Hostile engagement (8 page)

The sudden increased pressure on her shoulders worried her, but it lasted no longer than two seconds, then Jud's hands left her shoulders and he was once more trying to free her zip, saying coolly, 'In that case I'd better hurry up and get this job done so that we can leave your chaste little room,' and then infuriatingly, when he must know any movement she made would have her dress tearing at the seams, he added, 'If you have me in mind to be your tutor, forget it—cut your teeth on somebody else.'

It could have been his way of assuring her she had nothing to fear from him, but Lucy didn't see it like that; she knew he had taken her 'I still have a lot to learn' as an invitation, an invitation he had turned down, and her fury threatened to boil over. Then her zip was sliding up, Jud having achieved the job he set out to do, and she was left staring at the door as he went out saying, 'I'll wait for you downstairs.'

He was absolutely, one hundred per cent insufferable! Lucy thought as she collected her wrap. It was a warm night, and her wrap wouldn't be needed, but she felt in need of holding something in her hands; she didn't trust her control sufficiently to have her hands free if Jud Hemming made another crack like the last one before they reached the Hall.

Mrs Hemming came out into the hall to greet them when she heard them arrive and within a very few minutes Lucy decided she liked Jud's mother very much. How could she not like her when she was so opposite from her son, not only in looks but in manner too?

`I thought you were never going to get here,' she said after Jud had introduced them. 'Forgive my impatience, Lucy, but I've so looked forward to this day.'

Lucy summoned up a smile as she walked with the grey-haired woman, who was about her own height, into the drawing room she had been in only yesterday. She found it difficult to meet Mrs Hemming's eyes while they sipped

sherry before going in to dinner, and this upset her because she had never had any trouble looking directly at anyone before. It was guilt, pure and simple, she knew, at the deception she and Jud were practising on this welcoming woman, that kept her looking down into her lap for most of the time. She hoped Mrs Hemming would put it down to shyness until she could get a grip on herself.

During dinner conversation became more general, and Lucy was thankful to be able to appear more natural. This was Mrs Hemming's first visit to Rockford Hall since her son had moved in, and she was interested in everything Lucy could tell her about the district and its inhabitants.

`It's lovely hearing everything from someone who's lived in the neighbourhood for a long time,' Mrs Hemming said at one stage. `Jud can't abide the sort of affair we went to yesterday morning. He'd bought tickets, of course, to support the charity, but I made him take me so that I could get to know as many people as I could while I'm here.'

The conversation moved on to something else and Lucy drew a relieved breath that with the strawberries and champagne function successfully out of the way, she hadn't had to reveal she had been there too. She was grateful now that there had been such a crush and she had not got around to meeting Jud's mother then-she would like to have seen Jud lie his way out of that one. Then what Mrs Hemming had just said about wanting to get to know as many people as she could w
hile she was here made her ask

`You don't live at the Hall?'

`Oh no, didn't Jud tell you?' Lucy looked down at her plate as she tried to find a suitable answer that didn't involve the need to lie to this kindly woman. Then there was no need to lie, for Mrs Hemming was saying, 'Of course he hasn't, I expect you've been too wrapped up in each other to think of anything else,' and went on to tell her she had a house in Malvern. Originally she and Jud had lived in Warwickshire, and although they had liked the area very

much, there was nothing to compare with the pre-Cambrian hills of Malvern. She had visited them often as a girl, and when Jud's hard work had paid off and he told her he would buy her a house anywhere in the world she chose to live, there had been no other choice for her but Malvern. 'Not many mothers are blessed with such wonderful sons,' Mrs Hemming said, giving Jud an affectionate smile.

`You're biased,' Jud told his mother.

`So I expect is Lucy,' his mother replied proudly.

`Not every girl of my acquaintance falls in love with me, you know,' Jud said indulgently.

`Ah, but Lucy did—didn't you, my dear?'

Conscious that two pairs of eyes were turned in her direction, Lucy felt the heat of a blush creep up under her skin.

`Now you've made her blush,' Jud put in quietly, and deftly changed the subject to talk about the redecorations he had planned for some of the upstairs rooms.

After a delicious meal where the main course had been one of Lucy's favourites, duck superbly cooked with an orange sauce, they adjourned to the drawing room where a trim little maid came in with a tray of coffee.

Inevitably it seemed, with Mrs Hemming so pleased about her son's engagement, talk came round once more to this subject. Mrs Hemming handed Lucy a cup of coffee, remarking, 'Have you named the day yet, Lucy?'

Lucy took tight hold of her coffee cup and saucer, staring at the steaming liquid as though fascinated, only lifting her eyes when Jud told his mother softly :

'Lucy's parents died quite recently-we've decided to wait awhile.'

`Oh, my dear, I am sorry!' Mrs Hemming's sympathy was instant, and knowing that since she was deceiving her so badly she didn't deserve her sympathy, Lucy had to blink hard to keep the tears away. She didn't like that Jud

should use her dead parents as a means to get her out of a tension-filled moment, but she realised with a fairness she didn't want to feel that there was very little else he could have said that would sound convincing. 'Are you all alone now?' Mrs Hemming enquired gently, and Lucy with her control returning was able to tell her she lived with her brother Rupert, and had an aunt living in Garbury, a pretty little village on the outskirts of Sheffield.

Towards ten o'clock Jud decided it was time his mother was tucked up in bed. 'Dr Reading said you must keep regular hours and I think you've had enough excitement for one day,' he told her.

`You're marrying a bully,' Mrs Hemming smiled across at the dark-haired girl she thought would one day be her daughter-in-law. 'I shall see you again before I go back, shan't I?' she asked.

Jud handed his mother her handbag, making some comment to the effect that he was sure it had a hundredweight of coal in it, it was so heavy, and was it necessary for her to carry so much about with her, to which Mrs Hemming replied that men didn't understand about such matters, and gratefully Lucy realised there was no need for her to answer the question Mrs Hemming had put to her, while wishing the circumstances of their meeting had been different because Jud's mother was proving to be as good and kind as her own mother had been.

`Jud's taking me back to Malvern on Friday,' Mrs Hemming told her. 'There isn't very much time for us to get to know each other very well.' She thought for a brief pause, then turned to her son and suggested warmly, `Jud, why don't you and Lucy come and stay with me for the weekend? You could do with a break, I'm sure, and a weekend in the Malverns will blow all the cobwebs away.'

Her words dropped into a tense silence on Lucy's part as she waited for Jud to answer for them both. She didn't know how he was going to get them out of going, but he

would she was sure. He would see, she was certain, that to deceive his mother for the few hours she had been in her company at the Hall had been difficult enough. To spend the weekend with her at her home would be too much—apart from the distaste she felt at the deception, she would never be able to play her part convincingly for a whole weekend. She felt herself relax as Jud helped his mother to her feet and began to speak, then all her nerve ends seemed to tighten into one outsized knot, as she heard him saying easily :

`What an excellent idea. We'd like that very much, wouldn't we, Lucy?'

LUCY'S control was at breaking point when Jud returned after seeing his mother from the room. She was so angry she didn't trust herself to speak without yelling at him and thereby risking waking the whole house. She stood up, her lips tightly together, her handbag over her arm.

`You want to go?'

Several short sharp sentences of affirmation sprang to her lips, but she managed to bite them down. 'Yes,' she said instead, and refused to say anything else.

Jud stood looking at her; he couldn't help but notice her tight-lipped expression. He was astute enough to know she was quietly simmering, she felt sure, but if he anticipated a slanging match, he said nothing other than, 'I'll get your wrap.'

Once they were in the car and driving away from the Hall, Lucy could contain herself no longer. 'How dare you!' she ground out, her words coming out in tightly controlled fury. 'How dare you!'

`How dare I what?' Jud replied, seeming to be greatly surprised that she had taken exception to anything that had gone on that evening. 'I must confess myself mystified, Lucy, at what you've found to be angry about.'

So her seething fury had not been lost on him. 'How could you accept your mother's invitation for both of us?' she stormed, then really getting into her stride, 'You can have no idea how I felt at having to deceive her—I felt sick every time I had to lie to her ...'

B
ut you didn't have to lie to her, did you?' Jud cut in, his tone still sounding unconcerned. Lucy thought for a

moment-he was right, she hadn't in actual fact told any lies that evening, but—

`I lied to her by implication-I've joined forces with you in allowing her to believe we're engaged.' She was silent for a brief moment, then, 'Doesn't it bother you that you've lied to her?'

Not if the end justifies the means,' Jud said smoothly.

Lucy sat quietly fuming. What sort of man was he—this man who could calmly pretend to be engaged to her to get himself out of Carol's clutches, and carry it through even if it meant lying to his own mother?

`You should be ashamed of yourself,' she said, her thoughts on his mother, and was quite unprepared for the burst of laughter that echoed in her ears as the man by her side gave way to outrageous amusement. She could see nothing at all funny in what she had said, and although at any other time she might have thought his laughter a pleasant sound—up until then she hadn't thought he'd got a laugh in him—at that moment, the sound of his laughter made her more infuriated than ever. 'You're disgusting!' she fumed, and would have said more, only he stopped her with one well-chosen sentence.

`And you, Lucy, have the makings of a first-class shrew.'

If he hadn't been negotiating the car round a particularly tight bend she knew well, Lucy felt she would have been unable to resist the impulse to punch his head for that remark, but since he was the last person she wanted to end up in a ditch with, she used all her will power and kept her hands clenched tightly in her lap, and said not another word until he drew up outside Brook House, when he showed every sign of going in with her.

`I'll be all right on my own,' she said shortly. It was another waste of breath, she saw, as he left the car and walked to the front door with her. The house was in darkness and she fumbled in her bag for her key, only to have it taken out of her hand and inserted in the lock by Jud. It

was Jud too who snicked on the light and stood to one side in the hall as she preceded him into the sitting room.

She'd be damned if she would thank him for her dinner. `I won't be going with you to Malvern for the weekend,' she said, making no bones about it. It was a fact, she wasn't going, and he might just as well know now as later; he should never have accepted for her in the first place.

`Did you think all you had to do to earn your ring was to wear it?' he demanded.

It did seem an easy way to earn three thousand pounds' worth of sentiment, Lucy admitted then, and wondered if she would have agreed to wear it had she known the further deception she would be called upon to practice. As she looked down at her left hand the ring sparkled back at her, bringing a lump to her throat—the ring truly belonged to her, but she felt defeated suddenly.

`Don't make me go, Jud,' she said softly, all temper gone from her now, her voice unconsciously pleading.

`What's your objection to going?' Jud's voice was hard, ignoring the pleading note in her voice.

`I ... I ...' then as his unyielding attitude got through to her, her own voice lost some of its softness.
I
could never have deceived my own mother. You mother reminds me of her-not in the way she looks, but she has the same gentle manner, the same kind way with her ...' her voice tapered off. What she told him was the truth, but she couldn't look at him, doubting her words would have any effect on him—he was much too hard.

She was proved right, for his voice was harder than ever when he spoke, causing her to wonder if he thought she was putting on an act just to get out of going.

`We'll be leaving on Friday afternoon,' he said coldly. `Make sure you're ready.'

How had she got into all this? Lucy wondered as she lay wide awake in her bed after Jud had gone. It had seemed so simple at the start; all she had had to do, she had thought,