Student of letters, Micah Yardley wants one thing: to meet the poet Jefferson Dering. After hearing his idol speak at Harvard, Micah travels to Jefferson’s home in nearby Wroxham, entertaining visions of discussing poetry over dinner and drinks. What he experiences exceeds anything he ever anticipated.<br><br>Jefferson finds Micah mesmerizing and passionate, everything he has ever wanted. But after getting caught in a compromising position with another young man a decade earlier, he exiled himself from Boston and from affairs of the heart. Jefferson represses his longing for Micah, but his tumultuous emotions cannot be contained.<br><br>Micah denies the truth of his desire for Jefferson. Jefferson refuses to act on his passion for Micah. But all it takes is a single kiss in Wroxham's haunted church to change the course of their lives ... and ignite the flame that could fulfill a generations-old promise.

A Hidden Beauty

Jefferson glanced at him from the corner of his eye. “I’m sure we can. We’re both reasonable men.”


The subject matter launched Micah’s thoughts into a new direction, but as he spouted his theories on the reasonableness or not of the actions of men in power, he stayed aware of the warm pressure of Jefferson’s arm against his. Neither man moved to break the contact, nor was any mention of it made. But Micah felt it, just the same.


And it felt wondrously good to share the company of a man who understood him at last.5


Micah was torn between the jubilation of finding a spirit kindred to his own, and dismay that he’d succumbed to the seductive temptation of betraying the true status of his familial regards. Jefferson had censured such conditions without pause, and while it had been a relief to believe during those moments that his family was wrong, the guilt that arose afterward almost dwarfed it.


Chapter 16