Almost a Crime Read Online Free PDF

first occupant of a professional woman’s womb is a
    novelty, interesting both to herself and to others - not least
    in the challenge it represents to her lifestyle and working
    systems; the second is an also ran, recognised for what it is, a
    necessary adjunct to the first, at once easier and more difficult to accommodate, the absence from the desk so much less acceptable, the non-availability to clients and colleagues so much more tedious. All Octavia’s professional friends had taken less time off with the second baby (while needing it more), most of them back within two months: all pale, thin, manically over-conscientious. In contrast, Octavia’s progress through the maze of working motherhood was, if not smooth, at least steady, and she was most gratefully aware of the fact. Until, of course, the arrival of Minty …
    But she thought now, climbing the stairs on legs that were suddenly heavily and weakly weary, the twins, however convenient, were immensely exhausting. She could hear them arguing about what they were going to watch or do next; they argued all the time, it was to them like breathing, a constant background to everything they did. She had hoped that when they had been separated, sent to different schools — or rather when Poppy had been sent to Bute House, as part of her inevitable progression to St Paul’s Girls’ School, leaving Gideon at Hill House, on his own inevitable one to Winchester - that they would meet at the end of each day more peacefully. But they did not. It
    wasn’t that they didn’t like each other, rather the reverse, but simply that they possessed a tumultuous energy, which fuelled in its turn an intense need to pursue any disagreement,
    any difference of opinion, to its logical end.
    Peaceable settlement of any matter was out of the question.
    Even asleep they were restless, tossing and turning,
    talking, even giggling. They had wild, unruly dark hair,
    brilliantly deep-blue eyes, ceaselessly watchful expressions.
    They were almost nine now, and very alike; perhaps more so in their middle childhood, resolutely asexual, than they ever would be again. They were incredibly exhausting: that
    was another thing people said about twins, that they were
    easier, once the first year was over, than ordinary siblings,
    but nobody could have said that of Gideon and Poppy.
    Octavia took a deep breath now, braced herself, went
    into the playroom. ‘Hallo again. Had a good day?’
    ‘Gross,’ said Gideon.
    ‘Brilliant,’ said Poppy.
    ‘Okay, one at a time! Why gross, Gideon?’
    ‘Got gated.’
    ‘What for?’
    ‘Talking. In Latin.’
    ‘What a surprise.’
    ‘Yeah, and I didn’t get into the soccer team. That pig
    Johnson did instead, he’s so—’
    ‘Much better than you?’ said Poppy sweetly.
    ‘Shut up, Poppy! Of course he’s not. He’s been practising
    on the sly, that’s why, and sucking up to—’
    ‘You can’t practise on the sly,’ said Poppy, who was a
    stickler for syntax. ‘You can only do things on the sly that
    aren’t allowed. Practising soccer is obviously allowed,
    there’s nothing wrong with it.’
    ‘There might be,’ said Gideon darkly.
    ‘How could there be?’
    ‘Look,’ said Octavia, ‘Johnson wouldn’t have been
    chosen for the team unless he was good enough. Bad luck,
    Gideon, but there’s always next time.’
    ‘It’s all right for you,’ said Gideon. ‘You don’t care about
    games, you wouldn’t want to be in a team.’
    This was so unarguable that Octavia was silent for a
    moment; then she rallied.
    ‘No, but I know about getting in other things. Like
    companies I want to work for and can’t, it’s like that really.
    I know about being disappointed.’
    ‘Work!’ said Gideon. ‘That’s all you think about. How
    could work be as important as playing for your school?’
    ‘I think it’s about the same actually,’ said Octavia firmly.
    ‘Now then, Poppy. What was so good about your day?’
    ‘Lots! I came top in French