only male heir of his father besides Thomas, Ian had struggled with a sudden unexpected and unwanted popularity among certain women who had been drawn to him only because he was a viscount now and would one day inherit several properties, farms and businesses.
He preferred not to think about any of it.
“Do you mind about the puppies?”
“Not at all. Not at all,” she said as she cleared away the breakfast dishes. “As I said, I was just surprised, that’s all. They’re darling little things and the responsibility will be good for the children.”
“Exactly what I thought.”
“And they’ll be glad of the distraction from their lessons.”
“Thank you. You’re a wonder.”
“As I’ve been telling you for years now,” she said with a cheeky smile that made him smile reluctantly in return.
“As this is the first visit, it may take a little longer than usual. Put your feet up and read a book for a few moments, why don’t you?”
“Now that is the best idea I’ve heard all week,” she said. “When you’re back, you can find me in the cozy sunroom, looking out at the water and reading my book. I only need a big floppy cat to make the scene perfect.”
“Thank you, Letty.”
He really didn’t know what he would have done without her and considered himself the most fortunate of men that she had agreed to come out of retirement to help him and Susan after Amelia was born and later when Thomas came along. She had been about to retire for the second time when Susan had left him. Letty had stayed to help pick up the pieces, and though she had threatened to quit when he agreed to take Susan back after her diagnosis, she hadn’t followed through.
She was a lifesaver, though he supposed he would have to figure out how to go on without her eventually. She was a few years away from seventy, after all. He wasn’t sure she would be able to stay with them much longer.
On that less than cheerful note, he walked back through the house and found the children with their heads together, Amelia whispering something to her brother. She clamped her lips together tightly the moment she saw him.
What was that about? Ian wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
“We should go. Ms. Fremont likely needs to be leaving soon to open her store.”
The children didn’t need to be told twice. They hurried for the door, obviously thrilled that they unexpectedly would be spending at least some portion of their family vacation playing with three cute puppies.
The morning was gorgeous, the mountain air cool enough for the children to need their jumpers. He loved these refreshing mornings. They reminded him of fishing trips he used to take with his father and David in Scotland, when they would rise before dawn and traipse through heather to the fishing spot his family had been coming to for generations.
Grief for his brother hit him out of nowhere, as it did at random moments. It had been three years and he still missed him with a fierce ache. He had so many vivid memories of their childhood, leading each other into trouble. Okay, usually it had been David doing the troublemaking and begging Ian to put away his book and join him.
Two years older, David had been smart, funny, brave, good-hearted. He would have made the perfect Earl of Amherst—unlike Ian, who had been perfectly content being the spare. David had been engaged when he died, two months away from marrying his longtime girlfriend. They had no children, alas. He mourned that, too, not only because it would have meant the child, if it were male, would become viscount instead of Ian and subsequently earl but, more, because he would have loved having any piece of his brother beyond his memories.
He pushed away the sadness, as he had become used to doing over the years, and followed after his children. The lake glistened in the sun, already more active than he had found it that morning when he left before daybreak. He could see a few fish jumping and several fishing boats slowly trolling.
The mountaintops across the way were still coated in snow with high clouds obscuring the highest peaks. He had only seen them out of the clouds a few times since their arrival.
Thomas reached the door first and pressed hard, a long, low sound that echoed through the morning.
Samantha Fremont opened her door before the boy could ring it a second time. She looked cool,