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

Micah rolled onto his side, trying to relieve the pressure in his tight muscles. Sleep was elusive. His body was still taut from the fervor of supper and poetry with Jefferson, as if Jefferson knelt at the side of his bed and whispered the words of his new composition in a voice meant only for Micah’s ears. He saw him now, slate eyes steady and sure as his mouth made love to the words. He would not be wearing his jacket, attired as he had been in the sitting room, but his shirtsleeves would be rolled up and stained with ink, just like his fingertips, a sign that he had only just finished writing down the verse.


“You won’t disappoint me,” he would hear Jefferson murmur when he finished reciting. “Of that, you have my word.”


The instinct to answer back opened his mouth, formed the words on his tongue. Ewan’s snore snapped him back to the present.


Chapter 17