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

If this is how you feel, how can you deny our company? You walked away without even saying farewell, leaving your letter to explain it when we both desire far more than the written page. Even now, you say you refuse to hope we will be together. Of what use is love if neither party is granted the gifts that come with it?


I am not angry, though I know it must sound as such. I’m merely confused, because this is all so very new to me. I was hurt when you ignored me at the party after the recitation, yes, but knowing why ameliorated that. Tell me how it is I am supposed to live with the knowledge that miles separate us when neither of us wishes it, how I’m supposed to ignore the dreams where you whisper those words in my ear only to wake in the morning with my pillow damp because they are merely a fragment of my imagination.


Chapter 44