Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham

electricity?’
    ‘No, but I’ve a gas cooker and candles.’
    ‘I’m very excited about our business project and would like to talk some more about it. Why don’t you drop over here tomorrow afternoon at three, say?’
    ‘Yes, I’d like that. Get off!’ Charles had crept up behind her and kissed the back of her neck.
    ‘What’s going on?’ demanded the hairdresser sharply. ‘Who’s there?’
    ‘No one,’ said Agatha. ‘Just a mosquito. I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye.’
    She swung round on Charles. ‘What did you do that for? That was John.’
    ‘I guessed as much. You are getting into deep water, Aggie.’
    ‘I’m not,’ she protested huffily. She took a Sarah Lee apple pie out of the freezer and put it in the oven. ‘I should have put that on earlier,’ she said. ‘Let’s go and relax.’
    As they went into the living-room, all the lights came on again. ‘Good,’ said Charles, ‘we can watch telly.’
    He switched it on and flicked the channels until he came across a rerun of Hill Street Blues and settled down happily to watch.
    ‘You didn’t even ask me if I wanted to see that,’ said Agatha crossly. ‘And it is my television set.’
    ‘Shh!’
    So they watched Hill Street Blues and then there was a Barbra Streisand movie and Charles was addicted to Barbra Streisand. While he watched, Agatha let dreams of a new life curl around her brain rather like the smoke which was beginning to curl under the kitchen door. She had forgotten about the apple pie and it was only as smoke began to drift between them and the television set that she realized with a squawk of alarm what had happened. She ran to the kitchen and switched off the oven and opened the door and windows. Sweet cool air drifted in. She walked out into the garden. The rain had stopped and a little chilly moon sailed overhead through ragged clouds. She stood breathing in the fresh air until all the smoke had cleared from the kitchen. The pie when she removed it was a blackened mess. She threw it into the wastebin and then began to diligently clean the surfaces of the kitchen.
    By the time she had finished cleaning, the movie had ended and Charles was watching Star Trek, The Next Generation , an early one, to judge from the beardless and baby-faced Commander Riker.
    ‘Charles,’ said Agatha crossly. ‘It’s late and the storm’s over. You can go home.’
    ‘I haven’t got Sky Television and I haven’t seen this one.’
    ‘Home, Charles.’
    He left grumbling. ‘I’ll call you tomorrow,’ he said, ‘but you don’t deserve my concern.’
    The next day was almost chilly and the residents of Carsely, like the rest of the British Isles who had been bitching for weeks about the heat, began to bitch instead about the cold.
    Agatha dressed carefully in a tailored suit and silk blouse and headed for Evesham. Her dreams of the day before had faded and would have stayed faded had John not immediately taken her in his arms when she arrived and given her another of those warm, passionate kisses full on the mouth.
    She felt quite weak at the knees as she sat down. His bruises appeared to be fading fast and his eyes were as blue, as intensely blue, as ever.
    ‘Have you thought any more about my business proposition?’ he asked.
    Agatha flexed her public relations muscles. She described how she thought they should go big from the word go, open in Bond Street, say. She outlined how she would go about rousing interest so she could get it into as many newspapers as possible. ‘And do you know what we’ll call it?’
    ‘I thought just Mr John.’
    ‘No, we’ll call it the Wizard of Evesham.’
    He looked at her thoughtfully and then began to laugh. ‘I like that. It’s catchy. I like it a lot.’
    All afternoon, they talked busily. Then he sent out for Chinese food. Before dinner, he opened a bottle of pills and popped two in his mouth. ‘Is that your medicine?’ asked Agatha.
    ‘No, they’re vitamin pills, a multi-vitamin called Lifex. I swear by them. I keep a supply in the shop. You should try them.’
    Agatha picked up the bottle and shook one out. ‘I’m not very good at swallowing pills,’ she said, looking at the large brown gelatine capsule in her hand. ‘I would choke on something this size. What do they do for you?’
    ‘I find they give me a lot of energy. Let’s eat.’
    They talked busily over dinner, firing ideas for their new venture back and forth across the table. Agatha at last said reluctantly that