Hostile engagement by Jessica Steele Read Free Book Online Page A

do it.' Her voice was almost as cold as his as she flung the words at him. 'I've never gone back on my word in my life.'
    `See that you don't,' he said sharply, and putting his hand in his pocket, he withdrew the well remembered small square box and placed it on the kitchen table in front of her. 'That seals our bargain, I think,' he told her, and turned to go.
    But even wanting him out of her sight as quickly as possible, Lucy wasn't avaricious, so wanting to take up the ring box, to open it, to gaze once more upon her mother's most cherished possession, she found herself asking :
    `How is Carol?' and Could have bitten her tongue out when Jud Hemming turned round and fixed her with a cool stare. 'I ... I mean—was she very upset?' Her voice trailed off to a whisper as the look on his face showed her he thought her question in very poor taste.
    `Why should you care? You've got what you wanted, haven't you?'
    Lucy bit her lip. Yes, she'd got what she wanted, but un-
    ----
    like him, she was human enough to feel regret that by her doing so someone else must be terribly upset, even though in her view Carol had had a lucky escape. She tried to imagine anyone actually being married to this cold emotionless man, and only just managed to suppress a shudder at the thought.
    `Yes, I've got what I wanted,' she was forced to agree, an d lifted her head to tell him. B ut I can't say that being the cause of causing someone else pain fills me with any great pleasure.'
    `It upsets you to think of Carol weeping her heart out?'
    Poor Carol, Lucy thought, squirming inwardly at the picture that came to mind of the girl who had been so friendly to her actually breaking down in front of this man who Would in all probability have been unmoved by her tears. She turned away from him so he shouldn't see the remorse in her face—he'd said it was too late to back out now, but ...
    `If it's any comfort to you, Carol has known from the outset that there was never any likelihood of our ending up as marriage partners.'
    But she was still upset when you asked for the return of the ring.'
    Not at all,' he assured her, his tones none the warmer for all he was making her feel a little bit better for her part in all of this. 'It was never my intention to give the ring to her—she knew that, and only wore it because she liked it.'
    While Lucy believed what he was saying—he was much too sure of himself to ever need lie about anything-she couldn't help wondering at his leaving a ring he had paid three thousand pounds for lying around for Carol to calmly pick up and place on her finger. Then again, the hought entered her mind, three thousand pounds meant nothing to him.
    `Does anyone else have to know-about us, I mean?' She had been chewing this over on and off before his visit,
     
    and while he might not be the most forthcoming man in the world at least he had unbent sufficiently to tell her that Carol had known she would never be walking down the aisle with him
    `You want to keep our engagement a secret?'
    Lucy winced at the word engagement. 'Well, apart from Carol, there'll be no need for anyone else to know, will there? I mean, it doesn't affect anyone else but the three of us, does it?' -
    Lucy liked people who looked at you when they were talking to you, but could have wished he wouldn't fix her with that hard steady stare so often. It made her feel uncomfortable, made her feel as though he was looking into the very heart of her as if he was intrigued to know what went on inside of her, what made her tick.
    `No, it doesn't affect anyone but us,' he said quietly, and on that enigmatic note, without fully answering her question, he turned and left her.
    He really was the strangest of men, she reflected as she waited some minutes to be sure he had gone before she picked up the ring box. A law unto himself, she considered, he did exactly what he wanted to do regardless of how other people might feel, answered only those questions he thought in need of an