A Dangerous Fortune - Ken Follett [0]
KEN FOLLETT
#1 BESTSELLING, AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR
of Night Over Water, The Pillars of the Earth,
Eye of the Needle, and The Key to Rebecca
AND HIS LATEST NOVEL
A DANGEROUS FORTUNE
“Confirms his reputation as a master storyteller.”
—Lexington Herald-Leader
“FOLLETT [BUILDS] TO A DRAMATIC CLIMAX WITH THE SAME MASTERFUL CONTROL THAT GUIDED EYE OF THE NEEDLE AND THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH.”
—Playboy
“I don’t usually enjoy historical thrillers but admit to being totally captivated by Ken Follett’s A Dangerous Fortune.”
—Chicago Tribune
“HIGHLY ENTERTAINING … Follett’s characters are drawn with broad, realistic strokes … this story of greed and retribution should win Follett new fans.”
—Publishers Weekly
“RICH, COMPLEX, THRILLING, SUSPENSEFUL. WELL PLOTTED … A DANGEROUS FORTUNE IS DANGEROUS READING. YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO PUT IT DOWN.”
—Authors and Critics
“KEN FOLLETT IS A WRITER WITH A GENIUS FOR THREADING THE EYE OF THE LITERARY NEEDLE.”
—The Washington Post
“KEN FOLLETT FANS REJOICE! … GOOD STORYTELLING … EXCELLENT READING.”
—Topeka Capital Journal
“ANOTHER WINNER … Gripping reading, heavy on historical color and detail.”
—San Antonio Express News
“A spellbinding tale of tension, ambition, and greed.”
—Somerset American (Pa.)
“Follett is a great storyteller.”
—The Chattanooga Times
Books by Ken Follett:
A DANGEROUS FORTUNE
NIGHT OVER WATER
THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH
PAPER MONEY
LIE DOWN WITH LIONS
THE MODIGLIANI SCANDAL
ON WINGS OF EAGLES
THE MAN FROM ST. PETERSBURG
THE KEY TO REBECCA
TRIPLE
EYE OF THE NEEDLE
THE BIG NEEDLE
THE HAMMER OF EDEN
A PLACE CALLED FREEDOM
THE THIRD TWIN
THE FAMILY TREE
OF THE
Pilasters
PROLOGUE
1866
1
ON THE DAY OF THE TRAGEDY, the boys of Windfield School had been confined to their rooms.
It was a hot Saturday in May, and they would normally have spent the afternoon on the south field, some playing cricket and others watching from the shady fringes of Bishop’s Wood. But a crime had been committed. Six gold sovereigns had been stolen from the desk of Mr. Offerton, the Latin master, and the whole school was under suspicion. All the boys were to be kept in until the thief was caught.
Micky Miranda sat at a table scarred with the initials of generations of bored schoolboys. In his hand was a government publication called Equipment of Infantry. The engravings of swords, muskets and rifles usually fascinated him, but he was too hot to concentrate. On the other side of the table his roommate, Edward Pilaster, looked up from a Latin exercise book. He was copying out Micky’s translation of a page from Plutarch, and now he pointed an inky finger and said: “I can’t read this word.”
Micky looked. “Decapitated,” he said. “It’s the same word in Latin, decapitare.” Micky found Latin easy, perhaps because many of the words were similar in Spanish, which was his native language.
Edward’s pen scratched on. Micky got up restlessly and went to the open window. There was no breeze. He looked wistfully across the stable yard to the woods. There was a shady swimming hole in a disused quarry at the north end of Bishop’s Wood. The water was cold and deep….
“Let’s go swimming,” he said suddenly.
“We can’t,” Edward said.
“We could go out through the synagogue.” The “synagogue” was the room next door, which was shared by three Jewish boys. Windfield School taught divinity with a light touch and was tolerant of religious differences, which was why it appealed to Jewish parents, to Edward’s Methodist family, and to Micky’s Catholic father. But despite the school’s official attitude, Jewish boys came in for a certain amount of persecution. Micky went on: “We can go through their window and drop onto the washhouse roof, climb down the blind side of the stable and sneak into the woods.”
Edward looked scared. “It’s the Striper if you’re caught.”
The Striper was the ash cane wielded by the headmaster, Dr. Poleson. The punishment for breaking detention was twelve agonizing strokes. Micky had been flogged