The Marquis of Ruckford was enchanted.

Vanessa was as delicately beautiful as the miniatures she worked so patiently to restore. She was like no other woman the Marquis had ever known. In fact, the more he saw Vanessa, the more he realized life without her would be unthinkable.

Matrimony was not the solution. The Marquis had planned his future carefully. It certainly did not include marriage to an unknown artist's daughter--no matter how lovely.

There was only one arrangement the Marquis could offer Vanessa. As she listened to him phrase it, Vanessa was torn between longing for the man she had grown to love_ and horror at what he was proposing.