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r /> “I’m not sure that’s possible.”
Summer raised an eyebrow. “You don’t think honesty is possible?”
“To a point it is,” said Michael. “But everyone has secrets, don’t they?”
“Do they?” Summer was starting to feel uneasy.
“I think so. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Secrets can be a burden. I mean, once you know something, that’s it. You can never un-know it. You can never take that knowledge back. The innocence you had before, it’s gone. You shouldn’t inflict that on someone unless you really have to. Especially not someone you love.”
Summer sat up. “Okay, now you’re scaring me. Is there something you want to tell me, Michael?”
“No! That’s the whole point. There isn’t.”
“All right, is there something you don’t want to tell me? Something specific?”
“I should never have got into this, should I?” He tried to laugh it off, but the ease of a few moments ago had gone. “Look, really, you’re getting worked up over nothing. This isn’t about us. Okay?”
“Okay,” Summer said warily.
“I’m talking purely hypothetically. Let’s say you knew a secret. Something bad that someone has done.”
“All right.”
“I mean something really bad. And let’s say you loved the person who’s done it.”
“But we’re not talking about us, right?”
“We’re not talking about us. Would you tell the person that you knew? Would you confront them?”
Summer thought about it. “It depends on the person. And the secret.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Well, yours wasn’t a question! It was a riddle. Okay, I’ll give you an answer. The answer is, you follow your conscience. You do what feels right in your gut.”
Michael turned and looked at her. The shadows under her eyes were darker and heavier than usual. She looked tired—is that because of me?—but still so beautiful. He’d forgotten just how beautiful she was.
I’m an idiot. A total idiot.
“Do you know what feels right in my gut?” he asked.
“What?”
Grinning, he rolled on top of her. “This.”
Michael was glad Summer had come to Oxford. He was even gladder she’d decided to surprise him at Bepe’s, and not at his flat a few hours earlier. What a horror story that would have been. Guilt gripped him for a moment, but he batted it aside. What was done was done. Once this crazy party was over, he would focus on Summer more, make up for all his bad behavior.
As for his secrets, those would go with him to the grave.
Chapter Twenty-four
At last the day of the Kingsmere summer party arrived. Alexia De Vere awoke before dawn after another night of broken sleep. Creeping into the bathroom so as not to wake Teddy, she peered at her reflection in the mirror. A hag stared back at her. Wisps of gray were fighting their way through the blond, her skin looked dry and flaky and old, like stale pastry, and lines of exhaustion and stress ran in deep grooves, fanning out from her eyes and lips.
This wouldn’t do.
Switching on her BlackBerry, Alexia fired off an e-mail to her personal assistant, Margaret, arranging for a hairdresser and makeup artist to come to the house in the early afternoon and fix the damage. Sir Edward Manning ran Alexia’s political life, but when it came to personal matters, Margaret French was her right-hand woman. Having sent the e-mail, Alexia pulled her cashmere dressing gown tightly around her and went downstairs to her office.
“Good morning, madam. You’re up early. Can I bring you some coffee?”
