The Daughter of Night Read Free Page A

away. 'Thank you for calling, Mr Thalassis, although I can't say I've enjoyed meeting you or that your visit has given me very much pleasure…'
    'Not yet,' he made no attempt to rise. 'I'm thinking about your future, I don't want this sort of thing happening again, and twenty thousand pounds isn't very much by today's standards…'
    'Now, that's a change in your tune,' she marvelled brightly. 'A few minutes ago you called it "rather a large sum". What's happened to make you change your mind?'
    He shrugged, ignoring her as though she hadn't spoken. 'Do you intend to invest it—maybe start up a business of your own, or have you some idea of marriage? It wouldn't even buy you a decent house.'
    'And as I said before,' Hester stood very erect and looked down on him haughtily, 'it's none of your business what I do, but, just for the record, I've a very good job and no intention of changing it—also, I've no intention of getting married. In my layer of society, that's not quite the ideal state as pictured in the glossy magazines. Ordinary housewives are expected to cook and clean—stay at home and look after babies. No, thank you, that's not my idea of life!'
    'Then perhaps a new wardrobe and a year to catch a wealthy husband…?'
    'That does it!' Almost without thinking, her rage was so great, she had grasped his shoulder and was pulling him from the chair, anger lending strength to her hands. 'You can speculate all you want on the way back to where you came from. As I said, it's no concern of yours. So just go back to Vilma and tell her she hasn't much time left.'
    He shook off her hands as though there was no particle of strength in her grip. 'Don't tell me what to do, Miss Hester Marsh! I'm merely considering if and how you should be paid. If I decide you should have the money, I then have to work out how best to pay you—'
    'Cash,' she answered promptly. 'No cheques, I don't want anything traceable. What is it they say in the movies?—small denomination notes and in a paper bag—I want to be able to count it! Knowing Vilma, and you do get to know a person when you've spent the best part of your adult life tracing them—she's quite likely to try short-changing me. Money sticks to her little fingers like glue—she can't bear to part with it. And I don't want money from your family, that would spoil the whole thing—it'll hurt her that much more to have to part with her own.' She took a deep breath. 'Now you can call me a bitch, I deserve it!' And without waiting for a reply, she stormed into the tiny bathroom, slammed the door viciously, locked it and began to dress her shivering body in the clothes laid out ready.
    Her teeth were chattering as she wriggled her chilled body into bra, panties and tights, topped them with the towelling robe which was still damp so that she shivered even more, and then waited for the sound of movement in the bedsitting room. She had no intention of leaving her refuge until he was gone.
    It seemed like an age before she heard his footsteps leaving the room and going down the mini-hallway, and then came the sound of the quiet closing of her door onto the landing. She had taken off her watch before she showered and it was still lying where she'd left it on the mantlepiece in her bedsitting room, so she had no means of telling the time, so she sat on the stool beside the shower cabinet and counted slowly up to two hundred. After that, she took the catch off the bathroom door, opened it and poked her head round the narrow gap, still listening. She wasn't going to be caught again—she'd heard of people who slammed a door and then hid behind it, but everything was silent and there was that indefinable feeling that the flat was empty, so she felt it safe to emerge from her hiding place.
    Picking up her watch, she gazed at the clear little face as though she could hardly believe so little time had passed since Demetrios Thalassis had forced his way into her bedsitter flat. She felt as exhausted as