Chapter 1Charlie Ash should have expected rain, on an English countryside afternoon. Unfortunately, he hadn’t thought about it.
As usual, he thought rather helplessly: exactly the way his life seemed to be going lately, the way he kept not seeing things, not realizing, until they snuck up and hit him on the head with thunderstorm force.
Like Aaron leaving. Like the finality of a closed door, an emptied closet.
Or like large fat raindrops, here on a soggy garden path, a good two miles from the spires and crenellations of the historic Aldershill Manor.
He’d gone for a walk because he’d arrived early, tossed his luggage into his assigned scholarly guest room in the east wing, texted his parents that, yes, he’d made it across the Atlantic safely, and then immediately wanted to explore. The
