Read Online Circles of Fate by Anne Saunders - Free Book Online Page A

thought, this is it, Cathy girl!”
    â€œAnd you stopped, just like that? What will-power!”
    Cathy took a furtive right-left look. “Actually no. I cheat occasionally. I want taking in hand by someone male. That’s the only stipulation I make. He can be tall or short, young or old, fat or thin.”
    â€œYou’re incorrigible.”
    â€œNo, just hellishly lonely. Hello, Anita. Nice to meet you.”
    â€œHello, Cathy. Nice to meet you. Look, now that we have met, how about getting together again? This evening?”
    â€œAre you on your own?”
    â€œNo, I have a friend back at the hotel.”
    Cathy pointed to Anita’s ring. “The friend who gave you that?”
    â€œAs a matter of fact, yes.”
    â€œNo, then. If it’s like that, I won’t intrude.”
    Anita took a deep breath. “It’s not like that at all. Do come. By the way, I knew your employer’s late wife. I was on Rock Bennett’s plane, the one that crash-landed.”
    Cathy’s eyes widened and darkened. “ That was dreadful.”
    â€œHow is he taking it?”
    â€œHe’s demented, almost out of his mind. They were a devoted couple, you know.”
    Anita frowned. No, she didn’t know. They were a couple on the verge of splitting up. When Monica Perryman went to visit her sister, Claude Perryman must have known her state of mind. A woman can’t hide that sort of thing, and besides which she had hinted at lots of little quarrels and one massive one. On second thoughts, perhaps he did know and was left with the legacy of knowing he had not made his wife as happy as he might have done. He had been financially capable of making some suitable compromise, surely? This could only increase his agony. Now, Monica Perryman’s confidence was more than a secret, it was a sacred trust. She would never let anything slip to hurt him more than he was already hurt. She would never tell.
    â€œI met a rather zany girl this afternoon,” she told Edward later. “She’s coming to the hotel for drinks, after dinner. You’ll like her” – spoken hopefully, but dubiously.
    Amazingly Edward did like her. It must have been the attraction of opposites. Catherine, or Cathy as she said she preferred to be called, was a fireball, with (no pun intended) a Catherine-wheel approach to life. Appropriately enough she had red hair and you were conscious of her all the time, as you would be of a comet or summer lightning or anything bright and explosive. With Cathy it was carnival time all the time. She didn’t masquerade as anything she wasn’t, but she did wear a mask over her features so that you were never quite sure what she was thinking, or what pain she had suffered. She was in her thirty-sixth year and nature had been kind to her and had drawn only flattering lines on her face, but occasionally there was something undisguisable and hurt in her eyes.
    The three of them left the hotel to wander into one of the many bars. Inevitably some friends of Cathy’s drifted in and she went over to talk to them. Her absence was utilized in the time-honoured way.
    â€œWhat do you think of her?” asked Anita.
    â€œShe’s – different.”
    â€œEdward,” she scolded. “Don’t be so cautious. She’s absolutely fascinating and you can’t take your eyes off her.”
    His grin was sheepish, non-committal.
    She fingered her ring. “Isn’t it time we ended this charade? It was never a proposal in the sense of the word. I think you only wanted to protect me, didn’t you, Edward? Well, now I want to protect you. Cathy mustn’t get the wrong idea about us.”
    â€œIf – and I’m not admitting to anything – the time does come, I’ll tell Cathy about us. Perhaps you don’t want to wear the ring for reasons of your own?”
    â€œPerhaps I don’t.”
    â€œTake it off then. Wear it on the