Hostile engagement (10 page)

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 behave 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 mothe
r 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.

`Who is Vera Stanfield?' Lucy asked bluntly, her footwear the least of her worries at that moment.

There was a silence that stretched between them for so long that she thought Jud wasn't going to answer her, then he said, 'Vera Stanfield is Carol Stanfield's mother.'

`Carol's mother?' she questioned, startled. She wanted to know more, much more, but she doubted Jud would tell her anything he didn't think it necessary for her to know.

But to her surprise Jud gave in to her obvious mystification. 'Vera Stanfield and my mother have known each other for years-they were at school together. They married round about the same time and what one did the other seemed to do too. They're very close friends,' he informed her, 'and share each other's joys 'and woes. When I arrived Vera Stanfield was very upset, so I believe, that she wasn't able to produce offspring too—but that's the way it goes, and sad though it is, after ten barren years Vera and her husband adopted a baby.'

`Carol,' Lucy put in, her confused thoughts temporarily ousted by a feeling of instant sympathy for the unknown Vera Stanfield who had so yearned for a baby.

`Carol,' Jud confirmed. 'And what a delight she turned out to be.'

Some of Lucy's sympathy ebbed at the warm note in Jud's voice. Surely he hadn't ... She tried to blank the thought off, but it persisted-the thought that left a nasty taste in her mouth that Jud had betrayed the trust Mrs Stanfield must have in him, the thought that he had taken her daughter ...

`Before your mind becomes tangled up in mucky imaginings,' Jud broke into her thoughts coldly, 'I'll tell you now that Carol and I have never had an affair.'

Lucy had no answer to that. Furious she might be that he had read her mind so accurately, but she wouldn't forgive him for that 'mucky imaginings'. What else was she to think—the girl had been wearing her ring, and all the information she had had prior to his sudden announcement to the contrary had led her to believe Carol had indeed

shared his bed at some time or another.

Since his remark had successfully silenced her, Jud went on : 'I've said Carol is a delight, and so she is—a bit scatterbrained maybe, but a delightful child nonetheless.'

Lucy did some quick mental arithmetic. Jud had told her he was thirty-five, so if. Carol had arrived ten years after him, then Carol must be twenty-five. A delightful child, he had said—Carol was three years older than she was. Lucy remembered the girl with the friendly smile and realised then that probably since Jud had known Carol from the time she had been an infant, she would always appear to him to be no more than a child.

They walked on, neither saying anything as Lucy tried to sort out her confused thoughts. A picture of her brother flashed through her mind. Rupert was the same age as Carol—a man in his own right-but she never thought of him as that, he was just the brother she had grown up with; perhaps that was how Jud regarded Carol. Lucy found the oddest pleasure in that thought and didn't know why. She shrugged thoughts of Rupert away and returned to the subject Jud must have thought finished with-there were still one or two questions that needed to be cleared up, and she considered that even as his mock-fiancée, she was entitled to have a few answers.

HER feet firmly rooted to the ground, Lucy came to a standstill. The more she thought about her mock engagement the more confused she became, and suddenly she wasn't going to go another step until Jud had told her what she wanted to, know. They hadn't been walking fast, just strolling up the sloping path. Jud must have been miles away with his own thoughts, but when he realised she was no longer with him he retraced his steps and came back to join her, a look of mild enquiry on his face.

`Would you mind, Jud Hemming, telling me what exactly I'm doing being engaged to you?'

`I thought you knew.' His tone was as mild as his look, but that didn't put her off. She knew if there was anything devious going on—and the thought that it was was growing larger by the minute—then she knew his quick-thinking brain would be doing some rapid calculations behind that bland mask.

`That's just it-I don't know,' she said, a determined look on her face.

Jud looked at her briefly, then turned to a bench nearby where the not-so-fit could take a breather before going on, and led her over to it. When they were both sitting down he glanced her way 'again, but Lucy didn't wait for whatever clever remark he had thought up to flatten. her with, but plunged straight in.

`I agreed to this farce because I. believed that by showing you were engaged to me you would be extracting yourself from a very clinging female who couldn't see your affair was finished, and also in order to reclaim a ring that's rightfully mine anyway,' she told him, stating the facts as she

saw them, pausing only when it looked as though Jud was going to insert something. She gave him a hasty glance, but he looked quite imperturbable and had nothing to say, it seemed, except an extremely polite :