Business as Usual Chp 20

[lilachigh.livejournal.com]

Title: Business as Usual
Author: lilachigh
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Me except Agnes who is mine.
Summary: in The Replacement, Spike talks of the charming lady who runs the tearoom in the local garbage dump. Please meet Agnes Pringle, English spinster and reluctant vampire. All Agnes wants is a quiet life, but she is Spike's friend, Glory is about to unleash the apocalypse and she has just been left a legacy by her old lover, Richard Wilkins III.


Chapter 20

No Looking Back

Agnes Pringle snapped shut her shabby black handbag and took a last look round the little room that had been her home for so long. Small and cramped it might be – and the noise from the drinkers in Willy’s Bar was a distinct disadvantage – but she had been happy here.

“Now Agnes, no looking back!” she told herself firmly. “Dear Richard has made it possible for you to continue your journey elsewhere. He wouldn’t want you to be downcast about leaving Sunnydale and going back to England.”

She bent down to check under her bed, wondering whom Willy would find to live here when she had gone. She had paid him an additional three months rent because you never knew what the future held in store. Agnes was quite certain that the cottage in the New Forest area of Hampshire would be lovely. She could see it in her mind’s eye, thatched with blue paint on the window frames and a yellow rose rambling across the front porch.
She sighed and clambered to her feet. Yes, the cottage would be wonderful and she’d been assured that it was set in deep woods, which would make it shaded and dark inside. Absolutely perfect.

But – Agnes had no intention of burning all her bridges until she had settled herself back in England. It had been some considerable time since she’d been there. She was sure life would have moved on and although she was not and never would be American, she had come to enjoy a much freer way of life over here in California. She was worried about fitting into her local vampire community. Did they have a lot of rules and regulations? There was sure to be all sorts of local by-laws that she would have to learn. English village life could be very confusing to an outsider, and by that Agnes meant anyone who hadn’t lived in the village for the past three hundred years.

And then there was the fact that she would be leaving her friends here. All her customers whose likes and dislikes she now knew so well: the demons who couldn’t eat nuts, the ones who enjoyed steak and kidney pudding as long as the steak and kidney were fresh that day and not cooked and the vampires who loved the blood she added to her iced fancies.

Admittedly she didn’t have too many lady friends. That was odd, she mused, as she combed her hair and pinned her hat firmly onto her fluffy curls. Joyce Summers had sadly died, of course, and she’d been a human anyway. The Unturned were difficult at the best of times – you never knew how they were going to react - although Joyce had seemed extremely unprejudiced.
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Business as Usual Chp 5

[lilachigh.livejournal.com]

It has been pointed out to me that some of the earlier chapters of this story are missing. I've no idea how this happened - sighs - I am rushing through, trying to retag and add.

So, completely out of order, here is Chp 5. The Girlfriend.

Title: Business as Usual
Disclaimer: Characters belong to ME except Agnes who is all mine.
Rating: Pg

Summary: Spike mentions the lady who runs the tearoom in the local garbage dump. Here is Agnes Pringle, English spinster and reluctant vampire.

Business as Usual


Chapter 5 The girlfriend



Agnes spent the next day baking and worrying about Spike. She couldn’t understand why he’d rushed away when she’d told him about that young man, Riley Finn and how he’d staked poor Sandy. Or was it because Mr. Finn had been sampling blood from vampires as well? It was all very confusing.

Still, she expected Spike to turn up at the tearoom some time during the night. He usually did and she had to admit she looked forward to his visits. Agnes had found it hard to make close friends since she’d arrived in Sunnydale. She sighed as she rolled out pastry to make apple turnovers – to be fair she hadn’t had too many back in her other life in England. She had been a member of the local Women’s Institute, of course. And although she hated to think bitter thoughts, she knew that their annual fete would not have been so successful if she hadn’t been there, running the cake stand, supplying the goodies for the tea tent.

But even then, although the Chairlady had thanked her every year in her speech, she’d never invited Agnes to the select little luncheon she always hosted in her very grand house when the final amounts of money were counted.
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Business as Usual Chp 10

[lilachigh.livejournal.com]

Another make up chp, I'm afraid. This is the last one that had gone missing!


Title: Business as Usual
Author: lilachigh
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Me except Agnes who belongs to me
Summary: The life of Agnes Pringle in Sunnydale, English spinster, reluctant vampire and friend of Spike.


Chp. 10 Parenting



It was the scars Agnes noticed first. The second thing she saw was that the young woman really was not wearing warm enough clothes on what was quite a chilly night for southern California. The third she felt - long nails scratching Agnes’ face as the girl held it between her two hands.

“You look just like my Mummy!”

Agnes flared gently into vamp face – just enough so the girl would realise she was speaking to a fellow compatriot – and back again.

She was beginning to wonder what the attraction could be that brought so many English people to Sunnydale. This girl had a definite accent. Small, thin and pale, she looked as if a good meal would do her the world of good. And, if Agnes was completely honest, she also seemed – now what was the word her grandmother used to use – oh yes, fey.

“I’m afraid I am no one’s mother, dear,” she said gently, pushing the sharpened nails away.

The girl seemed to lose interest and wandered around the station waiting-room, trailing her hand across the smeared wooden seats. It left marks. Agnes could smell blood, lots of blood. Perhaps this girl didn’t need a good meal, after all.
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