Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet

by Beaton, M. C.

  But on the other hand, she had nearly been killed. He had misread her looks before. It was all the fault of that bloody captain’s wife in Cyprus. He should never have had an affair with her. What a scandal that had been. She had pursued him, flirted with him, but when the scandal had broken, he was the guilty party, the beast that had seduced her and tried to take her away from her noble and gallant husband.

  He settled down to read a detective story by Reginald Hill and found it depressingly good.

  In the evening, he heard the sound of noisy singing coming along the lane.

  Puzzled, he went out and stood in the evening air on his doorstep.

  Lurching along the lane, arms about each other, singing, ‘I Did It My Way’, came Agatha and Freda Huntingdon.

  When they came abreast of him, they stopped singing. Freda hiccuped and said, ‘Men!’ and Agatha Raisin grinned and gave James Lacey the victory sign, but the wrong way round.

  James retreated inside and banged the door as, laughing and shouting, the unlikely pair went on their way.