Hell's Fire
Page 29
Edward waited, curious at the outburst.
‘And there was no satisfaction, you know? I’d planned that moment for so long. I’d rehearsed the words and the way I would stand … I was obsessed with his destruction and to make it as obscene as possible. And when it happened, I felt nothing.’
‘He was a disgusting man,’ offered Edward, hopefully.
Fletcher smiled down at him, shaking his head sadly.
‘You don’t understand, do you, Edward?’ he said. ‘You still don’t understand.’
‘Understand?’
‘It wasn’t Bligh for whom I felt disgust … it was for me … I was disgusted with myself.’
‘But why, for God’s sake? He corrupted you, when you were little more than a boy … tyrannised you by his authority and by threats into doing what you did …’
‘But that’s the whole point,’ contradicted Fletcher. ‘That was my protection … it always has been, all these years, the way I convinced myself that I was blameless and Bligh was responsible for everything. But it isn’t true.’
Edward looked away, embarrassed by the other man. He wouldn’t come again, he decided. He’d say his new position as Chief justice of Ely made it impossible for him to travel so easily. Fletcher’s admission had erected completely the barrier between them.
‘That’s the burden, Edward,’ confessed the mutineer. ‘Bligh didn’t corrupt me … I did it willingly … I wanted to …’
Edward could find nothing to say.
‘Only with Isabella was I complete … only Isabella … that’s why she meant so much …’
Fletcher looked pleadingly at his brother.
‘Can you forgive me?’ he asked.
So much destruction. And so much wasted, reflected the lawyer.
‘No,’ he refused. ‘No, I’ll not forgive you, Fletcher. You made your hell. I’ll not make it easier for you to live in it …’
He paused.
‘… like I’ve got to live in the hell you made for me …’
Bibliography
Ball, Ian, Pitcairn, the Children of the ‘Bounty’, London, 1973
Beechey, Captain F.W., Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific, two vols, London, 1831
Belcher, Lady D., The Mutineers of the ‘Bounty’, London, 1870
Bligh, William, A Narrative of the Mutiny aboard H.M.S. ‘Bounty’, London, 1790
Brooke, John, King George III, London, 1972
Danielsonn, Bengt, What happened on the ‘Bounty’, London, 1963
Fryer, Mary Ann, John Fryer of the ‘Bounty’, ed. Owen Rutter, London, 1939
Hughes, Richard, Captain Bligh and Mr Christian, the Men and the Mutiny, London, 1972
Mackaness, G., The Life of Vice-Admiral William Bligh, two vols, Sydney, 1932
Nicholson, R. B., The Pitcairners, Sydney, 1965
Ross, A. S. C, The Pitcairnese Language, London, 1964
Rutter, Owen, The Turbulent Journey, London, 1936
—— (ed.), Court Martial and the ‘Bounty’ Mutineers, London, 1931
—— (ed.), The Log of the ‘Bounty’ Mutineers, London, 1931
A Biography of Brian Freemantle
Brian Freemantle (b. 1936) is one of Britain’s most prolific and accomplished authors of spy fiction. His novels have sold more than ten million copies worldwide, and have been optioned for numerous film and television adaptations.
Born in Southampton, on the southern coast of England, Freemantle began his career as a journalist. In 1975, as the foreign editor at the Daily Mail, he made headlines during the American evacuation of Saigon: As the North Vietnamese closed in on the city, Freemantle became worried about the future of the city’s orphans. He lobbied his superiors at the paper to take action, and they agreed to fund an evacuation for the children. In three days, Freemantle organized a thirty-six-hour helicopter airlift for ninety-nine children, who were transported to Britain. In a flash of dramatic inspiration, he changed nearly one hundred lives—and sold a bundle of newspapers.
Although he began writing espionage fiction in the late 1960s, he first won fame in 1977, with Charlie M. That book introduced the world to Charlie Muffin—a disheveled spy with a skill set more bureaucratic than Bond-like. The novel, which drew favorable comparisons to the work of John Le Carré, was a hit, and Freemantle began writing sequels. The sixth in the series, The Blind Run, was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Novel. To date, Freemantle has penned fourteen titles in the Charlie Muffin series, the most recent of which is Red Star Rising (2010), which brought back the popular spy after a nine-year absence.
In addition to the stories of Charlie Muffin, Freemantle has written more than two dozen standalone novels, many of them under pseudonyms including Jonathan Evans and Andrea Hart. Freemantle’s other series include two books about Sebastian Holmes, an illegitimate son of Sherlock Holmes, and the four Cowley and Danilov books, which were written in the years after the end of the Cold War and follow an odd pair of detectives—an FBI operative and the head of Russia’s organized crime bureau.
Freemantle lives and works in Londan, England.
A school photograph of Brian Freemantle at age twelve.
Brian Freemantle, at age fourteen, with his mother, Violet, at the country estate of a family acquaintance, Major Mears.
Freemantle’s parents, Harold and Violet Freemantle, at the country estate of Major Mears.
Brian Freemantle and his wife, Maureen, on their wedding day. They were married on December 8, 1956, in Southampton, where both were born and spent their childhoods. Although they attended the same schools, they did not meet until after they had both left Southampton.
Brian Freemantle (right) with photographer Bob Lowry in 1959. Freemantle and Lowry opened a branch office of the Bristol Evening World together in Trowbridge, in Wiltshire, England.
A bearded Freemantle with his wife, Maureen, circa 1971. He grew the beard for an undercover newspaper assignment in what was then known as Czechoslovakia.
Freemantle (left) with Lady and Sir David English, the editors of the Daily Mail, on Freemantle’s fiftieth birthday. Freemantle was foreign editor of the Daily Mail, and with the backing of Sir David and the newspaper, he organized the airlift rescue of nearly one hundred Vietnamese orphans from Saigon in 1975.
Freemantle working on a novel before beginning his daily newspaper assignments. His wife, Maureen, looks over his shoulder.
Brian Freemantle says good-bye to Fleet Street and the Daily Mail to take up a fulltime career as a writer in 1975. The editor’s office was turned into a replica of a railway carriage to represent the fact that Freemantle had written eight books while commuting—when he wasn’t abroad as a foreign correspondent.
Many of the staff secretaries are dressed as Vietnamese hostesses to commemorate the many tours Freemantle carried out in Vietnam.
The Freemantle family on the grounds of the Winchester Cathedral in 1988. Back row: wife Maureen; eldest daughter, Victoria; and mother-in-law, Alice Tipney, a widow who lived with the Freemantle family for a total of forty-eight years until her death. Second row: middle daughter, Emma; granddaughter, Harriet; Freemantle; and third daughter, Charlotte.
Freemantle in 1999, in the Outer Close outside Winchester Cathedral. For thirty years, he lived with his family in the basement library of a fourteenth-century house with a tunnel connecting it to the cathedral. Priests used this tunnel to escape persecution during the English Reformation.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Na
mes, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
copyright © 1977 by Innslodge Publications Ltd
cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa
This edition published in 2011 by Open Road Integrated Media
180 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Title Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Introduction
BOOK ONE
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
BOOK TWO
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
BOOK THREE
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
Bibliography
A Biography of Brian Freemantle
Copyright Page