cast some sort of spell on me with your eyes."
Andrew almost laughed at that. "Have it your way." He reached up to brush the back of his forefinger over her wet cheeks. "Please, do not cry."
The sensation of his tanned finger caressing her face filled Micheline with a bittersweet yearning. "I thought you had something to say, my lord."
"So I do, but I wish you wouldn't call me 'my lord.' " She did not answer, and kept her face averted, so Sandhurst plunged onward. "First I should tell you about Iris, or rather Lady Dangerfield. She is part of my past, and that is where I want her—in the past. I never loved her. Michelle, she is nothing compared to you! Perhaps her feelings were stronger than mine and that was what you saw today. I told her that I was in love for the first time in my life and that I mean to be married. When you walked in Iris was... endeavoring to change my mind, but I put her from me immediately!"
Micheline looked at him briefly and arched an eyebrow. "What a coincidence that I just happened to come in at the very instant her lips touched yours—before you pushed her away, of course."
Casting a beseeching gaze heavenward, Sandhurst tried again. "If I were lying, don't you think I could have hatched a better story than this? God's bones, it's so feeble, it has to be the truth!"
There was such desperate honesty in his voice that Micheline's heart was swayed. "Assuming, for the moment, that I did believe you, what about this lady? How long has this friendship between you endured?"
"Oh, perhaps four years, but—"
"How could you be such a beast!" she cried, her violet-blue eyes flashing. "That poor girl! How must she feel, if she has loved you for four long years and suddenly you turn up with a new choice for your wife!"
Sandhurst blinked. Was there no possible escape from this coil? "Iris couldn't have become my wife in any case, Michelle! She's married to another man!"
Her mouth dropped open. "Is there not a person of moral character alive in this world? You speak of your adultery as if it will excuse all your other sins!"
His patience, worn to shreds, tore at that moment. "Enough of this! Am I going to be held accountable for every mistake I ever made up to the night we met? Listen to me, Micheline. My behavior in the past has been far from saintly. However, three nights ago in Paris you wept and begged me to understand why you said certain things and acted the way you did during our weeks at Fontainebleau. Because I love you, I listened to your story with not just an open mind but an open heart as well. I'm asking you now to put aside the pain Bernard caused you and judge me as an individual. I want to tell you what brought me to Fontainebleau, and I ask you to remember that if I had not come under another name, we would not have met at all, for I would never have married a stranger."
Her sensuous lower lip trembled. "I suppose you will tell me next that your strict code of ethics would have prevented you from taking part in an arranged marriage."
"Unfair! Curb your tongue for a few minutes and attend me."
In spite of herself, Micheline felt a shiver of excitement, which was heightened by the sparkle she glimpsed fleetingly in his eyes. "As you command, my lord."
Sandhurst rose to pace the sunlit room. "I'll not claim that my life had been tragic, but I have had my own reasons to distrust love. I never agonized over it. It simply never occurred to me that I could fall in love, and, frankly, I didn't care to. My mother died five years ago, but even when she was alive and I was young, there was no warmth between my parents. As for the duke, few people could surpass his talent for appearing singularly unlovable. And there are other family members who have helped to spur my desire for independence. I went away to Oxford at sixteen and have lived on my own ever since."
"What about the sister you painted who couldn't sit still?" Micheline wondered.
"Cicely?" He looked back, his features softening. "She's my one regret in this estrangement from my father. But this isn't the time for all the details of my family relations. First things first." Andrew wandered back across the