Jonathon Carver, a young Puritan school teacher, meets handsome Nathaniel Morgan, master cooper. He comes to recognize the longings he's had all his life as desire for the love of another man, and Nathaniel provides that love.<br><br>Their love must be carefully guarded, as they live in Colonial America during a time of the call to Awakening of the Puritan spirit. Knowing the penalty for their love is dire, they strive to keep their affair secret.<br><br>Desperate for a way to resolve their situation, they devise a bold plan which could free them to be together. But can their love for one another overcome the structure of the society in which they live? Or will they be destined to forego fulfillment of their desire and go their separate ways?

Awakening

“Will you make me happy tonight?” the older man asked.


“Do to me what I have done to you. Come into me tonight?” His voice carried the question.


Jonathan hesitated for a fraction of a second. He ran again in his mind the reality that he was soon to be a married man, a married man with a lover. During his meeting with Rebecca, he had realized he could come to love this young woman. He already loved Nathaniel, desperately. He could not give him up and yet he was bound to marry: bound by traditions and laws beyond his ability to control. Something in that confusion held him back from the kind of union Nathaniel requested.


He pulled Nathaniel tightly against him. “Not tonight. Please. I need you to be as we were last Sabbath. I need your flesh within me.”


Jonathan’s pleas staved off Nathaniel’s desires; he murmured, “As you wish.”


Chapter 15