Hostile engagement Read Online Free PDF Page A

his touch, then she was seated on the settee she had leapt up from earlier and he was handing her a drink that fired the back of her throat after the first sip. Then as her brain
     
    started to function again, she began to realise the impossibility of her task. If he had paid three thousand for the ring he wasn't likely to hand it over without kicking up a fuss about it. Refusing to be daunted, she placed the remains of her drink on the small table to the side of her. She was going to see this through to the bitter end if it killed her.
    `The last thing I want to do Mr Hemming,' she said slowly, choosing her words carefully, 'is to upset Miss Stanfield, but I can only repeat what I said at the very beginning—I want my mother's ring back.'
    Jud Hemming looked into the glass of Scotch he was now holding. She hadn't noticed him pouring it, so reasoned he must have decided he wanted a drink when he had poured her the brandy. Then he was looking directly at her, his cold eyes showing not a glimmer of emotion.
    `And how do you propose to pay me the three thousand pounds I parted with?'
    Lucy held his look for as long as she was able, but she was the first to look away as it dawned on her that somehow or other this man knew what pride had ordered that no one in Priors Channing should know until it could possibly be avoided; he knew that she and Rupert were stony broke.
    ...' She refused to be defeated, and lifted her eyes again bravely. 'I shouldn't think it will come to that-surely when you tell the police who you bought it from, they'll be able to trace it back to whoever found and subsequently sold it in the first place.' As she followed that thought on though, Lucy realised that whoever had received Jud Hemming's money would in all likelihood by now have spent it, and there would be little chance of his money being returned to him.
    If he was having the same thoughts, it didn't show in his face. But what he said precluded that the culprit would ever be brought to book. `Ah, but you see, Miss Carey, I have no intention of telling the police or anyone else the
     
    name of the person who sold me the ring.
    B ut ... but that's ridiculous ! You'd be letting a criminal get away scot free-it ...' She stopped as she could see she wasn't getting through to him. He had made up his mind not to reveal the name of his-what was the word she was searching for-fence? No, that made Jud Hemming a criminal too. 'It's aiding and abetting,' she accused, bringing out a term she had heard used on television.
    `Not at all—I bought that trinket in good faith.' Trinket? Three thousand pounds? Lucy swallowed an angry comment as he continued. 'I have a bill of sale, and at the time of the purchase I had every confidence that the person who sold it to me had every right to sell it.'
    And you refuse to say who that person was?' He didn't answer. She had known she was wasting her time asking the question anyway—she could see from the set of his mouth that he was determined to keep that piece of information to himself. 'So in order to reclaim my property, I shall need to tell the police that you have it?'
    `That could prove a costly business,' he said silkily. 'To gain possession by those means will involve long and ex-- pensive court proceedings-I will not be forced into giving up anything that is mine.'
    Lucy's heart sank. She had had a premonition this wouldn't be an easy interview. How right she was to have been nervous about coming face to face with this unbending man ! There had been no need for him to underline how expensive it would prove to take him to court-she had read of cases where costs had gone into hundreds of thousands. Her eyes flicked round the room, and discreet though every piece of furniture in the room was, she could tell without putting a price tag on any of it that it had cost a fortune to furnish this room alone, and knew without question that Jud Hemming could afford to take any case she brought against him all the way. She