The Way We Were Read Online Free PDF Page A

doesn’t apply herself to schoolwork.’
    ‘What are we going to do?’
    ‘Keep helping her and encouraging her and –’
    ‘Bribing her.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘I’m ashamed to say I bribed her.’
    ‘Ben!’
    ‘Alice, she was torturing me and poor Tennyson, who is definitely turning in his grave by the way. So I told her I’d give her a tenner if she’d just learn the bloody verse.’
    ‘Did it work?’
    ‘Not exactly. She’s still reciting it with missing bits, but I couldn’t listen to another word of it. She’s ruined Tennyson for me for life.’
    Alice began to laugh, such a happy, infectious sound. Ben loved it. He joined in, enjoying the release from his week’s worries and having fun with his wife.

Holly
    Mummy and Jools are having a big fight because Jools lied about reading
Little Women
. Mummy gave it to her nineteen days ago and she never got past the first chapter. But she pretended she’d read it when she’d just watched the movie on her iPad. When Mummy asked her about the book, Jools said she thought it boring with a stupid end – Jo would never have gone off with Gabriel Byrne because he was way too old.
    Mummy said that Jools was a liar for pretending she’d read the book. She said there was no one in the book called Gabriel Byrne. She said that Gabriel Byrne is a famous Irish actor.
    Jools shouted that Mummy was mean and always trying to force her to be clever. She said she was sick of it and that Mummy should just leave her alone. Then she said something really mean and I saw Mummy’s face go all red. Jools said that Gabriel Byrne wasn’t famous at all, he was just a stupid old Irishman with a stupid accent like Mummy’s. She said she wished Mummy had a normal voice and didn’t pronounce words all wrong because it was embarrassing.
    I stopped breathing for eight seconds because I was worried Mummy was going to be angry, but she actually just looked really sad. She said she was sorry that Jools found her so embarrassing and then she went upstairs.
    Jools pretended she didn’t care, but I knew she felt bad because she set the table for dinner, which she never does.
    I went up to Mummy’s bedroom. She was sitting on her bed doing deep breathing. I went up and gave her a hug. I told her I liked the way she talks. I said that I think her accent is lovely. It’s very sing-songy.
    Mummy hugged me very tight – a bit too tight. I counted to twenty and then I pulled away because I was having trouble breathing.

Alice
    Holly came into the kitchen and sat up at the counter. ‘Mummy, I loved it.’
    ‘What?’ Alice put her phone down.
    ‘
Little Women
. I read it and I adored it.’
    Alice leant over and kissed her. ‘You really are a wonder. I can’t believe you’ve read it so quickly.’
    Alice often wondered where Holly had come from. She and Ben were smart, but Holly was unique. Her mind never stopped working. She had been born a month premature and was still small for her age, but she was streets ahead of the other eleven-year-olds in her year. She was like a sponge that soaked up everything around her.
    Alice worried that Holly didn’t have enough fun. She was always reading or working things out in her mind. She wasn’t very sporty, although she always tried her best, and she didn’t seem interested in making jewellery, experimenting with make-up or listening to music, like Jools and her friends had when they were eleven.
    Holly’s pale blue eyes looked up at Alice. While Jools was sallow-skinned, like Ben, and had his thick dark hair and beautiful big brown eyes, Holly had Alice’s strawberry blonde hair and light eyes, although Holly’s eyes were so pale they were almost translucent. People often said she reminded them of the little girl in the movie
Atonement
.
    Holly tapped Alice’s arm. ‘Mummy, did you know there are four hundred and forty-nine pages in the book. In chapter one there are …’
    Alice knew that Holly was about to break the book down into