Georgina Adam and Eve 7/12

George was thinking hard about a rather strange business proposition that had just been put to him by a middle-aged lady. The suggestion was that both he and the lady would put up one hundred pounds apiece to buy a large load of scrap iron. She assured him that the scrap could easily be sold in Smallport for three times the cost, but she didn’t have enough capital to buy the metal on her own.

She’d come to George because he was a well-known and trusted businessman and likely to have sufficient money to pay for a half share in the venture. His carting company would be able to collect the metal from the various sources round the country that she knew of and carry it to Timber Creek for shipment to Smallport.

It was all very flattering and he would certainly solve all his financial problems if the deal went through as promised, but some small doubts were causing him to hesitate. Firstly he would probably have to borrow a considerable sum to pay the full cost of his share. Then of course if anything should go wrong he would lose so much money that he’d have to sell the company to clear his debts! Whatever should he do? He had no adviser to turn to and the whole proposition was really way outside his level of expertise.

An idea came into his head. He usually asked Jennifer Jane if he wanted advice, of course she was just a kid really, although her magical abilities were well known, but her dad was a different person altogether. George was sure he must be experienced in the world of business and could surely offer him some guidance.

He made up his mind and rode off towards the Witches’ Home on his faithful charger. He asked the witch on guard duty if he could see Abigail and was rather pleasantly surprised when she ran across the drawbridge almost at once. Abigail asked him to describe the lady who’d brought him the business offer and then invited him into the refectory for a cup of tea and cake. To his astonishment the Bell family were already there and moved round a table to make room for him and Abigail as soon as they both came in.

Abigail asked George to tell his story once again. “From what we’ve just heard I’m pretty sure that Georgina is trying out another scheme to ruin George. I think you probably all agree, the only thing now is to find a way to deal with the problem?”

“I think we ought to let the deal go ahead,” said Dave. “Is there any way that you can provide fake money good enough to fool another witch? Then George won’t lose any real money if the deal goes wrong, as we suspect it will! When we’re sure what is going to happen then we can move in and catch the other witch red handed.”

“I’ve just had a thought,” said Jennifer Jane. George and Abigail smiled happily. “Well it seems to me that if we can fake some money good enough to fool a witch, then surely she can fake some old iron good enough to fool George. Then once he’s seen it and handed over his share of the purchase price, the whole shipment and the witch disappear and George is ruined!”

“It sounds like a reasonable plan for her to try,” said Abigail, “I’ve got a feeling that some of my student notes covered a spell that makes objects change appearance, if I can find them. It’s not a spell that is really much use except in an exceptional case like this. I’ll just check it out, then I think George can go ahead and agree to the idea. Jennifer Jane and I will become invisible and hang around until we’re sure that it really is a fake deal before we act.”