At least she was actually walking up beside him now even if the subject matter wasn't something she probably wanted to talk about. He understood that it was a sore spot but she deserved to know didn't she. The bastards that had taken her homeland from her were out of the way and he thought she would be grateful for that news. But she was as unpredictable as ever. As usual Freddie didn't know what to make of her when she got like this. It never failed to confuse him. He'd chalked it up to 'women' often enough but maybe this was specificly a Florence thing. He was pretty sure sometimes she was put on the earth to throw him completely off balance.
"Maybe it does matter. Maybe the same thing happens at home that happened here and the Soviets finally collapse in on themselves, maybe he gets free. Maybe Anatoly and the family get to live happy ever after, who knows? And maybe your father comes home. Or at the very least you find out the truth about what happened. I know what I said to you about him and the KGB but I was angry. I never thought that." He had thought she was betraying his memory by walking out on him and that her father would have died of shame if he'd been alive but now wasn't the time for that part. She'd been so angry the last time he'd said it.
She'd really wanted to walk away though. That still threw him. That still came as a shock even though he'd expected an answer like that. But what he hadn't expected was talk of leaving Chess completely. "You got too caught up in the politics, so did I, so did Sergievsky, but the game Florence...thats why we do it. Or why we should. That's why we all started out and its what fuels us. You know that as well as I do. Take away the money and the politics and you've still got sixty four squares that mean more than life when you're sat in front of them. You wouldn't walk away. Its in your blood. Lover boy proved that against Vigand didn't he. Its the game. You told me chess wasn't life but why the hell shouldn't it be? Its the purest thing in mine and I'm pretty sure you can say the same."
He actually hadn't meant to rant that time but it botherd him that she'd leave because of him, if only partly. He hadn't wanted to sour her on the game and if the russian was any kind of a man neither had he. Oh sure she'd brought it on herself in a lot of ways but the outcome didn't have to be so harsh.
"We should play. I bet I can still beat you." he told her, trying to lighten the mood.