Hostile engagement (12 page)

`No, he hasn't,' Jud said from the doorway. 'If you're on kitchen fatigues this morning can I have my bacon crisp?

Lucy was glad of Lottie's presence as she and Jud sat in the kitchen eating their breakfast. Having no fancy to be alone with him, she had been dreading the whole time the bacon had been sizzling in the pan that Lottie would insist that they should eat in the dining room now that Jud was there, but Lottie didn't, and refused Lucy's offer to cook her something, saying she had already eaten, though when pressed by Jud she did sit down with them and shared the coffee pot with them.

`Fancy a walk to the top of the Beacon after lunch?' Jud asked Lucy, telling her, 'I've got one or two jobs lined up for me this morning.'

The Beacon? Isn't that the highest of the hills?' Hadn't Mrs Hemming said that yesterday in the car?

Lottie joined in the conversation, confirming Lucy's question, and adding, 'I've never been to the top myself, but they do say on a clear day you can see miles—even as far as the Bristol Channel.' It was easy to see, as Lottie warmed to her theme, that she had taken Malvern to her

heart since she had moved there with Mrs Hemming. 'No end of famous people used to live in or around Malvern,' she told Lucy while Jud looked on. Elizabeth Barrett, the poet, had lived at Hope End, Lucy learned. Jenny Lind, the Swedish soprano, had lived at Wynds Point where she had died at the age of sixty-seven and was now buried in Malvern, her husband following her to rest twenty years later. And carrying on from there Lottie told an interested Lucy that Peter Roget was buried in West Malvern, though Lottie said she didn't know very much about him. Lucy thought she must mean Peter Roget of Thesaurus fame, and listened to learn what else Lottie had to say until Lottie said, 'Well, this is no good—I must get on.'

`Lucy and I will wash up if you want to get on with something else,' Jud told her, coming into the conversation for the first time, having seemed quite content to sit back and watch Lucy and his mother's help getting to know each other. 'Knowing you, you'll want all the cushions plumped up before I take you into town.'

Lucy got up from the table as Lottie, with a duster in her overall pocket, left the room. 'I could have offered to do the dusting,' she said, in half a mind to follow Lottie and tell her so—she could be doing that while Lottie and Jud were in town.

Jud caught hold of Lucy's arm
and pulled her round to face him. 'There's no need,' he said. 'I suspect you're kept busy at Brook House—have a .rest this weekend.' Lucy looked up and witnessed the not so cold look in his eyes that she had seen there once before. 'You have a nice way with you, Lucy,' he added quietly and unexpectedly, and not knowing what to make of that, especially as once again his eyes dropped to her mouth and back again and she had already established satisfactorily to herself that he had no desire to kiss her, Lucy looked away.

Feeling strangely restless, she began clearing the table and found Jud helping her while she was still trying to sort

out what, if anything, he had meant by 'You have a nice way with you'. The only conclusion she could come to as she rinsed through the dishes they had used, watching Jud from the corner of her eye as he picked up a cloth and began to dry them, was that he must mean the easy way she and Lottie had got on with each other. Then came another disquieting thought ...

`I wasn't being nice to Lottie for my own ends,' she blurted out without thinking.

`Own ends?' Jud queried, clearly having no idea what she was talking about.

Lucy wished then that she had thought before she said anything. It was too late now and Jud was obviously waiting for her to explain her statement.

`Well, I know you haven't any great opinion of women,' and me in particular, she almost added, but that was getting away from the point. 'But in case you're thinking I was trying to get round Lottie and through her your mother, and through your mother to you—I wasn't.' She wished she had never got started on this, for Jud was looking at her blankly as if trying to fathom what on earth she was talking about. Bravely she carried on, though was aware her creamy complexion was tinged with a pink glow. `When we had help at Brook House—' she began again, and bit her lip before remembering that Jud already knew she and Rupert no longer employed outside help, so she hadn't let slip anything he wasn't aware of, 'Well, our help then was always treated as part of the family,' she added, and concentrated her attention on the-rose-patterned cup in her hand.

`That rose won't scrub off,' Jud said behind her, drawing her attention to the fact she must have been rubbing away at it for at least a minute. She felt something touch the top of her head, and because her hands were awash with soapy water, flicked her head instinctively while the shattering thought came to her that Jud had just kissed the

top of her head. Her imagination was having a field day,

she realised, as Jud came to take up his position once more,

having deposited the dried-up articles on the kitchen table.

`What you're trying to say, I think, is that you like talking to Lottie purely because she's Lott
ie.
That you fancy neither my bank balance nor me—in other words, what you're trying to say in the politest way possible is that Jud Hemming doesn't turn Lucy Carey on, is that right?'

His voice didn't sound as though that last thought bothered him in the slightest, and Lucy was sure it didn't bother her one iota that he was indifferent to her not fancying him.

`I couldn't have put it better if I'd spent all day working on it,' she told him coolly, without realising her confirming words might by some men have been taken as a challenge for them to try and get her to alter her opinion.

Though Jud retained his offhand manner, his voice was a shade harder as he informed her, 'If it means anything to you, I long ago took you out of the same category as some of my more hardened female acquaintances.'

Lucy wished Lottie would come back soon. Surprise at his comment had very nearly made her drop the saucer she was holding. She took refuge in a short, sharp, sarcastic comment.

`I'm honoured.'

She half turned as Lottie came into the kitchen and caught an expression on Jud's face that made her stomach turn over, for there was no mistaking his look; it said as clearly as if he had spoken that she was going to have to pay for her sarcasm.

Mrs Hemming appeared shortly before Jud and Lottie went out to the car ready to go into town, and while Lottie was asking Mrs Hemming if there was anything she could get her while she was out, Jud turned to Lucy and said quietly, `I'll be back as soon as I can.' Which was considerate of him, she thought when he had gone, because she had

to own she was not a little anxious in case Mrs Hemming asked her something that required an outright l
ie.
Jud, she knew, would have been equal to avoiding giving a direct answer, but Lucy knew she would be out of her depth when trying to avoid lying to this woman whose gentle ways reminded her so much of her own mother.

`You don't mind that Jud has had to leave you for a short while, Lucy?' Mrs Hemming asked as they sat in the sitting room with a tray of coffee between them on a small occasional table. 'Neither Lottie nor I drive and the bus service isn't brilliant, and although we have most things delivered, items like tapestry wool and the like do mean a journey into town. When I've gone with Lottie before we usually go by taxi, but with Jud here with the car ...'

`I don't mind a bit,' Lucy said quickly, then thinking it might sound to Mrs Hemming as though she couldn't wait for Jud to be gone, added, 'We're taking a walk to the top of the Beacon this afternoon.'

Mrs Hemming smiled back, interested. 'It's a long way up,' she said, having noticed nothing in Lucy's manner to suggest that Jud could stay out for the rest of the day as far as she was concerned. 'There's a café at the top, I believe-you'll be able to have a cup of tea when you get there—though I don't suppose either of you will notice the climb.'

Lucy took a sip of her coffee and avoided answering, not being sure if Jud's mother was meaning that their younger limbs would make nothing of the climb or that she believed them to be so much in love they could climb Everest and not notice the pull.

True to his word Jud was back with Lottie in just over an hour, and during the time spent alone with Mrs Hemming Lucy had not had recourse to summon up the whitest of lies, since with Mrs Hemming, believing she wanted to know all there was to know about Jud, had regaled her with snippets from happenings when he was at school, then uni-

versity, to the small industrial plant he had inherited from his father, to the way he had worked day and night to make the company the big concern it now was.

After lunch Mrs Hemming went to her room to rest, and at Jud's enquiry of, Did you think to bring some flat shoes?' Lucy went to her room, changing not only her shoes for a pair of lightweight walking shoes, but slipping off her dress and donning a pair of white jeans and a red short sleeved collarless shirt. It was a warm day and she thought she might well be overheated when they reached their destination, but if, as she suspected he would, Jud decided to ignore the constructed path and elected the way to the top of the Beacon by way of the grassy inclines, then she felt jeans would be more decorous for anything she might meet.

Jud himself was dressed in lightweight slacks and a loose-fitting sports shirt when she joined him, but she needn't have worried about their route, for although as she suspected they took the well trodden paths over the grass, she did not have to do any energy-sapping scrambling as she observed one or two teenagers were doing as they ignored the more sedate paths and scrambled up the hillside that was very steep in parts.

Too hot for that sort of caper,' Jud remarked, seeing her eyes on the teenagers who were shrieking with laughter as one of their members slipped and rolled back several yards. Lucy was inclined to agree with him, though she couldn't help feeling slightly wistful at the completely uninhibited way the teenagers were spending their afternoon.

`I don't suppose you've ever frolicked in your life,' she . said, her mind still on the group.

`Now what I wonder makes you think that,' Jud said easily.

`Well,' Lucy replied, wishing for the umpteenth time she had bothered to think before she spoke, 'you always appear so cold and formal.'

`Do I?' Jud sounded surprised, then, 'Are you advocating that I lose some of my formality with you?'

No—oh no, of course not,' she answered quickly, looking away from what she suspected was a gleam of devilment in his eyes.

Fortunately at that moment they reached a crest in the hills where a marker showed many directions, and Lucy went over to study it. There were two routes showing the way to the Beacon, she saw, and she read with her mind barely on what she was reading, being more full of the devilment she thought she had seen in Jud's eyes. She forced herself to concentrate on another arrow that pointed out Sugar Loaf, and very conscious of Jud's nearness behind her as he looked over her shoulder, she moved round until Jud was opposite her, a feeling of disquiet motivating her feet, and studied the pointer that said Horse Shoe Bend, and began to feel better when Jud didn't move to come to her side. She looked at him then, the rock-made marker between them, and as their eyes caught and held, she wanted to make some trite remark--Jud was wearing that enigmatic expression again, but there was nothing cold or formal about the look in his eyes.

`You know, Lucy,' he said smoothly, and she felt herself unable to look away from him, 'you've made one or two challenging remarks today—might I suggest that if you're going to get cold feet at the last moment, you think twice before you speak?'

She did manage to look away from him then. She knew her cheeks were pink from the implied threat behind his words, and she hoped he would think her high colour was on account of her exertions so far, rather than from the thought of what he would do if she issued one more challenging remark. Without saying another word she walked away from the marker and found Jud beside her as they began the steeper climb.

Surely Jud wasn't bothered that he didn't 'turn her on',

she mused, as the ascent became steeper still. Of course he wasn't—she dismissed the idea as ludicrous. And she hadn't thought her 'I'm honoured' this morning had been all that challenging either-sarcastic, yes, but she recalled at the time that Jud's look had said she was going to pay for her sarcasm. She shouldn't have told him she saw him as cold and formal, though ...

They reached their destination and paused in silence to take in the view before them. Although they had seen several people with the same quest in mind, they seemed to have the hills entirely to themselves just then. The view was splendid, but Lucy was overwhelmingly conscious of Jud by her side, especially when his arm came about her shoulder and he turned her to show her another aspect of the view before them. Her heart was beating erratically inside her; she was certain this was because of the effort involved in the climb-what else could it possibly be? The feel of Jud's arm across her shoulders had nothing at all to do with it, though she wished he was still as she had described him, cold and formal; that way he would merely have said 'look over there', the need to turn her to show her unnecessary.

`Tea?'

`What?' So deep in her own thoughts had she been, she wasn't with him.