Read Fate Worse Than Death for Free Online

because, having lived with a lover who had made use of her and then moved on, she had at the time gone off men. She now felt better disposed towards the male sex in general and Martin Tait in particular, but she was in no hurry to embark on a relationship with him or anyone else.
    It was undeniable, though, that the sun had shone on her more brightly in these past few weeks. She lifted her face to it, listened to the lark, watched the invisible jet spilling trails of salt across the blue cloth of the sky. ‘Isn’t this a brilliant summer?’ she said.
    â€˜The best I can remember. Glad you came back to Suffolk?’
    â€˜Of course. In London I was just a secretary at the BBC, and I love working here in local radio as a presenter. A proper career at last. And there was no point in my having a car in London, with all the parking hassle there, but now I’ve got wheels of my own …’
    â€˜I didn’t mean that.’
    He had taken off his sun-glasses and she looked at him for the first time since they had landed. His eyes were an uncomfortably piercing blue: a detective’s eyes, seeing through evasions, noticing too much. She looked away again, blushing.
    â€˜I know you didn’t,’ she said. ‘Yes, I’m glad I’m back.’
    Their hands moved together, fingers entwining. They began to speak tenderly, exchanging guarded expressions of affection; taking care not to expose their emotions completely, but for the first time trying words like ‘we’and ‘us’for size.
    Then Martin steered towards the subject of accommodation. He suggested that sharing a house in Yarchester with a mixed group, as Alison did, was thoroughly unsatisfactory. She agreed, saying that she was looking for a place of her own. He said that he was planning to move, having found a better flat: ‘A bigger one. Large sitting-room with balcony, one large bedroom, good kitchen and bathroom –’
    â€˜Very nice.’
    â€˜Yes. But very much nicer if we were to share it.’
    Alison went quite still. Then she said evenly, ‘It’s a place of my own that I’m after. I don’t think cohabitation is a good idea. I tried it, once.’
    â€˜I know you did.’
    She took her hand away from his. ‘I might have known you’d know,’ she said, her voice edged with remembered dislike. ‘You’re a detective, after all.’
    He cursed himself silently for reminding her of it. Two years before, misinterpreting his single-mindedness in pursuit of villainy, Alison had called him an unprincipled liar. He had hoped she’d forgotten that incident.
    â€˜Finding out about you, when we first met, was nothing to do with my being a detective,’ he said quickly. ‘It was my natural reaction because you’re such a very attractive girl. And your father told me more about you than he might normally have done because you worried us sick by disappearing … remember? From what he told me, the man you had been living with gave you a very raw deal.’
    Alison shrugged. ‘I was young and silly, and Gavin was a pig. I lived with him because I loved him. He lived with me because I was fool enough to wash his dirty socks and cook for him. I’m not walking into that trap again.’
    â€˜You wouldn’t, with me. I’m not that kind of man. I’m an excellent cook, and I send all my dirty clothes to a laundry. I want to live with you because it’s the natural extension of our relationship.’
    She looked at him coolly. ‘Well, yours is a different approach, I’ll say that. Gavin Jackson talked me into living with him by swearing that he loved me. At least you’re being more honest than he was.’
    Tait opened his mouth and closed it again, alarmed by the verbal minefield that lay ahead. He suspected that he did indeed love her; certainly he’d never before in the whole of his life felt about any girl the way