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address was given as Rose Cottage, Little Blom-ham. 'Where's Little Blomham?' asked Agatha.

'I saw a sign to it once. It's off the Stroud road/ A pale mist was shrouding the landscape, turning the countryside into a Chinese painting, as they drove down into Little Blomham. It was more of a hamlet than a village, a few ancient houses of golden Cotswold stone hunched beside a stream.

No one moved about, no smoke rose from the chimneys, no dog barked.

Agatha switched off the engine and both listened as the eerie silence settled about them.

James suddenly quoted: 'Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup, And the sound of iron on stone, And how the silence surged softly backward, When the plunging hoofs were gone/ Agatha looked at him crossly. She did not like people who suddenly quoted things at you, leaving you feeling unread and inadequate. In fact, she thought they only did it to show off.

She got out of the car and slammed the door shut with unnecessary force.

James got out of the pa.s.senger seat and wandered to a stone wall and looked down at the slowly moving stream. He seemed to have gone into some sort of dream, to have forgotten

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Agatha's presence. 'So very quiet/ he said, half to himself. 'So very English, the England they fought for in the First World War. So little of it left/ 'Would you like to stand here and meditate while I find out which one of these picturesque hovels is Rose Cottage?' asked Agatha.

He gave her a sudden smile. 'No, I'll come with you.' They walked together down the road by the stream. 'Let me see, this one has no name and the next one is called End Cottage, although it's not at the end. Perhaps one of the ones further on/ They nearly missed Rose Cottage. It was set well back from the road at the end of a thin, narrow, tangled and unkempt garden. It was small and thatched, with the walls covered in thick creeper. 'Looks more like an animal's burrow than a house,' commented James. 'Well, here we go. We can't say we think he was murdered. We'll offer our sympathy and see where that gets us.'

He knocked on the door. And waited. They stood wrapped in the silence of the dream countryside. Then, as if a spell had been broken, a bird suddenly flew up from a bush near the door, a dog barked somewhere, high and shrill in the road outside, and Mrs Bladen opened the door.

Why, I believe she's older than I, thought

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Agatha, looking again at that grey hair and at the tell-tale lines on the thin neck.

Mrs Bladen looked past James to Agatha and her face settled in lines of dislike. 'Oh, it's you again/ 'Mr Lacey wished to offer you his sympathy/ said Agatha quickly.

'Why?' she demanded harshly. 'Why should someone come all this way to offer sympathy for the death of a man I've been divorced from?'

'We're very neighbourly people in Ca.r.s.ely/ said James, 'and wondered if we could do anything to help.'

'You can help by going away/ James looked helplessly at Agatha. Agatha decided to take the bull by the horns. 'Are you sure your husband died a natural death?' she asked.

Mrs Bladen looked amused. 'Meaning someone killed him? It's more than likely. He was a thoroughly nasty man and I'm glad he's dead. I hope that satisfies you/ She slammed the door in their faces.

'That's that/ said James, as they walked down the weedy path.

'We got something/ said Agatha eagerly. 'She didn't laugh in our faces when I suggested murder to her. Now did she?'

'You know what I think?' he said, holding the gate open for her. 'I think we're two retired people with not enough to do with our time/

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'Just because you can't get started writing/ said Agatha shrewdly, 'don't take it out on me/ "This is a lovely little place/ he said to change the subject. 'So quiet and peaceful. I wonder if there's anything for sale here.'

'Oh, you wouldn't want to live here/ said Agatha, alarmed. 'I mean, Ca.r.s.ely's bad enough, but there's nothing here, not even a shop or a pub.'

'What's wrong with that, in this age of the motor car? Oh, look. That sign there. The Manor House. I didn't notice it before. Let's go and have a look/ Agatha followed him silently up a winding drive. She did not want to look at any manor house because manor houses belonged to James Lacey's world and not to hers. The drive, edged with rhododendron bushes, opened up and there stood the manor house. The mist had thinned and pale sunlight washed the golden walls. It was low and rambling and settled and charming, exuding centuries of peace. Even Agatha sensed that wars and conflicts, plague and pestilence had pa.s.sed this old building by.

A small square woman in a twin set and tweed skirt came out with a black retriever at her heels. 'Can I help you?' she called.

'Just admiring your beautiful home/ said James, approaching her.

'Yes, it is beautiful/ she said. 'Come inside and

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have some tea. I don't often get visitors until the summer, when all my relatives decide they would like a free holiday/ James introduced them. The woman said she was Bunty Vere-Dedsworth. She led the way into a dark hall and then through into a large old kitchen gleaming with copper pans and white-and-blue china on an old dresser which ran the length of one wall.

'Lacey/ she said, as she plugged in an electric kettle. 1 used to know some Laceys down in Suss.e.x/ "That's where my family comes from/ said James.

'Really'/ She had cornflower-blue eyes in a reddish face. 'Old Harry Lacey?'

'My father/ 'Gosh, small world. Do you ever see the . . / Agatha, excluded from that intimidating conversation of the upper cla.s.ses which consisted of names and exclamations of recognition thrown back and forth, moodily sipped her tea and felt James moving out of her sphere. She could picture him living in a place like this with an elegant wife, not with some retired public relations woman such as herself who would only be able to swap names with someone from the rather nasty Birmingham slum in which she had grown up.

'What brings you here?' said Bunty at last.

James said, 'Our vet in Ca.r.s.ely died and we

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went to offer Mrs Bladen our sympathies, but she doesn't seem in need of any/ 'No, she wouldn't/ said Bunty. 'She had a very unhappy marriage/ 'Other women?' suggested Agatha.

'I think it was more a question of money, or the lack of it. Greta Bladen was a wealthy woman when she married Paul, and he seemed to spend a great deal of her money. When she left him, that dingy little cottage was all she could afford. She really hated him. I heard how Bladen died. Now if he had been found dead because someone had biffed him with the frying-pan, that someone being Greta, I wouldn't have been at all surprised. But you'd really need to know about veterinary things to shove a syringe full of deadly stuff in him. I mean, think of it. How many of the population would know that stuff was deadly? Maybe his partner wanted the business for himself/ And Bunty laughed.

James looked at his watch. 'We really must go-' 'Must you?' Bunty smiled at Agatha. "Then do come back and see me. I'd like that/ Agatha smiled back, feeling all her social inadequacies fade away, feeling welcome.

'She had a point,' said Agatha as she drove out of the village. 'I mean about Rice. Surely it would need to be someone with a knowledge of veterinary medicine/ 'Not necessarily,' he remarked. "That story

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about the vet who died last year when the horse nudged his breast pocket with the syringe in it and caused his death was in all the local papers. I read it. Anyone could have read it and got the idea/ 'But it would need to be someone who knew where he was going and what he was doing on that day/ 'Any of his lady friends might know. "What are you doing tomorrow, Paul?" "Oh, I'm cutting the vocal cords of one of Pendlebury's horses." That sort of thing/ 'Yes, but say he had said that to me. I wouldn't immediately think of Immobilon/ 'No, but a vet might talk about it, saying how deadly it was and talking about the accident of the previous year. I've got a feeling a woman did it/ Agatha was about to exclaim, 'So you do think it was murder/ but decided to remain silent in the hope of more days of investigation together.

Bill's home came as a surprise to Agatha. She had naively expected something, well, more oriental and exotic. The Beeches was one of those closes designed by builders, each house different, with trim suburban lawns, oozing respectability and dullness. Agatha knew that Bill's father was Hong Kong Chinese and his mother

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from Gloucestershire, but she had not expected him to live somewhere so ordinary. Bill's house was called Clarendon, the name being poker-worked on a wooden sign hung on a post at the gate. They went up a trim path between regimented flower-beds and rang the bell, which played a chorus of 'Rule, Britannia'.

Bill himself answered the door. 'Come in. Come in,' he cried. Til just put you in the lounge and go and get the drinks. Ma's in the kitchen getting dinner ready.'

Agatha and James sat in the lounge, not looking at each other. There was a three-piece suite, sh.e.l.l-backed, in a nasty sort of grey wool material. There were Venetian blinds drawn down over the 'picture' windows and niched curtains. The fitted carpet was in a noisy geometric design of red and black. The wallpaper was white and gold Regency stripe. There were little occasional pie-crust tables on spindly legs. A display cabinet full of Spanish dolls and little bits of china stood against one wall. A gas fire with fake coals and logs burned cheerfully but threw out very little heat.

Agatha longed for a cigarette but could not see an ashtray.

Bill came in with a small tray on which were three tiny gla.s.ses of sweet sherry.

'You're honoured/ said Bill. 'We don't use this room much. Keep it for best.'

'Very nice/ said Agatha, feeling strange and

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awkward at seeing her Bill, chubby and oriental as usual, in these cold English suburban surroundings.

"May I use your toilet?' she asked.

'Top of the stairs. But don't go standing on the hand basin.'

Agatha climbed up thickly carpeted stairs and pushed open the door of a bathroom which contained a suite in Nile green. The toilet had a chenille cover. A flowery notice on the back of the bathroom door stated, 'When you have had a tinkle, please wipe the seat.'

She tugged at the toilet roll to get a piece of tissue to blot her lipstick and started in alarm as the toilet-roll holder chimed out 'The Bluebells of Scotland'.

'Dinner's ready/ said Bill when she arrived downstairs again.

He led them across the hall and into another small room, the dining-room, where at the head of the table sat his father, a small morose Chinese gentleman with a droopy moustache, a grey baggy cardigan and large checked carpet slippers.

Bill performed the introductions. Mr Wong grunted by way of reply, picked up his knife and fork and stared at the polished surface of the laminated top of the table. Agatha looked down at a place-mat depicting Tewkesbury Abbey and wished she had not come.

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A hatch from the kitchen shot up and a Gloucester accent said shrilly, 'Bill! Soup!'

Bill collected plates of soup and pa.s.sed them round. 'Have you got that bottle of Liebfrau-milch, Ma?' he called.

'In 'er fridge/ Til get it/ Mrs Wong appeared. She was a ma.s.sive woman with a discontented, suspicious face and appeared to resent having guests. Bill poured wine.

The soup was canned oxtail. Little triangles of bread were pa.s.sed around. Even James Lacey seemed stricken into silence.

'Roast beef next/ said Bill. 'n.o.body does roast beef quite like Ma/ 'That's for sure/ said Mr Wong suddenly, making Agatha jump.

The roast beef was incredibly tough and the table knives were blunt. It took all their concentration to hack pieces off. The cauliflower was covered in a coat of thick white sauce, the carrots were overcooked and oversalted, the Yorkshire pudding was like salted rubber and the peas were those nasty processed kind out of a can which manage to turn everything on the plate green.

'Days are drawing out/ said Mrs Wong.

'That's for sure/ said Mr Wong.

'Soon be summer/ pursued Mrs Wong, glaring 102.

fiercely at Agatha, as if blaming her for the seasons.

1 hope we get another nice summer/ said James.