Joanna Mansell - Portrait of Cleo

'I don't do simple, straightforward paintings.'


Maxim's dark eyes locked onto her face again. 'And you are going to strip bare for me, Cleo. Oh, I don't mean literally,' he added, as he saw the sudden flash of alarm on her face. 'I mean that, one way or another, you're eventually going to show me a little of your soul. And that's what I'm going to put into your portrait.'


He then turned round and left the room.

Rachel Lindsay - The Marquis Takes A Wife

"It can't be true," Beth said to herself. "How can I love a man I met only aweek ago?" In a way, however, she had known him much longer--ever since she'dfirst arrived at Powys months before. Every family portrait she studied,every page of family history she read, contained something of Yorke Powys.But his life was disastrously marked by the bye he'd harbored for the"unknown" Anne. Suddenly, Beth was angry at Yorke for wasting all he had tooffer. She might be a fool, but he was a bigger one!