Chapter 3

“Oh,” his young man said, now getting snowed on and undisturbed by this fact, “yes, Ned will be in his study, but you’ll be meeting with us both anyway—oh, I should’ve said, I’m Harry Arden, er, Henry actually, after our father, but no one calls me that, it’s Harry, please, sorry, come in!”

Harry Arden. HenryArden. Viscount Sommersby. The Earl’s younger brother.

And Kit’s best suspect in the matter of someone trying to sabotage Fairleigh Park’s income and Edward Arden’s health, which according to rumor had never been strong. If anything happened to Edward—a slip on an iced-over lane, a chill, the simple toll of the stress as fields and trees froze beyond their normal capacity to survive—then Henry Arden would inherit it all.

Henry Arden had treasure-dust freckles and felt like summer amid snow. And asked visitors to call him Harry.

Kit found himself, for one of the very rare occasions in his life, entirely speechless. 2