Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham Read Online Free PDF Page A

of the relics at Evesham Abbey were destroyed during the dissolution of the monasteries. Am I boring you?’
    ‘No, I didn’t know all this. I’d better take a closer look at Evesham.’
    ‘So tell me all about yourself and your love life.’
    They had drunk one bottle of wine and he had ordered another. Agatha, now slightly tipsy, found herself telling him all about James and about her brief fling with Charles. But she did not tell
him that James knew all about Charles.
    ‘So where is James now?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ said Agatha sadly. ‘Abroad somewhere.’
    ‘You’re an attractive woman.’ He reached across the table and took her hand in his.
    Agatha laughed and disengaged her hand. ‘You make women feel attractive.’
    ‘Tell me more about yourself.’
    Agatha talked on but mostly about her days in public relations. Somehow the fact that Bill Wong hadn’t phoned her hurt and so she did not brag about her detective abilities or mention his
name.
    And while she talked she began to wonder whether he would want to stay the night and whether she would let him. By the end of the meal she was languorously tipsy and was planning to invite him
in when they got home.
    As they left the restaurant, which was attached to the Crown Inn, Agatha saw Mrs Friendly emerging from the adjoining bar. ‘Mrs Friendly,’ called Agatha.
    Mrs Friendly stood stock-still. Her eyes were wide with fright and her face paper-white as she looked at Mr John. She made an inarticulate sound and turned and went hurriedly back into the bar,
pushing her way through people until she was lost to view.
    Outside, Agatha said, ‘You frightened her.’
    ‘Who?’
    ‘Mrs Friendly.’
    ‘Who’s she? Sounds like Happy Families. Miss Bun, the Baker’s Daughter, Mrs Friendly, the –’
    ‘No, no. She was really frightened. The woman who was staring at you just as we left.’
    ‘I saw no one I know. The restaurant behind us was crowded, Agatha. She probably saw someone behind us.’
    Tipsy as she was, a little warning bell was beginning to sound in Agatha’s brain. She had talked a lot about herself, but she knew practically nothing about this hairdresser apart from the
fact that he possessed a good knowledge of Evesham history.
    ‘Should you be driving?’ she asked. ‘We’ve had rather a lot to drink.’
    ‘I’ve a hard head. Don’t worry.’
    ‘If you’re sure. The fact that I know a lot of the police won’t help us if we’re caught.’
    But he had marched ahead of her to the car and did not hear her.
    When they reached her cottage and got out, Agatha turned to him and said firmly, ‘Thank you so much for a delightful evening.’
    ‘Aren’t you going to ask me in?’
    ‘Not tonight. I’ve had too much to drink. The next dinner’s on me.’
    ‘I’ll keep you to that.’ He bent to kiss her. Mrs Friendly’s frightened face rose up in Agatha’s mind and she turned her face so that his kiss landed on her cheek.
‘Goodnight,’ she said hurriedly and left him standing by the car, looking after her.
    Agatha pottered about her house and garden the following day. It had rained during the night but the day was once more hot and stifling. The newspapers reported it was the
hottest August in England since records had begun. There seemed to be a plague of mosquitoes and the Cotswold spiders were everywhere. Agatha did not like killing spiders and scooped the beasts up
in kitchen paper and threw them out into the garden. One was descending from the kitchen ceiling in front of her eyes. She glared at it and it hurriedly retreated upwards, almost as if it were
hauling itself up hand over hand.
    She was wearing a washed-out cotton caftan she had bought years ago, with nothing underneath. On the kitchen floor, still in its box, was an electric fan she had bought in Evesham. She sighed.
She tore open the box and lifted it out. It was in pieces. Did nothing come whole these days? She read the instructions carefully but could not