Dark Paradise Read Online Free PDF Page A

matter. One of the few benefits of being shut up alone here all day is that it gives you time to think, to realise what a fool you've been.' She took a breath. 'I should never have left Matt in the first place.'
    Kate didn't like the sound of that. It implied that there had been more to their relationship than work.
    'But we both realise it was a mistake,' Alison continued. 'And this Caribbean trip will be a good chance to make sure that we're—still on the same wavelength.'
    Kate drank some coffee. 'Isn't the method rather a drastic one?' she enquired pleasantly.
    It was Alison's turn to shrug. 'Perhaps. But Jon has his career. Why shouldn't I be allowed mine?' She paused. 'I thought you of all people would understand, Kate. After all, you have your flat, your work, your independence. Don't tell me you're dying to give it all up for a flowered pinny the moment your publisher man pops the question!'
    There were undercurrents here beneath the mockery which Kate did not feel capable of fathoming.
    She said, 'No, I can't say that. But on the other hand, I'm not sure I'd be contemplating a trip abroad with another man before my first anniversary either.'
    Alison's giggle jarred. 'What a fuddy-duddy you are, after all, Kate! Haven't you ever heard of open marriage? It's far more interesting than the sort of prison most men want to shut you up in.'
    'Do you feel as if you're in prison?' Kate set her empty cup back on the tray.
    'Yes, if you must know,' Alison said shrilly, 'I do!'
    Kate felt her way carefully. 'Have you told Jon how you feel? Perhaps…?'
    'Of course I've told him, but it hasn't made an atom of difference,' Alison said angrily. 'He's always been spoiled, of course. He's had your mother, the classic happy drudge, waiting on him, and he thinks all women should be like her. Well, he's wrong!' Her voice rose sharply.
    The biting reference to her mother caught Kate on the raw, but she controlled a hot rejoinder. She said, 'If Jon's views of marriage are old-fashioned, I think you need to go further back than that. His own mother walked out on him, if you remember.'
    'I hadn't forgotten,' Alison said rather sullenly. 'And I can't say I altogether blame her, if Jon's father was as ridiculously possessive as he is.'
    Kate was beginning to feel sick. Every word that Alison uttered seemed to be bad news. She tried to imagine Jon's reaction when Alison told him what she was contemplating, but failed completely. For his wife to resume work at National Television would have been sufficient blow, knowing how he felt about Matt Lincoln, but this proposed trip to the Caribbean opened up a whole new dimension, she thought, horrified.
    She said calmly, 'I've never regarded my stepfather as being overly possessive, but then other people's marriages are generally a closed book.'
    'How true,' Alison agreed. 'You're quite a philosopher, aren't you, Kate?'
    Kate looked at her steadily for a moment, then she said, 'You don't like me, do you, Alison? I wish I knew why.'
    'Oh, but you're wrong,' Alison said, smiling. 'It's a great comfort to know that while I'm away with Matt, Sister Kate and the family will be around to give Jon consolation. Would you like some more coffee?'
    'No thanks.' Kate got to her feet, buttoning her jacket. 'I really have to be going.'
    'What a shame,' Alison said politely.
    The breeze had risen she found when she got outside, and the initial brightness of the day had clouded over, and she shivered as she walked along, conscious that Alison would be watching every step she took. She kept her head down and lengthened her stride.
    She found she was shaking inside as she stood at the bus stop for what seemed an interminable time. Alison's attitude bewildered her. Boredom might have made her sister-in-law resentful of the confines of marriage, but was that any real reason to rush on disaster as she seemed bent on doing? What had happened to the love she must have felt for Jon? Could that really have dissipated so