Even worse, if Liam landed in prison, whoever was after him might arrange a swift and brutal murder behind prison walls. Patrick needed to get Liam to safety as quickly as possible.

“We can go to my grandfather,” Gwen said. “We’ll be safe on the island, and the faster we can get Frederick to acknowledge you as Theodore’s son, the safer you will be.”

For once, they were all in agreement.

Gwen sent a carefully worded telegram to her grandfather’s summer home on Cormorant Island, alerting him of their arrival the following day. Frederick didn’t yet know she had confirmed Liam’s identity, and she didn’t want news of it going through a series of telegraph operators. She simply closed the telegram with a hint about why she was coming:

I am bringing Liam Malone with me. The two of you need to meet as soon as possible.

Cormorant Island lay off the coast of New York. The only way to reach it was by a ferry that made a single trip each morning. Sea spray misted Gwen’s face as the ferry drew closer to the island.

“That’s the town of Windhaven,” she said, pointing it out to Patrick and Liam, who stood beside her at the railing of the ferry.

Windhaven wasn’t much of a town, just some homes and shops nestled on the south side of the island, where four hundred people made their living from the sea. Frederick owned the entire north end of the island, which made his estate feel like a private kingdom.

Frederick’s summer home perched high on a bluff overlooking the sea. Several acres of terraced lawns and gardens led down to the shore, where a cove of boulders protected her grandfather’s private boathouse and dock.

They were the only passengers on the ferry this morning, so Gwen tipped the skipper to deliver them straight to the boathouse on her grandfather’s side of the island. The boathouse was easy to spot, with its two bays, a wraparound balcony, and a slate roof with a cupola on top.

“That boathouse is fancier than anywhere I’ve ever lived,” she overheard Patrick whisper to Liam as the ferry drew alongside it.

A butler from the estate awaited them on the dock. “Your grandfather would like you to meet him for tea in the gathering room,” he said once they had disembarked.

She sent Patrick and Liam a reassuring smile. “My grandfather can be intimidating, but I think you’ll find him far more approachable here on the island than when he’s in Manhattan.”

Liam squared his shoulders and adjusted the jacket of his new suit. “I’m ready,” he said, but his face looked like he was about to face a firing squad.