"He looked guilty, but he did not contradict her. 'I'll tell you what you should do,' he said. 'Go to Newcastle. You can walk there in about four days. It's a huge city, bigger than Gdansk—no one will notice you there. Cut your hair, steal a pair of trousers and pretend to be a boy. Go to a big stables and help with the horses—you've always been good with horses. If they like you, you'll get tips, and after a while they might give you a proper job,'" (Prologue, p. 20).

"In the seven years since Peter Middleton drowned, Micky had spent every vacation with the Pilasters. After school he had toured Europe with Edward for a year, and he had roomed with Edward during the three years they had spent at Oxford University, drinking and gambling and raising cain, making only the...