Читаем A Dangerous Fortune (1994) полностью

Edward said: "And Micky let us think it. I can't take it in, Mother. I believed I was a killer, and Micky knew I wasn't, but he said nothing. Isn't that a terrible betrayal of friendship?"

Augusta looked sympathetically at her son. "Will you throw him over?"

"Inevitably." Edward was grief-stricken. "But he's my only friend, really."

Augusta felt close to tears. They sat looking at each other, thinking about what they had done, and why.

Edward said: "For nearly twenty-five years we've treated him as a member of the family. And he's a monster."

A monster, Augusta thought. It was true.

And yet she loved him. Even if he had killed three people, she loved Micky Miranda. Despite the way he had deceived her, she knew that if he walked into the room at this moment she would long to take him in her arms.

She looked at her son. Reading his face, she saw he felt the same way. She had known it in her heart but now her mind acknowledged it.

Edward loved Micky too.

Chapter TWO

OCTOBER

Section 1

MICKY MIRANDA was worried. He sat in the lounge of the Cowes Club smoking a cigar, wondering what he had done to offend Edward. Edward was avoiding him. He stayed away from the club, he did not go to Nellie's, and he did not even appear in Augusta's drawing room at teatime. Micky had not seen him for a week.

He had asked Augusta what was wrong but she said she did not know. She was a little odd with him and he suspected that she knew but would not say.

This had not happened in over twenty years. Every now and again Edward would take offense at something Micky did and go into a sulk, but it never lasted more than a day or two. This time it was serious--and that meant it could jeopardize the Santamaria harbor money.

In the last decade, Pilasters Bank had issued Cordovan bonds about once a year. Some of the money had been capital for railways, waterworks and mines; some had been simple loans to the government. All of it had benefited the Miranda family directly or indirectly, and Papa Miranda was now the most powerful man in Cordova, after the president.

Micky had taken a commission on everything--although nobody at the bank knew this--and he was now personally very rich. More significantly, his ability to raise the money had made him one of the most important figures in Cordovan politics and the unquestioned heir to his father's power.

And Papa was about to start a revolution.