Manhattan Merger

“I should think so.” She chuckled.

“Why don’t you tell us how you happened to paint my fiancé?”

Rainey had been waiting for that question. Before she could say anything, Payne rose to his feet.

“Just a minute, Rainey,” he said, moving to the door. “First I want to get your brother’s photograph and your artwork.” Seconds later he returned and propped the fourteen-by-twenty inch paintings on some of the extra chairs.

Nyla and Catherine got up to study them. “I didn’t know you did full-size paintings like these for the covers,” the maid exclaimed. “They must take a long time.”

“A lot of work goes into them because I do sketches first until I know exactly what I want the finished product to look like.”

Nyla turned an animated face to Rainey. “It’s exciting to have you here. To think you’ve done all those wonderful paintings. You’re a fabulous artist.”

“You are!” Catherine cried.

“Thank you.”

“Nyla? Will you hand me the one of Payne in his office, please?”

“Here you go.” The maid removed the dishes and placed the painting in front of Diane.

She examined it for a minute, then lifted her head to scrutinize Rainey. “Did you get permission to paint this woman?”

Payne’s attorney was the person Rainey had expected to be adversarial, not his fiancée. But then Mr. Wallace wasn’t the wheelchair-bound woman desperately in love with his client.

Rainey took a steadying breath. “Yes. She’s a licensed model I’ve used in several covers. But sometimes I paint from memory. That’s how I happened to draw Mr. Sterling.”

Without preamble she spent the next ten minutes telling the same story she’d related in the courtroom. Combined with Payne’s explanations regarding Bonnie Wrigley’s testimony, they covered all the essentials.

Rainey let her see the photo of Winston. Between that picture, her brother’s photograph and Payne’s assertion that Rainey’s apartment contained a serigraph of the Nantucket Lighthouse, she hoped Catherine and Diane were satisfied.

“Because of this experience, the judge ordered that all the artists at Red Rose Romance work with licensed models from now on.”

“I should think so,” Diane muttered.

“I’m fairly certain they do anyway.”

“Why not you?”

“Because there are times when I can’t find the right model for what I want to convey. As I explained, sometimes a face in the crowd or a picture jumps out at me. I don’t even know it’s happening.”

“You mean like my fiancé’s.”

“Yes,” Rainey answered honestly.

Old fears had been put to rest. Now there was a new one.

The other woman believed Rainey was interested in Payne.

What better way to expose Rainey than force a confrontation which would embarrass her in front of him and his niece?

Little did Diane know she had nothing to fear from Rainey. Now was the time to prove it.

“Because I’m an artist, I can’t help looking at every face a little differently than most people do. Mr. Sterling is handsome in a rugged sort of way, but so are a lot of men. Some of the male models are breathtaking.”

Nyla nodded. “You can say that again!”

Bless you, Nyla.