Hostile engagement

by Jessica Steele

  Lucy looked at him aghast. `H-How do you know that?' she whispered, all pretence gone from her now.

  `I made it my business to find out,' Jud answered, and only then did Lucy begin to wonder why he wasn't at his office; he was casually dressed in sports shirt and slacks—surely he hadn't taken the day off to pry into their affairs? `As the supposed fiancé of Lucy Carey of Brook House, I'm privy to certain information about you,' he added.

  `Mr Arbuthnot,' Lucy uttered incredulously. 'The bank manager told you?' She was out of her chair, furious that Charles Arbuthnot had released to Jud, in the guise as her fiancé, confidential matter he had no business disclosing. `He had -no right ...' she began furiously.

  Jud neither confirmed nor denied that his informant had been the bank manager, but ordered her sharply to, 'Sit down-I'm here to try and help.'

  `Help?' Lucy queried. Jud Hemming was the last person she wanted help from, but she sank down again as he had ordered.

  `Yes, help,' he confirmed. 'Now shut up and just give me the answers I want.' Lucy was too dumb struck on being commanded, and in her own home too, to 'shut up' to do more than look at him Then while she was searching round for some suitable sarcastic comment to floor him with, he was saying, 'You told me your brother had studied farm and estate management—is that right?'

  Not knowing why she was answering him at all, though thinking it might be something to do with Jud's authoritative air that commanded an answer, she found herself saying, 'Yes, that's right. Rupert is fully qualified, he's very good at it, he ...'

  `And is he seriously looking for a job?' Jud broke in, and again Lucy found herself answering.

  `Yes, he is-but he doesn't want to move away from Priors Channing.'

  `Right,' said Jud. 'Jack Gilbert has been helping me out, but he's past retiring age and wants to go as soon as I can find someone qualified to look after the interests of the farms and properties attached to the Hall. Tell your brother to come and see me, and if he's as good as you say he is, I'll take him on a three months' trial.'

  `But—but ...' Agitatedly Lucy stood up, her heart brimming over with love for this man. He was trying to help, proving he wasn't as cold as he was looking now, and she dropped her eyes, not wanting him to see the love she had for him shining from her eyes as she struggled to get her words out. 'I know he'll be thrilled at the chance of working in Priors Charming,' she said quietly, while hoping Rupert would take advantage of the wonderful opportunity Jud was offering, but ... The light went out of her eyes; no matter how much money Jud would pay him, Rupert couldn't hope to settle the huge sum he owed.

  `You're worrying about the seventeen thousand?' Jud asked, noticing her sudden stillness and coming to stand beside her.

  Lucy nodded. 'Rupert comes into some money when he's thirty,' she said, and looking at Jud had a suspicion he knew about that too. 'In five years' time he'll be able to pay the money off, but I can't see anyone waiting that length of time, can you? And Rupe refuses to sell the house—it's all so impossible, isn't it?' she ended flatly.

  Not so impossible,' said Jud, causing Lucy to look at him quickly, hope rising high within her as though expecting him to have thought of something both she and Rupert had overlooked. 'If Rupert works for me, he will obviously need somewhere local to live-there's a house available, but since you say he won't give up Brook House, I'd be prepared to buy this place off him and give him a written undertaking to sell the house back to him when he comes into his ininheritance-meantime can settle his debts and still live here.'

  Lucy wanted to sit down at the shock of having all Rupert's worries so easily dealt with. She felt near to tears again, and couldn't help thinking that the man she had fallen in love with was certainly some man.

  `Why are you doing all this for Rupert?' she asked, her brimming eyes looking at him, ready to give him anything he asked in return. She saw from the way his eyes frosted over as he looked at her that her gratitude was the last thing he wanted.

  `I'm not doing this for your brother,' he stated coldly. `I'm doing it for you.'

  For me?' Lucy's own expression hardened and she rapidly changed her mind that she would give anything he asked to the man in front of her, who now looked cold and forbidding. Then bluntly, because she wanted a straight answer, one she didn't have to cogitate the meaning to, though wondering if he would lose his temper

  again if she suggested as she had last night that he wanted payment from her for what he was doing, she asked, `Why?' and waited for him to tell her.

  Jud looked at her, saw from her expression that she had already made up her mind what his reason was, and with that cold hard stare she knew, repeated, 'Why?' Then, his very tone insulting, 'Because my women never go away from me with less than they came—why else?'

  For all of two seconds Lucy looked at him, unable to believe what she had heard, then fury that transcended anything she had ever felt before raged through her at his cutting jibe-Jud Hemming was placing her firmly in the same class as his other gold-digging female friends, and without time for thought Lucy rode high on emotions that said her outraged feelings had to be relieved in some physical act. Her hand came up with lightning speed, and the crack of her furious hand echoed round the room as she hit him with all her force across the side of his face. Then the room stilled as Jud went white and a murderous light entered his eyes, and terrified now at what she had done-a dull red mark was already appearing before her eyes on the side of his face—Lucy waited in fear and trembling as Jud moved towards her, waited for him to knock her senseless.

  He halted only when he was near enough to read the real fear in her eyes, then told her in a voice that splintered with ice, 'Do that once more, Lucy Carey, and the loss of your precious virginity will be a certainty.'

  He meant every word—God, how he meant it—and too frightened to utter the merest syllable in case Jud let go the reedy hold he had on his temper, Lucy stood looking mutely at him, too scared to even say, 'I'm sorry.'

  Then Jud, his teeth firmly clenched together, took one deep and audible breath as though still fighting with his self-control, and grated, 'I'll expect your brother at the Hall tonight.'

  What Lucy's feelings were when he left she couldn't begin to know save that it penetrated that Jud was a far bigger man than she had even realised, for in receipt of such a vicious blow, and her hand was still stinging from the force of having administered it, he was still prepared to -consider employing Rupert.

  She was still trembling with fright knowing how close Jud had come to losing the thin thread of control he had over his rage, and fell back in a chair wishing Rupert would hurry up and come home. Jud's visit had left her exhausted; she didn't pretend it was her used up energies in scrubbing the kitchen floor that had left her this way, she was young and tired though she had been from her physical efforts her healthy body was soon revitalised. Jud had asked for that slap, but oh, how she wished she had held it back ! She doubted that even if she did bump into him in the · High Street now, he would deign to acknowledge her, and she knew that to have him look icily through her as though she didn't exist would be unbearably hard to take.

  She was deep in thought, reflecting that she had never been Jud's 'woman' for all he had implied that she had, and longing to have been just that—at least she would have her memories, for she felt sure he would initiate her tenderly and she had seen too little of his more gentle side to store with her memories-when Rupert arrived home.

  She hid her despondency as she saw the same misery she had been experiencing showing in Rupert's face. Archie Proctor, she knew without asking, lad given her brother the thumbs down.

  `He won't wait,' Rupert confirmed, and went on to tell her he had gained a firm suspicion from something Archie Proctor had let slip that if not exactly owning the club he had taken him to that night, then Rupert was sure Archie Proctor had somehow stood to gain by egging him on when he had begun to lose. 'God, I was wrong about him,' Rupert muttered, staring hopelessly into the fireplace. 'He's<
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  evil Lucy, evil. When I think of him smiling as he lent me

  more and more money ...' Lucy could see Rupert was tearing himself to shreds. 'When I think of how green I was ...'

  `Forget about it, Rupe,' Lucy said gently, feeling as sick as her brother must have been on finding out that Archie Proctor had set him up. `Jud

  `Forget it?' Rupert looked back at her scandalised. 'How the hell can I forget it?'

  Put it behind you for a minute, then,' she persuaded. `Jud Hemming has been here and wants to see you.'

  `Wants to see me?' Rupert asked, hope breaking out in his face. 'Did you ask him to lend me the money? Did he say he would ?—I'll pay him back every penny with interest.

  Lucy could see Rupert was getting excited as the idea took hold and knew she had to stop him straight away. 'I didn't ask Jud to lend you the money,' she said, and saw the light go out from his face. 'But,' she added hastily, `Jud has a proposition to put to you-he wants you to go up to the Hall tonight.' And when Rupert asked charily what sort of a proposition, Lucy outlined what Jud had told her, and because she thought her brother's initial reaction to selling Brook House to Jud would be a definite no, and knowing Jud wouldn't make his offer twice, she told him about that too so he would have a couple of hours to think about it before turning Jud's offer down.

  Rupert heard all she had to say, his open face revealing one expression after another, his voice eager putting in a question here and there, but he didn't ask the one question she had thought he would ask, the same question she herself had asked, 'Why is he prepared to do all this?'

  She was rather proud of her brother when he came to see her before going up to the Hall in the early evening. In general Rupert was uncaring about the way he looked. He never looked scruffy and his clothes were not cheap, but as she looked at him as he came into the room, she saw he had

  donned his best suit and brushed his fair hair into some sort of order, and was looking very much the part of someone who took seriously his forthcoming interview.

  'Will I do?' he asked.

  `You look fine,' Lucy said, and added softly, 'Good luck,' and went out with him to his car to watch him drive off.

  She had over two hours to wait for his return, he was being much longer than she had anticipated, and she tried unsuccessfully to settle down to some embroidery as the minutes ticked by, but gave it up as a bad job as in her mind's eye she pictured the two men she loved most in the world, the one with a love that forgave him the idiocy of his latest stupidity, the other that would forgive him whatever he did.

  She wanted to fly to the door when she heard Rupert's car pull on to the drive, but forced herself to sit where she was. She would know from Rupert's face as soon as he came in whether things had gone well or not. She heard his key in the front door and composed her features not to look anxious. Then he was in the room with her, his face solemn, his eyes after one hurried look in her direction looking away from her, and despite her resolve not to be upset if his interview had gone badly, the words escaped her:

  'Oh, Rupe, I'm so sorry ...'

  But before she could say more, Rupert was lifting his eyes, the light in them refusing to be hidden as a beaming smile threatened to split his face in two.

  `You wretch!' she beamed back. 'You got the job.' Then she was out of her chair and mindless that they had never been a demonstrative family, they were hugging each other, and Rupert was laughing as they both settled into chairs and he leaned forward to tell her:

  `He's a great man, Lucy.' That much she knew, and she listened to Rupert telling her everything that went on. `Mind you, he didn't give me an easy time, though he did

  seem to understand my feelings at finding out that Dad had gambled away my inheritance, for all he called me a young ass for attempting to do the same with the rest of it.' She hadn't thought Rupert would reveal to anyone how their father had gambled away a fortune, and it showed her how implicitly Rupert must trust Jud to have done so. `Jud then asked if I was completely cured of the urge to gamble and I told him I'd learned a bitter lesson and nothing would get me on that tack again.' Lucy felt like crying so great was her relief at hearing her brother's statement, but she swallowed down her tears and listened intently to what else Rupert had to tell her. 'We were in Jud's study-he had maps laid out showing the farms and properties so I would know exactly what I would be taking on and we went into every detail of the job first. Then he asked me point blank "Can you do it?" and looked me hard in the eye at the same time By God, he's a strong character, and it was funny, Lucy, but his whole attitude seemed to stiffen my backbone, and I couldn't help thinking, Yes, I could do the job, or I would die in the attempt.'

  Lucy thought she knew what he meant. Jud would demand the best, and he was putting Rupert on his mettle to prove that he was the best. She had every faith in Rupert, the wild streak in him that had reared its head following his disappointment on their parents' death, seemed to have burnt itself out. 'So what did you say?' she prompted. 'Did you tell Jud you could do the job?'

  `Yes—I told him if he'd give me half a chance he wouldn't be disappointed, and he gave me another of those hard looks, and said, "Right—start tomorrow."'

  `Tomorrow?' Lucy gasped. 'But ...'

  `That's what I thought. If anything I would have thought he'd say start on Monday or even the first of the month, but no, I'm to start tomorrow—Probably doesn't intend to give me the chance to get into any more mischief,' Rupert added, but he didn't seem to be offended if that was the

  reasoning behind Jud's thinking.

  `And—and what about the house?' Lucy asked tentatively.

  `We agreed on that too,' Rupert said to her further relief. `If my trial period is satisfactory—and I'll make damn sure it is—then after that time I'm to arrange to have the house valued and Jud will have his own survey done, then we're to see solicitors and have a legal contract drawn up whereby Jud purchases the house and agrees to sell it back to me in five years' time.'

  Everything, it seemed, had gone swimmingly, and Lucy's heart was bursting with happiness for her brother and with undying gratitude to Jud who in spite of what he must think of her had not let those feelings get in the way when helping her brother. Though she still had one worry on her mind and hesitated to take the excited look off Rupert's face. But if she had been watching the expressions that passed over her brother's face, he in turn had been noticing hers.

  `You're worrying about Archie Proctor, not to mention old Arbuthnot not waiting three months for their money?' he asked.

  `Well, I did wonder,' Lucy understated, not wanting to underline it too heavily.

  `That was the only bad moment of the entire interview,' Rupert told her. 'With Jud being so open with me—even if it was a no-holds-barred sort of openness at the beginning—I felt it only right to be honest with him in turn, and I confessed that you'd refused when I'd asked you to ask him for the money—I half wished I hadn't afterwards,' he said, and the bright look left his face momentarily as if he was recalling the way Jud had been. It came down on me like a ton of bricks and really sorted me out—the outcome of which being that I now know I'm to stand on my own two feet, and now that I shall be earning, and being paid well, I might add, it was Jud's opinion that we should be able to afford someone to do the heavy work in the house.'

  Lucy was still gasping at this as Rupert went on. 'When Jud had finished wiping the floor with me, he went on to suggest he would lend me the seventeen thousand now, to be returned when the house sale is completed, on condition that I was prepared to sign a paper stating that if it could be proved that I had so much as had a flutter on the horses within the next three months, then the seventeen thousand would act as his deposit on Brook House and I would lose all rights to buying it back when I come into Grandfather's money.

  So Jud wasn't taking Rupert's word that he had finished with gambling, Lucy surmised, but any disquiet she might have felt at that vanished under the knowledge that Jud's goodness stretched so far as to
advance Rupert the money he so desperately needed. Nor was Rupert offended, she saw when she glanced at him; the look on his face told her he hadn't taken exception to Jud wanting to make sure he was over his wild streak, and the more she thought about it, the more she could see the sense of it. Rupert had said he would never gamble again, and knowing how much her brother thought of Brook House, Jud had ensured that for three months at least Rupert wouldn't gamble. By the end of that time, Rupert should be so far along the path it had originally been intended he would take, even though he would not be working for himself but for someone else, he would be doing the job he had always wanted to do and still be doing it from Priors Channing.

  `Well,' said Rupert, getting to his feet, `if I'm to start work in the morning I'd better get off to bed-it wouldn't do to be late on my first day.'

  Lucy went to bed that night with her head full of what Rupert had told her of his interview with Jud. She wondered if she was in for another sleepless night as she lay there with her mind picking up first one part of her conversation with Rupert and then another, to be topped again by feelings of guilt that the man who was doing so

  much to get her brother out of his plight had that very day been on the receiving end of the furiously, delivered blow she had dealt him with her hand. She groaned in anguish and buried her head beneath the bedclothes as though to hide away from all further thoughts of Jud and how she loved him, and surprisingly, she slept.

  * * *

  * * *

  CHAPTER NINE

  RUPERT came home after his first day's work tired, but on top of the world. 'It was marvellous putting some of the stuff I studied into practice,' he told Lucy enthusiastically, and went on to tell her that although he thought he still had a lot to learn, finding actually doing the job varied greatly in parts from the theory, there was no way he was going to fall down on the job. Lucy listened to all Rupert had to tell her with interest while hoping he would mention Jud's name. It was ridiculous, she owned, this wanting to hear Jud's name, wanting to hear what Jud had been doing that day too. But as Rupert went on she learned that Jud had stayed only long enough to introduce Rupert to Mr Gilbert who was looking forward to handing over the reins.