Free Hostile engagement by Jessica Steele Page A

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,
     
    was to wear the ring on her engagement finger for three months. She should have realised without having to be reminded that Jud Hemming had paid three thousand pounds for the ring, she must have been an idiot to think he would write off the loss of his money so easily. And yet if Rupert hadn't blabbed about her engagement to Charles Arbuthnot, none of this would have happened.
    Thinking of her brother she hoped he was safely tucked up in bed somewhere and not getting up to any mischief with Archie Proctor. She wished she could stop this overprotective feeling she had for her