Hostile engagement

by Jessica Steele

  `I hadn't meant to tell him,' he admitted, not at all put out that his sister should take him to task about it. But he was treating me like a school-kid—you know the sort of thing I mean.' Lucy said nothing and waited to hear him out as he mimicked Charles Arbuthnot's tones and man-

  nerisms. 'He reminded me, as if I needed any reminding, that "your family have always been well respected, Rupert. I know you have had to take a nasty blow, but unless you do something about clearing your overdraft I shall be forced to take steps to ensure that the bank has its money".' Lucy didn't know how Mr Arbuthnot proposed the overdraft be cleared, and privately she thought he was being a little high-handed about an amount which at the most couldn't be more than a couple of hundred pounds, but she bit her lip worriedly as Rupert went on. 'Old Arbuthnot carried on in the same vein for what seemed an hour—though I was only with him for twenty minutes-but when he said, "The last thing I want, Rupert, is that you should lose your status in the community"-well, it niggled me. Who does he think he is, for God's sake? So I told him, "Actually, Mr Arbuthnot, I think there's very little likelihood of that," and you should have seen his face, Lucy, when I told him you were engaged to the millionaire owner of Rockford Hall.'

  Lucy turned away from him trying to drown her thoughts as she filled the kettle to make a cup of tea. So it had been bravado-sheer bravado, that had been the reason for Rupert telling Charles Arbuthnot she was engaged, and to whom. She wondered who else the bank manager had told besides his wife, and realised it didn't really matter who else he had told—as Jud had said, it wouldn't be long before it was all over Priors Channing anyway. Mrs Arbuthnot was not likely to keep that snippet of news to herself.

  `I say, you're not upset about it, are you?' Rupert, Lucy thought, was being particularly insensitive about the whole affair.

  `I was upset, Rupert,' she confessed, by calling him by his full name showing she wasn't feeling all that friendly to him just then. `Jud Hemming came here yesterday—Mrs Arbuthnot had told Jud's mother, and he insisted I

  went to the Hall and be introduced to her.'

  `Strewth!' muttered Rupert, taken out of his stride momentarily, only to come bouncing back to say, 'Well, you're still alive to tell the tale.'

  Lucy saw it was pointless telling Rupert any of her feelings, the uncaring mood he was now in. 'Yes, I am, aren't I,' she said quietly. 'Do you want a cup of tea?'

  `Might take some of the fur off my tongue,' Rupert replied, letting her know he had drunk his fill last night. She joined him at the kitchen table, and sat absentmindedly stirring her tea-she didn't take sugar.

  `You'll have to look after yourself this weekend,' she stated unemotionally. `I'm going to stay with Jud's mother for a few days on Friday.'

  Rupert went up to his room shortly after he had drunk his tea. No doubt to catch up on the sleep he had missed, Lucy thought, as she rinsed the teacups they had used. Far from showing regret that she had been manoeuvred into going to Malvern on Friday, he had seemed delighted-not that she had told him how Jud had accepted the invitation for her when she had been certain he would have refused; Rupert's face, she recalled, had beamed at the news and all he had said was, 'I thought you said Jud Hemming didn't fancy you.' She hadn't used those actual words, though she had implied them, she recalled as she took the sponge cake out of the oven. Then feeling her emotions beginning to get on top of her, she tipped the cake out on to a rack to cool and went outside into the sunshine and taking a route across fields that were as familiar to her as breathing, she took herself off for a long walk, not returning until she had walked her agitated feelings out of her system.

  Lucy saw nothing of Jud Hemming for the next few days, and was relieved about that. She had no idea where he worked, but since the nearest Hemming Aluminium plant was about forty miles away she reasoned that he probably went there daily. Assuming he would be working dur-

  ing the day, that still left him with his evenings free, but when it came to Thursday and he hadn't contacted her, she began to feel a little irritated. He was playing the lord of the manor with a vengeance, she thought. Having said he would call for her on Friday afternoon he had left it at that, as if having given his instructions he need not concern himself with her until Friday.

  News of her engagement had spread rapidly round the village and she had several phone calls from friends who rang to wax enthusiastically about her good fortune. Philippa Browne was one of her telephone callers, saying she couldn't believe it when she had heard.

  `I never had any inkling that a romance was going on right under my nose,' said Pippa, who always reckoned to know everything that was happening. 'Mrs Hemming was at the hairdressers at the same time I was having my hair done-I've had it done in that new frizzy .style, though I don't think I like it-anyway, Mrs Hemming was saying you met her son when he first came to view the Hall, and that things grew from there. You are lucky, Lucy—I'd give my eye teeth for him, with or without his bank balance!'

  Lucy had sat stunned for a while after the call. It took all sorts, she mused, thinking over what Pippa had said about giving her eye teeth for Jud Hemming. She had to admit, if she was to be truly honest, that some women might go for his cool manner-she refused to dwell on the nebulous thought that had come to her when he had kissed her, that if she didn't dislike him so much she might have enjoyed the experience; the kisses she had received prior to the ones he had bestowed had lacked the experience of the more mature man. Hastily she turned her mind away to reflect that he must have told his mother that bit about their first meeting when he had come to view the Hall. Were there no lies he wouldn't utter in order to get his own way?

  On Thursday evening she had done nothing about packing her weekend case. It was as though by not doing so she

  felt herself uncommitted. Rupert was out again tonight, probably again with Archie Proctor. He would have told her who he was meeting if she had asked him, only like an ostrich burying its head in the sand, she had decided she didn't want to know, and in consequence now wished she had.

  When the phone rang she went to answer it, wondering if it was Rupert to say he wouldn't be coming home that night. But it wasn't Rupert's voice she heard but that of Jud calling her from Germany.

  `I didn't tell you what time to be ready,' he said infuriatingly.

  `I've been sitting here waiting for my orders,' she came back sarcastically.

  There was a small pause, and when he spoke next she thought she could detect a faint trace of amusement in his voice, but it must have been a distortion in the telephone cables, she thought, because it soon disappeared.

  `You haven't been up to the Hall,' he stated.

  She had no idea how long he had been in Germany, but no doubt he would have been in touch with the Hall by telephone and his mother would have told him she hadn't seen her.

  No—I'm not as practised as you in the art of lying without verbally committing myself.'

  `You are committed, though, aren't you?' he jibed.

  `Roll on the end of August,' Lucy retorted fervently. It was indelibly imprinted on her mind that the end of August would see the end of their engagement. `What time shall I be ready tomorrow?' she asked into the silence left when Jud made no reply to her fervent wish.

  `I'll call for you around three,' he said smoothly, then the line went dead.

  Lucy was ready when the Bentley pulled up outside Brook House the following afternoon. She had been pacing up and down the sitting room carpet still trying to think up

  ways of getting out of going, when she spotted the car from the window. There was no one in the passenger seat, so she guessed they would be returning to the Hall to pick up Mrs Hemming.

  Dressed in a linen suit of ice blue, she went to let Jud in. Rupert had gone out before lunch, and she had hoped he would be back before Jud arrived if only because it would have meant he had sufficient brotherly concern to see for himself the man she was engaged to. But Rupert hadn't returned and if she didn't know better she would have suspected he w
as purposely keeping out of Jud's way, which was ridiculous because the two had never met and there was no reason for Rupert to avoid meeting him.

  `Ready?' asked Jud, as she opened the door to him putting his hand out for the weekend case she was holding.

  Unspeaking, Lucy handed her case over, pulling the door closed behind her. It annoyed her that Jud checked to see that the door was securely locked, but she stamped down her feeling of annoyance, knowing that in ten minutes or so she would have to greet Mrs Hemming as though she hadn't a care in the world.

  Jud seemed quite unconcerned that she hadn't spoken one word to him, and that irritated her further. They were almost on the point of turning into the drive of the Hall before it came to her that she might be being a little childish. She looked down at the ring on her finger. She was being well paid after all, she thought, it wouldn't hurt to be civil to him—beast that he was.

  . . . did you have a pleasant time in Germany?' she enquired politely as the car turned into the drive of the Hall, and could have wished she had been able to make her remark without that stammering start.

  `You've spoilt a record,' Jud answered mysteriously. `Record?'

  `I've never known a woman be quiet for ...' he checked his watch as he halted the car outside the front door of the

  Hall, `... all of ten minutes,' he ended.

  `I'll bet,' said Lucy acidly, a mental picture of him with some willing female in his arms flashing unheralded through her mind. It was disconcerting to realise that Jud knew a fair bit of the thoughts that went through her mind, disconcerting also to hear that laugh she had heard once before.

  She was outside the car before he had come round to her side, and was a little ashamed of herself for the way she slammed the door behind her. The majestic Bentley had done nothing to deserve such treatment.

  Mrs Hemming greeted her warmly and when the time came to get into the car again Lucy went to the rear passenger door intending Mrs Hemming should sit with her son, but Mrs Hemming wouldn't hear of her occupying the rear seat.

  `You sit up front with Jud,' she smiled. 'I might want to nod off.'

  Suspecting that since her illness Mrs Hemming had most likely taken to having a rest every afternoon, Lucy smiled back. 'Are you sure?' she enquired, noticing now they were outside in broad daylight that Jud's mother did look a little tired.

  `Quite sure, Lucy—if my eyelids do begin to droop you and Jud can carry on a conversation without worrying about disturbing me.'

  Lucy got into the front seat knowing if Mrs Hemming did fall asleep, it was going to be very quiet inside the car indeed, for nothing would induce her to voluntarily say anything to Jud.

  It was a glorious afternoon and once on their way Jud drove expertly and without fuss. For the first hour talk flowed easily and without restraint between Lucy and Mrs Hemming, Jud saying very little, and at one stage half turned in her seat so Mrs Hemming shouldn't have to talk to the back of her head, Lucy caught a look on his face that

  told her he was silently reiterating what he had said about never having known a woman keep quiet for ten minutes. Lucy found she was able to ignore him without Mrs Hemming being aware of it. Then talk between them became spasmodic and thinking perhaps Mrs Hemming might now want to sleep, Lucy turned round to face the front.

  She saw the hills of Malvern long before they reached them, and as they came nearer and nearer she wondered, not for the first time, what the weekend would hold. So far everything had gone along swimmingly, and although neither she nor Jud were demonstrative with each other-God forbid—Mrs Hemming had not noticed that everything was not as it should be between two people who she thought were head over heels in love with each other. Lucy guessed that Jud wasn't the demonstrative type anyway, and reasoned that his mother would know that, and hoped if she did note the lack of outward affection between them, Mrs Hemming would put it down to the fact that both her son and his fiancée were rather 'private people'.

  Having sorted this out to her satisfaction, Lucy felt the first stirrings of interest in her weekend away from Brook House. At the beginning of the journey Mrs Hemming had enthused about Malvern, telling Lucy of the pleasures it had to offer besides the hills that Edward Elgar had once trodden and probably gained his inspiration to write some of his superb music.

  Lost in her own thoughts, Lucy was brought back to the present by Jud's easy, 'Nearly there,' as the Bentley effortlessly began to climb. 'I expect you could do with stretching your legs—we'll take a walk after you've had a cup of tea.'

  There was no 'Would you like to take a walk?', just a plain statement of fact. But as the car carried on its upward climb, Lucy found the niggle of irritation she had expected to feel at his pronouncement of what they would do unexpectedly missing. Perhaps a walk—she expected it would

  be on the hills—was just what she would like, though she was uncertain that Jud was the companion she would have chosen.

  Mrs Hemming stirred just as Jud pulled on to the short drive outside a house that was about the same size as Brook House, though not as old. Built at the turn of the century, Lucy thought, as she stepped out of the car and looked to the front door where a plump woman had come out to join them as Jud helped his mother from the car.

  `I've been looking out for you,' the plump woman said, coming up to them. 'The kettle is on the boil all ready.'

  She was a friendly woman and appeared to have a great affection for Mrs Hemming and Jud, and Lucy learned on being introduced to Lottie that she had been with Mrs Hemming 'for years', and when Mrs Hemming had moved to Malvern, there had been no question but that Lottie should come too.

  Jud had them all ushered inside the house with the minimum amount of fuss. 'I'll take the cases up while you talk to Lottie,' he told his mother, and then turning to Lucy who had stood inside the pleasant sitting room while Lottie had enquired first as to Mrs Hemming's health, then shrieked with pleasure on learning that Jud was engaged, he said, 'Come with me, Lucy, I'll show you your room.'

  Lucy went with him up the staircase thickly carpeted in red and held in place by shining brass stair rods. Her room was to the left of the landing which had a few more doors going to either side of the door he opened for her. Expecting Jud to just drop her case and depart, she was mildly surprised when he came into the room with her and after depositing her suitcase on the warm pink carpet he went over to the window. He seemed to find the view very satisfying and, unconscious that she had moved, Lucy went to join him.

  `Why, it's beautiful!' was drawn from her as she looked

  at the view that stretched for miles and miles.

  She stood enraptured looking down over Herefordshire and gazed her fill, unspeaking, until Jud turned from the window. 'Mother particularly wanted you to have this room because of the view,' he told her quietly, adding, 'She likes you, Lucy.'

  Lucy stared at him; for all his face was unsmiling the grey-green eyes she had thought so cold had an unexpected warmth in them, and she looked hurriedly away as a mixture of feelings within her fought for precedence. The feeling of guilt at the way they were deceiving Mrs Hemming won over the surprising, almost earth-shaking feeling that he might be very nice if the warmth in his eyes ever stayed there for any length of time.

  `That doesn't make me feel any better about what we're doing,' she said flatly, wishing he would tell his mother about Carol and the need for this charade. She looked at him again to find that cold look had returned to his eyes.

  `Needs must when the devil drives,' he said, which left her knowing Carol was the particular devil in this case. Jud walked over to the door. 'Try to strangle that conscience of yours this weekend,' he instructed. 'My mother wants you to enjoy yourself. Tea will be ready in a few minutes.' With that he left her.

  Lucy was glad to be on her own. She went over to the window as if hoping the calming view would quieten the upsurge of emotions that had beset her when Jud had been in the room.

  He would be taking her back on Sunday, and until then she had to beh
ave as if she hung on his every word. Strangle her conscience, he had said, but that was easier said than done, and if he wasn't such an insensitive brute he would realise that. But no, that was too much to hope for; all he was concerned with was that the hold Carol Stanfield had on him must be broken. Lucy spent a few minutes wondering about his relationship with Carol, then feeling an

  emotion she didn't recognise, only knowing she didn't like it—that churning up feeling inside her—she went into the bathroom that led off her bedroom, washed her hands, ran a comb through her hair, and thought it about time she joined the others downstairs. She would unpack the few things she had brought with her later.

  Since they would be dining at eight, tea was a light affair with Mrs Hemming presiding over the teapot. 'Lucy and I thought we'd go for a walk,' Jud announced, having downed two cups of tea, and now looking ready for some action.

  `You're never still two minutes,' his mother scolded him fondly. 'Still, I expect Lucy would like to have a look round, and I must telephone Vera Stanfield.'

  Lucy managed to smile as she stood up to accompany Jud out of the room, but her mind was racing with thoughts of who was Vera Stan field? Was she related to Carol? And if so, what would Vera Stanfield think of Jud becoming engaged so soon after Carol had left the Hall, for Carol had been nowhere in evidence when she had dined at the Hall the day Jud had given her her ring.

  Her thoughts too chaotic to think of anything other than the problem immediately on her mind, Lucy set out for her walk with Jud without giving heed to the thought that she would be better equipped for walking in the flat-heeled shoes that were now in her case.

  They crossed the road after leaving the house and were at once at the foot of several pathways that led to the crown of one of the range of hills. 'We'll keep to this path,' Jud told her, leading her away from a well trodden grassy path and along the hardened surface of a constructed pathway. `You'll find it hard going in those shoes on the other path,' he said, noticing where she had not that two-inch heels were not quite the thing for scrambling up a grassy incline.