Hostile engagement Read Online Free Page A

from the very beginning that she was uneasy and had done absolutely nothing to spare her feelings, so why should she consider his? She had right on her side after all. She stood up and felt better that although he still topped her by a head, she was more on a level with him
    `Neither do I go in for guessing games Mr Hemming,' she retorted, striving to keep cool. 'But I thought because you're new to the district it would be better to see you first rather than follow my first inclination and go to the police.'
    Again that inscrutable look was on his face—would nothing shake him? He hadn't so much as batted an eyelid at her mention of the word police, but just waited silently and watchfully for her to continue. If his face was showing
     
    anything at all, it was utter boredom.
    Lucy had never been aware of boring anyone, indeed had found herself more than popular right back through her schooldays, and she wasn't going to stand for it. Her business was stated flatly and with complete disregard for any feelings he might have, since she was beginning to doubt he had any whatsoever.
    `The ring your fiancée is wearing is mine,' she stated baldly, and expected another sarcastic comment as the blunt statement left her, but was shaken to see he was completely unmoved, even to the extent of ignoring her claim.
    `You're engaged to be married, Miss Carey?' he queried. Not to the young man I saw you talking with this morning, I trust? There didn't seem 'to be very much joy on your part from what I could see.'
    Completely taken out of her stride, Lucy looked straight into cold, hard grey-green eyes. 'I'm not engaged,' she snapped. 'Donald reminded me of something ...' she broke off abruptly. It was nothing to this man that Donald had brought everything crashing in on her memory—the sad thoughts he had unintentionally triggered off.
    `Something ...?' Jud Hemming questioned. 'If the look on your face was anything to go by your memories would appear to be very sad ones, Miss Carey.'
    `I'm surprised you noticed the look on my face,' she said stonily, then wished she hadn't because now he would know she had noted his indifference to her.
    `I probably wouldn't have done,' he came back, unperturbed, 'other than that a solemn face stuck out like a sore thumb among so many happy smiling faces. What, I wonder, were you thinking about to make you look so sad?'
    Had there been any sign of sympathy in his tone she might have clammed up, for everyone had been kind and sympathetic to her and Rupert when they had lost their parents, and the sympathy of people had made it hard for her to hold back the tears which in private had flowed
     
    unendingly. But with this man's abrasive attitude she knew she would never ever be at risk of breaking down in his company.
    `My parents were drowned in a sailing accident some months ago—it was the first time I'd seen Donald for him to offer his condolences.'
    Lucy looked away from her interrogator as the words left her lips. She knew what she had told him wouldn't affect him one way or the other— how could it? He hadn't known her parents, hadn't known the sweetness of her mother, or the devil-may-care man who had been her father. All the same, she was not as tough as she thought she was, and having made her revelations she felt the tug of tears behind her eyes, until Jud Hemming's abrasive tones hit her ears.
    `So this Donald fellow is not a regular boy-friend?'
    She answered him purely because she needed a moment or two to pull herself together. 'No—no, he isn't—nor likely to be.'
    `Should one say "Poor Donald", I wonder?'
    `What do you mean?' Tears were very far away suddenly as she snapped back. The way he had voiced his question led her to believe he considered any boy-friend of hers would deserve a medal.
    `It's obvious the chap is keen on you. Equally obvious is the fact that you aren't too keen on him—why, I wonder?'
    Conscious that this interview had not only been taken completely out of her hands,