Free Masquerade by Janette Rallison Page B

was eye level with her charge and asked cheerfully, “Are you ready to play with us?”
    Bella glanced around the room, taking in Elaina, who sat at the coffee table sleepily chomping on pieces of french toast. “I want to go swimming.”
    “Maybe we’ll do that later then.”
    “Why can’t we go now?”
    “Because we just ate, and we don’t want to get cramps.” Okay , Clarissa told herself, I’m thirty seconds into this day, and I’ve already reverted to an old wives’ tale. Next I’ll be telling her the stork brings babies and if she steps on a crack her mother will be doomed to a life of chiropractic care . But Clarissa didn’t want to tell Bella the real reason they weren’t going outside right now, which was that Clarissa felt she had to get some ground rules down, inside, before they faced another crowd. Bella needed to understand that Clarissa was in charge and that consequences would follow if Bella didn’t obey. Last night, as far as Clarissa could tell, Slade hadn’t even reprimanded Bella for running away. Clarissa didn’t want a repeat of that performance.
    In the same cheerful voice Clarissa asked, “Would you like to color while Elaina eats breakfast?”
    Bella ignored Clarissa’s question and went and stood beside Elaina. “Are you done yet, ’Laina?”
    Elaina shook her head, then slowly lifted another forkful of syrup-drenched french toast to her mouth.
    “Are you done now?” Bella asked.
    Clarissa tried to curb the questioning. “Bella, we’re going to play inside for an hour or so. Then if the two of you are good, we can go to the pool.”
    “I want to go to the ocean and look for sharks.”
    “We’ll try the kiddy pool first.”
    Bella’s brows knitted together, and she frowned at Clarissa. “You’re ’posed to be playing with me.”
    “I’d be happy to play some inside games.”
    Bella crossed her arms tightly. “I want to go to the ocean.”
    “I understand that,” Clarissa said. “Nevertheless the answer is no.”
    T ears sprung immediately to Bella’s eyes. Her face almost seemed to scrunch into itself, and she let out a low wail of, “You’re not playing with me!”
    Clarissa tried to reaso n with her for a moment longer. Bella’s wails only got louder and more shrill. In between her “I want to see the waves right now!” and “I’m telling my dad that you’re not nice!” she also added “My daddy can make people disappear!”
    How nice for him. Along with being a movie star and a screenwriter, he was also a magician. Life must be easy for someone with so many talents.
    Holding tightly onto the last vestige of her cheerfulness, Clarissa scooped up Bella, sat her down on the desk chair, and called over the din, “You can get off of the chair when you’re quiet.”
    Clarissa then walked over to the coffee table and wiped Elaina’s face and hands off with a wet napkin. Elaina sat, wide-eyed and unblinking, staring at Bella. She was quite done with her breakfast now and clearly wondered what horrible thing would happen next.
    “Bella just needs to learn she can’t always have her way,” Clarissa told her daughter softly. “Let’s look at a book while we wait for her to calm down.”
    Elaina allowed Clarissa to propel her to the couch, still keeping her gaze fixed on Bella. Clarissa picked up a book filled with farm animals and set it on her lap. For half an hour she made animal noises in an attempt to ignore Bella’s screams, which rose by octaves as time progressed. Any moment now, they would shatter glass.
    If this were to go on for much longer , the hotel staff would probably call to see who was being tortured. Perhaps the security guards were even now on their way to the room—or worse yet, Slade himself might be striding down the hallway.
    And what would Slade do if he found out that his daughter had sat screaming on a chair all morning? Perhaps for her job’s sake, she ought to take Bella off the chair, go directly to the beach, and decide