Portrait of a Love Read Free Page B

astonishment.
    “Yes, Washington. I have a house in Georgetown and there’s plenty of room. I can give you a few hours every morning.” He cocked a golden eyebrow. “What do you say?”
    Isabel took a deep breath. She had not realized how much she wanted to do this portrait. “I say it seems I don’t have a choice in the matter,” she answered.
    He grinned at her. He was a devastatingly good-looking man. “Not if you want to paint my portrait, you don’t.”
    He probably mowed down women by the dozens with that smile, Isabel thought. She looked back at him a little austerely.
    “Really, Leo, will it be proper?” Mrs. Sinclair asked worriedly. “I’m afraid I simply cannot accompany you at this time.”
    “Mama,” said Leo affectionately, “how I love you. It will be perfectly unexceptional, I assure you. Of course, I reckon I could always hire a duenna ...”
    Mrs. Sinclair laughed as she was meant to. “How absurd you are, Leo. Well, if you’re sure ...”
    “I’m sure,” he replied firmly, and Isabel realized with a flash of amusement that Mrs. Sinclair was far more worried about her son’s reputation than she was about Isabel’s.
    Leo met Isabel’s eyes and divined, instantly, what her thought was. His blue eyes laughed at her, although his face remained grave. “Well, Miss MacCarthy? Are you willing to chance it?” he asked.
    Isabel leaned back in her chair. “I want to paint your portrait, Senator,” she said pleasantly, “and, so I will come to Washington with you.”
    * * * *
    Over dinner that evening Isabel got a chance to see the entire Sinclair family in action. Leo’s father, she knew from her reading, had been killed in a plane crash three years earlier, so it was just Mrs. Sinclair and her three children.
    Isabel sensed very clearly that the four of them were indeed a family. It had been a long time since she herself had experienced anything like the casual, comfortable family atmosphere that prevailed at the Sinclair dinner table. They sat there, blond and beautiful, rich and privileged, and Leo, at the head of the table, outshone them all. It was difficult to relate to people who had been so blessed by the gods, Isabel thought wryly.
    “We’ll have our coffee in the drawing room,” Mrs. Sinclair said as she rose gracefully from the table.
    “Cal and I are going to a party at Kathleen’s,” Paige reminded her mother.
    “Ah ha,” said Leo good-naturedly. “Cal. Now that’s a new name. Who is he, Paige? And what happened to Johnny Montgomery?”
    Paige laughed at her big brother as they left the dining room, and for a moment Isabel felt a stab of sharp envy for this lovely, self-assured girl who had brothers to tease her and protect her. When Cal, a slender, brown-haired, polite boy, arrived, Leo left the drawing room to see them out. When he returned, there was a slight frown between his brows.
    “What’s the matter?” his mother asked imperturbably. “I’ve found him to be a nice boy.”
    “He is nice. I just hate to see her getting into a car with a teenage driver, that’s all.” He gave his mother a half-humorous look. “I’d be a terrible father. I hate to let go.”
    Mrs. Sinclair sighed. “I know. But Paige is a sensible girl. She knows she can call anytime, and either Ben or I will come and get her. I think she has enough sense not to get into a car with a boy who’s been drinking.”
    “I hope so,” said Leo, and for the first time there was a look of grimness around his firm, well-cut mouth.
    Ben put down his coffee cup. “Well, I’ll be on my way too,” he said, and stood up. He grinned down at the relaxed figure of his brother. “If Paige calls, you’re on duty tonight. I have a date with Susan Deboise.”
    “Well, well, well,” Leo drawled. “You’re more faithful than Paige, little brother. Am I going to be called on to be best man one of these days?”
    “I’m thinking about it,” Ben said. “If I wait for you to make the jump first,