the Black Queen. It was amazing. “Just feeding my pussy cat. You got a pussy cat?”
    Rula couldn’t seem to find her voice for a moment or two – which was unusual for her. “I’ve got a rabbit,” she said at last.
    “A real live bunny rabbit?” I exclaimed. “Gee, that’s great!”
    “He’s called Matey,” Rula went on, happier now, “and he gets lost sometimes.”
    “And you’ve got a brother too, right?” I was really enjoying myself now.
    “He’s a boy,” Rula said.
    “Your brother?” I replied.
    “No,” she laughed, “Matey. All brothers are boys, worst luck.”

    I chuckled just like the Black Queen, and then retreated to the kitchen, where I laughed myself silly. After that, the rest was simple. I got out of my Black Queen costume and put everything away. I waited by the back door until I was quite sure Rula wasn’t looking, until I knew the coast was clear. Then I let myself out, locked the house, slipped the key under the flower pot and ran down to the bottom of the garden. I scrambled up over the fence and let myself down behind the garden shed where no-one could see me. The last thing I saw was Rambo arching his back at me on the sundial and hissing hideously. “Same to you,” I said, and went back home.

Chapter 6
    Genius, Pure Genius
    AT SUPPER RULA was full of it. “I wasn’t frightened,” she insisted, “not a bit. And she’s not a witch at all. She’s American and she’s really nice.”
    “Well, she looks like a witch to me,” I told her (I didn’t want her spying on me again). “And if you know what’s good for you,” I went on, “you won’t go snooping. She could turn you into a frog, or a slug maybe, or a worm. You’d make a good worm.”

    The television news was on and my father wanted to listen. “Can’t you two do your squabbling somewhere else?” he snapped.

    So Rula and I made ugly faces at each other in silence instead. Matey sat on the sofa between us, his nose twitching.
    “I bet he does it too,” my father said. He was leaning forward, watching the television closely.
    “What?” I asked. “Who?”
    “Beats Purple.”
    “What’s ‘Purple’?” I had no idea what he could be talking about.
    “Purple’s a computer, the best, the most sophisticated computer in the entire world, and the makers have challenged Greg McInley to a chess tournament. Just listen.”
    “Who’s Greg . . . thingy?” Rula asked.
    “World chess champion,” I said, tutting at her and settling down to watch. “Don’t you know anything?”
    “Enough!” My father rounded furiously on us both. “Will you please shut up for a moment and let me listen.”
    There was a brief glimpse on the television of a young man getting out of a long black limousine and darting into a hotel. Then the reporter was talking to the camera. “McInley, world chess champion for the past five years, is still only twenty-three. Born in New York, he was a child prodigy – Grand Master at twelve years old – and now he’s back here in New York to take up the ‘Man Against Machine’ challenge, against Purple, the most powerful computer yet devised. Man and machine will play one match a day, and it’ll