Subj: Angelique 3
Date: 11/28/01 2:02:28 PM Central Standard Time
From: Aesgaard

The white magic of five white candles burning around her bed allowed Angelique to sleep the rest of the night peaceably enough. Early the next morning, though, she began to search out the curio shop she knew existed at the corner of Weymouthe and Land's End in 1710. She paused with little surprise when she noticed it was now a private residence. A brief question to passersby and she learned that the owner's descendants had another shop deep into the heart of England just a few blocks from Piccadilly Circus.

The shop seemed to have curios from America as well as the Far East. She saw furniture hanging from the rafters and numerous jars of dried goods behind the counter on shelves. She eyed some garments as the clerk helped a customer then proudly thrust her presence on him with her own regal bearing.

"Have you ever heard of Dragon's Foot ?" Angelique knew the root was closely related to ginseng and from the highlands of Tibet. It could combined with other ingrediants to ward off spirits or converted into a charm.

"One left." The clerk answered covertly as he secretly motioned her to the back room. "Didn't know any of you witches were still around."

"I just returned from the States." Angelique was led into a back room behind a curtain. The room was filled with roots, herbs and powders in various sizes and containers stacked to the low ceiling. She briefly gazed over the cloth voodoo dolls and waxes for various uses. The small room contained a drugstore's worth of chemicals, countless exotic plants and strange objects peeking out of liquid-filled glass jars for white witches and sorcerers alike. A certain former black witch could go wild in here if unleashed.

"I'll be getting more next month if you need it." The clerk checked her out.

"Even with the witch hunts over, it's getting hard to get this stuff out of the Far East. Someone ailing ?"

"Going to be." Angelique dropped the root and more candles into a basket. "I have a rather pesky spirit who does not want to go."

Before the clerk could ask which of London's millions of ghosts it was, his daughter escorted another equally beautiful blonde witch through the curtain. The three of them exchanged glances a minute.

"Do you have any Dragon's Foot ?" she asked.

"She got my last one." the clerk admitted as Angelique tried to anonymously slip out unseen. She barely made it as she felt someone hold her back.

"You don't need all of it, do you ?" her would-be rival asked. "My cousin's baby is very ill."

"And I have a very nasty spirit."

"Then you won't need all of it."

"No," Angelique admitted. "But I can make a lot of money selling the rest as charms and love potions." She eyed this other witch over. She was blonde and regal as if related to the monarchy, and had a royal bearing as if she had known a few monarchs in her time.

"Look," she began. "I can make you a better deal. A home without a ghost and a paying job with little or no work - a nanny's position of sorts. You do like children, don't you ?"

"Of course." she decided for the less abrasive approach. "Angelique Bouchard." She held her hand out.

"Samantha Spellcraft." the other blonde sorceress leaned forward. "I really think that this is the start of a beautiful relationship."

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.