Free Hostile engagement by Jessica Steele

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?'
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CHAPTER FOUR
     
    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