drew a deep breath. ‘He does? And what did you say?’
‘I told him I’d think about it.’ There was a note almost of smugness in Alison’s voice. ‘What do you think about that?’
Kate shrugged. ‘What’s more to the point—what is Jon going to think about it?’
‘Jon will just have to get used to the idea.’ Alison’s flush deepened. ‘After all, marriage these days isn’t a terminal condition. There is supposed to be life afterwards. And I’m going to go out of my skull if I have to spend many more days looking out of that window, watching people walk round the close!’ She managed a little laugh.
Kate swallowed, ‘Yes, I can understand that. But—but I thought it was your idea to give up your job when you got married.’
‘It was, but I must have been insane,’ Alison said with sudden sharpness. ‘I suppose I thought …’ She stopped. ‘Well, that doesn’t 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 quickly? And even if marriage hadn’t lived up to Alison’s illusions, surely after so short a time there was still something left to build on?
Or was Matt Lincoln’s power over her really so absolute?
Kate couldn’t be sure, but she told herself the fact that Alison hadn’t instantly accepted his offer had to be a hopeful sign.
‘Just as long as my interference doesn’t push her into doing something stupid,’ she thought gloomily, as the bus finally trundled into sight.
When she arrived back at the house, Maria was waiting for her.
‘Felix phoned,’ she said, holding out a slip of paper. ‘With the information you wanted.’
‘Oh,’ Kate accepted it gingerly. ‘That was quick work.’
‘I think he had the impression that there was some sort of crisis going on,’ Maria said drily. ‘Is there?’
‘Something of the kind,’ Kate admitted. ‘I wish I could tell you about it, Maria, but—but it’s a family matter.’
‘But not, thank God, the sort that Felix clearly imagines,’ said Maria, an underlying note of laughter in her voice. She gave Kate’s flat young stomach a long and meaningful look.
‘No, of course not.’ Kate was appalled. ‘My God, I hardly know the man!’
‘That could be best,’ Maria nodded. ‘That girl Felix mentioned—Lorna Bryce—apparently she was almost cut to ribbons when he finished with her, and Felix reckons that ordinarily she’s quite a tough cookie.’ She turned away, adding almost as an afterthought, ‘Clive may not set the world on fire, but he doesn’t leave charred remains behind him either.’
In the studio, Kate stood staring down at the piece of paper in her hand, sorely tempted to tear it into a hundred infinitesimal fragments.
But
