Read Online Hostile engagement by Jessica Steele - Free Book Online Page B

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