
Your Cambridge degree arrived only after your father paid eight hundred pounds of recognized debt and barred you from Folking. I discharged what the college required, John, not every wager and acceptance you concealed elsewhere. You step into this one-chapter preview with Richard Shand at the center, where choices turn on the people, promises, and pressure already in the room. The Goldfinder sailed the next day, leaving one night to choose between the venture you had built and the home unexpectedly offered back. The chapter closes on a continuation question rather than resolving the novel's larger arc.
Read John Caldigate