"How did Jane find you?" Ruel asked Kartauk.
"Hold your head still." The goldsmith carefully shaved the plane of the cheek of the wooden statue on the table in front of him. "She didn't find me. I found her. I was hiding in the bazaar at the time and, when I heard she was inquiring about a goldsmith to execute the door, I went to her bungalow."
"You took a big chance."
"I was desperate," he said simply. "I hadn't been able to work for nearly three weeks and I felt as if I were starving to death. I'd had to leave my tools at the palace when I bolted and couldn't carve so much as a chess piece. I couldn't stand it any longer." He turned the model so more light would fall on the left side of the statue. "I might have been able to resist if the door was to be anything but gold. Jane tells me your passion for gold equals my own."
"What else did she tell you?"
"That you're ambitious, ruthless, and self-serving."
"True."
Kartauk laughed. "And honest."
"Did she say that?"
"No, that's my own judgment." Kartauk's gaze wandered across the chamber to where Jane and Li Sung sat on the floor playing cards. "She appears to be having trouble accepting you might also have a virtue or two. I didn't disabuse her. She's much safer believing only in your satanic qualities."
"You told her Abdar was searching for you and she still let you do the door?"
He nodded. "I didn't intend to tell her, but after we met and I realized what she was, I decided the best course would be to throw myself on her mercy."
"And what is she?"
"A caretaker. She can't help herself from nurturing and caring for those in need. Didn't you realize that?"
"I've never thought about it."
Kartauk shot him a shrewd glance. "Or never permitted yourself to think about it?" He didn't wait for a reply. "Anyway, I cast myself under her wing and let her care for my needs in return for my labor on the door."
Ruel frowned. "You didn't care that your presence would endanger her?"
"I cared, but I had to work. I couldn't let anything stand in the way of that." Kartauk lifted his head. "You should understand. I'd judge you're also a driven man where your Cinnidar is concerned."
"Yes." His resentment and condemnation of Kartauk was completely unreasonable, but then, nothing about his attitude toward Jane made any sense. "Li Sung said you were the one who chose this temple as a hiding place."
"I found it suitable. A temple should always shelter beauty and greatness. Besides, I knew I could dismantle one of the interior walls for my furnace."
Ruel's eyes widened. "You tore down one of the temple walls?"
For the first time Kartauk's tone became defensive. "It had fine square stones and I needed a furnace to cast the door. No one ever comes here to worship anymore, and it's much better I put the wall to good use."
Ruel chuckled. "I'm sure it is." His smile faded as his gaze was drawn to Jane, as it had constantly been during the past days. He had told her he was going to try to think of her as a child, but that intention had gone up in smoke that first day at the temple. What the hell was wrong with him? It had never been like this with any other woman. He couldn't keep his eyes away from her. He wanted to touch her.
Jane's plaited hair shone deep red in the firelight, and an odd tingling started in his fingertips. He wanted to loosen the heavy braid, comb his fingers through the silken mass until it flowed wildly about her shoulders. He wanted to see her as naked and abandoned as she had been beneath him on the floor of the railway car. A surge of heat tore through him as he readied, thickening until he ached with the weight of it.
She stiffened and he knew she was aware he was watching her. She kept her gaze fixed on the cards in her hand but she knew, dammit. She reached up nervously to smooth a tendril of hair back from her temple, and the sleeve of her shirt fell back, revealing the smooth symmetry of her forearm. Another bolt of heat wrenched through him, bringing anger and frustration in its wake. All right, he would somehow keep himself from raping her, but he would not be alone in this. Look at me, he willed her. See what I'm feeling. Admit what we're feeling.
She darted him a flickering glance from the corner of her eye. Her spine went rigid as she met his gaze. Oh yes, she knew, he thought grimly. Her eyes widened and then her head snapped back around and she was once more staring down at her cards, deliberately ignoring him again.
He wished he could do the same. Christ, why the hell couldn't he look away from her?
"Yes, she's much safer believing you're Lucifer incarnate," Kartauk murmured. "It's getting worse, isn't it?"
Ruel jerked his gaze away from Jane. "I don't know what you mean."
Kartauk smiled. "I mean that if I were doing a full statue instead of a head, I might be forced to employ an extraordinary multitude of fig leaves to mask a certain portion of your anatomy."
Ruel carefully kept himself from glancing back at Jane. "Then it's fortunate you've confined yourself to a limited area."
"Particularly since the transformation occurs so frequently. At first I wondered if I should send her away." His attention returned to the statue. "The signs of desire aren't confined only to the nether parts, you know. The jaw tightens, the nostrils flare slightly, the mouth—"
"I regret to have caused you artistic difficulties."
"Oh, no difficulty. I would not have permitted that to happen. Actually, your lust gave the work an added shading of primitive beauty."
"And, of course, that's worth any amount of discomfort I might experience."
"Any discomfort," Kartauk agreed.
Ruel shifted restlessly on the stone block on which he was sitting. "When will you be finished with that blasted head?"
"Tomorrow." Kartauk added wistfully, "It's quite wonderful, one of the best pieces I've ever done. I'm truly magnificent. If I only had—"
"Gold." Ruel chuckled. "I'm beginning to think your passion may be even greater than mine."
"I have no doubt it is. To me, gold means beauty, to you, power; but beauty always triumphs in the end. Kings fall, empires fade, but art and beauty endure." He paused and then sighed. "I suppose you wish your reward?"
"It seems a small price to ask for contributing to your greater glory."
"Do I discern a note of disrespect?"
"You wouldn't recognize it if you did."
Kartauk's laugh boomed out. "I would recognize it. I'd just lose faith in your judgment." He went back to work. "Toys."
"What?"
"Send the maharajah a toy."
Ruel gazed at him blankly. "What kind of toy?"
"A child's toy. Trust me."
"I'm to give one of the wealthiest maharajahs in India a child's toy?"
"He is a child. That's the whole point of the matter. How do you think I survived his eccentricities for six years? He would have driven me mad if I hadn't learned how to distract him when I needed to send him off in another direction." Kartauk saw Ruel's doubtful expression and continued impatiently. "It's true. The maharajah has the mind of a child. The Savitsars are Hindu and have adhered strictly to the caste system for hundreds of years. Since there are not that many choices in the upper castes, they've been forced to inbreed. It's no wonder the maharajah and Abdar's minds are not what they should be."