Georgina Adam and Eve 8/12

A couple of days later, George met Georgina and they rode off together to the nearest dump of scrap iron. The horse was grumbling a bit at the extra weight caused by having to carry a lady pillion passenger, but George didn’t reply in case Georgina was able to understand horse language. He was fairly certain that she could, judging by the way that she was smothering occasional fits of the giggles.

The scrap iron looked perfectly convincing to George when they arrived. They both dismounted and Georgina patted the horse and gave him apples that she managed to find in her pockets. George picked up pieces of the scrap and thoughtfully weighed them in his hand, then looked round the rest of the heap and inspected the occasional lump.

“It all looks good to me,” he said, “if the rest is as good as this then we have a deal!”

They rode off in search of the next dump of iron and a few moments later Abigail and Jennifer Jane popped into view.

Abigail picked up a piece of scrap, held one hand over the metal and wiggled the fingers of the other, while Jennifer Jane watched carefully. Then she looked sideways along the bit she was holding.

“It seems you were right, if you look along the side of this bit you should be able to see a faint blue glow!”

Jennifer Jane did as she was asked and agreed that she could see the glow. Then she picked up another piece and tried out the spell for herself. After a couple of attempts and one correction of her technique by Abigail, she was able to produce the effect for herself.

“You don’t have to worry about cancelling the spell, it only works while you're actually holding the object."

Jennifer Jane put the bit of iron back on the ground and then picked it up again. Sure enough the glow had disappeared. She reapplied the spell just to make sure that she’d remembered it correctly, then Abigail and her apprentice disappeared from view and flew rapidly after Sir George and his passenger. They followed the pair for the rest of the day and visited three dumps altogether.

At last George professed himself satisfied with the proposed deal and together he and Georgina returned to his office in Lower Dene to conclude the paperwork.

“I’m afraid I’ve only been able to get ninety guineas together,” said George rather untruthfully, “even then I had to borrow fifty pounds from the squire!”

“That’s quite alright, I’m sure the people I’m buying the metal from won’t argue over a few shillings, but if necessary I’ll put in the extra. After all we’re both going to make a lot of money out of this!”

The papers having duly been signed, Georgina left and walked off along the road towards Timber Creek. Two invisible witches watched her take a broom from its hiding place and then followed her back to her cottage before returning themselves to the Witches’ Home.

“Now then,” said Abigail, “we’re pretty sure we know what’s going to happen once George’s company has delivered the scrap to be loaded on a ship. Our next problem is to find a way of dealing with her once she finds out that the money has disappeared as well!”