Rebirth Read online

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  Paul Divine was already regretting his decision to stay behind on Persephone. It was not that he did not like spending time with Alice Tarraway; it was that the entire population was very committed to their religion. He knew that that was a good thing for the religion and its followers, but it was not so good for someone like Paul Divine, who held different thoughts about such things. His thoughts on many of the ideas that their church taught its followers were that they were just so much garbage, and he could not believe that they were taken seriously by intelligent people, but then religion is more about faith than actually facts, and the proof that may or may not lie behind them. Each day he went for a long walk to get away from the daily sermon, it was good exercise for him, but he realised that he could not live this sort of life amongst a religious people without drawing apart from the one reason that had decided him to stay on, to spend a little time with Alice Tarraway. He would leave when the Defender returned. It was too early in their relationship to expect Alice to leave with him; he could not believe that she meant so much to him after so short a time. Maybe he had secretly been yearning for a more settled life, and with someone to share it.