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Prologue
Muse make the man thy theme, for shrewdness famed
And genius versatile
—The Odyssey of Homer, translated by William Cowper, 1791
Eton College
Autumn 1817
To begin with, he was obnoxious
Oliver Radford’s schoolfellows didn’t need more than a day or two after his arrival to discover this
They didn’t need h why they chose it was less obvious Maybe his thick, black hair and too-piercing grey eyes gave them the idea, or rown man than a boy of ten Or h this, while by no means small, wasn’t as beaky as many others
Still, he did always have the nose in question in a book, and so Radford reuts of a carcass”
The cousin failed toobservant or clever—how extreent ravens were, for birds Oliver Radford was extreent, for a boy This was one reason he found the books vastly preferable to his schoolmates
Especially his unbelievably stupid cousins
At present he leaned against a wall at the edge of the playing fields, well away fro sides for cricket Unlikely and unwilling to be chosen, but required to be present at the character-building proceedings, he had his nose in the pages of Homer’s Odyssey
A shadow fell over Oliver and a fat hand with grie of Greek script He did not look up He was, like his father, nized the hand He had good reason to
“Here he is, gentle branch: our Raven”
Laboring was e Oliver’s father Since the eldest son inherited everything, the others and their offspring had to find rich wives and/or places in “gentlemanly” professions like the e Radford, son of a duke’s younger son, had elected to become a barrister He was successful as well as happily married
All that Oliver had observed told hies the antithesis of his parents’
That a boy of ten knehat antithesis meant was another reason to hate him
He didn’t help matters
“Naturally you find the law laborious,” Oliver said “Firstly, it wants a lish Secondly—”
Bernard cuffed hiue if I was you, little Raven Unless there’s tales you want told”
“Firstly, if you were me,” Oliver corrected “Since you are patently not, you require the subjunctive Secondly, tales is plural Therefore you want the third person plural of the infinitive to be The correct verb form is are”
Bernard cuffed hihtly “Best not to mind him too much,” he told the small crowd of his disciples, some of them cousins “No , you know Bit of a tart But we don’t talk about it much”
George Radford’s fae fifty, a divorced lady But Oliver didn’t care what they thought His father had prepared him for the vicissitudes of Eton and the less-than-likable relatives he could expect to encounter there
“You’re contradicting yourself,” Oliver said “Again”
“No, I’m not, you little fart”
“You said we don’t talk about her but you did”
“Do you mind, little Raven?”
“Not a bit,” Oliver said “At least when my mother pushed me into the world, she contrived to keep my brain intact The evidence shows the opposite result in your case”
Bernard yanked him away from the wall and threw hi and he are of his heartbeat increasing and a wild panic He shoved these sensations to the very back of his s wereto him happened to somebody quite separate, that what he felt was felt by another self, whom he observed with detachment
The panic vanished, the world came back into balance, and he could think
He rose onto his elbows “I’m so sorry,” he said
“You ought to be,” Bernard said “And I hope it’s a lesson—”
“I should have read it as ‘in an agony to redeem himself,’ rather than ‘anxious to save himself’ ”
Bernard looked blank, not an unusual expression for him
“Odysseus,” Oliver said patiently He rose, picked up the book, and brushed away the dirt “He strove in
vain for his fellohose oitlessness destroyed them The witless destroy what they don’t understand”
Bernard’s face got very red “Witless? I’ll teach you witless, you insolent little turd”
He leapt on Oliver, knocked hi
The fight ended for Oliver with a black eye and a bloody nose and ringing ears
This wasn’t the first time It wasn’t the last But more of that anon
Royal Gardens, Vauxhall
July 1822
Oliver was baffled, an unusual condition for him
His experience omen was limited Mothers didn’t count His stepsisters were somebody else’s mothers already
The Earl of Longht and eleven-twelfths years old
Though nurse Fairfaxes, Clara, according to Long after the boys Her brothers treated her like a pet, perhaps because she was the first girl after three boys, and so Duke of Clevedon, whose guardian Longmore’s father was, doted on her
But tonight’s planned activity was not for girls Clevedon was ave hio in the boat with us”
She kicked him in the ankle This only made her brother chuckle, but she must have hurt her toe, because her lower lip trembled
Then, for reasons unknown, Oliver heard hi, “Lady Clara, have you ever seen the Heptaplasiesoptron?”
He are of Longlance but aze upward to meet his “What is it?”
“It’s a sort of kaleidoscope roolasses, and these reflect twining serpents and a fountain and pals It’s over there” He pointed to the building containing the Rotunda and the Pillared Saloon “Shall I take you to see it?”
While Oliver was talking, Longmore slipped away
“I want to go in the boat,” she said