A Flight of Angels by Sarah Aldridge

When Clemence and Elissa, close friends since college, meet again in Washington D.C., their friendship flares into passion. Elissa, as a staff member for a congressional committee, is drawn ever closer to the political fray. Clemence, a clerk in the National Gallery of Art, is also caught in a crossfire - between Francis Hearn, the new director of purchases for the Gallery, and Robert Alden, intense young curator of medieval paintings. As the two men clash over the fate of A Flight of Angels, a great painting treasured by Clemence, she learns that Robert has a past of interest to McCarthy's committee, and a present about which rumors swirl. Clouds have emerged between Clemence and Elissa. Elissa is calling herself a lesbian - an identity Clemence refuses to claim. But if she does not claim it, she will lose Elissa. Clemence must face her conflicts. Her decisions will be fatefull - and irrevocable.