The Perfect Temptation (10 page)

will pass that view on to others,
compounding the misunderstanding.

Surely, you don't want-"

"I want to go home," he
interrupted. "Now. Today."

Of course he did. What child
wouldn't want to be with

his parents, his brothers and
sisters, his aunts, uncles, and

cousins? "I can understand
that, Mohan," she offered sincerely.

"I truly can. Hopefully soon
your-"

"I command you to make the
necessary arrangements."

"I will not," Alex
rejoined, her sympathy for him withering

under the increasing heat of her
anger.
Patience,
she

silently instructed herself.
Patience.

"England is full of dirty
people."

She took a deep breath and
counted to five. "You've seen

little of England outside of
London," she calmly reminded

him. 'Therefore, your statement
is an opinion based on nothing

more than ignorance. I'll further
point out that dirty people are found all over the world and that India too has
its

allotted share."

He snorted and tilted up his
nose. "I never saw any in

India."

'That," she snapped, her
toleration completely undone, "is

because you lived in a royal
palace and dirty people weren't

allowed in. Is there a specific
reason for your contrariness

today, Mohan?"

He sat up straight and lifted his
nose another degree.

"I am a prince. I am not
required to explain or justify my

actions."

And she wasn't required to
restrain Aiden Terrell, either.

At the moment his approach to
discipline had enormous appeal.

'That sort of attitude is what
leads to palace coups,

Mohan," she pointed out,
resolved to hold the higher ground.

''But since you're a considerable
number of years away from

that reality, let me provide you
with a more immediate one.

Your present behavior is
unacceptable, making you truly unpleasant

to
be
around. That being
the case, you will take

your midday meal in here,
in
solitude.
Further, you will remain

in here until such time as you
think you're capable of

conducting yourself in a civil
manner."

With that pronouncement, Alex
turned and walked across

the threshold. She was turning
back to pull the door closed

when he made one of his own.

"I will not eat."

"Suit yourself," she
shot back, pausing with the doorknob

in hand. "I'll remind you
that it takes twenty-one days to

starve a child and suggest that
unless you plan to discover a

font of self-control in the next
few minutes, you'll be wasting

not only the food, but also the
infantile demonstration."

"I hate you!" he
screamed as she confined him.
''I
hate

England! And the queen!"

Alex rested her forehead against
the door frame and

closed her eyes. He was only ten,
she reminded herself. He

was far from his home and his
family, awash in a world so

very, very different from his
own. She knew exactly how he

felt, remembered all too well how
she'd felt when her

mother and she had found refuge
in the raja’s household.

She'd been a bit older than Mohan
when her world had

been upended. But she'd adjusted
and endured. With grace

and hope. Unfortunately, those
were the two qualities Mohan

seemed to lack entirely. If
only
she knew how to impart

them to him, how to instill in
him
the kind of vision and

strength necessary to look past
today to a distant, brighter

tomorrow.

Setting an example hadn't worked.
Neither had very carefully

and clearly explaining it.
Attempting to go at it through

the instruction of manners had
produced no discernible

change in him, either. But was locking
him away the only

course remaining?
It
felt
like such an admission of failure.
If

she were a competent teacher, she
wouldn't have to resort to

such drastic, cold-hearted
measures.

Of course, she added,
straightening and walking toward

her own room, she hadn't yet been
reduced to the use of

corporal punishment. Alex slipped
inside, pressed the door

closed, and dropped into the soft
cushions of a rattan sofa.

No, to her credit, she hadn't
turned matters of discipline

over to Aiden Terrell. Or even suggested
that they might

share them. There was something
to be said for that, wasn't

there?

Wasn't there?

Alex blinked unseeingly into the
farthest comer, stunned.

She couldn't think of a single
reason why she should be

pleased by the prospect of
continuing to bear the burden
all

by herself. She was bone weary
from the effort to be mother,

tutor, mentor, father, and
friend. And she was beyond exhausted

by the futility of her every
effort on every front

Would it be so horribly,
unforgivably weak of her to surrender

a small part of the
responsibility? For just a little while?

She didn't care what Aiden
Terrell thought of her, she

quickly assured herself. He was
here, a reluctant part of their

lives, for the next few weeks, a
month at the most. As soon

as Lal's replacement arrived,
Aiden would be gone and she'd

never see him again. What did it
matter
if
he thought she was

weak and ineffectual?

It didn't matter at all. Except
to her pride. Which left her

with two clear choices; she could
either swallow it or she

could soldier on as she had for
the last five years and as her

mother had before her. Preeya's
suggested course wasn't a

realistic choice at all
.
Make
Aiden Terrell her lover and husband?

Mohan's surrogate father? Ha!

With an aggravated sigh, Alex leaned
her head back against

the cushion and closed her eyes.
Just a short nap, she promised

herself. The world always looked
kinder and brighter through

freshened eyes.

Aiden sat in the wing chair-the
one piece of English furniture

in the entire shop and surveyed
the rest of the contents

of the front store. It was said
that homes reflected the innermost

nature of the owner. If
that
was true, what did the Blue

Elephant Shop say about Alexandra
Radford?

There was absolutely nothing the
least straightforward or

simple about the place. There
were so many things in it; carefully

placed layers and layers of every
kind of decorative

merchandise imaginable. It
was
impossible to see it all at

even a long glance. Each time you
came back to a particular

spot you saw something you'd
missed the time before. On the

table across the room, a little
mirror, edged with an intricate

silver filigree, had been hidden
among a cascade of extravagantly

embroidered reticules. Off to the
right of that, amid a

collection of teakwood chargers
and gold-edged china plates,

sat a brass candlestick with a
fringe of semiprecious beads

twinkling in the afternoon
sunlight.

Not a bit of it was pretentious
and yet it all
felt rather elegant

and rich. None of it was arranged
in any formal way,

but there was no denying that
there was a deliberate order to

the chaos. There was a sense of
frustration that came with

considering it all, a sense that
you were being denied something

you desperately wanted and
needed. And at the same

time there was a thrill in that,
an anticipation of a grand,

thoroughly accidental discovery.

The Blue Elephant, Aiden decided,
was a study in contradictions.

Not that that conclusion told
him
much about Miss

Alexandra Radford. It was a
store, a public presentation of

herself and her wares. She didn't
strike him as the sort of

woman who would willingly lay
bare her soul for any stranger

coming in off the street.

No, Alex Radford didn’t readily
trust people
.
Not even

those with whom she was allied.
Was
she
wary because
of

her concerns for Mohan's safety?
Or
was
it more deeply and

broadly rooted than that? Aiden
cocked a
brow.
Or was it

that she simply didn't trust him?
A wry smile lifted one cor
ner

of
his
mouth
.
Judging
by
the
way her eyes had bright
ened

and her cheeks had flushed
out
in the yard, it might be

that she
didn't
even trust herself.

His amusement evaporated. Whether
or not Alex Radford

was willing to be seduced was an
evaluation he didn't need

to make, much less ponder. What
was worth considering,

though, was her apparent
distrust. He had a job to do, and if

she didn't trust him, protecting
Mohan would be all that

much more difficult. He needed to
find a way to prove
him
self

worthy.

Aiden frowned, irritated by both
the burden being his to

shoulder and the certainty that
accomplishment wouldn't

come easily. And Lord knew that
his motivation to make the

effort wasn't helped any by the
fact that Mohan had given

every indication so far of being
a most unlikable child. He'd

be willing to bet the necklace in
Barrett's safe that Alex was

upstairs desperately wanting to
beat her head against a wall

in frustration.

The sound of someone tapping
against glass brought his

attention back to his immediate
surroundings. Sawyer stood

on the walkway, peering at him
through the front window.