Life Swap Read Online Free PDF

progressively louder and more sparkly. And Grace is in heaven.
    It’s only pre-school, Amber tells herself. It doesn’t really matter what anyone thinks, she adds, although she doesn’t even believe that herself, but she doesn’t have the energy to fight any more.
    Grace isn’t in her bedroom, and as Amber walks down the corridor towards the back staircase she hears the sound of laughter drifting up from the kitchen. At least, she thinks, they’ve woken up in a good mood.
    Lavinia is always in the kitchen preparing breakfast at seven. Recently there have been times when Amber has been about to come downstairs and she has heard shouting, or crying, or whining coming from the kitchen. After hesitating at the top of the stairs, she is ashamed to admit that she has very quietly turned around and tiptoed back to bed.
    ‘Mommy!’ Both kids turn as she walks through thedoorway and climb down from their chairs, flinging their arms around her.
    ‘Hello, darlings,’ she says, giving them big kisses. ‘Morning, Lavinia. Did Richard leave already?’
    Lavinia turns from where she’s making French toast, and nods. ‘Off to the gym before work, he said. Coffee?’
    ‘Mmm. Lovely.’ Amber sits down at the table as a high-pitched whine escapes from Grace.
    ‘No, Mom, sit next to me!’
    ‘No!’ Jared shouts, pushing Grace off the chair she’s attempting to climb up. ‘Mommy’s going to sit next to me.’
    ‘No!’ Grace shrieks, and hits Jared hard on the head; he immediately starts wailing.
    Amber grits her teeth and prays for patience. ‘Stop it, both of you!’ she snaps. ‘Grace, no hitting. And Jared, stop pushing Grace. I’m going to sit in the middle so you can both sit next to me, okay?’
    Peace is restored as Lavinia brings the French toast over to the table and places a much-needed strong cup of coffee in front of Amber.
    At ten o’clock the kids are in school – Jared at kindergarten, Grace at the little pre-school down the road – Lavinia is busy doing the laundry, and Amber is busy whizzing round the house cleaning up before the cleaning team arrives. Yes, she’s paying them to clean, but they also clean the houses of several of the big names in the Ladies League – how do you think Amber foundthem? – and she doesn’t want anyone gossiping that she keeps her house a pigsty.
    Not to mention that Julian and Aidan are coming this morning. They’re the decorators that everyone in town is talking about. Recently moved to Highfield from Manhattan, they’ve been the subject of various editorials in the Highfield Gazette , not to mention much speculation as to who will be their first clients.
    Amber knew exactly who they were. She may live out in the suburbs but she still subscribes to AD and Vogue . She knows which pop stars’ homes they did, which fashion editors they’re friendly with, even where they went on holiday last year (‘Phuket, and isn’t it so dreadful about the tsunami…’).
    Nobody expected Julian and Aidan, or Amberley Jacks as they are known professionally, to move out to ‘the boondocks’. ‘Darling,’ as one society matron had said to them when she ran into them a few months before at Da Silvanos, ‘if you’re that desperate for the country get a summer house in the Litchfield Hills, for God’s sake. Don’t leave us permanently.’ But Julian and Aidan were ready to settle down. Aidan missed living near the water, plus Lincoln, their schnauzer, needed more room to run.
    They bought a beach shack, which naturally they ‘did up’ in super-quick time, and after the Gazette ran a double-page spread celebrating their arrival in Highfield and featuring their ‘stunning new home’, everyone who was anyone, or who indeed wanted to be anyone, tried to take them on.
    But Amberley Jacks is hardly desperate for business. They can afford to be choosy, don’t like taking on more than a handful of clients at any one time, and certainly don’t want to work for just anyone.
    The