Dilemma.
Planning was going well and Daniel said farewell to most of the conspirators a little after nine o'clock. Then he turned to Harry as Mackenzie gathered the dishes. "How sure are you that you can get through both locks and disable the alarm in the available time?"
"Piece of cake!" said Harry.
"Cocky little bugger." said Mackenzie with a smile.
"Nineteen and over six foot." said Harry, "How tall are you, again?"
Daniel laughed. "He has you there, Mackenzie. Okay, Harry, the rest of the night is your own. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."
"You mean like wear blue shoes with brown trousers?" said Harry.
"That kind of thing." He waited for Harry to go upstairs to change, then smiled at Mackenzie. "He can do it. It will indeed be a piece of cake for him."
"I know." said Mackenzie, "He's a great kid. Has a good brain, considering you found him where you did. It's odd, though, he knows where you and I met, but he never asks me about it. Everything since, he's fascinated by, but not the time you were in prison."
"He knows it was a painful time. The boy is exquisitely sensitive to things like that. Don't raise the subject if you can avoid it."
"Does he know about your loss?" said Mackenzie. He never spoke Kate's name.
"No, and I never want him to." said Daniel.
"You still can't talk about it, even to us?"
"Come into the study. I have a cognac I want you to meet."
They went into the study. Mackenzie sat down and Daniel poured the drinks. "I'm sorry." said Mackenzie.
"Don't be. I just don't want Harry to know any of that stuff. He's young and he cares too deeply and I don't want to burden him with my old sorrows. Let's change the subject. I need your advice."
"Never go out with a woman who has a dagger tattoo."
Daniel chuckled. "I have something of a dilemma, the details of which I can't divulge, but in principle, the question is simple. If you knew something that could change someone's life, would you tell them, if you knew that part of the change might be that they would never forgive you?"
"Is it me?"
"No. You don't know the person." That didn't feel like a lie. Nobody truly knew Harry.
"Is this something the person needs to know?"
"No, not really."
"Would the change be for the better or the worse?" said Mackenzie.
"That, my friend, is an excellent question. It might be devastating, it might resolve a lot."
"And you can't tell me what it is?"
"No, I can't."
"What's the best possible outcome?" said Mackenzie.
"Something that has troubled them for a long time is resolved without anyone being hurt." said Daniel.
"And the worst?"
"The catastrophic ending of a friendship and crushing disappointment."
"If you were in this person's position, would you want to know?"
Daniel thought about it. If he were a young man with a head full of fantasies about who he was, would he want to know that his father was a common criminal and that his birth had been the death of his mother? Not to mention the fact that he had been lied to by the one person he believed was his friend. "No." he said.
"Then don't say anything. It's not worth it."
"You're right." said Daniel. He glanced across at the copy of Burke's Peerage on the shelf. His whole life had been spent improving on reality, not revealing it, and he could find Harry a far better past and future than being his son. A duke, an earl, a prince, he would give Harry the life he deserved.
The End.